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Dear Editor:

Let’s consider some actual facts on “Gun Violence” in the US:

In an interview with anti-gun Carol Costello on CNN’s Newsroom, the Executive Director for Gun Owners of America, Mr. Erich Pratt, presented some critical facts few people ever think about or are ever aware of. (Ms. Costello had attacked gun ownership based on “stunning numbers from the CDC”). Here are some of Mr. Pratt’s responses:

1. To her erroneous claim attributed to the CDC that “more than 33,000 people die from firearms every single year,” he corrected: Guns were being used in self- defense more than they were being used to commit crimes.

2. Mr. Pratt pointed out that the CDC found, in reality, that guns are being used for self-defense 500,000 to three million times per year, thus saving countless unreported lives per year.

3. “The fact is that 16 to 100 times more often, guns are being used to save lives rather than to take lives!” Mr. Pratt said. So for every headline about somebody “killed by guns,” (really not by the inanimate guns but by the murderers holding the guns) there are anywhere from 16 to 100 priceless human lives being saved by law-abiding citizens using guns, but the names of those saved are seldom known or published.

Costello then conceded that guns do save lives, but thought that the number of guns was a bad thing. How does that “logic” grab you?

Responding to Costello’s continued objections, Pratt stated that “we do have more guns than we ever had; more than 170 million new guns have been bought since 1991, and you know what happened to the murder rate during that time? It has dropped 50%.” WE’RE ACTUALLY SAFER TODAY WITH MORE GUNS.

Another fact Pratt cited: “Other countries have far stricter gun laws but have much higher rates of murder. Our murder rate is not even in the top 100 countries around the world. And the top 100 countries—guess what—they have much stricter gun control than we do!”

A recent news headline reported that in Chicago, IL, a city with some of our strictest anti-gun laws, so far this year (to August) there have been 500 GUN murders, more than the number of gun murders in Iraq and Afghanistan combined during the same period.

OBVIOUSLY, GUNS INCREASE SAFETY. WHO WOULD ANYTHING OTHER THAN THAT, EXCEPT THOSE BENT ON CREATING A TYRANNY OVER U.S. CITIZENS?

Sincerely,

Alan Brown, Sr.
3597 Roberts Rd.
Bardstown, KY
502-507-3616

Emphasis deliberate and important.