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From the CCRKBA . . .

New data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission suggests the Evergreen State is on track to see one of the deadliest years on state highways since the 1990s, yet nobody is demanding a ban on automobiles, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms noted.

“This reflects a glaring hypocrisy on the part of people advocating for stricter gun control laws and bans on certain firearms,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The gun prohibition lobby and their allies in Olympia (the state capital) have promoted gun bans and restrictions on gun owners, but all we hear are crickets when it comes to traffic deaths. Evidently, lives lost on the highway are somehow less important.”

Gottlieb pointed to rhetoric from the gun ban lobby, which demonizes guns rather than criminals who misuse them: “Someone is killed by a gun every 12 hours in Washington state,” according to the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Such arguments are deliberately misleading, he maintains.

“Nobody claims traffic victims are killed by cars or trucks,” he noted. “Instead, media reports acknowledge 30 percent of crashes involved alcohol-impaired drivers, 37 percent of the people involved test positive for drugs, and another 28 percent were speeding. People do those things, not the cars they drive, just like guns don’t have a finger to pull their own trigger.”

Another complaint from the gun ban lobby is that Washington “has the 40th highest rate of gun violence in the United States.”

“That translates to being tenth from the bottom,” Gottlieb said. “Apparently the gun prohibition crowd is hoping nobody does the math, but is only impressed by dramatic rhetoric. But if you look at the most recent data from the CDC, the leading cause of death in Washington is cancer, and the drug overdose death rate—28.1 per 100,000—is more than twice as high as the firearm injury death rate of 11.2 per 100,000, and the homicide rate is 4.5 per 100,000, which is lower than the rate in Maryland, New Jersey, New York or California, all states with stricter gun laws. The gun ban lobby is deceitful at best.

“Let’s remember one very important thing,” he observed. “Driving is not a right protected by the Constitution, but keeping and bearing arms is. The Citizens Committee is vigorously defending that right.”

72 COMMENTS

    • Oh please. Alcohol is every bit as deadly as pot, if not more so. It has nothing to do with legalizing pot. People who want to get high will get high, always have and always will.

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      • Tori, I have a RED HOT NEWS FLASH for you. Since pot has been “legalized” in certain states (it is still illegal by FEDERAL LAW), traffic deaths involving intoxication has increased DRAMTICALLY in those states that have “legalized” pot. Seems you have been reading or listening to too much of the pot industry’s propaganda.

    • Bingo. I know we keep hearing that pot cures cancer and erectile dysfunction and all other maladies, but all it really does is stunt your growth and delete the files in your brain where common sense is found…

      • Shane, Pot heads are only interested in their method of escape from reality. they don’t give a hoot about anything else. Much the same with cigarettes. All they care about is their fix.

  1. Do you know why road rage is so prevalent?

    It’s because there are so many people on the road who deserve to be drug out of their cars and beaten on the spot…

    • Too many self-entitled id10ts on the road.

      But it I think many road-rage victims did something really stupid to antagonize other drivers.

      Indicators are there for a reason. Learn to use them. Plan ahead and get into correct lanes before the off ramp or intersection.

      • Unless they run into you, there is no excuse for ranting, raving, following, and shooting at people who made a mistake. There is something seriously wrong with people who engage in such behavior. I mean really, if you are not hurt and your car is undamaged, why on earth would you wish to inflict deadly violence on another driver?

      • 97.9% of “road rage” incidents occur in urban hives/cesspools. GET OUT.

        10+% of the population in the US needs to GO HOME. Make your cesspool homeland into the model we showed you. Start by adopting the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

  2. What they will piously tell you is that “Cars aren’t designed to kill.”

    That makes it far worse, in my book. Literally countless *billions* have been spent in making cars (and trucks) not kill, yet they still do tens of thousands of times a year.

    I fucking hate the Fascist Leftist Scum, and they are Fascist, since they chose to hook their wagon to Marxism, and Marxism is fucking Fascism. And if anyone argues differently, they are in bed with that Scum… 🙁

    • the left is not marxist. marxists are not “fascists”. you really need to grab a dictionary at some point.

      • Ah, so your saying conservative Christians were on the side of Marx, Engles, Mao, Pol Pot, Musillini, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Castro’s, and wanna be control freaks like Trudeau & Biden? I don’t know what freaking dictionary your using son.

