When you look at the statistics (FBI Uniform Crime Reporting) for gun violence, it becomes clear that gun violence with so called “assault rifles” represents only a small fraction of the crimes committed with firearms in this country every year. The vast majority of gun crimes are actually committed with handguns. This could and should lead a person to question why then, are gun control advocates fixated on assault rifles if their goal is safety from gun crime?
The answer is that AR-15s, AK-47s, and the like have been the victims of a successful, decades long campaign to create a boogie man… something the public can fear without actually understanding. To attempt to ban handguns would be political suicide when many households around the United States still keep them as tool of home defense. To ban assault rifles is far more acceptable in a culture where they been intentionally cultivated as the politically expedient, first target for gun control advocates.
“You don’t need an AR-15 to hunt.”
“They are designed to kill”
“Bullets fired from an assault rifle do more damage than bullets fired from a X.”
“No body needs X rounds.”
The statistics I mentioned above are commonly cited by those defending our rights to own firearms but many fail to realize that the statistics simply do not matter. Their goal can be accomplished without reason or data because the seeds of fear and ignorance sewn over the years by politicians and media serving the anti-gun, anti-freedom agenda come closer to harvest every day.
Make no mistake… What we are witnessing in the political arena is the result of decades of work toward the goal of incrementally banning firearms. This is the level of patience, coordination, and scheming that the enemies of freedom possess. They are unified in their cause and history tells us that they won’t stop at banning assault rifles.
Are you willing to engage in a decades long campaign of words and will to protect your rights? Are you willing to be just as intentional as the other side has been for years and years? This is no time to sit on the fence because you can bet assault rifles are only the start. There will come a day when the gun control advocates do start using the FBI Unified Crime Report to cultivate the next boogie man… after all, you don’t need a semi-auto handgun to hunt, do you?
