The left, of course, are more likely to distort because they are true ideologues. I suppose they can’t help themselves. But there are others, even some on the political right who distort because…well, it’s so easy to do so. These include the so-called fiscal conservatives along with many libertarians, who are driven solely by a kind of conservatism that lacks any moral foundation. Their only real concern is economic growth. Now, economic growth is a good thing because it ensures growth in jobs, wages, business expansion — all good things. But when growth is sought as a desired end and virtually any means are considered acceptable to achieve it, we find major corporations happy to do business with oppressive, corrupt nations like Communist China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, to name just a few. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization that does the bidding of major corporations, is happy to encourage increases in low-wage immigration at the expense of American workers and ignores the real engines of growth, the small and mid-sized companies of America.
If you avoid the mainstream media and search instead for original sources, you’ll uncover information that will likely alter your view of what’s actually true. Here are a few examples, all related to the current political effort to disarm American citizens and overturn the 2nd Amendment:
- Guess which number is larger: the number of children shot in Chicago during 2021 or the number of children who died of COVID in the entire country during 2021? The truth which, by the way, comes directly from the Center for Disease Control, a federal agency: 261 children were shot in Chicago so far this year, while 214 children died of COVID-19 in the entire United States during the same period. COVID, then, is far less dangerous to children (age 17 and under) than living in Chicago. If we counted the number of children shot throughout the entire country the difference would be far more dramatic. Oh, yes, these children and virtually everyone shot in Chicago was shot not by someone with a legally owned firearm, but by gang-bangers and other criminals who own guns obtained illegally.
- We've also heard a lot lately about the dreaded AR-15, a style of rifle that has become the most popular sporting rifle among gunowners in the US. I've actually heard some in the media state that the AR stands for "Assault Rifle" or "Automatic Rifle." Both are highly inaccurate. Those two letters actually stand for ArmaLite Rifle. ArmaLite was the company back in the 1950s that first developed the rifle that evolved into the AR-15. The civilian versions, the kind you and I can buy if we like, are not assault weapons, primarily because they are not automatic weapons. They are instead semi-automatic, which means when you pull the trigger one round is fired. This is really no different from the double-action .38 caliber revolver or .45 semi-automatic pistol I used to carry when I flew in the Navy. There's an awful lot of misinformation in the news about AR-15s.
- OK, speaking of rifles, here's another question...Are more people killed by rifles or by knives? According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, far more people (3 1/2 times as many) were killed by knives than were killed by rifles. In 2020 a total of 454 people were killed by rifles, while 1,732 died as a result of stabbings or hackings by knives or other cutting instruments. If you add shotguns to the "rifle" numbers, the total rises to 657, still less than one-half the number killed by knives. And, even more interesting, over 600 people were killed by "fists, hands, and feet" during 2020.
- Another guessing game — guess what percentage of new gun owners are women? Here’s the answer. Between January 2019 and April 2021, 7.5 million Americans became new gun owners, and 3.5 million of them were women. I’ll bet you won’t find that statistic in the mainstream media. But that’s not all you’ll never see. For example, while 55% of new gun owners were white, 21% were Black and 19% were Hispanic. To demonstrate the dramatic change, one that shows the impact of out-of-control crime, of the almost 20 million existing gun owners who bought firearms in 2019, 71% were male and 74% were white. In other words, women, Blacks, and Hispanics no longer trust our defunded and depleted police forces to defend them, but have decided to defend themselves from an out-of-control criminal element.
- Okay, one more…Guess who killed more criminals during the commission of crimes, the police or private citizens who possessed legally owned firearms? According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2020, armed private citizens killed more criminals during the commission of felonies than were killed by police. For a variety of reasons, this is to be expected. First, the police often don’t arrive until after the criminal has left the scene. Second, more Americans are now armed and will defend their lives and property from those who threaten them with violence. Of course, no sane person wants to use deadly force, but neither does he or she want to be wounded or murdered during a criminal attack. We all have the right to defend ourselves and those who depend on us to protect them, which is why political efforts to disarm law-abiding citizens are so wrong. Ironically, and hypocritically, legislators and others among the elites who scream so loudly for so-called “gun control” are most often surrounded by paid and well-armed bodyguards. Yes, indeed, what’s good for them must be denied to the rest of us.
As you can see, there's a lot of "fake news" and other disinformation in the media, especially when it comes to firearms.
Yes, I’m a member of the clergy who follows Church teaching and believes individuals have the right to defend themselves and their families from the mayhem and increased criminality plaguing our nation. Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say:
Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility [CCC 2265].
Although this applies to the defense of the community, it apples as well to the defense of the family. A husband and father, for example, has the right to protect his wife and children from harm, even if doing so demands the application of lethal force. The Catechism also includes the following:
Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow: If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he repels force with moderation, his defense will be lawful…Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one’s own life than of another’s [CCC 2264].
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