Erick Erickson: The Inconvenient Gun Deaths

The popular AR-15 rifle is actually not a military weapon that was later adapted for civilian use. Rather, it is a civilian rifle that was then modified by the military. Referring to it as a military weapon is therefore misleading.

Contrary to media coverage, the AR-15 is not as powerful as many hunting rifles and is actually not allowed for hunting in several states.

The AR-15 was first produced in the late 1950s, and the military only used it a few years later as a base for the M-16. Patents for the AR-15 expired in the 1970s, allowing for mass production by various manufacturers. Congress boosted its popularity even further by temporarily banning its purchase in the 1990s, then allowing the ban to expire again.

From the time the ban ended, people began buying AR-15 rifles as fast as possible. The rifle that is currently the most popular in America was actually made more popular because of this Congress action.

The press’s coverage of guns and firearms is often ignorant. It is not well known that gun violence in the form of street violence, often from gangs, has caused more child fatalities in 2021 than all of the school shootings from Columbine until now. Since the Columbine massacre, 175 kids have died in school shootings. In just nine American cities, 465 children were killed on the streets in 2021. It is surprising that no attention has been paid to this fact.

Many of the individuals calling for “assault weapons” bans are the same people who preach about the concept of white privilege. Despite this, they ignore the children of diverse ethnicities who lose their lives annually in gang violence on American streets and choose to focus instead only on the few schools that have lost lives. Nobody mentions daily violence in cities such as St. Louis or on the south side of Chicago. The president does not call press conferences on this topic.

If we want to get serious about reducing gun violence, we can simply enforce current gun laws and apprehend lawbreakers. It is unsettling that the party calling for gun prohibition has also voiced support for defunding law enforcement and for not implementing current gun laws for fear of racial discrimination.

Philadelphia experienced over 1,400 shootings between January and August 2022, yet the district attorney declined to prosecute many possession of a firearm crimes because most of the culprits were young black men. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner was quoted in Reason magazine in 2022, saying “People of color are disproportionately stopped in Philadelphia and statewide and arrested for illegal gun possession in Philadelphia.” He chose not to try these crimes.

It should be a priority for every child to be safe everywhere, and no child should leave for school that day fearing for their life.

The reality is that more non-white young men in gangs are responsible for the children’s deaths that occur annually on America’s streets. Regrettably, too many politicians on the left excuse the situation as symptomatic of a racist society rather than enforcing gun laws that would preserve lives while simultaneously demanding new laws.

To read articles from other Syndicate writers and cartoonists and gain insight on Erick Erickson’s thoughts, check out the Creator’s Syndicate website at www.creators.com.