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Lessons from Kenya: Gun-Free Zones are Killing Zones
Caption
Mary Italo, center, grieves with other relatives for her son Thomas Abayo Italo, 33, who was killed in the Westgate Mall attack, as they wait to receive his body at the mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. Thomas was an accountant and the breadwinner of the family who helped look after Mary who is sick, according to relatives. Kenyan authorities prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after the country's president declared an end Tuesday to the four-day siege of the Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Lessons from Kenya: Gun-Free Zones are Killing Zones

The facts are there a for all to see. Progressives just ignore them. I don’t think left-wingers are stupid or unable to read. In fact I think liberals intentionally ignore the facts about firearms to achieve a broader goal. That goal is simple: to make sure only government has guns to ensure a compliant populace.

Chris Salcedo hosts his own radio show on TheBlaze Radio Saturday mornings at 9am ET.

Now that the crisis has passed, countries all over the world will try to learn lessons from the latest terrorist attack. Reports from Kenya indicate that security wasn't allowed to carry firearms in the upscale mall where the massacre occurred.

At the end of the day, this was another mass shooting in a "Gun-Free Zone.” It would seem that someone forgot to tell the terrorists that weapons were not allowed.

Knowing terrorists, I'm sure if they had known about the restriction they would have dutifully complied. Still, there is that chance that some terrorists are not the most upstanding, law-abiding folks in any given neighborhood. Perhaps the better part of valor is making sure that the "gun-free zone" goes the way of the dinosaur. We all may be a lot safer.

Mary Italo, center, grieves with other relatives for her son Thomas Abayo Italo, 33, who was killed in the Westgate Mall attack, as they wait to receive his body at the mortuary in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. Thomas was an accountant and the breadwinner of the family who helped look after Mary who is sick, according to relatives. Kenyan authorities prepared for the gruesome task of recovering dozens more victims than initially feared after the country's president declared an end Tuesday to the four-day siege of the Nairobi mall by al-Qaida-linked terrorists. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) 

 

The liberal mind is truly a wonder. I’m not sure what sort of mental contortion a progressive must go through to reason that it’s easier to disarm the world rather than make sure the world is able to defend itself from aggression. But I am certain I can’t replicate the thought process. Maybe I’m just too simple. Or maybe they are simply nuts. The data seems to support my way of thinking and their claim to sane or rational thought.

Take for example one Harvard study. For those keeping score, Harvard is hardly right-wing central. This study found that the liberal notion that “more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths" is completely wrong.

One example from the study shows numbers for Eastern European gun ownership and corresponding murder rates. In Russia, where the rate of gun ownership is 4,000 per 100,000 inhabitants, the murder rate was 20.52 per 100,000 in 2002. That same year in Finland, where the rater of gun ownership is exceedingly higher: 39,000 per 100,000, the murder rate was nearly ZERO, at 1.98 per 100,000. But that’s Europe right? What about the United States of America, or as liberal call it, the wild, wild west?

In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Resident Obama commissioned a government agency to study the impact of guns on America. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was given $10 million to research gun violence. What they found was a nearly complete repudiation of left-wing talking points on guns.

Among the findings were these little gems:

Armed citizens are less likely to be injured by an attacker. How many times has some extremist progressive tried to convince us that we’re better off not having a gun when confronted by someone else with a gun? Liberals have claimed that it’s more likely that the victim would do more damage because of their assumed lack of experience and ability to wield a firearm.

The CDC also found that defensive uses of guns are common. Willfully ill-informed left-wingers consistently claim whine “what does anyone need with a gun America anyway?” According to the survey, “almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year.”

The liberals don’t know their facts. So isn’t it time to stop listening to liberals on this topic?

The facts are there a for all to see. Progressives just ignore them. I don’t think left-wingers are stupid or unable to read. In fact I think liberals intentionally ignore the facts about firearms to achieve a broader goal. That goal is simple: to make sure only government has guns to ensure a compliant populace.

The Kenyan massacre and the recent shooting rampage in Washington, D.C. are prime examples of what is wrong with the American left and their anti-gun advocacy. Reasonable people, with safety in mind, realize that soft targets, where innocent people try to peacefully go about their daily lives, make too tempting a target for those who wish to do harm. Experience has shown that if one is a terrorist, insane or just plain evil, one tends to attack the defenseless in an effort to remain unopposed for the greatest length of time so as to inflict the most damage.

I long for the day when the headlines read, “CITIZENS FIGHT BACK, OVERWHELMING TERRORISTS IN SHOW OF DEFIANCE.” To hasten the reality of that day might I suggest that the people, the world over, not allow governments to keep them defenseless any longer. Resist liberal’s attempts to disarm law abiding citizens.

And by God, get rid of “Gun-Free Zones.”

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