Good Guys with Guns

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is the proven fact that good guys use their guns to stop crime far more often than gun-control activists choose to admit. Good guys with guns save lives and turn would-be victims into survivors. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have come to this conclusion.

            Amy Swearer posted an article at The Daily Signal with examples of firearms being used in defense of life and property. She takes this statement from the CDC 2013 report on gun violence research. 

There, in conjunction with the National Research Council, the CDC concluded that almost all national, comprehensive studies on the subject find that firearms are used for lawful defensive purposes between 500,000 and 3.5 million times every year in the United States.

Even assuming that the actual number of defensive uses is on the low end of that range (and there’s good reason to believe that, in fact, it falls at the higher end), firearms are used to protect life and property more often than they are used to commit crimes, according to the CDC.

            Swearer then proceeds to use examples from June 2018 to provide “ample evidence of just how valuable a firearm can be in the hands of a law-abiding citizen.” She gives 13 examples for the period of June 1-30, such as the following one picked at random from her list.

Also on June 4, an 18-year-old man in Arlington, Tennessee found himself “rejected” at gunpoint when he assaulted and attempted to rape his friend’s mother during a sleepover. The man forced the woman on a bed and began putting his hand down her shorts before she was able to knee her attacker in the groin and retrieve her handgun, which was stored in the bedroom. The woman sustained a black eye, but told law enforcement officers that she prevented the man from sexually penetrating her.

            The above example shows that a good girl with a gun prevented a serious crime that would have impacted her life for the worse. There are twelve other examples where men, women, and teenagers used guns in either self-defense or the defense of someone else. The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a freedom that protects us from serious crime. We must protect this freedom if we want to keep our other freedoms!