The predictions are that if Biden does NOT win, and win by a large majority, the riots and looting we have seen so far will be far surpassed in numbers, violence, and area. That is truly frightening. Nineteen million gun purchases have occurred in the first six months of 2020, and 95 % of those purchases are first time buyers! Why is that?
People buy guns because they are afraid. Afraid of what? I would presume it is other people that want to hurt them, and not that they are target practicing enthusiasts. Why do you suppose that millions of people think that someone wants to hurt them?
Do the “ peaceful” riots in Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Kenosha, Denver, Detroit, Des Moines, Houston, Los Angeles, Memphis, San Francisco, Phoenix, New York City, and Louisville, etc. have anything to do with it? The estimates of people that have participated in the protests are said to be between 15,000,000 and 26,000,000. Along with threats that they will march in suburban neighborhoods and instigate street fights. This has further heightened tensions.
In a Democracy, if a service is not provided or deemed inadequate, people will provide that service themselves. With all those guns in circulation, now would be bad timing for defunding the police. If anything, the police should receive more funding, commensurate with the re-arming of the population.
Keep in mind that there are already 400,000,000 guns in the US, with a population of 330,000,000. The ownership of guns among political affiliation favors Republicans by a wide margin. 57% of Republicans own guns while only 25% of Democrats do. Racial demographics favor whites as majority gun owners at 49%, blacks at 32%, and Hispanics at 21%. Are the poles poling the wrong people? Did they ask the gun-buying folks?
The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America states, “The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Those 14 words have endlessly and contentiously been debated. Even repeal has been suggested by prominent politicians, judges, and law enforcement. By the implied consenses of the gun-owning population, the vast majority feel a need to protect themselves by owning a lethal weapon that they can use against a personal attack on their being and family, as well as in the cause of defending ourselves and our nation against assaults on our freedom.
The first thing any dictator did was to disarm the population. The democratic platform has placed a variety of anti-second amendment policies on the table and in print, some of which would require turning in of guns (mandatory repurchase), decreasing the firepower of weapons, requiring government approval and licensing of a weapon, a purchaser, and a seller. All of these policies are seen to be efforts to “infringe the right to keep and bear Arms.” Many of these proposed regulations would turn a vast number of law-abiding Americans into criminals over-night if implemented.
The understanding of the power of a firearm is not clear to many people, including those that seek the highest office in the land and show considerable and surprising ignorance. Presidential candidate Joe Biden said on June 1, 2020, at a Wilmington Delaware church, and I quote word for word, “When there is an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, you shoot them in the leg instead of in the heart is a very different thing.” The man that authored the controversial 1994 crime bill, which included the much-touted assault weapons ban, demonstrates a serious lack of knowledge about guns, what semi-automatic vs. automatic means, or what an AK-47 really is. He not only lacks knowledge about weapons, but confrontations, police training, and common sense. Firstly, someone carrying a knife is not unarmed. A knife is just as lethal as a gun at close quarters. In a potentially lethal confrontation, the individual does not have time to aim at the foot with any precision. In fact, a RAND report on the NYPD states that even with substantial training, most police officers miss 50-75% of their shots. A self-defense course I have taken taught by former police officers to the standards of the LAPD, teach to shoot at the largest target where it will count, as that may be your only chance to come out of that situation alive.
The Lone Ranger could shoot a gun out of the hand of the Bandido on the silver screen but not in real life. Those are fairytales. People that believe in fairytales and then have the power to create policies that affect millions of people have the duty to become better informed. Additionally, if an evading suspect continues to escape after being tased twice, and has a gun pointed at him, reaches into his car despite the order to raise his hands, the officer has not only the right, but duty, to assume that the suspect has a lethal weapon in that car. He must shoot or be shot a second later!