Is 'Gun Violence' an Epidemic? By Nicki Fellenzer

Don’t you just love it when the enemies of freedom begin whining about gun violence being an epidemic, as if it were garden variety disease, instead of a willful, criminal or irresponsible act of a human being pulling the trigger?

The absurdity of this transparent scare tactic struck me as I was once again treated to a petulant bit of bellyaching by the President of the stridently anti-freedom Joyce Foundation Ellen Alberding, who had the temerity to refer to “gun violence” as a public health epidemic, as if the irresponsible or criminal actions of those few, who choose – either by intent or ignorance – to inflict harm on others can be compared to the horrors of cancer or other lethal diseases.

“…the firearms industry needs to be held to the same standard as every other industry in America,” Alberding whines, as if the industry is immune to lawsuits should their product malfunction. But you see, Alberding and her fascist ilk don’t really want the industry held to the same standards as every other business, but rather an unfair level of accountability. She wants to see the firearms industry held responsible if their perfectly legal product DOESN’T malfunction! And this ludicrous clamor is echoed by every sub-American ranting ignoramus who sees it fit to blame the industry for the misdeeds of those who use its product.

Not only is this demand unconscionable in terms of its lack of moral fiber, but it’s preposterous in its sheer lack of common sense. What Alberding, the Brady Bunch and every neo-fascist enemy of self defense wants is this in a nutshell: Make sure that the most effective tool of self defense on the market today is rendered ineffective, cost prohibitive or at least cumbersome and impossible to use quickly and efficiently in an emergency. After all – it’s for the children.

“Unlike medicine, food, cars and other consumer products, guns do not have to meet any minimum product safety standard,” Alberding continues. “That is why, unlike aspirin bottles, most guns can be operated by the tiny fingers of a 3-year-old.” Oh really? If a firearm malfunctions, does not operate or is in any way defective, the consumer has the right to sue the gun maker. But how many successful lawsuits have resulted from the thousands of poisonings of children under the age of 5 by aspirin-related products, despite the safety caps that usually accompany them?

Get this straight, Ms. Alberding: no mechanical gadget is a substitute for parental responsibility and proper education. Your bizarre plan to force an entire society to rely on inanimate objects like trigger locks and aspirin caps to prevent bodily injury is second in irrationality only to your fascist attempts to force an entire society to depend on its government to protect it from criminals.

Oh, but dear readers – the best is yet to come in Alberding’s outrageous tirade!

“That is why, unlike cameras, guns do not have load indicators, which could prevent a curious 12-year-old from firing an ‘unloaded’ gun and unintentionally killing a friend,” she pouts. Yeah, God and Goddess forbid children learn the rules of gun safety – like checking the chamber to ensure no round is inside or keeping your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot, or never pointing the firearm at anyone. My son has known and followed these rules since he was four years old. He does not pick up any firearm without checking the chamber, and he recites the rules before he is allowed to touch it. But no – Alberding and her breed of neo-feudalist scum would rather enslave every gun owner to a costly mechanical device than have parents take responsibility for their children’s safety and teach them basic safety rules.

“And that is why military-style assault weapons and sniper rifles are freely and legally available to virtually anyone who wants to purchase them.” You didn’t think this particular anti-gun diatribe would pass by without a vacuous reference to “assault” weapons, did you? After all, Ellen Alberding couldn’t dare pass up an opportunity to push for the extension and expansion of the Clinton AW Ban, could she? Of course, if you ask her for the definition of “assault” weapon, we will probably gaze at you with a vacant stare and mumble something about “bad gun shooting lots of bullets for maximum destruction of human life.” What she might not mention, perhaps, is that these weapons are almost never used to commit crimes. What she also might not mention is that these so-called “assault” weapons are used in less than 1 percent of all homicides in the United States. But it’s nice to have a scary-looking, military-style gun to blame for the world’s ills, isn’t it?

And then, of course, we have the obligatory call to every petty would-be tyrant to spread lies, paranoia, misinformation and manipulation across the land to ensure maximum compliance with the socialist agenda. “…doctors, parents, teachers, opinion leaders and others need to educate their patients, friends, neighbors and communities about the risks of keeping a handgun in the home,” she bleats. Note that she stubbornly and ignorantly avoids the issue safety education. Notice she doesn’t urge authority figures to promote safety training. She simply begs them to promote fear and mistrust of a simple tool.

Why?

Because safety education is bound to cut down on deaths, and that just doesn’t fit their agenda.

Included in this quivering mass of verbiage is all the pre-requisite propaganda about the need for more gun control in Chicago, the supposed “ease” with which the most recent workplace killer obtained his gun and the required “children in gun fire” routine. What Alberding tries to avoid is that Chicago already has some of the most draconian gun control laws in the country and that despite said laws, the shooter was still able to obtain a firearm, which was previously owned by two police officers.

“If food poisoning or faulty automobile tires were taking lives at the rate that firearms do,” she pouts, “you can bet measures would be in place to prevent or reduce the toll.” Well, gee, Ellen. I’d be willing to bet that if faulty firearms were causing death, without some criminal or ignorant pulling the trigger, measures would be put in place as well. However, since firearms appear to be operating effectively, doing exactly what they were produced to do, such measures would be laughable, wouldn’t they?

Here’s a clue for you, Ellen – no matter how many laws are passed, no matter how many regulations, precautions, mechanical gadgets and background checks you push, you will never stop a determined criminal or a curious child. So your options are to arm the potential victims and educate the inquisitive child. Both are preferable to your oppressive version of a “gun free” utopia.

Nicki Fellenzer

Nicki is a US Army veteran, who spent nearly four years in Frankfurt, Germany on active duty at the American Forces Network. She is a former radio DJ and news anchor and a Featured Writer and Newslinks Director for Keepandbeararms.com. She is also a former contributing editor to the National Rifle Association's newest monthly magazine, Women's Outlook and writes occasionally for the Libertarian Party. She resides in Virginia with her family. We are also proud to have Nicki as regular contributor to Armed Females of America.

Copyright © 2003 by Armed Females of America. All rights reserved. Permission to redistribute this article for noncommercial purposes is hereby granted, provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its entirety and appropriate credit given.

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