-Caveat Lector- http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/orl-opd-reese050301.column Gun-control elitists hate, fear common people Charley Reese May 3, 2001 Probably no subject generates more lies and deliberate distortions of the facts than gun control. It's easy to understand once you comprehend that the motivation is to disarm the common citizens of the United States. The talk may be about crime or safety or children, but the goal is to disarm the common citizens. Thomas Jefferson explained that desire when he said people always fall into one of two categories no matter what the age or what they call themselves. There are those who trust and cherish the people and those who hate and fear the people. It is the elitists, who hate and fear the common people, who are behind the gun-control movement. Now let's look at some facts compared to lies. Most Americans have been brainwashed into believing that we're the most violent and crime-ridden people on Earth. Not so. In fact, a new survey involving 34,000 people in 17 industrialized countries published by the Dutch Ministry of Justice shows the opposite. You can be sure America's anti-gun news media will not give this study much publicity. The nations that report the highest percentage of crime victims are indeed those that have virtually banned private gun ownership. In descending order they are Australia, England and Wales, Scotland, Finland, Northern Ireland, France and the Netherlands. The United States ranks eighth out of 17. As legitimate scholars have shown time and again, there is no correlation between gun ownership and crime except often an inverse one -- the fewer private guns, the more crime. As for gun safety, the disarmers have grossly exaggerated that. The facts are that the National Safety Council has shown that in 1998, accidental firearm deaths for children from birth to 4 years old was 30; for children 5 to 14, there were 80 deaths. Accidental firearm deaths are at the bottom of the list of children's fatalities. The obvious answer is safety instruction, but you will notice that most of the gun-control crowd opposed gun-safety instruction. Ask yourself why they do that. As for those numbers they cite, so many kids killed every day by guns, they get those by counting everybody 19 and younger as a "child" and by including accidents, suicides and crimes. Gang-bangers who shoot each other are "children who are victims of guns." Another huge lie is that they claim to be politically powerful. No, it's the same elitists who have a lot of left-wing money from foundations, but if you will check the last presidential election, you will see that the National Rifle Association kicked their rear ends. No less an expert than Bill Clinton blamed Al Gore's defeat on the NRA. He should have said America's gun owners. Many a Democrat in states such as West Virginia, Tennessee and other rural areas would rather keep their firearms than their Democratic voting records. The NRA, so slandered by the elitist gun-control crowd, is, in fact, the nation's premier gun owner's organization. It was founded by a group of National Guardsmen to promote marksmanship and over the years has been praised by presidents and generals alike. It is pro-law and order, pro-police, pro-gun safety and pro-responsible gun ownership. Now 4 million strong, I can most heartily recommend it as an organization to join if you are concerned about retaining America's traditional freedom to keep and bear arms. Our Founding Fathers were proud that Americans were trusted with arms because they knew that only when people are armed could they truly be thought of as free citizens. And that's where the circle closes. Those who want to deprive you of your right to keep and bear arms are intending to deprive you of your freedom, period. Like the criminals their policies encourage, these elitists know that it is always best to disarm victims before you enslave them. I've seen this elitist fear among my own colleagues. Years ago, when Florida's right-to-carry law was only a bill in the Legislature, some of my journalistic colleagues were practically hysterical: Why if you let people carry firearms, there will be shootouts on every street corner and in the supermarket checkout lines. Having grown up with people who carried firearms without the government's permission, I was genuinely mystified. I had to wonder if they lived in total isolation. Do they not know the American people? Do they really think their fellow citizens are stupid and crazy? Unfortunately, for many elitists, the answers are yes. Of course, the facts proved them wrong. Florida has had a right-to-carry law for years, and the crime rate has gone down. People wielding their own firearms have saved many innocent lives. In some cases, they have done so by also saving the taxpayers the expense of arrest, trial and imprisonment. Reach Charley Reese at 407-420-5315 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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