{"id":56453,"date":"2015-12-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=56453"},"modified":"2015-12-02T09:29:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T15:29:16","slug":"anatomy-of-a-chanting-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=56453","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy Of A Chanting Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some years ago, an anti-gun group published a “study” showing that the rate of gun deaths was higher in red, square, stereotypically conservative flyover states<\/a> where guns were plentiful and available to the law-abiding.<\/p>\n

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Of course, it’s a misleading point – in keeping with the gun control dictum to “Lie First, Lie Last, Lie Always”. \u00a0The vast majority of gun deaths are suicides – and this is especially true in the rural west, as a disproportionate number of people, usually older, male, depressed, often very ill, decide to check out via the most reliable means they have available, their firearms. \u00a0It’s tragic; it’s also not the same as murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape, aggravated assault or other violent crimes committed against others<\/em>. \u00a0 And it doesn’t take many suicides in a thinly-populated rural western county to send that per capita death rate soaring.<\/p>\n

But no mind; fake as it is, this particular narrative made the usual rounds:<\/p>\n