      • jsled,

        Nice try, slick. I will grant you THIS much – there are Leftists that come in flavors other than strictly Marxist – technically, Leninists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Castro supporters, and “democratic socialists” all (theoretically, at least) have doctrinal differences with strict Marxists (no that those “differences” amount to a hill of beans, in any pracitical sense). But, if your point is that “not all Leftists are Marxists”, my response would be, “Yes, but ALL Marxists are leftists, and ALL Leftists are fascist authoritarians”.

        Want to prove me wrong?? Name me the Leftist in power, ANYWHERE, whatever “flavor” of Leftism he/she embraces, who is NOT an authoritarian fascist. I certainly won’t hold my breath, waiting.

        To quote an old John Wayne line, “You learned a lot of words in college. I just wish you’d learned some meanings.” No matter WHAT flavor of Leftist authoritarianism you subscribe to (they are all the same, under the surface), ALL LEFTISTS ARE AUTHORITARIAN FASCISTS.

        Go micturate up a cable, clown.

      • “the left is not marxist.”

        That’s a lie, asshole.

        They now worship ‘Critical Race Theory’. You constantly hear them harping on ‘Systemic Racism’, and that is literally rooted in Marxism… 🙁

        • They do try with fascist though even when it is hilariously projection on their part. The muddled categories do make for an interesting exercise in categorizing the 57 totalitarian flavors but they all seem to come back to similar funding sources over decades.

    • cars are, from a physics stand point, designed exactly for the purpose of killing the occupants.

    • marxism and fascism are two different things. Yes they often go together but are NOT interchangeable.

      Learn that words have meaning, and meanings bring consequences.

      • Definitions and exact terms are great when they match up and ideology is not muddled (deliberately?) making exact terms difficult if not impossible. Sometimes close enough is the perfect approach especially when the end results are the same. With that said if you can be precise yes it is preferred when useful.

  3. We have made great progress on reducing traffic deaths through new laws that mandate, air bags, safety lock brakes, padded dashes, safety glass, the list is long.

    On the other hand in Capitalvania where life is considered cheap and expendable when it comes to gun ownership nothing meaningful has taken place. Anyone can buy a second hand gun with no paperwork, people are free to own weapons of war i.e. the assault rifle with no restrictions, and people are free to slaughter their own children because there because are no laws requiring them to keep deadly weapons locked up and out of the hands of children or being stolen by smash and grab quickie robberies. Its pure in sanity but Capitalvania is not a civilized country.

    • What is pure insanity is allowing mentally ill fascists like yourself to run around unsupervised in a civilized society.

      How many children have been slaughtered by the sanger eugenics program that you openly praise? Millions? But since most were poc you not-zees encourage it.

  4. The reason that so many people are killed on the road is the same reason most people are murdered. People driving and acting like assholes.

  5. “The gun ban lobby is deceitful at best.”

    Sorry Mr. Gottlieb, but this is suppose to be news to anyone with more than a room temperature IQ? If those folks ever told the truth it was entirely by accident, and I am reliably told that they regularly pray to their god Obama (who ascended to Martha’s Vineyard) for forgiveness when they discover they accidentally said something nice about gun owners.

  6. You will never hear protests to ban cars due to the number of people killed in accidents. Simply because they are needed by the Karen’s of the world to get to their Mom’s Demand Action meetings and other protest groups. Even the Global Warming/Climate Change wacko’s use them and other forms of deadly transportation, even if they claim they are destroying the planet.

  7. Question a gun grabber about such things and they come up with lame arguments about guns only being made for killing people, etc.
    Because such restrictions on motor vehicles that might prevent “Accidental” deaths would affect them. Governors, horsepower limits, mandatory prison time with no plea bargaining for reduced charges or reduced sentences, and most other measures would fall on deaf ears with state legislatures. Demanding permanent loss of driving privileges for any criminal offense would never fly. Commit a property crime like burglary of an unoccupied structure, and since that was a felony charge, you lose your right to have firearms for life or until you can convince a judge to restore your rights. Get drunk and stupid, or stoned/high and kill someone in most states, you may get as little as a year’s loss of license and a few months in jail and a fine.

