Response to “Who gets shot in America”

Jennifer Mascia wrote: Who gets shot in America: What I learned compiling records of carnage for the New York Times. It’s very provocative article full of errors.

She claims for example that shootings in the summer are the worst, a myth the police themselves have debunked.

Here are the biggest lies:

In Iowa, it’s easier to sell a gun than lemonade. In Arkansas, it takes less time to buy a gun than to qualify for food stamps.

A person to person sale of lemonade, guns, crack cocaine, etc, it’s always easy. As for food stamps. are they a right? Is there a right to keep and get food stamps? Food stamps costs the State money, thus they have the right to regulate who gets them. Guns don’t cost the State a cent, there’s no free gun program with free ammo as far as I’m know.

In Arizona, you need a permit to cut hair, but not to carry a concealed weapon.

Not quite:

General Eligibility [for concealed carry permit in Arizona]

Applicants must:

• be a resident of this state or a United States citizen;
• be twenty-one years of age or older;
• not be under indictment for a felony offense;
• not be convicted of a felony offense, unless the conviction has been expunged, set aside, vacated or pardoned, or the individuals right to possess firearms has be restored AND the individual must not be a prohibited possessor under state or federal law.
• not suffer from mental illness and been adjudicated mentally incompetent or committed to a mental institution;
• not be unlawfully present in the United States;
• complete a firearms safety training program pursuant to ARS §13-3112.N.
  Source: http://www.azdps.gov/Services/Concealed_Weapons/Permits/Obtain/

Jennifer writes: “In Florida you’re fingerprinted to be a substitute teacher, but not to buy or carry a gun. It’s easier to buy an assault weapon than it is to vote.”

1. Does Jennifer want sex offenders working as substitute teachers?

2. A concealed carry license in Florida does require fingerprints.Buying a gun doesn’t require fingerprints BUT they still do the background check utilizing demographic data. Only person-to-person gun sales don’t require fingerprints, for the same reason you can buy lemonade or homemade soap or your neighbor’s brownies without fingerprints.
Source: Requirements to Purchase a Handgun in Florida

3. If by “assault weapon” she means a fully automatic firearm, then she should google “Class III Firearms” and see the nightmarish hoops one has to jump to buy one. If on the other hand she means semi-automatics, then she ignores that Joe Biden’s 12 gauge shotgun does far more damage than an AR-15. If she can’t tell the difference between semi-automatics and fully-automatics, perhaps she should not writing about gun laws.

Here’s the biggest lie:

You need to jump through such extreme hoops to own guns [in Japan] — and can get arrested just for firing one — that the Yakuza, the mob in Japan, prefers not to use them.

It was ONE ANONYMOUS YAKUZA who claims he prefers not to use them, not the entire Yakuza mob. Furthermore, the Yakuza like the Italian Mafia follow certain traditions. Yakuza prefers to kill with Katanas (swords), they also prefer to keep a low profile. It’s a lot easier to beat someone in an alley than it is to shoot him, shooting people brings heat, which is the last thing a smart criminal wants.

Yakuzas are also a different breed of criminal from the MS-13 and Crib thugs, they do have wars, but they also sit down and negotiate, just like the Italian mafia does. Japanese society is based on honor, this is a country where the kids commit suicide when they fail their college application exams. The Japanese live in fear of shame or “losing face” as they call it. That is why Yakuzas are often well-dressed and are said to be polite, even if they do commit crimes.

Furthermore, Yakuzas are certainly not afraid to violate Japanese laws against prostitution, illegal narcotics, and arms dealing. So why would they “have to jump through such extreme hoops to own guns”?

As she puts it:

in order to obtain a firearm in Japan, which has half the population of America and averages about four gun murders per year, you must fill out binders full of paperwork, listen to 20 hours of lectures, take a written test and a shooting class, pass a criminal background check, subject yourself to a physical and psychological exam, submit to half a dozen police interviews, and police interviews of your friends and family, as well. You are asked to produce a floor map of your home and indicate where a firearm will be stored, as well as photos of the locks on your gun safe. Approval usually takes a year.

