“Statistically speaking, one should be more fearful of toddlers, given that in 2015, toddlers shot and killed more Americans than terrorists did.” – Evan DeFilippis and Devin Hughes in A Gun as a Defense Against Terrorists? The Stats Say It’s More Likely to Harm Your Family [via thetrace.org]
Just goes to show how overblown terrorism as a threat to us is. Now that the war on drugs is winding down, the government4 needs another boogeyman to justify screwing us over
Time to wake up.
Winding down? Just because weed might be legal in a few more places doesn’t mean the war on drugs is going anywhere. And international terrorism is at its highest rate since the 70’s.
>> And international terrorism is at its highest rate since the 70’s.
It is, definitely! And yet, as an American citizen, you’re still more likely to be struck outside by a lightning than to be killed by a terrorist anywhere. Which, again, goes to show how ridiculously overblown the threat is.
Yep. Hitler said people are easy to control. Simply create some type of outside threat, (hence the Reischstag fire and the demonizing of the jews). then label anyone that does not want to toe the police state line as a traitor or a threat themselves.
Which is why the demonizing of conservative and constitutional gun owning americans as “terrorists”.
.
Well over 50 Islamic terror plots were smashed before they could bear their evil fruit last year. I would hardly call that “overblown”, especially with the U.S. government getting ready to import even more of the followers of the Pedophile Prophet.
It kinda depends on how many of those 50 plots (got a source for that number?) were real, legitimate threats like the San Bernardino couple, and how many were just retards whose “plots” were instigated by an FBI informant (ala the “Newburgh Four” and “Liberty City Seven”).
If I was an infant still in the mothers womb, I’d be fearful too.
Yep. I wonder how many of those 50 million “aborted fetuses” , if they had been allowed to be born and grow to adulthood, would now support thier mothers decision to murder them?
According to the same pollsters who did the gun show loophole one…. 90%
Glad I could answer that for you 🙂
Terrorists use planes, bombs, machine guns, fertilizer and pressure cookers. Toddlers, not so much.
“Toddlers, not so much.”
Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi…
Look, I don’t have kids of my own, but I’ve changed my share of toddler diapers.
Some of them have qualified as a weapons-grade biohazard… 🙁
Weapons of mass destruction excluded 🙂
Their own article says 38 Americans were killed by terrorists and 15 by toddlers. (If one can believe the trace)
So how are toddlers more of a danger?
Tom, you aren’t paying attention. They’re using Common Core math.
OK, that’s some funny stuff right there.
Interesting they did the cutoff at a convenient point, 10 years.
If they went a few more years, the 20 or so kids killed by McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing could have been added to the terrorist tally…
Add the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist tally goes way up.
It says 38 in the last decade. So yeah, statistically you are more likely to be shot by a toddler on American soil than a terrorist.
What an ass, “…one should be more fearful of toddlers…” terrorists are a group of ideologically driven people that terrorize thousands of people throughout the world while they murder, rape and enslave people because their beliefs run counter to theirs. I’m through hearing people tell me what’s wrong with our country, that I should worry about accidents caused by negligence and not people abroad out to kill me because I don’t hold their beliefs.
Or maybe he’s publishing this article now because he’s worried this time next year he can’t make that same claim. Advance your agenda now! Chastise the American people and insult us! Defend Obama’s poor (or non-existent) fight against terrorism! After all, it’s you and me that are in the wrong, not extremist Muslim terrorists.
One provocative stat that not too many gun owners know about is that in any given year, more small children are likely to die while DRIVING motor vehicles than while playing with handguns.
Something tells me when it comes to revoking the 2ndA rights of folks on the “watch list” the authors tune changes to “these people are a threat to us all!”
If we’re being sincere in the stats game one would have to concede that neither terrorism nor guns are much of a threat to anyone in the US. But that’s not how the game is played. The rules are anything that the threat is whatever scapegoat that helps further your agenda at a given moment in time.
Since when did Helen Lovejoy get hired by thetrace.crap?
“Won’t somebody please think of t he children?”
Reality is stranger than fiction. The Simpsons nailed this 20 years ago.
To toddlers credit, they are sneakier and harder to spot… Mainly because they don’t yell “Allahu Akbar” before dropping the hammer.
ok, out loud snicker on that one.