    • Ya know we took a little vexation er vacation to Wisconsin. I hadn’t driven on the tollway since 2019. Had cataract surgery on both eyes in 2021. I was tasked driving. Worse than I ever remember it going 225 miles each way. Pretty much just in ILLannoy. Land of lowlife scum & gangbangers. And corrupt state po-leece who would love to disarm me. Are there drugged out & drunk driver’s in other states? Sure but in ILLANNOY the DIMSCUM© eliminated cash bail. Oh well. Stay strapped🙄

  8. THAT IS SOOOO TRUE . GET ON ANY BAND WAGON YA WANT .
    CHANCES OF DEATH IN AUTO WRECK A LOT MORE THAN DEATH BY GUN RELATED SHOOTNG.
    O’WHATEVER ~ NEVER MIND . IF LUCKY HUMANS WILL KILL OFF PLANET AND ALL LIFE ON IT .

    SMOG IN THA AIR CO2 EVERY WHERE , TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND SUCK IT DOWN YA POLLUTING FRGN CLOWNS …

  9. Ehh, actually WA is ran by the kind of leftoid freaks that do want to try and slowly ban cars. Starting with the banning of fuel burning vehicles in a decade or two with the eventual goal to ban them all.

  10. We have TONS of regulations on cars.

    Don’t make the gun-prohibitionist case on their behalf, you fucking morons.

    • “…you fucking morons.’

      Dale Carnegie graduate, I see. Winning friends and influencing people.

    • There are TONS of laws against murder, assault etc. etc. but fascists like you still want to blame guns.

    • jsled,

      Doesn’t it ever embarrass you to be so transparently stupid?? No, of course not; you are incapable of either embarrassment, or sufficient self-examination to be embarrassed.

      In the first instance, a quarter-wit Leftist/fascist MORON, such as yourself, has absolutely no business referring to ANYONE else as a “fucking moron” (hey, apparently, you think we get lucky, at least sometimes; we are convinced you will die a virgin). Calling you a moron is an insult to all morons, everywhere; your “intelligence” is more at the planaria level.

      As to the second part, you @$$clown, NO ONE ARGUED that there were not laws and regulations on cars . . . just as there are on guns. However, if you look at some of the comments above, others have made the point (quite well, in fact) that cars, despite NOT being constitutionally-protected, have both far more stringent regulations, in many respects, but also more severe sanctions. Get the point, NOW, idiot????

      You are really too stupid to insult.

      • Sorry, in the third from last line, my reference to “cars” should have been to “guns”.

        Oh, and you remain too stupid to insult.

        • He’s been pulling that tired crap here in TTAG for as long as I’ve been hanging around, about 10 ten years.

          Please continue to do, however. Maybe, one day it will sink in, but I seriously doubt it… 🙂

  11. I’m in eastern Washington State….unfortunately. I’m originally from Montana, so it’s easy for me to bash Washington and that IDIOT Governor Inslee. Why the morons on the west side of the state continued to vote for him is a mystery. Now that loser AG Ferguson wants to run for Governor and he’s as far left gun-grabbing as they get.

    I like to think there’s no chance of him winning but those fools on the west side of the state would vote for an earthworm and since the west side is population saturated, its meaningless how the rest of the state votes.

    • MLee

      What? Sideshow Bob would make a WONDERFUL…. doorstop, coat rack, paperweight, uh, hmm, err, did I say paperweight?

      • @ Stuck
        Since I wouldn’t want to say anything that could possibly be misconstrued as a threat, but what I think you were trying to say or meant to say instead of paperweight is dead-weight.

        I literally cringe at the thought of Bob being Governor! He’s such a snake.

    • MLee,
      I refer to the highway known as ‘Highway 2′ or AKA Stevens’ Pass as one of the major “idiots on patrol” generators linking Pugetopia with the sane side of the state..

      Especially in the winter, when Stevens’ Pass ski area is not running night skiing. The bonehead denizens heading back to the Peoples Repubelick Of Pugetopia are some of the worst risk taking morons ever to be supported on rotating pneumatic bladders of air that I think I’ve ever run across. Passing on blind corners, tight tailgating even though the person ahead of them is also tailgating the car ahead of them, and that car is tailgating…..

      If these idiots want to kill themselves, all well and good. Just don’t take any innocents with them.

      I scrupulously avoid travel on 2 during those times of day, unless I have no other choice.

      For those that aren’t familiar with Stevens’ Pass, it’s a mostly 60 mph two lane with a few spots that are 35 going through ‘wide spots in the road’ towns, and a really nice 4 lane section that goes over the summit including the ski area. Speed limit signs on either side of the summit are electronic, so they can vary the limit as conditions change.

