More People Dead as Gun-Control Fails in New York State

Time and again we’ve seen crazy murderers target unarmed citizens in New York City and New York State. A few weeks ago, a black man deliberately attacked white people on the New York City subway. We saw a white teenager deliberately go hunting for blacks and Jews in Buffalo last week. Sadly, the response of New York politicians is the same each time. Despite the extraordinary gun-control laws already in place, New York Democrats think the solution is to disarm more law-abiding citizens. It is hard to look at violence but it is more dangerous to think that more ink-on-paper will keep us safe next time.

The Gun Control we have in New York-
Few of us actually know about the many gun-control laws already in place in New York State. Even fewer of us know how badly those gun-control laws failed.

It is an old idea to try and restrict a criminal’s access to guns. New York is rated “A-” by the Giffords gun-control organization. The state is rated sixth out of the fifty states for the strength of their gun-control laws. New York requires that law-abiding gun owners apply for a background check before they can buy a gun. The problem with background checks is that they look backwards and mass murder is a one-and-done career. Mass-murderers usually pass background checks.

In contrast, it can take months or years for an honest citizen to get a permit to legally carry a handgun in New York. Many honest citizens are denied their permits precisely because they are ordinary and don’t have an “extraordinary need” to protect themselves, their families, or their neighbors. Criminals don’t bother with permits.

The recent attackers in New York were known to the police because of their mental health problems and their threats of violence. Before the violent attacks, those threats never rose to the level where the attackers could be successfully prosecuted. Honest citizens have to renew their permits every five years. Criminals carry illegally.

For the fortunate few who can get a carry permit in New York State, gun-control laws restrict the number of cartridges they are allowed to carry in their guns. It is also illegal for most New Yorkers to bring their guns with them as they travel in New York. Laws like that are successful in disarming the victims, but don’t bother mass-murderers very much.

The Murderers Get a Vote-
We quickly found out that criminals don’t follow our gun-control regulations any better than they follow the rest of our laws. Mass-murderers plan their crimes for months or years so mandatory waiting periods don’t stop mass-murderers.

Guns have to be extremely simple so they operate reliably. They are far simpler than a home computer, and people build their own PCs. That means that guns are easy to make and to modify. The recent mass-murderer modified his gun so it would be easier to reload.

Both of the recent murderers planned their attacks so they faced unarmed victims. In the earlier attack, only a handful of ordinary citizens are allowed to carry a firearm on the New York City subway. In this recent attack, the murder chose the location for his attack because of the high population of blacks and Jews who lived in that area. The murderer chose that location because government officials routinely disarmed those minorities because they could not document an “extraordinary need” to go armed. Ordinary citizens pay the price when government officials get it wrong.

Armed Good-Guys Save Lives-
We don’t know what we don’t know, and we are not aware of what is concealed. Across the USA, millions of ordinary citizens legally carry a concealed firearm in public every day. About one in a dozen adults are armed. Armed citizens stop violent criminals thousands of times a day and we use a firearm in self-defense over a million times a year.

Mass murderers are evil and crazy, but they are not stupid. We know that mass-murderers look for easy victims because they told us so. An armed citizen was present at the attempted mass murder only 12 percent of the time. When they were there, the armed citizen stopped or reduced the number of victims 94 percent of the time. That sounds unbelievable at first.

Killing unarmed people is easy. Mass-murder is almost impossible

when some of your victims will shoot back.

We imagine a gunfight that looks like the old west movies we watched late at night. That isn’t how these events unfold. In real life, murderers get shot from behind.

Take a look around you the next time you are in public. Look around the mall, the supermarket, or the parking lot and imagine if you were the bad guy. Could you defend yourself from all the people who surround you? Remember that one-in-a-dozen adults are armed.. and the bad guy has no idea who they are and when they will shoot back.

Now you know why mass murderers go to “gun-free” zones where good guys are disarmed by law!

When an armed defender is present the scenario unfolds this way. We hear a noise. We wonder if it is a gunshot and we look around. We hear it again and we see people run. We see a murderer with a gun in his hand. We move to a safe position, present our firearm, and stop the threat. The attack is over in seconds.

Time means everything. On average, 2.3 people are killed when an armed defender is present. A dozen more people are killed if we have to wait the several minutes it takes for the police to arrive and stop the murderer.

What We Can Learn from New York-
Gun-control promised to make us safe. It fails time after time because criminals and crazy people don’t obey our laws. Democrat politicians who support firearms prohibition make the excuse that their 23 thousand firearms regulations have simply not gone far enough and that mass-murderers are sure to obey the next law they pass. A more reasonable question is to ask if the first 23-thousand firearms regulations were a failure then why would the next one be any different.

The news media won’t ask that question so we have to do it for them. Our safety and the safety of the people we love depends on asking those uncomfortable questions. It is hard to look at violence but it is more dangerous to think that more ink-on-paper will make us safer. Our safety is up to us.