And now we turn to the issue of gun violence in America today. The latest mass shootings in Aurora Colorado, and New Town, Connecticut leave us all – liberal and conservative; Republican and Democrat – appalled and disgusted at the carnage.
Now some people – and that includes many of you in this room tonight – want to place the blame for this horror on things like thirty round magazines or semi- automatic rifles. We want to blame something, anything, that we can control – but what we really want to ban is violence, and murder, and insanity. We don’t talk about that, though, because deep in our hearts each of us knows that violence, and murder, and insanity are built into the human condition, and likely always will be.
You know, there are two kinds of animals in this world: predators, and prey.
No one watches a leopard chase down a gazelle and denies that the gazelle has a right to use it’s hooves and horns to protect itself from the predator. But there are people in this room tonight, and across the country, who would deny that same right to self-defense to other human beings. Such people seem to think that the way to stop the leopard is to cut the horns off of the gazelle – that by somehow making it easier for the predator, the predator will somehow go away. This is insane. When you make it easier for the predator – you get more predators.
Let’s start with the so-called “assault weapons,” more properly known as semi- automatic rifles. In 2011, total firearm murders came to 8,583, according to the FBI. During that time, the total murders committed by rifles – ALL rifles, not just semi-automatic rifles – were 323. That’s 3% of all murders. Hammers and clubs kill half again as many people as rifles. Hands and feet murder twice as many; and knives kill five times more Americans than all rifles combined.
Preventable medical errors kill about 98,000 people per year: medical malpractice kills more than twelve times as many people as are murdered in the US each year. That’s more than 300 times the number killed by all rifles, not just the so-called “assault rifles.”
And yet no one talks about limits on hammers, or knives, or doctors or hospitals. No one does that because the good we perceive from hammers and knives and doctors far outweigh their perceived harm. And yet, studies show that firearms prevent anywhere from 800,000 to over two million violent crimes every year. Murders and rapes and assaults are reported, but murders and rapes and assaults prevented by firearms isn’t – in the same way that a jet crash catastrophe makes the evening news while the 30,000 safe landings that occur every single day in this country — don’t. The lowest estimate means that 100 times more violent crimes were prevented by firearms than the total murders committed by firearms. One hundred times.
In October of 2007, Amanda Collins was walking to her car after a night class at the University of Nevada at Reno. Amanda had a concealed carry permit for her 9mm Glock that she carried for self-defense. Unfortunately for Amanda, UNR is, like most college campuses, a gun-free zone. So, like the law-abiding citizen that she is, she did not have her gun with her in this gun-free zone when she was attacked by James Biela. Biela raped her on the UNR campus, less than 300 yards from the Campus Police Office. He then walked away, and a few months later, this human predator went on to murder 19-year-old Brianna Dennison. Amanda Collins went on to say, quote, “I know, having been the first victim, that Brianna Dennison would still be alive, had I been able to defend myself that night.” Unquote.
Therefore, I am directing the Virtual Attorney General to aggressively challenge any gun control laws that violate Amanda Collin’s right not to be raped, and Brianna Dennison’s right not to be murdered. You are not forced to abandon your First Amendment Right when you enter Chicago and New York, or your Fifth Amendment right when you walk onto a college campus. As Virtual President I will veto on the spot, without hesitation but with a great deal of pleasure, any and all attempts to destroy any of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Because when it is all said and done, the Second Amendment to the Constitution is not there to protect us against criminals. And the people calling for gun control know this. That’s why they want gun control, instead of crime control. That’s why they want laws that at the stoke of the pen turn law abiding citizens into criminals.
The Second Amendment is there to protect the American People from Tyranny. The Second Amendment is there to protect the American People from politicians. The Second Amendment is there to protect the American People from… us.
Some politicians claim America deserves a vote on this issue. Okay. Let’s have a vote. Those of you advocating infringement on the right of the people to keep and bear arms need to go to the American people with the 28th Amendment – which would simply read “The Second Amendment to the US Constitution is hereby repealed.” That would, for the first time, give you the legal authority to do what you are have been doing, and are trying to do now, in direct violation of your oath of office to defend the entire Constitution of the United States, not just the parts you happen to approve of.
Go to the American people and tell them that ultimate power is no longer to be vested in the People, who cannot be trusted with that power. Tell them only the Government can have that power now. Go out and try to convince the people of the 38 states you’ll need to get that amendment passed to agree with your opinion of them, versus their opinion of you. I dare you.
(Bill Whittle is a conservative blogger and political commentator. The transcript was provided by LYBIO.net. Thanks to Jerry Doyle for the heads up on this strong message.)
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