Ha! Snorted my coffee on that one. You made me think of this little guy https://youtu.be/yZdYT8Ui1go
Yep. Outright laughter in that one. The best humor is based on truth.
Well, I am afraid of toddlers. They are always looking at you like you are an experiment or worse – prey. I don’t lock eyes with them and beat feet as soon as possible when they invade.
“They are always looking at you like you are an experiment or worse – prey.”
You’re right. Kinda like the way my cat looks at me…
So 38 americans killed in the last decade by terrorists? Technically correct perhaps, except for 9/ll, slightly over a decade ago with thousands murdered. By guys using planes as bombs after taking them over with box cutters. Not a gun insight, just evil men with evil and murderous intent.
But that is the whole point, left out of a bunch of manipulated statistics making most of what he wrote a tissue of lies.
He suggests by simply owning guns are the factor for these “gun deaths”. In fact, most gun deaths by people that “know” each other are classified by the FBI as gang bangers that shoot at a rival gang, that know each other, or a drug deal gone bad where shots are fired because the drug dealer and his customer “knows” each other.
He, like all statists/progressives, implies the gun is some type of disease factor that infects a person to commit violence, committed by an otherwise law abiding person.
Instead, if you look more on the details of those that use tools to commit violence, hands and feet murder almost 40% of all people in a year, (you see what I did there?) :the person more often that commits the violence has a long history of assault, murder , and criminal activity.
But this truth does not fit the progressives agenda.
Yes dear, monsters are real. Most wear the face of a human being that need nothing more than an evil heart, with murders intent, to massacre alot of people, even without a gun.
“Looking only to official criminal records, data over the past thirty years consistently show that the mythology of murderers as ordinary citizens does not hold true. Studies have found that approximately 75% of murderers have adult criminal records, and that murderers average a prior adult criminal career of six years, including four major adult felony arrests. These studies also found that when the murder occurred “[a]bout 11% of murder arrestees [were] actually on pre-trial release”–that is, they were awaiting trial for another offense.”
“The fact that only 75% of murderers have adult crime records should not be misunderstood as implying that the remaining 25% of murderers are non-criminals. The reason over half of those 25% of murderers don’t have adult records is that they are juveniles. Thus, by definition they cannot have an adult criminal record.”
From the same source (citing a different set of studies) they found 50-75% of homicide victims were criminals, depending on the city, whereas some speculate certain cities have a number closer to 90%.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvmurd.html
Who’d of thunk it? I don’t hang out with gang bangers, drug dealers, illegal drug users, nor do I hang out in bikers bars, or hang out with people that have a tendency to beat up thier intimate partners or get stupid drunk.
I have now carried a side arm for almost seventeen years, eight years OC, and I have yet needed to draw the weapon in response to dealing with violent predators, mainly because with good situational awareness, The couple of times I was targeted by a mugger, he saw my readiness and decided they needed to be somewhere else, quicklly.
Which is the response in 9 out of 10 self-defense situations by law abiding citizens. Simply the awareness by the citizen and their willingness to use a firearm, meant they didn’t need to actually fire the weapon.
The real terrorists are the gangbangers and drug dealers holding their communities hostage, and the politicians and policies that support them.
You know, your comment leads me to a thought, aren’t all gun owners “terrorist”, now… And aren’t there something like 30,000 or 11’d billion or whatever number anti’s pull out of their a$$es, gun deaths every year…. So, really toddlers are not all that dangerous, by comparison.
Well, unless the toddler bought the gun, then they’re a terrorist, too.
While you’re at it, Messrs. DeFillipis and Hughes: Statistically speaking, you should be more afraid of being struck by lightning than by being involved in a bona fide “spree shooting” (18 fatal lightning strikes in just the first half of 2015, vs. 4 “spree shootings” in the whole year).
I agree, toddlers should not be able to go to a gun show and buy guns without a background check easier than they can buy Gerber mixed veggies. But wait a minute here, it wasn’t the toddlers that killed 15 people, it was the guns! That’s their logic in nine of ten other articles on the topic of guns.
