More guns, not fewer, key to safer American streets

OPINION:

Geraldo Rivera, Fox News face, earlier this week, pulled out an old tymey style musket during a televised debate about gun rights, and with a flourish, proclaimed: “This is what weapons looked like when the Second Amendment was passed” — as if to say, oh you silly, stupid Americans; give up your firearms now.

It was a clown move, aimed at provoking reaction, not serious discussion.

But far too many Democrats and leftists in America believe that narrative — that founders, if alive today, would stand opposed to the Second Amendment — would argue that AR-15s aren’t needed to hunt deer — would say modern times and modern realities show the need for a ban on firearms, save for law enforcement and police and military members.

Rivera went on to self-righteously declare, in reference to the musket in his hands: “I’ll let everyone in the country — you want to own this? You can own this.”

Hey, Geraldo. It’s not up to you.

But this is the stuff and nonsense that sells for sane, reasonable, rational and critically thought-out discussion among the left. Every time there’s a school shooting, Democrats come tripping into the spotlight, blasting away at the Second Amendment, hammering deep the idea that it’s the guns, it’s the guns, it’s the guns — conveniently and ignorantly ignoring the fact that guns only serve the hearts and minds and hands of those who possess and fire them.

If Democrats truly wanted to address gun violence in America they would a) cite truthful statistics — and stop looping in suicides by self-inflicted gun shot, which make up the majority of gun-related deaths in America, with, say, gang violence and gun deaths committed by those who illegally possess and carry; and b) stop spouting and spewing their fabricated statistics as cause to dismantle the Second Amendment — all the while hunkering behind their armed-guarded offices and armed-security fence lines; all the while standing amid a circle of armed protective services.

Nobody likes a hypocrite, you see. 

“Chicago Mayor Blames Other States With ‘No Gun Control’ for City’s Increasing Violence,” Newsweek wrote in a July, 2020, headline, about the Democrat Lori Lightfoot, who oversees a city with endlessly soaring gun-related murder rates.

“Lightfoot Calls For ‘Statewide Ban’ on ‘Weapons of War’ After Garfield Park Mass Shooting,” NBC Chicago wrote in a November, 2022, headline, on the heels of a drive-by shooting that left more than a dozen injured, including several children.

“[This] shooting reminds us that there are too many weapons of war available to criminals,” Lightfoot said in a statement after the shooting. “We must have a statewide ban and I urge the legislature to act.”

“Chicago Tops 630 Homicides, 2,600 Shootings in 2022: Police,” WTTW News wrote in December, 2022.

Interesting. 

Even more interesting is this: “According to the [Chicago Police Department], WTTW News went on, “officers [in 2022] recovered 11,598 illegal firearms, a nearly 3% increase over the same time [the previous] year. That total includes 990 assault weapons — a 49.5% increase year-to-date — and approximately 722 unregistered, privately-made ghost guns.”

You mean criminals — gasp! — aren’t abiding laws and are illegally obtaining and using guns for criminal purposes?

Shocking.

Lightfoot’s certainly not the only Democrat who turns blind eyes to gun-violence truths so as to push a hysterical narrative about the need to control guns, stamp out the Second Amendment, steal away firearms’ rights from law-abiding citizens. 

It’s what they all do. It’s sort of a party requirement.

“House Democrats,” Fox News wrote in December, “advanced legislation that would establish a federally controlled list of people who voluntarily agree to be blocked from buying guns. The bill is aimed at preventing gun suicides.”

In November, it was this, as The Guardian noted: “Democrats issue fresh calls for assault weapons ban after shooting tragedies.”

And this, the same month, from The Associated Press: “Emboldened Biden, Dems push ban on so-called assault weapons.”

And just a few days ago, it was this — also from The Guardian: “[Joe] Biden once again urges Congress to pass assault weapons ban.”

Why?

‘Cause “assault weapon” sounds so scary to the unschooled, so it’s as good a place as any for leftists who hate the Second Amendment to start. First they come for the “assault weapons” — a phrase that savvy Democrats define and redefine to their particular political liking. Then they come for the scary, scary handguns — because these can be easily hidden in a pocket or purse, dontcha see. Then they come for the scary, scary, scary — insert weapon here.

Noticeably lacking from all the Democrats’ trampling of the Second Amendment is any sort of recognition of the real roots of gun violence; that is to say, these leftists never call for address of broken homes, fatherless homes, open borders that fuel cartel-related drug and human trafficking — and accompanying gun violence. These leftists never call for a return to prayer in schools; they never press back against the morally decaying culture at all, in fact. Church? Bible teachings? Too controversial. Too divisive. 

Too confining, it what they mean.

Democrats want a society without rules, without boundaries, without moral restraints — and when they get it, they want to take away the primary way those who live within rules and boundaries have of protecting themselves from the lawless.

They want to take away yours and mine, but never theirs.

“Lori Lightfoot secretly protected by specialist squad of 71 cops,” The New York Post wrote in March, 2022.

“Video shows Mayor Lightfoot’s security detail in shootout,” Fox 32 reported a month ago.

“Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s security detail exchanges shots with robbery suspect, police say,” ABC 7 reported in November.

Thee, not me.

Thou, not thy.

Democrats never abide what they try to decree.

What America truly needs for safer city streets — for safer Democrat-controlled communities — are more law-abiding citizens to buy, possess and carry guns. And especially women, who are more apt to be physically disadvantaged in matchups with their attackers. And preferably concealed carry.  It’ll keep the criminal element guessing. They’ll be afraid to fire.

Until leftists are ready to address the real roots of violence and gun-related crimes — i.e., the condition of the human heart and soul — then more guns in the hands of the moral and virtuous is a must. You can’t fight evil by leaving defenseless the good.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE  or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.