The bigot at Seattle University

In one of the most fact free editorials I have seen in a long time the bigot known as William Crane said this at the Spectator, the school newspaper for Seattle University:

Those who are ineligible to buy firearms at a local store will simply go to a gun show and purchase a firearm there.

Concealed weapon permits are also available to any eligible gun owner with no further background check or training needed.

Overall, firearms killed 11,829 people in the United States in 2002, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. This number far outweighs any potential benefit firearm possession has in Washington State or the United States.

The corroboration between firearm regulations and a reduction in firearm violence is clear.

I was not particularily gentle in my online response. It has to go through a moderator and hasn’t shown up yet on their site. I repeat it here in case the moderator decides my opinion is not worthy of being published:

Please have Mr. Crane do some research before expressing his bigoted opinions.

There is no gun show loophole. The laws are the same at a gun show as they are at any gun shop. And even if there were such a loophole according to several government studies only a very small portion of guns used in crime are purchased at gun shows. And most Washington state gun shows already voluntarily require a background check before attendees can purchase a firearm.

Concealed Pistol License do require a background check.

Firearms are used to defend innocent life from grave injury and/or death between two and three million times each year in the U.S. This far outweighs the number of murders committed with firearms. Guns in the hands of private citizens save more innocent lives from harm than are injured by guns in the hands of criminals.

Crane states:

The corroboration between firearm regulations and a reduction in firearm violence is clear.

I presume he means correlation, not corroboration, but regardless Crane is wrong. Please see the CDC report on this very topic for more details.

As for the other misleading, bigoted, and inaccurate statements made by Mr. Crane, I have Just One Question for Crane:

Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?

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2 thoughts on “The bigot at Seattle University

  1. I posted feedback to that article as well, so far it hasn’t shown up on the site either. In fact, no feedback has shown up!

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