More Gun Shows Equals Fewer Murders

I'll bet that's a headline you've never seen before. You will probably never see it, again. But it's the truth.

With a new Congress and a new president taking office next month, you are bound to hear more calls for closing the so-called "gun-show loophole," which permits American citizens in many states to buy guns without ridiculous and counterproductive waiting periods.

There will be an all-out effort to renew the slow, plodding, incremental, long-term goal of banning and restricting the sale of as many firearms as possible. It will likely start with gun shows — one of the easiest targets of the gun grabbers.

They will cite all kinds of bogus statistics to support their claims that gun shows spell nothing but death and destruction. What they won't cite, however, is a groundbreaking study of the impact of gun shows on homicides. They can't because it shows just the opposite of what they claim to be true.

Mark Duggan and Randi Hjalmarsson of the University of Maryland and Brian A. Jacob of the University of Michigan teamed up to examine the evidence in a scientific study of the impact of gun shows on murder and suicide and accidental deaths. What they found is shocking because it supports the headline above.

They looked at 3,417 gun shows in two very different states — Texas and California — during an 11-year period. And they examined vital statistics data on suicides, homicides and accidental gun deaths in the weeks following them. What were the results?

"We find a sharp decline in the number of gun homicides in the weeks immediately following a gun show," they concluded. Furthermore, in Texas they found "gun shows reduce the number of gun homicides by 16 in the average year."

Once again, here's hard evidence of the theory that more guns equals less crime. And it shouldn't shock us. It only does because we've been so conditioned to accepting the illogic of the gun grabbers, which states the opposite as fact without any evidence to support it.

Think about it.

Criminals seek out victims who are not going to fight back or offer resistance, let alone shoot them. Guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens mean they are less likely to become victims.

Anyone who disagrees with this simple, straightforward logic should be required to post a sign on the outside of their home or office that says: "Gun-free zone." So far, I have not seen even one private citizen invite criminals into their home with such a ridiculous sign. Instead, governments post them around schools!

But now you know the facts — as inconvenient as they might be to the incoming administration and the new Democrat-stacked Congress. There's only one thing that will prevent them from taking away your Second Amendment-guaranteed right to self-defense: the truth.

You will be hearing a lot of lies about firearms in the months ahead. You need to be armed with the facts as well as your trusty old firearms. And you should be prepared to fight back against attacks on what may well be your first freedom. Remember, every totalitarian regime in the history of the world has succeeded in maintaining power by first disarming the citizenry.

Don't let it happen in the USA. Don't accede to any more efforts to ban classifications of firearms because they look like "assault weapons." Don't accept any more restrictions on gun shows, now that you know they actually reduce gun homicides. Don't believe any statistics you hear from Barack Obama or the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate about the need to reduce the availability of firearms or to make them "safer."

Get ready to protect your constitutional rights across the board, because they are about to come under fire from the worst assault weapon ever devised, a real weapon of Mass Destruction and Mass Distortion — Big Government.

Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year To Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," is available now. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.