In the aftermath of the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting, USA TODAY reported on the efforts of Florida state Sen. Greg Steube to eliminate state law establishing gun-free zones. “Gun-free zones don’t prevent criminals from breaking the law and killing innocent victims,” said Steube. “All that law did was prevent law-abiding citizens who have a concealed-carry permit from carrying their firearm in defense of themselves and others.”
Now contrast Steube’s common-sense argument with exaggerated claims in a USA TODAY column from Guns Down America:
“We have more guns in the U.S. than adults.” Irrelevant: We also have more cars.
“Our gun-related suicide rate is eight times higher than other high-income nations.” In the statistic that really matters, the U.S. ranks only 50th in suicides of any kind, trailing South Korea, Russia, Japan, Finland, Belgium, Iceland and France.
“Guns are rarely used for self-defense.” False: Obama’s CDC reported between 500,000 to 3 million defensive gun uses annually.
“Guns exist for the sole purpose of killing.” Then what are the nearly 265 million guns, in their estimate, that haven’t killed anyone for?