It was incompetence that killed, just like failing to properly store toxic chemicals or ignoring the pool gate or front door. In the case of terrorism it’s malicious intent. Malicious intent always creates more fear and attracts law enforcement attention while accidents due to negligence are typically more acceptable, create less fear, and can’t be stopped by law enforcement. I don’t have a toddler and my social circle does not consist of toddlers so I’m pretty safe from this “threat”. That’s another way to look at this purported stat, which is just like saying “African Americans are unfairly targeted by law enforcement” when 90% of the residents are black. Lazy stat manipulation only works on the lazy.
Forgo lawful self defense…for the children? Forget about a criminal murdering a father or mother. Anti gunners have weak morals and no business infringing the rights of citizens.
The whole basis of progressives and those that are attracted to that system of belief is that they see people as being incompetent, emotional, helpless, powerless and defenseless and incapable of being the masters of thier own fate.
So of course, using effectively, a dangerous tool like a gun in defense of self, is impossible.. Which is why a national figure on TV can say with a straight face that using a gun by a citizen to defend one self is a “myth” and not be laughed off the network by their generally progressive audience.
Their audience believes so passionately in their own incompetence as an adult, they will accept such patently false assertions as “truth”.
The problem is that they look at all people as being as incompetent as themselves, and they vote accordingly.
What’s interesting is that republicans look at themselves and others the same, but not with guns so much as with people using drugs So we have the War On Drugs.
In the end, both parties, and the people that vote for them, are about control. and not trusting people to manage their own lives without government interference, just in different areas.
yet another perfect example of how using statistics are your sole basis of information and concern is a mistake.
No little kids in my house. I’m more likely to get shot by one of the local keystone cops “protecting” me. Terrorists R US…
These two guys run a blog together called “Armed With Reason.” I’ve checked it out a few times though it’s no such thing. They engage in many of the easily refuted falsehoods of the gun control side. I was actually rather surprised even that two seemingly intelligent guys make sure silly mistakes. For example, claiming that 40% of all guns are sold without a background check. They did another whopper with this one, in talking about the verified defensive gun uses. They are going by the classic misconception that defensive gun use involves actually shooting someone, when most don’t.
Additionally, they also use the canard about the gun manufacturers having some kind of unfair special legal protection, demand the adoption of so-called smart guns, and so forth. They do not tell about the flaws of smart guns on their blog or explain why gun manufacturers are protected from frivolous lawsuits. I have tried to explain some of these things to them, but thus far they have noted most of my posts to them through. They also engage in the public health canard.
Well terrorists killed a whole lot of Americans in 2001. Boko Haram, ISIS, ISIL and Al Queda have killed many thousands since then in countries around the world. Our news media just isn’t very good at reporting those facts, unless the attack happens in Paris. Come to think of it, our news media isn’t good at reporting *any* facts.
The media is not there to report facts, just emotion and a liberal agenda..
What if you don’t have a family? No stats to that….
Wow, those authors are not bright (that’s being nice). They quote in 2015 “there were roughly 2,000 deaths from unintentional shootings”. They link to their source. Their source clearly state there were 1,956 INCIDENTS, not deaths, during 2015. Strike 1.
Then, they go onto say only 80 people each year die to home invasions. They quote their source. Their source clearly states that there were 430 burglary related homicides between 2003-2007 on average ANNUALLY. Not total in the time period, but every year. Wrong again, strike 2.
THEN, that exact same source says there are 267,000 household members that are victims of violent crime ANNUALLY. 267,000!!! Every year. STRIKE 3!!
I’ll gladly home carry all the time.
Finally some useful information in this post. Thanks! TAG should take note and not waste our time.
Toddlers kill (with firearm) because there was no “responsible adult” paying attention and allowed access to the firearm. The firearm most likely did not have a manual safety engaged, don’t want to slow anybody down do we? Everyone knows a hard trigger makes a firearm safe, and for those too damn lazy to bother with a manual safety, convenient. There is no way that a toddler would have any idea, or intent to, kill (who explains it to him, or her later, when they want to know what happened to mommy or daddy, don’t you think that flash and roar would be imprinted on their minds)? Terrorists kill with intent, toddlers kill as a result of an adult’s stupidity. People that use kids as a political tool (or any abuse) really piss me off.
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