Francis O'Rourke is an Idiot

Wrangler

Don't know where these Texans are that are so willing to hand their guns over to the government.

https://mol.im/a/7464953

wifetrained

What about the Texan's who elected him into office in the first place.

Don McManus

I doubt he is a much of a idiot as he appears to be.

Possible, of course, but then all of those on the stage this past Thursday would have to be idiots as well.

Let us look at the facts.

The majority of 'gun violence' deaths in the US are suicides.

The vast majority of non-suicide 'gun violence' deaths involve handguns.

Only a very small percentage of 'gun violence' deaths involve ARs or AKs, the firearms targeted by all of them as assault rifles. Statistically, 'Assualt Rife' deaths are few and far between, but widely publicized.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/28/guns-and-deaths-in-america-the-numbers/

From the link:

The FBI?s annual Crime in the United States report breaks down types of weapons used in murders (not all homicides are murders). The report showed a total of 13,455 murders in 2015, of which 9,616 involved firearms. Handguns were the firearm of choice, involved in 6,447 murders that year compared with 252 by rifles and 269 by shotguns. There were no further breakdowns by type of rifle or shotgun, and there were 2,477 gun murders where the type of firearm was undetermined.
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As an aside:

https://dailycaller.com/2018/02/19/knives-gun-control-fbi-statistics/

However, recent statistics from 2016 show that knives actually kill nearly five times as many people as rifles that year.

According to the FBI, 1,604 people were killed by ?knives and cutting instruments? and 374 were killed by ?rifles? in 2016.
One of the difficulties in the FBI?s statistics is the pinpointing of the exact type of firearm used in the overall number of gun murders. In over 3,000 cases, the firearm is not ?stated.? This means it could be a rifle, handgun or shotgun used in the crime.

Certainly, this could potentially add to the number of rifle deaths each year. However, if the ratios of rifles to handguns used in the uncategorized 3,000 number remained similar to the reported cases, the number of rifle deaths would only rise by a small fraction ? approximately 162 ? not nearly enough to surpass the number of knife deaths.


Overall statistics suggest that rifles, while not statistically insignificant, are a very small part of our problem. By extension, AR and AK platform rifles are even a smaller part of our problem.

So Francis and all of the other candidates are looking to ban and even confiscate a select type of firearm that all imperical evidence suggets will have the least effect upon firearms related deaths.

Are they suggesting this because they are idiots?

Or, are they suggesting this because they think their voters are idiots?

I would postulate the latter is closer to the truth.

Why would you not regulate/ban/confiscate the weapon that is causing the most deaths and injuries?

Why would you choose to regulate/ban/confiscate the weapon that statistically approaches trivial in the big picture?

Which weapon would pose the greatest threat to a government that wishes to impose new controls, be they environmental dictates, social engineering intrusions, confiscatory taxation, or one of any number of other restrictions to our liberties and freedoms?

So Francis and the lot pick the weapon that will have the least impact upon firearms related deaths, but will have the greatest impact upon the ability of the citizenry to resist their brand of tyranny.

Francis may be an idiot, but are they all?

Unlikely.