What criminal in his right mind would go through all that? The Yakuza obviously don’t. Of course, does that mean every Yakuza becomes a gun smuggler? Absolutely not. A criminal seeks the most profit possible for the smallest effort. If I was a bad guy, why would I bother smuggling guns when I can make obscene profits selling cocaine, heroin, opium, etc? Guns are bulky and hard to conceal, illegal narcotics can be concealed in thousands of creative ways.

Armatix, a German company, offers a gun that operates only when the owner is wearing a corresponding wristwatch. But the National Rifle Association has vigorously opposed such technology, and the two vendors who tried to market smart guns in America were harassed and received death threats from Second Amendment extremists, so they pulled the guns from their shelve

No, the NRA has opposed New Jersey’s goal of making smart guns the only guns that can be sold. Armatix wants a government-protected monopoly, that is not Capitalism, that is the equivalent of Steve Jobs demanding that only iPhones be sold and Androids be outlawed.

As for the vendors being harassed, do liberals not harass Phil Robertson, Dr. Laura, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and everyone that pisses them off? We’re free to do the same, although what they call “harassment,” I call “free speech.” Armatix is free to sell their products, we’re free to reject them.

A favorite argument of the gun-rights crowd is that nothing stops a bad guy with a gun more effectively than a good guy with a gun. I have come to believe that people who think they are going to shoot the bad guys — which sometimes does happen — are influenced by movies. Often their own guns are grabbed by the bad guys and used against them, especially during home invasions. In my daily reports, I made sure to include police officers accidentally shooting themselves and each other. If highly trained people have accidents, how can civilians be expected to be perfect marksmen during a high-stress robbery?

Really? Where the following people expert marksmen?

70 Year Old Texas Homeowner Shoots Home Invader 3 Times in the Leg

TX Concealed Carrier Shoots and Kills Man in 4 Star Hotel Who Was “Looking for Someone to Kill”

Naked Homeowner, Tattooed With Grim Reaper and Armed With Handgun Scares Off Intruder
Source: http://gunssavelives.net/category/self-defense/

As for why highly trained people suffer accidents, that’s simple: overconfidence.  Besides, the average civilian isn’t trying to be an expert marksmen during a robbery, he’s trying to survive. Most self-defense situations don’t require expert marksmanship, this isn’t Top Shot, you’re not shooting a card from 100-yards away, this isn’t trick shooting. Annie Oakley was an experts marksman, we don’t have to be.

Maybe a solution to gun violence is one that Chris Rock cheekily proposed during a stand-up routine 15 years ago: bullet control. But it’s not such a bad idea. In 1993, New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan floated the idea of an ammunition tax.

Sure, and Paul Rodriguez wanted planes to be made like black boxes since they always survive plane crashes. Seriously though, why create an ammo smuggler’s wet dream? We tried alcohol prohibition and that created Al Capone, do we need every Viktor Bout (Lord of War) making millions smuggling ammo? And even if ammo was more expensive than now (and it’s already very expensive), when  was the last time you met a thrifty criminal? Criminals are notorious for wasting money, they make it fast and spend it fast.  I know Democrats want to wage a war on poverty, but must they attack the poor gun owner by raising the price of his ammo?

I’ll give her credit for writing the following:

“This is why it’s impossible for me to be a gun control absolutist. I am a single woman living in New York City, and if someone breaks into my apartment while I am home, I am going to want a gun to defend myself. It’s the quickest way to stop someone. A knife involves approaching an assailant and it can be grabbed out of my hand. But I can fire a gun across a room and preclude a lifetime of psychological damage, or worse, in an instant.”

Too bad she doesn’t mention how hard it is to actually buy a gun and keep it legally in NYC. Even John Stossel had to go through hell to get a concealed carry permit, and don’t think buying a gun to keep in the home is any easier, you still have to prove to the sheriff that you need the gun, and fear of crime is rarely accepted as an excuse.

Besides, if Jennifer really wanted to own guns, why write an entire column where she does nothing but demonize them?