Trying to get the facts out about firearms use

By JIM MATTHEWS www.OutdoorNewsService.com Alan Korwin is the author of several books on gun rights, firearms law, and defensive use of guns, but he also likes to skewer the media about its biased coverage in his blog called Page Nine. Now, the Arizona writer has done something unusual: He placed an advertisement in USA Today with three recent stories about how common people like us had to used firearms to defend their life and property from criminals, armed criminals. The left-leaning media likes to spout off lies about firearms and firearms statistics (like “you are more likely to be harmed by your own gun in your home than use it to protect yourself” -- a total fallacy). This same media doesn’t understand the Constitution. (In the jocular of the late 1700s, a “well-regulated militia” meant all able-bodied citizens who were expected to have firearms and know how to use them. All men were considered a part of the citizen’s militia so the Second Amendment was so important to the framers that they wanted to reinforce the idea that the right of the people to keep and bear arms would never be infringed. A clear-cut point for studious Constitutional historians.) Korwin understands guns and the Constitution. So on Wednesday this week he published an ad that dispelled the media myth that guns are only used for ill. The ad featured three stories that never got any play in national media. In all three cases, would-be victims are alive today because of judicious, dare I say well-regulated, use of their personal firearms. “When seconds count, the police are just minutes away,” said Korwin, quoting common-sense street logic. “People who are victimized by murderous criminals are the real first responders. Out here we know that. It’s important to set that record straight, and just maybe, to convince the media to get it right.” Korwin argues that the national media perpetually suppresses such stories. “I once had an AP bureau chief tell me they don’t want to run stories like this because they don’t want to encourage this kind of behavior, it could create copy cats. That stunned me.” “What was wrong with having people stop criminals? And if the AP was afraid people would copy behavior they wrote about, how can they run incessant stories about people who go berserk? Do I have to complete that thought for you?” said Korwin. “Some media critics agree that constant glorification of psychopaths in the news creates copy-cat behavior. But if this is true, it is all the more reason to feature people who stand up to criminals and, instead of becoming statistics in waves of crime, are heroes who stop aggressors dead in their tracks. Studies show it happens a lot -- innocent civilians stopping crimes and the police picking up the pieces, afterwards,” said Korwin. But most people never hear those stories. The advertisement was paid for by Korwin, who is the publisher at GunLaws.com and Bloomfield Press. And he is planning a weekly installment in USA Today. After a comprehensive study, Dr. Gary Kleck reports there are over 2 million defensive uses of firearms annually; so there won’t be a shortage of copy. Korwin cleverly calls the advertorial, “The First Responders Report,” the real first responders who act while they are waiting for the police or other law enforcement to arrive. He didn’t consult me on this. I would have suggested that he name it, “The Well-Regulated Militia.” You can see a copy of this first ad at Korwin’s website GunLaws.com. Isn’t freedom grand: Costco and Google There has been a lot of ruckus on the conservative side of spectrum this week about a) Costco removing Dinesh D'Souza's book "America" from its shelves and b) Google planning to ban firearm and firearm-related advertising. We just had a Supreme Court decision defending Hobby Lobby's owners right to say what they will and won't pay for in regards to their employee's health care because of religious beliefs. This is protected by the first amendment. So why are conservative outraged about how a private company is running its business? Should the government dictate to the owners of Costco and Google what they carry on their shelves or allow in their advertising? Just like Hobby Lobby employees can choose to purchase, with their own money, the four types of birth control not covered under their employer's health plan, we can choose not to shop at Costco or move our Google business to other companies. Just like Hobby Lobby isn't dictating what a woman can or can't do with her body (just what they will pay for), Costco and Google aren't telling us we can't read a book or buy a gun. I just think it's a stupid business decision for both Costco and Google. And Costco, which has been struggling in this non-recovering economy that is only adding part-time, service-sector jobs, reversed its decision late in the week after seeing sales of the book skyrocket on the heels of the release of the movie by the same name. Google may be too big to be impacted by the loss of the tiny gun industry’s advertising, but you’d think the company would be more concerned about the moral character of its executives than trying to save the world from firearms with their misdirected moral high-ground preaching. I’m using Bing and still shopping at Costco. Youth Safari Day scheduled for July 19 at Raahauge’s The 16th Annual Youth Safari Day will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 19, at Mike Raahauge Shooting Enterprises in Corona. The event is for youths 17 and under to give them a taste of a wide range of traditional outdoor activities from shooting firearms to bird-watching to kayaking. My boys went to this event several times. My youngest kept going until he started college he had so much fun, dragging friends along each year who’d never shot guns, bows and arrows, made a quail call, or climbed up a faux rock wall. It was easier for him to show those friends why he liked the outdoor sports than try to explain, to he’d invite them. Besides the more-than-30 activities for kids to do, there are a number of exhibitions that thrill youths from being able to see and touch a falconer’s hawk, to hearing and watching hound dogs follow a scent trail, to seeing renowned shotgun trick-shooter John Cloherty create his half-acre salad. There’s also a massive raffle for the kids at the end of the day. Cost is $30 per family (up to five kids) and lunch (In-N-Out Burger) is $6 per person. Reservations are best made in advance (youthsafariday.com). High Desert Friends of NRA Fund-raiser set for Aug. 1 The annual High Desert Chapter of the Friends of the National Rifle Association will have its annual fund-raising dinner beginning beginning 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 12603 Mariposa, Victorville. FNRA raises money for the country’s largest charitable organization that supports the shooting sports, with all funds raised going to grants that support educational shooting, marksmanship, conservation, and gun safety programs. The NRA Foundation, whose motto is “Teach Freedom,” has been in operation since 1992 and fund-raising dinners are held across the country. Dinner tickets start at $75. For more information, contact Mike Davis at 714-368-0451 or e-mail mdavis@nrahg.org. Or you can go to http://friendsofnra.org/. Other FNRA upcoming events in Southern California include: Saturday, Aug. 9 in Temecula, Saturday, Aug. 9, Tehachapi, Saturday, Sept. 20 in Simi Valley, Saturday, Sept. 27, El Cajon, and Sunday, Oct. 5 in Rancho Cucamonga. Great Elk Tour makes stop at Bass Pro Shops August 8-10 The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Great Elk Tour will be at Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga from August 8-10 during the store’s Fall Hunting Classic. The Southern California Chapter of RMEF will be hosting the second annual regional elk calling competition while the tour is at Bass Pro with preliminaries beginning 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9 and the finals at 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10. The tour is the traveling conservation exhibit showcasing mounts of some of the largest bull elk in the world. The tour also has displays and presentations that give sportsmen and wildlife enthusiasts a better understanding of the habitat needs for elk and why the conservation and habitat work done by RMEF is so important. For more information, contact Bass Pro Shops at 909-922-5500 or go to http://www.rmef.org/Events/GreatElkTour.aspx. END