      It cuts through some pretty rough high mountain terrain, with places that have sheer rock walls on one side, and drop offs on the other. Of course, no shoulders to speak of in those sections. A few passing lanes are interspersed through out, and it’s well posted “Delay of more than 5 vehicles illegal.”

      Absolutely a gorgeous scenic drive.

      Well, on one trip, I had some idiot doing 40 – 50 in one of the 60 mph sections for literally 15 miles ahead of me until we got to a passing lane. NO, I’m NOT tailgating. I know better.
      (The wife and I were volunteer FF/EMT/IV techs for quite a few years, so I make an effort to not wind up like a lot of idiots I’ve seen ‘go splat’..)

      Ok, lets us pass. I think kicking it up to about 60 should do it, for about a 10 to 15 mph differential that will easily get by without using up the whole passing lane.

      Nope. Moron starts pacing me.

      Ok, game time is over, and I floor it.

      I felt fortunate to be driving the used twin turbo diesel BMW SUV that we picked up a few years ago. (That puppy just flat out MOVES when you feed it lots of rattle wagon juice.)

      When I got by him I glanced at the heads up display speedometer, and was pretty surprised at what it said. (IE: Fast all right, but I still had quite a bit of the passing lane left ahead of me..)

      Good effin’ grief!!

      Moved back over when I had enough space, (NOT ‘cut in front of him,’) and quickly slowed back down. I kind of kept an eye on the bonehead, glancing at the rear view mirror now and then. You guessed it. Once the passing lane ran out, they started dropping way back and it was obvious that they were pulling the 40 to 50 mph crap again and the cars were piling up behind them.

      The question in my mind was, just what the h*ll is wrong with these people?

      • I’m 66 and learned to drive when I was seven. Needless to say I’ve got a few years under my belt. I rode street bikes for many years which really instilled a sense of caution and to anticipate. On top of that, I gained my pilots license in both SEL and rotorcraft.

        I can sympathize with you over the foolish driving we now witness on a daily basis. I could go on and on over the idiot drivers but if you live in this state, you know all too well.

        I don’t think I’ve ever crossed the mountains on US 2. If I have, I don’t remember doing it. Generally I use I-90 but last summer I did something I hadn’t done on a road trip and have been wanting to and I took SR20 or the North Cascades Highway to the west side, Mount Vernon to be exact. Just missed a landslide (Barely) Now that was an amazing drive.

        • MLee

          Hw 20 is spectacular. Diablo and Ross Dams are pretty cool too.

          Got my SEL at 17. No rotor or twin. 182 was the ‘largest’ aircraft I’ve got time in. Haven’t flown (myself) for over 45 years. I think one of the last flights I logged was to go over to Wazzu to visit friends.

          It just got too expensive to ‘hobby’ fly, plus I got married and that was that.

          I always had a go kart or bike of some kind, and just about every kid in the neighborhood would come over and spin brodies and drive in our grassy front field after it rained.

          I was very used to shall we say, ‘unusual traction’ scenarios well before I took my driver’s test..

  12. Speaking of vehicles and wrecks…I just saw Grand Turismo. Good movie. It’s probably better in the theater.

      • A direct comparison can be made from the methane output of a Possum’s fart. The only variable is what he’s been eating, and how long its been ‘fermenting’ in the dumpster… 🙂

  13. The largest mass casualty event this century was the result of a terrorist in a vehicle. July 14, 2016. 87 people murdered ( including 10 children) and 434 injured. Ironically the attack was only stopped after the terrorist was shot multiple times.

  14. “Someone is killed by a gun every 12 hours in Washington state,”

    NO WAY. that would be around 700 death by firearm each year. Not possible.
    WHY does no one with any “teeth” not call out these filthy liars? Then how any are self-defeense, how many are suicide, how many are police inflicted, how many are otherwise justified?

    Then how many are criminals being shot in their lawless attempts to seatl cars, burglarise homes, etc? And how many are gang related, drug pirates, etc?

    Remove all those and we’re most likely down to MAYBE two hundred needless deaths invovlong arms per year.
    Now subttract the number of lives SAVED by the use of firearms in justifiable situations, and there is a significant net gain in non-deaths.

    Sam Clemmens once declared “there are lies, damn liles, and statistics”. These damn liars are bending statistics in a fruitless attempt to convince us to dive up ALL our guns. Not gonna happen. Hah, there are not even enough LE to come and take them all. And once they start down that road, the number in existance now will likely diminish.

