(GunReports.com) — Following today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. Chicago that the City of Chicago’s handgun ban is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, thus applying the Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller beyond Washington, D.C., Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand issued the following statements.
See GunReports.com’s staff comments [in brackets] following each Rand misstatement.
Rand: People will die because of this decision.
[Lie. Standard leftist scare tactic.]
Rand: It is a victory only for the gun lobby and America’s fading firearms industry.
[Lie. Millions of gunowners count it as a victory. And firearms sales are way up since Obama took office.]
Rand: The inevitable tide of frivolous pro-gun litigation destined to follow will force cities, counties, and states to expend scarce resources to defend longstanding, effective public safety laws.
[Misstatements. Unconstitutional regulations will be challenged, yes, because various governmental entities cannot willy-nilly strip citizens of their rights. And gun bans aren’t effective. See crime rates for Chicago and Washington, D.C., to see two failures of gun banning.]
Rand: The gun lobby and gunmakers are seeking nothing less than the complete dismantling of our nation’s gun laws in a cynical effort to try and stem the long-term drop in gun ownership and save the dwindling gun industry.
[Partial lie. It’s not a cynical effort. It’s a civil-rights effort.]
Rand: The 30,000 lives claimed annually by gun violence and the families destroyed in the wake of mass shootings and murder-suicides mean little to the gun lobby and the firearm manufacturers it protects.
[Lies. Gun-rights activists want to protect themselves from criminals. That means a lot to us.]
“It is our hope that Chicago’s citizens will follow the lead of the residents of the District of Columbia–who were stripped of their handgun ban in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. In the two years since that decision, only 900 firearms have been registered in the District that otherwise could not have been registered before the Heller ruling. The citizens of D.C. reject the wrong-headed notion that more guns make us safer.
[Lies. More citizens haven’t registered guns because D.C.’s rules are onerous. Clearly, the district is defying Heller’s intent. More litigation for gunowners to win!]
Rand: We know the facts prove the opposite and that areas of the country with the highest concentration of gun ownership also have the highest rates of gun death.
[Lies, and/or misstatements. Per capita, rural Texas, for instance, has higher gun density and lower crime. See John Lott’s research for good data that refutes what Rand lies about.]
We urge Chicago residents to consider these indisputable facts before considering bringing a handgun into their homes–an act that could well prove fatal to themselves or a loved one.”
[Lie. Rand just makes this stuff up. The Supreme Court decision rejected crap like what she asserts. But–GunReports.com agrees with her that only persons who want to learn how to use guns properly should buy them to protect themselves and their loved ones.]
The Violence Policy Center (www.vpc.org) is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury.
[Lie. The Violence Policy Center seeks to strip U.S. citizens of their constitutional gun rights, and will say or do anything to promote that aim.]
