'Gun Death' Rate Scams Designed
to Defraud Public Out of Rights
By David Codrea, July 11th 2014
JPFO writer contributor, © 2014.
"A new study by the Violence Policy Center finds states that have weak gun laws and higher rates of gun ownership also have the highest overall gun death rates in the country,
" a "report" on New Jersey's 101.5 WKXW-FM Radio claims. Note "report" has been placed in quotation marks, as this, like so much of what "Authorized Journalists" churn out, is really nothing more than regurgitated gun-grabber talking points, and in spite of making sure the story making these claims holds the headline spot on their home page at this writing.
"New Jersey has a gun ownership rate of about 11 percent, and a gun death rate of about 5 ½ percent, and that is very low," said Kristen Rand, the legislative director of the Violence Policy Center.
Rand then compared it "to the state that ranked the highest – Louisiana – which has a death rate of 18.91 per 100,000," and attributed the difference to the Garden State's Rand said the state's "waiting periods ... licensing of gun owners [and] more restrictive concealed carry permitting."
Talk about bait and switch, as if the ones doing the killings in either state are the ones who wait to buy a gun, register for licenses and ask for permission to carry. Criminals are actually exempt from such requirements, as the Supreme Court ruled in Haynes v. United States that requiring a criminal to register a gun was the same as requiring him to confess to being a prohibited person in violation of the law, which in turn would violate his right against self-incrimination articulated by the Fifth Amendment .
Before that, though, Rand and the VPC pull another sleight of mind trick, and that's by specifying New Jersey's "gun ownership rate." Ownership is a legal and moral term. A criminal gun possessor no more owns the gun he uses in crime than a car thief can be called a car owner.
The relevant thing to look at is who is doing the killings, and where they are being done. 
A high-crime area like Chicago, which registered 82 people shot and 14 killed over the Fourth of July weekend is hardly reflective of the rest of the state, and hardly the responsibility of the significant portion of the population that endured the oppressive law and obtained Firearm Owners Identification cards.
Predators have nothing to do with edicts the law-abiding obey, and nothing the citizen disarmament crowd wishes to pass will change that basic truth. An example I frequently cite, and which bears repeating here, provides a way people can test for themselves whether it really is the 'availability of guns" that causes criminal behavior, which is also a corollary to the nonsensical assertion that "guns kill."
Take the of the millions of gun owners who are members of the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups, such as, say, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (you are a member, aren't you?), and then tally up the number of "gun deaths" attributable to us. You can be sure if such membership were documented, the hoplophobe AstroTurfers and their "legitimate news media / real reporter" cheerleaders like the parrots at 101.5 WKXW-FM, and The Washington Post, and The New York Times and MSNBC and – I don't really need to go on, do I? – would be more than happy to point out the connection and tar us all with the brush of "murderer," just like they try to paint us all as domestic terrorists.
In reality, and let's play VPC's game of using rates, ours will prove less than "gun-free" Japan or the UK, or Australia, or ... again, there's no need to continue.
The problem is not with gun owners. We are not robbers. We are not killers. Get this straight: It's not our fault. And anyone who says otherwise is a liar – one who wants to trick you out of your rights if they can't outright steal them from you.
JPFO members, of course, know that. It's up to them to be force multipliers and make sure their family, friends and neighbors know it, too.
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David Codrea is a field editor at GUNS Magazine, penning their monthly "Rights Watch" column. He provides regular reporting and commentary at Gun Rights Examiner and blogs at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. David Codrea's Archive page.