  15. There is ONE factor in effect in the three Worst Coast states that is an YUUUGE cause of bad crashes but governments in those states refuse to deal with it.

    On the West Coast, and nowhere else I know of (not definitive) the TRUCKS have a speeed limit posted as ten to fifteen and even twenty mph slower than everything else.. This is particularly dnagerous on two lanes each way freeways. We have 55 or 60 heavy truck traffic stuck by law in the right lane, and 70 to75 mph legal traffic in the left lane. When that traffic ends up behind the slow guys in the right lane, they of course need to shirt to maintain speed. Oftern there is ine goofy big rig wrangler creeping past the double nickel crowd and making a rollicking 60 mph in the LEFT lane, so would be 75 mph traffic backs up, folks get irritated, tdo stupid things to get round more cars and regain their legal speed.
    I’ve driven in quite a few other states, the three coastal state are the ONLY ones that set a lower posted limit for big rigs. I’ve been in Texas rolling the posted limit (just then it was 85 mph) and been PASSED by a truck tractor and a 53 foot dryvan.
    These are state mandated crunch zones and are the source of an YUUGE number of crashes involving heavy trucks. And guess what? Those states hve LOWER big rig-fourwheel crashes. Why?Everyone is rolling the same speed.

    Today’s rigs are FAR more advanced than the ones I drove forty years ago. More axles better brakes, more stable, vastly increased braking power….. and the power to hold speed on the climbs.

  16. The media uses the term “gin violence”, but not “knife violence” or “car violence”. Democrats and hypocrisy seem to have married.

  17. It has very little to do with alcohol. Most traffic collisions occur from lack of or no real driving skills and cell phone use. Driving tests need to be much harder. Cell phone use while driving tops the chart for cause of fatality collisions. Why are we not holding the cell phone companies and service providers responsible? By the way, there are very few traffic “accident’s”. They are traffic “collisions”, caused by someone making a mistake and actually causing the incident.

  18. Elementary, My dear Watson. Cars are not feared as a means to insurrection against tyranny. Guns are. Whole article summed. Politicians looking to protect their own slimey asses.

    • Who’s trying to win a debate?

      That’s the problem, the anti-gun have corralled this into something to be ‘debated’. Its not something to be debated, its a constitutional right and now everyone thinks its a ‘debate’.

      Its an inherent natural constitutional right, it existed before our country did, its existed all through history, its that natural inherent right to ‘self-defense’ by the best means usable to us, as much as part of us, and born into us, as our body parts are.

      Do we debate the need for our hearts or brains in a ‘should or should not have them’ manner?

      Every animal in the animal kingdom has a natural inherent right sense of self preservation on a ‘personal’ level and the exercise of it when needed. Do we ‘debate’ if they should or should not be allowed that which is natural and inherent to them? No we don’t because it just is, and in fact we have laws and methods designed to protect and ensure and preserve the animals very existence including the ‘right’ to defend them selves when the time comes.

      But when it comes to humans some way or another we let a bunch of left wing idiots and idiot politicians turn this into a ‘debate’ and enact laws and methods designed specifically to make it a crime and claim we can’t have that natural inherent right … while they take great liberty with determining to propose that its ok and somehow a constitutional right that actually exists even though it doesn’t that a human life baby can be ‘murdered by abortion procedures’ up to the moment of birth or even 3 days after birth like its a car being returned under a lemon law and never existed because a bunch of people can scream ‘my body my choice’.

      Well, for our second amendment right its our body our choice except its actually written in the Bill of Rights to make sure its understood our natural inherent right exists, to codify that.

      The right of the people to keep and bear arms is an inherent natural right for the best means to enact that inherent natural right to ‘defense’ of life and liberty.

      It is not a debate, it just is and it is not negotiable. Its not granted by government and pre-existed our government and country, its not governments to take away or control or restrict, it never belonged to government so why are we ‘debating’ if government can have ownership over the right? It is an individual natural inherent right that belongs to each individual and to the individual alone. Why are we trying to frame it as a ‘debate’ to be won or lost?

      If they want to take the ‘bad’ people (e.g. criminals, violently mentally ill) out of society or deal with them, then do that…but the rest of us (e.g.. if a dividing line is needed call it ‘law abiding’) who are simply exercising our natural inherent right leave us alone.

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