He and I are "friends" on Facebook thanks to our mutual love of photography. When he found out about me starting this gun blog, he had plenty to say about how stupid we Americans are. You see, he is from the great country of Australia.
Now there is a country that has some practical experience with gun control. So I was eager to go back and forth with him. We have vollied back forth for a few weeks now. But this latest exchange was a great one so I thought I would share.
He started off with sending me this Youtube clip of a AU comedian that he claimed had valid points. I will post it here because he was indeed funny. If not completely wrong about most everything.
This is how the exchange then begin to take place:
HIM: Something funny to watch. Disregard the bad language. He makes some darn good points!
ME: Problem 1 - Gun Control advocates call any killing of 2 or more a massacre. You just had one with a guy and a shotgun. And you have had MANY since 1996 where more than one person was killed. Since we are discussing using Gun Control talking points, he is already lying. Or at the very least, he is failing to outline the definition of what a massacre is in his mind. Does he think it's 2 like the Mother's website does? Or 5? Or 10? When does murder turn to massacre?
Problem 2 - Your violent crime launched through the roof after removing your guns in 1997. Your crime rate skyrocketed. It took a massive doubling of your police forces to turn the tide. Since then it has come back down, but your violent crime and murder rate is now back to where it was prior to 1996. Exactly the same. You are just dying by more baseball bats and knives than you were before. In other words, they changed tools. These are facts.
Problem 3 - He stated the only argument we have is the fact that we just like guns. And it's the only argument we have. Well he just stated that lies and bull crap arguments were something he could not tolerate. But it's OK for him to use them because he's a comedian? The hard facts and numbers are all on our side. You guys that want to take them away blow everything out proportion and fail to compare them to anything else that kill people, because if you did, it would show how flawed your argument is. Plus even when you pass stringent gun control laws, nothing changes for crime and mortality rates. And we know that to be truth by looking at your country, the UK, Cuba, Russia, Germany, France, and every other country that has tried it. The crime rate NEVER changes after gun control laws are passed. Ever. Unless they go up. Which they do with frequency. You do nothing to change violence and save lives. Ever.
At that point I stopped watching the video because I have to make a school run. But I will pick it back up when I get back. Until then, here is my answer with hard facts and common sense that cannot be refuted.
HIM (while I was dropping kids off at school): I didn't expect you to agree with it James. You need to come over to a safe country like mine and actually experience what it feels like to not need a weapon to feel safe. See I have lived through both scenarios and know from REAL experience and not some varying stats that change depending on the source.
What makes you any better than all the people who you discredit for their stats? And I'm pretty sure if one of those 200+ people killed by a rifle where your wife or children then You may not be laughing at the amount of people who have died.
ME: What an absolute ridiculous thing to say. No matter how my wife died, I would be horribly crushed inside. And I would never laugh, nor have I ever laughed, at death in general. Ever. But to blame it on the mere existence of a tool, to the point that you blow it so far out of proportion is stupid.
I would not blame the butter knife if she tripped and fell on it. I would not blame the car if she ran off the road. You are freaking out over the hammer when the screwdriver has a reputation for killing more people because the hammer looks scary. To do so defies common sense, and embraces pure irrational thought derived from emotion.
Try using common sense and put things into perspective. Try it just once. It is a cool thing. Here, let me show you how it works.
Knives, baseball bats, and people's own 2 hands kill more people than guns over here. At the exact same ratio as your country. Actually less. Guns are involved in 8% of all violent crime here, versus 13% in your country. But your gun laws are insanely restrictive. And no matter how many times I try to use your own country for an example, you never have anything to say about it.
Your country tried it. It changed nothing. Nadda. Zero. Your country was one of the safest to begin with. Prior to 1996 it was safer than Switzerland. But you over reacted and did what you did because one mentally ill man when nuts. Guess what - it changed nothing.
How come you have no argument for that? How do you ignore that despite stringent gun control laws that make it near impossible to even have a shotgun legally, that your violent crime rates are exactly the same now nearly 20 years later, as they were prior to the ban? How do you explain how a shotgun - illegally obtained - was used just a few months ago in a coffee shop terrorist attack in your own country? You can't explain it because it does not work no matter how you try to spin the numbers.
When you start pitching a hissy fit over having bed rails installed on all beds in order to save lives because they kill way more people than assault rifles, then you will have credibility with me.
When you lobby to have skateboards removed from the public because 100,000 kids went to emergency rooms from skateboard injuries versus the 6,000 from a firearms - in a country with 310,000,000 million people and just as many guns, no less - then you will have credibility with me.
When you start lobbying to have backyard swimming pools require safety covers and fencing with child proof locks because they kill 500% more kids each year than do firearm accidents, then I will listen.
Until you start approaching things using common sense, perspective, and truth, instead of just blind emotion, then I won't respond to your silly arguing points, because they are based on emotion and not backed by fact.
But, you see, that is all the gun control people have. Emotion. Because the facts don't add up.
You ignore facts, and the most incredible is the amount of people SAVED by defensive gun use in this country. The most recent estimate is around 170,000 times per year. Despite those numbers, I have provided 2 personal experiences where a gun saved my life, or at the very least, serious bodily harm. Would you have denied me that defense?
Go ahead. You stated that I might change my mind if my wife or a loved one had been murdered. So what is your argument for the fact that the opposite actually happened to me? That I still get to live my life with my wife and family thanks to a 9mm? On 2 occasions in my lifetime, no less. In fact I won't listen to anything else until you address THAT argument.
Oh and the fact that your crime rate has never changed. It's like you are ignoring it. Answer that one. Why has oppressive gun control laws in your country not changed one freaking thing?
Common sense, perspective, and truth. You start arguing using that, and you will have something. It's like a three legged milking stool. Without, you have nothing.
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