The paper actually rated his statement in a PolitiFact check column as “mostly true,” reporting:

If you compare the most recent data on the same group of nations, mostly based on 2009 statistics, the U.S. gun homicide rate is 15 times higher then the other countries. The number fell 10 times as high when we defined the inexact term of “western nations” as countries belonging to NATO.

So Moran’s figures are outdated and on the high side. His terminology is loose. But his point — that gun homicide rates in the U.S. tower over those of other wealthy European nations — holds up.

So his statement is “mostly true,” but even the fact check doesn’t offer all the facts. Consider that the United States was involved in two World Wars in the 20th century but has been able to avoid a full-out invasion of the nation since the War of 1812. The last major war fought on American soil was the American Civil War, which ended in 1865. While it is only debatable what issues guns had in our defense, our commitment to firearms ensures that our military is up to the task. When the Civil War came soldiers on both sides (tragically we should add) knew how to use guns.

When the Spanish-American War came, our military was small but volunteers swelled the ranks and these volunteers knew how to shoot. The same thing happened again in World War I and World War II.

But let’s also consider that Germany and Japan, two nations that have lower gun crime, fell victims to dictatorships. Both were democracies in the truth sense and yet became dictatorships, in part because there was no hope for the people to fight back.

Finally, we circle back to the issue of crime. The U.S. gun homicide rate maybe large, but crime has been falling in the United States and gun crime has been rising in places that have banned guns. So what does that say about the facts?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxxotkX9ZOo

Americans could have taken little comfort when the man a heartbeat away from the nation’s nuclear launch codes predicted, in another context, “If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

This week, however, Vice-President Joe Biden increased his probability of error to 100 percent, making and repeating statements indicating that he’s just about the only elected official in America that doesn’t know that violent crime has been declining for the last 20 years.

Perennially casting himself as the nation’s leading empathizer with the working class, the gaffe-prone Veep often talks about the importance of jobs, which he once described as a three-letter word. So, it was no surprise when he returned to the subject of jobs again this week. But even the leftist Huffington Post didn’t give a friend a pass when Biden warned on Tuesday that if Congress doesn’t pass the new “jobs bill” favored by President Barack Obama, violent crime would “continue to rise.”

The next day, questioned about the claim by a reporter, Biden indignantly defended his position, saying, “Don’t screw around with me. Let’s get it straight. . . . Go look at the numbers. Murder’s up, rape is up, and burglary’s up. [And if the Republicans don't pass the Obama "jobs bill,"] murder will continue to rise. Rape will continue to rise. All crimes will continue to rise.”

Instead of making stuff up, Biden should have resorted to plagiarism, as he’s been accused of before. If he had done so, he could have gotten his crime numbers straight by copying them from the FBI’s Crime in the United States, 2010 report and its online database of crime statistics from the last half-century.

As the great New York Yankee Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

According to the FBI, the nation’s murder, rape and burglary rates decreased five, six and two percent, respectively, between 2009 and 2010; have decreased 14, 14 and four percent, respectively, over the last decade; and have decreased 51, 35 and 44 percent, respectively, over the last 20 years. Today, murder, rape and burglary are at 46-year, 33-year and 44-year lows, respectively. Total violent crime, which includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, is at a 37-year low. Total property crime, which includes, burglary, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft, is at a 42-year low.

Meanwhile, from another source of information more reliable than Biden, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the nation’s unemployment rate is still 9.1 percent.

If the nation’s jobless numbers were declining like crime has been, it would be cause for a celebration like none other in many years.

About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJGdYjvXPfo

Cam Edwards talks to C.J. Ciaramella from The Daily Caller

“The starkest difference between British and American gangs is the firepower. In gun-control Britain, only the bigger gangs make firearms — smuggled in with drugs shipments from Holland, North Africa and the Caribbean — their weapon of choice. For U.K. teenage apprentices and wannabes, the knife is still king.”

Now many in the American MSM might say that the British gun control laws therefore work, if ONLY the biggest gangs can get guns. But this says to use that if guns are smuggled into Britain, then it is likely if America adopts stricter gun control policies the gangs here will also just smuggle in guns as they do in the UK.

But let’s also examine the fact that gun control isn’t the same as “crime control” as the story also notes:

“Most of the more than 5,000 stabbings a year in Britain, according police and social workers, are gangs attacking rivals who strayed into their areas, muscled into their rackets, or simply insulted them.”

This passage suggests that again it is a crime problem NOT a gun problem. And as the recent violence has shown the UK is becoming a nation where the law-abiding are unarmed whilst the criminals are increasingly becoming armed to the hilt!

Shouldn’t this be a call for a reduction in “gang crimes?” Get rid of the gangs and the gun problem associated with said gangs will easily be resolved. This is just another way of how the words are moved about to make a story seem more sensational. But we see that the blame is put on the firearms (illegal or otherwise), not the thugs that are using them.

“Preliminary data from the Uniform Crime Report shows that the violent crime rate went down 5.5 percent nationwide in 2009. This covers all four categories of violent crime: murder, robbery, aggravated assault and forcible rape. Violent crime went down 4 percent in metropolitan counties and 3 percent elsewhere, according to the FBI.”

Let’s see how the anti-gun groups, such as the Brady Bunch try to spin this one.

“Cops recovered 5,129 firearms from suspects last year, compared to 5,537 in 2008 — an 8 percent decline, according to a report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Most of the guns came from states already roundly criticized by Mayor Bloomberg for being lax on background checks, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.”

While the report may suggest this is true, is there actual proof the gun dealers were operating in those states? And even if true, isn’t this just proof that criminals will just go to any length to get a gun, or Mikey so naïve to believe that if all guns in America are banned that criminals will just give up?

Interestingly the article even mentions how AK-47s were the guns of choice by some gunrunners. It is never made clear whether these guns were obtained legally or illegally, but instead just implies that this is all about gun shows and straw buyers. What also isn’t being mentioned by the media is whether it is even Americans who are doing this illegal gun running.

“Thousands of bullets were taken off the streets of Richmond in just the past three months. Richmond police say they confiscate at least one gun each day and it is creating a backlog of cases which makes it harder to convict.
 
“When asked what happens if you get caught with a gun for the first time, Richmond resident Kenan Shackelford says, ‘Oh basically you get a slap on the wrist, you’re going home [with] an ankle monitor or maybe probation.’ He says he knows this because he just got out for armed robbery.”

We must ask, why are law-abiding citizens treated like criminals when it comes to gun rights in California, whilst the real criminals get a slap on the wrist and are sent home? This is the problem with the state of gun laws in this country, and it is clearly getting worse. Criminals do bad things with guns, but it is society at a whole that pays the price.

 Give his piece a read, and you decide whether a second legally purchased gun wouldn’t have meant a very different outcome.