USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Amid Chicago gun violence, public campaign aims to help keep victims from bleeding to death,” a Sunday Chicago Tribune report notes. “Medical experts say anyone can employ a few basic techniques to achieve the same results when confronted with a life-and-death scenario. And a public service campaign called ‘Stop the Bleed’ aims to do just that: teach bystanders to save someone’s life by learning basic blood-stemming techniques.”
The program is not confined to Chicago:
“Stop the Bleed is a national effort established by the White House in 2015 as one response to the Sandy Hook mass school shooting three years before. It aims to arm civilians with skills and bleeding control kits to provide crucial aid in an emergency until medical professionals can take over.”
That’s actually not bad knowledge for everyone to have, along with CPR and other disaster preparedness training we could all benefit from. The issue here is it’s dealing with an effect, not a cause — and placing the blame on “gun violence” means the real issues will be ignored, the cycle will continue, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms will continue to be scapegoated.
Because the issue isn’t that people own guns. Look at the remarkably peaceable conduct of what is arguably the most heavily-armed civilian population on the planet, the approximately 5 million members of the NRA and other national and state gun groups.
So is it poverty? That’s what the wealth redistributionists would have everyone believe. But compared to what people in Third World countries have, or even compared to what people in this country, many of whom are still alive, endured in the Great Depression, the plight of those who have access to all kinds of “needs”-encompassing social welfare programs does not seem as dire. Particularly if they have cell phones and cable.
Is it lack of education? Going back to Chi-Town, it’s not like plenty of money hasn‘t been thrown at that:
“Average salaries for 2008-2009 were $56,915 for teachers and $120,659 for administrators. For the 2013-2014 school year, CPS reported 41,579 staff positions including 22,519 teachers and 545 principals. In 2012 CPS reported a budget of $5.11 billion with $2.273 billion from local sources, $1.619 billion from the State of Illinois and $0.977 billion from the U.S. Federal Government. Per student spending was reported at $13,078 in 2010.”
Is it lack of job opportunities? The obvious reality is that those doing the “gangbanging” not only bring no skills or work ethics to the table but have actually proven liabilities and physically dangerous to have around. Besides, if those running the city were truly concerned over economic opportunities for the people whose votes they perceive as owned, they wouldn’t be welcoming in more competition—and illegal competition at that – by defying and attacking enforcement of federal immigration laws and declaring Chicago a “sanctuary city.”
Michael Bloomberg’s “solution” is discriminatory citizen disarmament, hardly a surprise when you consider the “racist roots of gun control.” He wants to make it illegal for “minority” males under 25 to own a gun, as if that works now with those doing the gang shootings. Still, it’s telling that his envisioned controls somehow end up with “racial purity” being the decider of who is fully enfranchized.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn‘t look at race—not as the cause of violent crime, but as an indicator of urban populations most directly affected by and responsive to a continuing history of destructive government programs encouraging dependency for cynical political purposes. If we’re afraid to even address this we’re never going to be able to make things right. Those hurt the most by this self-imposed blindness will continue to be the least prosperous and protected among us.
And the violence will continue. Just don’t fall for the ploy of calling it “gun violence,” done to redirect focus from failed control policies in “progressive” enclaves, and to keep the controllers in power.
As long as we’re calling for citizen training though, there is one other thing that could be done that actually would go a long way to stop the violence. But that would require implementing rather than discouraging that which the Founders knew was “necessary to the security of a free State.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.