I found a great t-shirt while surfing the web over the weekend. It said, Guns don’t kill people, abortion kills people. I hope it arrives in time for my parents’ next visit. You see, my mom is a civil lawyer, a feminist and a Canadian. By contrast, I am a canon lawyer, a traditional Catholic and a legal resident of the United States. To the chagrin of my father, also a lawyer, bickering over gun control or abortion is a favorite past-time when talking to my mother.
While going another round over the phone with mom the other day, she appealed to the obligatory statistics. You know the ones – basically the number of violent gun crimes in the United States versus the number in Canada. Of course, liberal proponents of the nanny state feel these statistics vindicate their position. Perhaps these social leftists feel residual guilt over having abandoned their children to daycare facilities as they pursue their career. I know not. But never mind personal responsibility and civil liberties, social liberalism makes for a kinder and gentler state.
Or does it? After stumbling upon this t-shirt, the time was ripe for my own statistical analysis – not for my sake, but for my mother’s. Tough love works both ways in the parent-child relationship; just as friends don’t let friends vote for Bill, good sons don’t allow their mothers to parrot Hillary. But enough musing about my family; when compared to the statistics on gun violence, the abortion issue speaks for itself. In short, liberals kill more people than guns.
According to some statistics I picked up from a number of American proponents of stricter gun control (therefore they must be true since liberals don’t lie about these things), in 1995 there were 35,957 gun related deaths in America. The number of gun homicides numbered 15,835. Given America’s population of 264 million, this is approximately one gun homicide for every 16,672 members of the American population. Canada, with a population of 29 million, suffered 1,189 gun related deaths during the same year, of which 176 were homicide. Thus the gun homicide ratio north of the border is one for every 164,773 people living in Canada – about one tenth that of the United States.
In contrast, according to the 1997 United Nations’ Demographic Yearbook, people in Canada procured 70,549 abortions in 1995. This is approximately one abortion for every 411 Canadian residents. Stated another way, for every gun homicide in Canada, there are 401 abortions. The Canadian child in the womb will no doubt take comfort in the kindness and gentility of the strict gun control laws governing our socialist state – that is, if she survives to birth. One should not assume. Just ask the 70,549 victims of Canada’s liberal abortion policy.
The statistics for the United States are no less telling. In 1997, under the ever-compassionate leadership of Bill and Hillary, 1,210,883 American babies were aborted. Statistically, this represents one abortion for every 218 residents of the United States of America. While the American ratio of abortions to gun homicides is much lower than in Canada, it is no less lopsided: 76 to 1. Of course, we seldom hear this statistic from liberal statists.
So next time you run into a liberal proponent of the compassionate nanny state, which usually means restricted gun ownership and unrestricted abortion, remember the t-shirt. Guns don’t kill people, abortion clinics do.
Pete, in the words of the old spiritual:
A-a-a-men,
A-a-a-men,
A-ay-men,
Amen,
Amen.
I would only add that guns are good for kids, because it enables parents to guard them using the most effective means available. According to the work of sociologist John Lott, guns are used about a million times a year to stop crimes -- a large portion of which are home invasions.
How many more children would be harmed if only the bad guys had guns? Look at the U.K., where crime of all kinds is worse than the since they virtually banned handgun ownership seven years ago. Gun crimes are worse than they were before -- counterintuitive, if you think legal gun ownership causes violence. With the exceptions of rape and murder, crime is now worse there than in the U.S.
So, Pete, what's this about you becoming an American, eh?
And where's the link to the "Guns don't kill people, abortions kill people" t-shirts? I want one of those!
How rude of me! The URL is here: http://www.cafeshops.com/rightwingstuff/133381
I always like to point out to liberals I have as much right to own a gun, according to the US constitution, as they do to kill their unborn child, which they claim is protected by the constitution. Although, I am still trying to find the amendment that reads, "to assure a free woman, the right to maim and murder unborn children shall not be infringed".
Chuck
Are you saying gun violence isn't a problem because abortion is? The fact that people abort children doesn't stop gun violence. Arguing which kills more is pointless. The fact remains both are problems in America today. Guns AND abortion clinics kill people.
Uh Neumann,
People kill people, get the point?
-J.
RWS
Uh Neumann,
Just a sidebar, gun violence isn't the problem that abortion is. Gun-related deaths amount to 13,000/yr. with 75% being in self-defense. Abortions, well we all know that there are 1,000,000/yr. (conservative estimate) in the US alone. So you tell me - what method - kills more people?
You can also compare the numbers of abortion clinics and the number of firearm owners. Many times more gun owners than abortion providers yet more lives are ended by abortion than gun use in offensive use.(not self-defense)
Bottom line: There is no sense in comparing the two.
J.
RWS
Oh, gosh, Jimbo, you're so right. People DO kill people. How else do you explain all the terrorists who murder "baby killing" doctors? Thank goodness we Americans have guns to defend ourselves. By that measure, we are able to kill perfect strangers, so long as they are by our standards "morally corupt."
You don't "procure" an abortion, you idiot.
The term "procured abortion" is correct. The idea is to distinguish intentionally induced abortion from "spontaneous abortion" -- that is, miscarriage. Hope this helps.
I call liberals "LIEBERALS" because they just can't seem to tell the truth. As Michael Savage said: "Liberalism is a mental disorder, not a political point of veiw." You libs forfit whatever right you had to speak.
Robbie, you're typical of most right wing facists. You believe in freedom of speech...as long as it doesn't contradict your warped ideas. You believe in the Constitution, but only the 2nd ammendment.
I often find it interesting to read many of the thoughts that people post on blogs. I always wanted to be informed with the most information that I could obtain, rather than rely on only a few sources of information, since mostly all of the media that I come in contact with seems to lean to a more liberal bias in their reporting. I do feel that abortion is the single most threatening issue in the world today. Many will argue that it is a woman's single privelige to decide the future of her body and her life. Having two daughters of my own, I feel that idea to be totally without merit and reason.
People in the world today, and most especially in America, are refusing to take any responsibility in the actions of their lives. Our divorce rate in America is so large because we love ourselves so greatly that there is no room for anyone else in our lives. We kill off anything that is perceived to be a threat to our "career", so that we may indulge all the personal freedoms even longer.
Here are a few points that I often tell other people about the abortion issue. Dogs and cats are afforded more rights in America than the right of an unborn child. A jury of twelve is used to convict and sentence a criminal to death, which is often never carried out because of appeals, while a judge, jury and executioner of one is used to kill a life that had NEVER performed a single crime, whether civil or moral. And those same people who so calously "procure" (and yes, just like the other writer stipulated, to procure means to bring about or cause to happen) an abortion of the innocent, will protest so strongly against the use of capital punishment.
Now let's look at the question of guns in America. It is easier to obtain an abortion and kill a child legally in America than it is for you to procure a handgun legally in America. There are more laws governing the use of handguns in America than the single purpose laws that allow abortions. The gun is designed for the purpose of protection, while the abortion has the single purpose of destruction. This is what is in question. And yes, people are the only fault in the gun equation.
This begs for the last point of which gun is the most dangerous. I am all for gun control, but not the mechanical kind that is manufactured by mankind. I am talking about the loaded gun carried by all human individuals. The gun of life that is so rashly dispensed by young and old alike. If you can not take responsibility for your own weapon, do not enter onto the battle field, and then require us to absolve you of your injuries. But then I could take another position of a good friend of mine. He told me that we should probably not push the issue of abortion, because it is only killing off the birth of another Liberal. I do not know. I would like to think that they had the possibility of a better life than that.
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Smith, An American