More guns in America means more women will be murdered.
Cleveland—The National Rifle Association sent its top lobbyist, Chris Cox, onto the stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night. Keeping with the theme of the proceedings—scary people are coming to kill you—Cox told a little parable:
Imagine a young mother at home with her baby, when a violent predator kicks the door in. He’s a three-time loser who was released from prison early because some politician wanted to show their compassion. What’s she going to do? She’ll dial 911, and pray. The police will do their best to get their quickly, but their average response time is 11 minutes. So the question is, should she be able to defend herself with a firearm in her own home? Of course. Friends, that question is on the ballot in November.
Nothing Hillary Clinton is proposing, or conceivably would propose, would prevent that woman from legally purchasing a gun. But that aside, Cox’s tale was a huge backfire that eviscerated the NRA’s case for more gun ownership and looser laws.
This hypothetical violent predator, after having committed three crimes, could still easily purchase a gun today if he knows how to use Craigslist or find a local gun show. That’s because Republicans in Congress, backed by the NRA’s aggressive lobbying efforts, defeated a legislative package in 2013 that would have expanded universal background checks to online and person-to-person sales. Cox clumsily tried to avoid this point by not actually saying this “three-time loser” was armed, even though it would have made a better story. But it would have further underlined his accidental pro–gun control argument.
Moreover, public-health researchers have reached an inescapable conclusion: More guns means more women die. Women in the United States are 11 times more likely to die from being shot than women in other high-income countries.
The chance of anyone being murdered in a random home invasion like the one Cox depicts are one in several million. It’s vastly more likely this predator would have been the woman’s husband or boyfriend. From 2001 to 2012, 6,410 women were murdered by an intimate partner with a gun, which is more than all the combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
Cox’s intended message was that if the woman had a firearm, she could fend off this attacker. But the self-defense function of women who have guns has never been demonstrated by social science, and research shows the mere presence of a gun during a domestic incident makes murder 500 times more likely.
The NRA has actively blocked several fixes that would make it harder for domestic abusers to get weapons. Federal laws keep abusive husbands from passing a firearm background check, but doesn’t do the same for abusive dating partners. More women are killed by boyfriends or dating partners than husbands. Republicans, at the urging of the NRA, have blocked changes to federal law.
Cox actually performed a public service by raising the issue of women who are killed by firearms. He just had exactly the wrong plan for fixing it.
#1: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
Yeah. Those are the only way for a felon to get a gun and once we close those loopholes, felons will be stymied.
misterwhite posted on 2016-07-20 09:22:08 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
Chris Cox should have used a real-life example ....
The intruder used a crowbar to bust into the house last Friday and at first intended to rob the suburban Atlanta home in Loganville but shifted his focus to hunting down Melinda Herman and her 9-year-old twins, Walton County investigators told NBC station WXIA in Atlanta.
The family had fled through three locked doors, into a bathroom and then to an upstairs crawl space, but the intruder busted the doors open to stalk the family, police said.
As the incident transpired, husband Donnie Herman was in Atlanta and had his wife on one phone line and the 911 operator on the other, according to the recording, obtained by WXIA and the Atlanta Journal- Constitution:
"Do you hear him? Is he in the house? He’s in the house,” Donnie Herman says.
“Melinda, if he opens that door, you shoot him, you understand.”
“She has a weapon?” asks the dispatcher. “What type of weapon?”
“She has a .38,” Donnie Herman said.
The 911 operator tells him that officers were on the way.
“She shot him. She’s shooting him, she’s shooting him.”
"OK," the dispatcher responds.
"Shoot him again! Shoot him!" Donnie Herman yells, later telling the dispatcher “She shot him, a lot.”
Herman tells the dispatcher he heard a lot of screaming. But it was seven agonizing minutes before he found out that his family was OK, WXIA reported.
Melinda Herman told police that she started shooting when the man opened the door to the crawl space. He pleaded with her to stop, but she kept firing until she was out of bullets, she told police. She then fled to a neighbor's house with her children.
The family is still shaken by what happened.
"Just like I told her that night,” Walton County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Hall told WXIA. “Ya know, there's right and there's wrong and then there's not natural, and it's not natural for people to have to shoot people, so it is going to bother you ..."
The National Rifle Association tweeted a link about the shooting, apparently using it as an example of responsible gun ownership.
And Sheriff Joe Chapman told The Associated Press that he was proud of the way she handled the incident.
"This lady decided that she wasn't going to be a victim, and I think everyone else looks at this and hopes they have the courage to do what she done," Chapman said Wednesday.
The alleged intruder, identified as Paul Slater, 32, of Atlanta, was shot five times. He remained at a hospital.
misterwhite posted on 2016-07-20 09:32:45 Reply Private Reply
#3: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#1)
There are two lies in one sentence. Number one lie is Craigslist does not allow gun sales on its site. Number two lie is you need undergo a background check at a gun show unless you have a concealed carry permit, which means you already had your background check.
jeremiad posted on 2016-07-20 09:46:13 Reply Private Reply
#4: Justified To: Willie Green (#0)
She said guns do not make it safer in America. Well she is just flat wrong. The problem is not enough good people do not have guns to protect themselves. No matter how many laws you make criminals will always get guns. If they had enough money and the right connections they could even get a nuke.
Progressives should never be allowed to run a bait shop let alone have power over another person! Stupid shits will get everyone killed because of the idealistic ways that will not let them deal with reality!
BTW what about the 10(?)day wait period when you have a crazy person after you?
Justified posted on 2016-07-20 09:46:42 Reply Private Reply
#5: TrappedInMd To: Justified (#4)
Did you include one too many negatives in this sentence? It is saying that too many good people have guns,
TrappedInMd posted on 2016-07-20 11:34:01 Reply Private Reply
#6: Justified To: TrappedInMd (#5)
Justified posted on 2016-07-20 13:20:26 Reply Private Reply