The liberal left tried to use the Trayvon Martin murder as evidence that innocent black teenagers were at risk of being murdered by angry white men. They also tried to paint a strong anti-gun message. But, they may have been wrong on both accounts.
African Americans are twice as likely to be murdered as white Americans. However, they are not being killed by angry white people. The stark reality is that 94% of the time when an African American is murdered, it is another African American doing the dirty deed. African Americans have a right to be outraged, they are just wrong about the color of the people doing the damage.
As of 2008, approximately 79.9% of Americans were considered white. African Americans were estimated at 12.84% of the population. Yet over half of the murders in this country are committed by African Americans, and they usually kill other African Americans. The media would have us believe that Trayvon Martin was singled out and killed because he was black. So far, there is little hard evidence of that. But in reality, the Trayvon Martins of this world have a lot more to fear from other African Americans than they do from angry white men. Most murders are intra-racial. When a white person is murdered, there is about an 86% chance that they were murdered by another white person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States
(Note: I verified the data in this article with the source documents. There is a significant dispute with regard to the analysis in the Wikipedia article, but the statistics appear to be accurate.)
Prior to the civil rights movement, the treatment of African Americans in the United States was intolerable, particularly in the South. It is easy to understand why African Americans are so sensitive to any hint of racism. It is probably impossible for those of us who are white to fully understand this. Immediately after the Civil War, African Americans were given their freedom and the right to vote. But we all know that this was hardly the end of the struggle. Things didn’t really change until the civil rights movement forced change. People who experienced this type of racism in the past can hardly be blamed for fearing racism today.
But, at least in this case, there does not appear to be much evidence of racism. George Zimmerman may or may not be guilty of a crime. That does not necessarily make him racist. So far, the only evidence of racism is in the knee jerk response by the main stream media. At least some of the so-called evidence of racism has been discredited. After further review, CNN had to admit that George Zimmerman probably didn’t utter a racist slur. NBC deliberately altered the audio to make Zimmerman look racist. When NBC played the entire 9-1-1 tape, it was obvious George Zimmerman only mentioned that Trayvon Martin was black when the dispatcher asked him to describe the “suspect.” It also turns out that Zimmerman has a lot of black friends.
There is a lot about the Zimmerman-Martin case that we do not know, but we do know that the main stream media reported a lot of it wrong. The whole point of the civil rights movement was to get away from judging people by the color of their skin. Neither George Zimmerman nor Trayvon Martin should be judged because of their race, they should be judge based on the facts.
It is quite possible that if George Zimmerman had not been armed, he would have been seriously injured and possibly killed. There are at least some reports that it was Trayvon Martin who attacked Zimmerman. If that had happened, and it was Zimmerman who was killed or injured, no one in the main stream media would care very much. It is easy to understand why. Every day we hear stories of people, who are not armed, getting killed by criminals. However, it is rare to hear of an unarmed criminal being shot by a licensed gun holder.
Every year, there are about 2.5 million people who use a legallyl purchased handgun to protect themselves. Rarely is anyone shot. That is the whole point.
http://www.rense.com/general76/univ.htm
Since the FBI concentrates on reporting crimes, after they have been committed, we do not have totally accurate information on this subject. However, there clearly are a lot more cases where legal handguns prevent crimes than reported in the mainstream media.
With regard to gun control laws, liberals are concerned about the wrong people having access to firearms. They ignore the obvious fact that criminals seldom bother to purchase a gun legally. The only people who obey gun laws are law abiding citizens. Liberals also shudder at the thought of untrained and irrational people being armed. I agree. We should have laws that restrict access to guns by people who tend to be angry and irrational. How about some legislation preventing liberals from owning firearms? Problem solved.
TDM