By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
OPINION: Just in time for the holidays, Everytown for Gun Safety—the wealthy gun prohibition lobby backed by billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg—has posted its “debunking myths at the dinner table” agenda, which seems designed to spark nasty arguments rather than promote healthy conversation.
Leading the list of “myths” which Everytown claims to debunk is this one:
- Criminals will always find a way to get their hands on a gun.
- Laws like background checks stop gun sales to criminals every day. Since 1994, these laws have blocked more than 5 million gun sales to people who could not legally own guns.
While gun control laws may have blocked millions of people from legally purchasing firearms, it’s hardly the same as declaring those prohibited persons never got their hands on guns. Indeed, police reports from across the country will often include notations about criminal suspects who were illegally armed when arrested. Many of these suspects are repeat offenders with lengthy criminal records and felony convictions, so they don’t bother with attempting to legally purchase guns, anyway, but instead obtain them through illicit means.
Another alleged “myth” which Everytown claims to burst is this one:
- Gun makers don’t sell weapons of war to civilians.
- Many gun makers sell AR-15s and other assault weapons that are nearly identical to the firearms used by soldiers in battle to the general public. These firearms have been used in the country’s deadliest mass shootings.
Firearms manufacturers do not sell “weapons of war” to civilians, and the gun prohibition lobby knows it. As Everytown acknowledges, the AR-15 and similar firearms are “nearly identical” to military arms, with an important difference. Modern semiautomatic rifles sold to private citizens do not feature selective fire mechanisms, which means these guns operate essentially like any other semi-auto rifle or shotgun: One squeeze of the trigger results in a single round being fired. That’s no different than how a Browning Auto 5 or Remington 1100 semi-auto shotgun functions; i.e. guns used by millions of waterfowl hunters across the country.
There are 17 so-called “myths” the Everytown list claims to discredit this time around, but they’re not the sort of thing one discusses at as Thanksgiving family gathering or maybe a Christmas dinner with family and/or friends. That is, unless Everytown wants to promote boorish, overbearing behavior.
