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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (79977)	5/26/2010 9:07:03 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

Agreed. Now libs do it to stifle all rational debate when the facts & evidence discredit their world view.

To: ManyMoose who wrote (79977)	5/26/2010 10:02:16 AM
From: Sully-	2 Recommendations Respond to of 90947

Calderon's False Statements On Guns By JOHN R. LOTT JR. IBD Editorials Posted 05/25/2010 06:29 PM ET Mexico's President Felipe Calderon's false claims about "racial profiling" in Arizona's new immigration law received much attention last week, but unfortunately that wasn't the only thing he got wrong. More than four minutes of his address to Congress on Thursday was spent lecturing Americans to renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that sunset in September 2004. His claims about the ban were absurd. Start with Calderon's assertion that the guns covered by the ban were particularly "powerful weapons." While the "assault weapons" ban may make many think of the types of guns used by militaries around the world, nothing could be further from the truth. The inside guts of these guns are essentially the same as deer-hunting rifles — some people just like to own these "military style" weapons because of the way they look on the outside. The firing mechanisms in semiautomatics and machine guns are completely different. To turn it into a military AK-47, the entire firing mechanism of a semiautomatic gun has to be gutted and replaced. Mexican drug gangs are getting real military weapons from within Mexico and countries south of Mexico as well as other countries around the world. Reports indicate that grenades and rocket launchers, which are not even available for sale in America, come from countries such as South Korea, Israel and Spain. Exactly 2,239 grenades were seized by the Mexican government from 2007 to 2009. Similarly, machine guns in Mexico originate from China, Israel and South Africa. Among Calderon's other assertions, he said: "And if you look carefully you will notice that the violence in Mexico started to grow a couple of years before I took office in 2006. This coincides, at least, with the lifting of the assault weapons ban in 2004." He also warned that America faces the same danger. There is only one problem: American and Mexican murder rates fell between the ban and the latest official data in 2008. When the official 2009 homicide data are released, it looks like the numbers will be going up, but having homicide rates fall for the first four years after the ban ended doesn't fit Calderon's story. It isn't clear why a change in U.S. law should take five years to cause an increase in crime, especially in Mexico. It is extremely troubling that Calderon would misstate Mexican crime rates to score political gain. As presented in the just-released third edition of my book "More Guns, Less Crime," the federal and state assault weapon bans definitely did not reduce crime, and sunsetting the ban in 2004 didn't increase crime. The effect was none at all or slightly adverse. Calderon's claim that "more than 80%"of Mexican crime guns come from the U.S. is simply false. Most of the weapons seized in Mexico don't even have serial numbers that let them be traced, and those weapons come from countries other than America. All the 80% number means is that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could trace that percentage of the guns that had been submitted by Mexico to the U.S. As disturbing as Calderon making up facts and blaming American guns for Mexico's problems is, something else is even more worrisome. The vast majority of Democratic House and Senate members stood up and gave him a 20-second standing ovation when Calderon called for renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. It was a warning all Americans should heed. • Lott is the author of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, third edition, 2010). .