Has there YET been a case where a "citizen" armed with a gun has STOPPED a mass shooting? #banguns
— BrianePagel (@BrianePagel) September 4, 2015
And got this response:
@BrianePagel Hundreds of times.. Do your research
— Mykro (@MykroBeatz) October 6, 2015
When I asked Mykro for actual details, he provided me a link to an article posted on October 3 by a man named Eugene Volokh.
Volokh offered what he said were examples of ordinary civilians armed with guns stopping mass killings, 10 of them. The examples included an Uber driver who fired six rounds into a crowded intersection, to stop a man who was also shooting into the crowd. There is no information on where the gunman got his gun, but he apparently did not hurt anyone -- the only person injured was the first shooter.
This West Philadelphia barbershop shooting is short on details in the article cited. Volokh didn't mention, though, the other Philly barbershop shooting in which a rifle-wielding man sprayed the block with bullets, killing one and injuring two. I didn't go investigate the other 8 in Volokh's list; the state of news reporting and political discourse these days means that all you find are page after page of the same report, with no reporter looking into questions like whether the guns used by mass killers were obtained legally or not.
There have been 10,615 gun deaths in the United States already this year. Volokh, who apparently supports concealed carry, was able to find 10 instances where gun violence was avoided, or shortened, by another gun-wielder.
Imagine this:
i
is a person.
Here are how many people were killed by guns each month this year:
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Here's how many gunmen stopped violence, the entire year:
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I think seeing the actual numbers is helpful. I'd have done the full 10,000+ people who died this year but you get the point.
Here are ___ things to know about guns, and the Second Amendment.
1. Until 1939 the 2nd Amendment was interpreted collectively, rather than individually: that is, it provided a collective right, to a well-regulated militia, rather than an individual right to own something that could spray a street in Philadelphia with bullets if you didn't like your haircut.
2. In 2008, the Supreme Court reinterpreted the 2nd Amendment to provide for individual rights, while leaving an exception for weapons that could not be used for "law-abiding" purposes. This let the 1939 precedent, which allowed Congress to ban sawed-off shotguns, to stand while letting people own a gun that could spray a street in Philadelphia with bullets.
3. In 2001, the US manufactured 2,900,000 guns.
4. In 2010, the US manufactured 5,500,000 guns and imported another 2,840,000.
5. Since 1998, the government has processed 156,577,260 applications for legal gun purchases. That would be enough to give every soldier in every army in every NATO country 50 guns.
6. The National Rifle Association has spent about $36,600,000 in lobbying since 1998. In 2015 so far, it has spent about $1,700,000.
7. Put another way, the NRA has spent about $170 per gun death this year.
8. The top 10 recipients of gun-lobby money are all Republicans. The top 10 recipients of anti-gun money are all Democrats. But five big-name Democratic senators got lots of money from gun lobbyists, and voted against expanding background checks.
9. In April 2014, New York Mayor Bloomberg promised to spend $50,000,000 on anti-gun lobbying. That would be 2 1/2 times the amount the NRA spent in 2012.
10. There are only two products in the world which, when used exactly the way they are intended to be used, are fatal: guns and cigarettes.
11. Every year, over 60% of gun sales are to civilians, with the other 40% going to government and/or law enforcement.
12. Only 6% of people in the United States hunt.
13. What are the other 54% doing with their guns?
14. Gun manufacturers make in excess of $993,000,000 profit each year. 60% of that comes from regular people buying guns. That means US civilians spend $595,800,000 per year on guns.
15. That is, we as a country spend $1,000 per minute on guns.
16. That number, $993,000,000 is almost exactly the amount of money the United States plans to cut from assistance for family and children in fiscal year 2016.
17. In America, you would be better off asking someone to buy you a gun than to buy you lunch.
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