Let’s talk about homicide; you know, murder most foul (or otherwise), slayings, killings, whatever you want to call it. Ultimately, somebody ends up at room temperature and — ideally, anyway — somebody else ends up in prison.
Who gets the blame for this mayhem? When a firearm is involved, part of the credit goes to something called “gun violence.” Use any other weapon, including feet, fists, elbows, knees or strangling hands, the perp takes sole responsibility.
A couple of weeks ago, this correspondent sat down and Googled the following two words: Fatal Stabbing, and surprise of surprises, up popped a handful of recent fatal or near-fatal crimes all involving edged weapons.
Did you know that in any given year, about 3½ times as many people are stabbed to death as are slain with rifles of any kind, including so-called “assault weapons?” Check with the most recent FBI national data and you will discover the most recent data shows handguns were specifically identified as the murder weapon in 4,981 killings, another 136 people were killed with something called an (automatic) handgun, 343 people fell to “other firearms,” and 3,944 were murdered with a “firearm.”
Blame some computer geek at the FBI for setting up this user-unfriendly reporting system on a day when he/she/they evidently had more time on their hands than they should have. Also blame reporting agencies for not including specific information.
Now, in this mess of data, rifles were used in a paltry 386 slayings, (automatic) rifles were used in another 34 killings.
Guess what? During the same time period, a whopping 1,161 people were stabbed, slashed and/or butchered with knives. Back in 2019, the last year the FBI used its Uniform Crime Reporting system (much friendlier), there were an estimated 13,927 slayings of which 10,258 involved firearms. Rifles were used in 364 killings, shotguns in another 200, and knives/cutting instruments were used in 1,476 murders. The pattern just doesn’t change.
So, how come when people get shot dead, it’s the result of “gun violence?” Why aren’t the people who are skewered described as victims of “knife violence?”
Well, that’s different, says anti-gunners, if they say anything at all. (Uh, murder is murder and dead is dead.)
Double Standard, Much?
Insider went looking for answers and my pal, Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was quick to oblige.
“The term ‘gun violence’ was invented by the gun prohibition lobby in order to create the illusion that guns are bad, and that gun owners need to be carefully monitored as if they are carriers of some plague,” Gottlieb explained. “Sadly, newsrooms all over the map have embraced the term, making it part of their vocabulary, to the point that one might find multiple references in a single news report or editorial. Indeed, the frequency one sees ‘gun violence’ mentioned on the air, in print or during political speeches has reached the point of absurdity.”
So, our little internet search turned up 10 fairly brutal crimes, eight involving knives and two involving the use of hatchets. Incredibly, the hatchet attacks were non-fatal, but the knife attacks all took lives.
Not only doesn’t the media refer to “knife violence,” no working journalist of my acquaintance ever alludes to “crowbar violence,” or “claw hammer violence,” “blunt object violence,” or even “baseball bat” or “golf club” violence. Only guns get the bad rap, and it is deliberate.
This knife murder exercise came on the heels of the Trump administration’s removal from the website of the Department of Health and Human Services a message posted by the previous administration warning that “gun violence” is a public health hazard.
“Gun ownership is not a communicable disease. Putting that warning on the HHS website was just one more effort by the Biden administration to demonize firearms and the people who own them,” said Gottlieb, who has been fighting the gun rights battle for 50-plus years.
Not Regional
No region of the U.S. can claim bragging rights to violent crime involving knives and cutting instruments. Butchery, it appears, is widely dispersed, so Insider’s advice is to carry a gun and keep a comfortable distance between you and yours, and that snarling stranger on the other end of the sidewalk.
Here’s a little sampling: In Schenectady, N.Y., police arrested a man identified as Rance White in connection with the fatal stabbing last month of Amanda Jaikaran. She died from “multiple stab wounds,” and anybody who has ever seen the results of such an attack up close can attest to the fact they are rather messy.
Then, there was the case in St. Paul, Minnesota involving the murder of Shane Brunner, 36, who was stabbed “in his lower back and his backside.” Mr. Brunner died the following day, and according to a report at KNSI Radio, police from four cities and deputies from Stearns County joined in the manhunt to track down the suspect, who now faces a second-degree murder charge.
Down in Eagle Pass, Texas, lawmen arrested a 26-year-old suspect outside the home of Kaylin Nicole Ibarra, who had been stabbed to death. According to KSAT News, the suspect in this slaying was charged with murder and tampering with evidence.
Gottlieb noted something important about guns and knives. There are no background checks or waiting periods for knife purchases.
“While everyone seems so eager to restrict gun ownership,” he said, “literally anyone can buy a knife, no questions asked. What’s important is that neither guns nor knives are the problem. It’s the people who misuse them. The antidote to crime is to punish the criminals, not penalize law-abiding citizens who have harmed nobody.”
About the same time this was happening, your humble correspondent was interviewed by the National Review for a story about a particularly onerous piece of gun control legislation in Washington State which would require a police-issued permit-to-purchase for acquiring any firearm.
There was a similar bill in Colorado, and an appeals court in Oregon had just okayed enactment of Measure 114, passed in 2022, which also includes a permit-to-purchase requirement. The common denominator of all three measures is that they require taking an “approved” gun safety course, and passing a test, which includes live fire.
One guy likened this to forcing gun owners and buyers to take a “literacy test.” Legally, that’s a no-no when it is used to prevent someone from exercising a constitutional right, whether it is voting or owning a firearm. All of these efforts are designed to discourage people from buying guns. The requirement reduces a constitutionally protected right to the level of a government-regulated privilege.
Veteran gun owners should be able to pass such a test, but when it comes to knowing the difference between rights and privileges, lawmakers in all three states, along with judges in Oregon, all get an “F.”