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Jewish World Review May 8, 2000 /3 Iyar, 5760

David Limbaugh

David Limbaugh
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Don't shoot Eddie Eagle


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- I GUESS I've been so busy thinking about Elian that I almost missed another outrage in progress. But this time the outrage was not being committed by the gun-happy executive branch, but by its liberal enablers who believe the Clinton Gestapo ought to have a monopoly on guns.

The Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program was designed by the National Rifle Association to teach young children to stay away from guns. Primarily through use of a video, it teaches children how to avoid gun-related accidents. The video shows a group of children finding a gun in an attic when Eddie Eagle, a cartoon character, swoops down, and without touching the gun, delivers a four-part safety instruction: "Stop! Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult."

The proponents of the video boast of its success. The NRA emphasizes that its purpose is not to teach whether guns are good or bad, merely to promote gun safety. Eddie never encourages the use or ownership of firearms.

Well, you guessed it. Despite the innocuousness of the program, gun-control zealots have stormed out of the woodwork to scream bloody murder (literally). In reaction to a New York City police officer showing schoolchildren the Eddie Eagle video, City Public Advocate Mark Green erupted, "I think the NRA has blood on its hands. I think they are morally and legally responsible for thousands of deaths a year, in a sense, in our city and our country, and they should not be anywhere near our kids talking about guns."

Would you agree that these are hysterical rantings? Regardless of how many deaths occur from firearms each year, how is the NRA remotely responsible for those deaths? Even if you accept the notion that it encourages private gun ownership, such ownership doesn't account for thousands of deaths each year, unless you consider ownership by criminals. Let's look at the stats:

Anti-gun fanatics tell us that from 13 to 17 children are killed by guns every day in the US. They intend to create the false impression that these are all innocent little children killed accidentally. In the April 17 issue of National Review, Dave Koppel reports that the number of fatal gun accidents in this country is at its lowest level since 1903. Is that not astonishing, based on the propaganda we are fed to the contrary?

Yale Law School Research Scholar John Lott, Jr., a consummate expert in this field, tells us that the actual number of accidental deaths for children, defined as fourteen years and under, is 2.6 per day. And for children ten and under it's 0.4 per day. The only way you get up to 13 children per day is to include kids who are older, mostly 17, 18 and 19 year olds, the great majority of whom are killed in gang-related homicides. Need I remind you that gang homicides are not accidental deaths?

Lott also corrects another myth that there is a correlation between gun ownership and murder. "When one studies all countries rather than just a select few as is usually done, there is absolutely no relationship between gun ownership and murder."

Skewed statistics by mouth-foaming gun confiscators also fail to consider the beneficial effects of the defensive use of weapons. Lott tells us that 2.5 million times a year people use guns defensively, including cases where public shootings are stopped before they happen. In other words, private gun ownership saves lives! So if the NRA is indirectly responsible for accidental gun deaths because it promotes gun proliferation (quite a stretch), then by the same logic it is responsible for saving many, many more lives. Or don't those saved lives count to the gun-snatching cultists?

Let me strain to grasp the liberal mindset here. In short, guns are evil, not the criminals who misuse them. Since guns are evil and the NRA promotes innocent-civilian gun ownership, the NRA is also evil. Because the NRA is evil it must be demonized and delegitimized and should not be permitted to be seen in a good light. Its image must not be softened. Since the Eddie Eagle program amounts to the NRA performing noble public service work -- work, that is believed to save children's lives -- it must be censored at all costs.


JWR contributor David Limbaugh is an attorney practicing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and a political analyst and commentator. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

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Up

05/03/00: Congress caves to Clinton, again?
05/01/00: The resurrection of outrage
04/28/00: A picture of Bill Clinton's America
04/19/00: President Clinton: Teaching children responsibility
04/17/00: Elian, Marx and parental rights
04/12/00: Elian, freedom deserve a hearing
04/10/00:The fraying of America
04/05/00: Noonan: End Clintonism now
04/03/00: Bush: On going for the gold
03/29/00: Phantasma-Gore-ia
03/27/00: Treaties, triggers, tobacco and tyrants
03/22/00: Media to Bush: Go left, young man
03/20/00: Stop the insanity
03/15/00: OK Al Gore: Let's go negative
03/13/00: Deifying of the center
03/08/00: The media, the establishment and the people
03/01/00: McCain's coalition-busting daggers in GOP's heart
02/28/00: Bush's silver lining in McMichigan
02/24/00: A conservative firewall, after all
02/22/00: Bush or four more of Clinton-Gore?
02/16/00: Substance trumps process
02/14/00: The campaign finance reform mirage
02/09/00: President McCain: End of the GOP as we know it?
02/07/00: From New Hampshire to South Carolina
02/02/00: SDI must fly
01/31/00: Veep gores Bradley
01/26/00: The issues gap
01/24/00: GOP: Exit, stage left
01/20/00: Nationalizing congressional elections
01/18/00: Do voters really prefer straight talk?
01/12/00: Media's McCain efforts may backfire
01/10/00: Conservative racism myth
01/05/00: Just one more year of Clintonian politics
01/03/00: McMedia?
12/27/99: Al Gore: Bullish on government
12/22/99: Bradley's full-court press
12/20/99: Bush: Rendering unto Caesar
12/15/99: Beltway media bias
12/13/99: White House ambulance chasing
12/08/99: Clinton's labor pains
12/06/99:The lust for power
12/01/99: In defense of liberty
11/29/99: Are Republicans obsolete?
11/24/99: Say you're sorry, Mr. President
11/22/99: Architects of victory
11/17/99: Trump's tax on freedom
11/15/99: GOP caves again
11/10/99: Triangulation and 'The Third Way'
11/08/99: Sticks and stones
11/03/99: Keyes vs. media lapdogs
11/01/99: Signs of the times
10/27/99: The false charge of isolationism
10/25/99: A matter of freedom
10/20/99: Clinton's mini-meltdown
10/18/99: Senate GOP shows statesmanship
10/13/99: Senate must reject nuclear treaty
10/11/99: Bush bites feeding hand
10/06/99: Jesse accidentally opens door for Pat
10/04/99: Clinton and his media enablers
09/29/99: Reagan: Big-tent conservatism
09/27/99: The Clinton/Gore taint?
09/22/99: Have gun (tragedy), will travel
09/20/99: Hillary's blunders and bloopers
09/15/99: GOP must remain conservative
09/13/99:Time for Bush to take charge, please
09/10/99: Bush's education plan: Dubya confounds again
09/07/99: Pat, savior or spoiler?
09/02/99: Character doesn't matter?
08/30/99: Should we judge?
08/25/99: Dubyah's drug question: Not a hill to die on
08/23/99: Should Dubyah start buying soap ... for all that mud?
08/16/99: 'W' stands for 'winner'
08/11/99: The truth about tax cuts
08/09/99: Hillary: Threading the needle
08/04/99: What would you do?
08/02/99: No appeasement for China
07/30/99: Hate Crimes Bill: Cynical Symbolism
07/26/99: It’s the 'moderates', stupid
07/21/99: JFK Jr. and Diana: the pain of privilege
07/19/99: Smith, Bush and the GOP
07/14/99: GOP must be a party of ideas
07/12/99: Gore's gender gap
07/08/99: Clinton’s faustian bargain: our justice
07/06/99: The key to Bush's $36 million
06/30/99: Gore: a soda in every fountain
06/28/99: 'Sacred wall' or religious barrier?
06/23/99: GOP must lead in foreign policy
06/21/99: Crumbs of compassion
06/16/99: Compassionate conservatism: face-lift or body transplant?
06/10/99: Victory in Kosovo? Now What?

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