In the Washinton Post, Jonathan Safran Foer asks, “Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets? [1]”
Knives also cut bread and carve wood and aid surgery, but guns only shoot bullets. That’s what they are designed to do, and that’s what they do. When we talk about protecting our right to have guns, we are talking about protecting our right to shoot bullets. So what is it that’s so important to shoot at?
Now I don’t tell Foer how to write his books and columns. So by what right does Foer presume to tell me how to protect myself? The fact that Foer is a hoplophobe, a person with an unreasonable fear of weapons is no reason for llaw abiding citizens to forfeit their fundamental human freedom and to imperil their and their families lives.
Had Liviu Librescu been carrying maybe he and more Virginia Tech students might be alive today
Here is how Foer ties to sell his arguement.
Guns are good because they provide the ultimate self-defense? While I’m sure some people believe that having a gun at their bedside will make them safer, they are wrong. This is not my opinion, and it’s not a political or controversial statement. It is a fact. Guns kept in the home for self-protection are 43 times more likely to kill a family member, friend or acquaintance than to kill an intruder, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
I find it revealing that Foer cites a “fact” but does not provide the source. While Foer will not, I will. The primary author of this purported fact is Arthur L Kellerman and the abstract is here [2] Dave Kopel has a basic refutation [3] of Kellerman:
In the book Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America [4], Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck analyzed suicide data for every America city with a population more than 100,000, and found no evidence that any form of gun control (including handgun prohibition) had an effect on the total suicide rate. Gun control did sometimes reduce gun suicide, but not overall suicide.
Kellerman’s study is not fact, It is horsewash. Among Kellerman’s many problems is that he pretends suicide is a problem and then blames guns for his supposed problem. Suicide is not a problem. It is a choice. The bulk of Kellerman’s deaths are suicides.
Kellerman also has an obession with dead bodies. Unless somebody died, Kellerman did not take notice. So by Kellerman logic, when Venus Ramey detained a thief wth her handgun, nothing happened. Venus might disagree.
Whether or not I have a gun, has no affect on who or how many are targeting Foer. ?