JUNE IS ‘GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH,’ HOW ABOUT SELF-DEFENSE AWARENESS?
BELLEVUE, WA – While the gun prohibition lobby is observing June as “Gun Violence Awareness Month,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says there should also be an “Armed Self-Defense Awareness Month” to recognize the thousands of people who defend themselves and others each year.
“Not once have we heard a peep from the gun ban crowd when a legally-armed private citizen intervenes to save lives from mass killers, or protect themselves and their families from violent criminals,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Whether it was a would-be mass casualty incident at an Indiana mall, an attack at Price Chopper in Missouri, a retired Marine partnering with a Massachusetts state trooper to stop a Cambridge gunman, or a citizen stopping a fleeing attempted killer on a Seattle street, these incidents are universally ignored and swiftly swept under the nearest rug by anti-gunners and their cheerleaders in the media.”
The Crime Prevention Research Center has monitored armed citizen intervention for several years, and has done research on defensive gun uses. The CPRC issues annual reports on licensed concealed carry. Gottlieb has co-authored several books discussing armed self-defense and intervention, and he maintains that legally armed citizens have made, and continue to make, a difference in today’s society.
“This term ‘gun violence’ was invented by the gun prohibition lobby, and lapped up by the media,” he observed. “A gun doesn’t have a brain to hate with or a finger to pull its own trigger. We’ve recently seen high-profile stabbings on subways, yet nobody talks about ‘knife violence.’ When people driving under the influence cause fatal traffic crashes, we never hear about ‘car violence.’ Only the firearm is singled out for demonization, as if to transfer responsibility from the perpetrator to the gun he or she misused.
“We should recognize the heroic acts of armed citizens,” Gottlieb said. “Instead of blaming guns for violent crime, let’s be honest and place the responsibility where it belongs, on the violent offenders. Likewise, anti-gunners need to stop equating suicide with violent crime, and combining the numbers for a more dramatic effect. Not only is it dishonest, it smears those with emotional problems by lumping them in with criminals.
“Perhaps next year,” he concluded, “we can recognize the contributions armed citizens have made to public safety across the country. Gun owners can wear brightly-colored T-shirts to their state capitols, where governors will sign proclamations, make speeches about the Second Amendment, and the media will reject anti-gun rhetoric and report accurately about the right of self-defense.”
