Writer and political hack David Frum spews such nonsense that usually it is easy to just ignore his ignorance, but today he outdoes himself in a piece published at CNN.
Excerpts below:
The basis of the whole gun debate in the United States is the belief by millions of Americans that they need a firearm in the home to protect themselves from criminals. Testifying to Congress last month, a gun advocate named Gayle Trotter presented a vivid image of how guns might be used.
"An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon, and the peace of mind that a woman has as she's facing three, four, five violent attackers, intruders in her home, with her children screaming in the background, the peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she's fighting hardened, violent criminals."Thrilling. Also wholly imaginary. Such Rambo-like defenses of home and hearth do not happen in real life, unless the home also happens to contain a meth lab.......
[...]
Claims that homeowners often use guns for legitimate self-defense dwindle away on close examination.What the gun owner claims as self-defense often looks, on closer examination, more like trigger-happy recklessness.
Evidently David "The Hack" Frum doesn't understand the easy use of a search engine, so let's take a quick gander at some of those "wholly imaginary," "trigger happy," examples that have been in the news consistently.
Note- The majority of the headlines and links below are from 2013, had the hack, Frum, bothered to do his due diligence before spewing his ignorance, they would have been easily found.
Kentucky Homeowner Shoots At, Scares Off Two Intruders Who Forced Their Way Into Home and Assaulted a Teenager - Guns Save Lives
A Kentucky homeowner was lucky to be armed when two men forced their way into his home and punched a teenage resident in the face.
The men originally knocked on the door and asked for a man named John before forcing their way into the home and assaulting a teenage resident.
The homeowner grabbed a gun and fired a shot, which sent the pair of intruders running.
[Video] VA Homeowner Shoots and Kills 2 of 3 Armed, Violent Home Invaders- CBS6, WTVR
The 25-year-old father who said he shot and killed two men who broke into his Prospect-area home Sunday morning told CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil he did not know the men he killed.
The man said he and his two-year-old son were sleeping when he heard a loud crash inside his home off Route 460 early Sunday morning. The man said he grabbed a handgun and left his room to investigate. Soon he found three men inside his home.
"Georgia Mom Shoots Home Invader, Hiding With Her Children" - ABC News
"The perpetrator opens that door, and of course at that time he's staring at her, her two children and a .38 revolver," said Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman to WSB-TV.
Melinda Herman shot the intruder five times, hitting him in the face and neck. Chapman said she told the man if he moved she would shoot him again, although she had run out of bullets.
Woman Shoots Intruder to Save Sister- ABC3, WSILTV
A St. Louis-area woman says she shot and critically wounded an intruder because she thought he would kill her sister.
Armed 87-year-old saves pregnant woman -KRQE:
Sheriff's deputies said a gunshot victim wasn't really a victim after all.
In fact, they said he's quite the opposite. According to investigators, the man who pulled the trigger was an 87-year-old hero.
Investigators believe the gunshot victim was in the process of chasing down and attacking a woman when the shooting happened.
The incident happened Sunday at a property in north Roswell in the 6100 block of Old Clovis Highway. A woman was doing laundry when she claims her neighbor, Larrell Stell, 49, took off his shirt and started talking.
"She reports being accosted by a male resident there," said Lt. Britt Snyder of the Chaves County Sheriff's Department. "He made sexual advances towards her, and she rebuffed that. He got upset and pushed her down,"
The woman, 24 and pregnant, said she took her 3-year-old daughter and ran to her landlord's house next door. She told deputies Stell barged his way inside, pushed her down and punched her face repeatedly.
The landlord told detectives he tried to break up the fight, but eventually grabbed his handgun and shot Stell in the torso. At that point, the landlord said Stell came after him, so he shot the man again.
Bryan County Woman Shoots Gun To Scare Intruder - KTEN
Deputies say a woman fired a gun after she reported that someone tried to sneak into her home by coming in through the window.
According to the investigator on the case, this is likely not a random attack, but was done by someone she knows. Deputies showed up after the woman's employer reported that something was wrong.
Deputies in Bryan County got a call about a "burglary in progress" around 10 a.m. at a house near Platter. "A female was reporting a man had broken into her house and made entry into the house and she had apparently barricaded herself in a closet," says Bryan County Sheriff's Office investigator Nathan Calloway.
More links:
Northeast Houston homeowner fires shots at intruder- Click2, Houston
Police: Woman shoots intruder during home break-in in Mooresville- My Fox 8
Chehalis homeowner shoots, wounds intruder - King 5
AZ Homeowner Shoots & Kills 1 of 4 Burglars Who Ransacked His Home- Guns Save Lives
Armed robber, victim injured in gunfire exchange at St. Pete apartment complex, police say- ABC Action News
Armed Female homeowner fires at 4 suspects during burglary- Douglas County Sentinel
The examples above and below are all recent events and just a small sample. Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Frum that Google is his friend.
It isn't only homes that guns are used to to protect in defense of life, as the examples below show.
Video- Guard Shoots AR-15 At Gun Wielding Couple, Scares The Away- Here is WuA
"The security guard that was inside returned fire, two shots at the suspect. Did not hit him. The suspects then fled the location," Inkster, Mich. police Lt. Jeffrey Smith told WJBK. "There was quite a few people inside the location. Very lucky that nobody was seriously injured. The security guard did suffer a wound to the upper leg area, but he's going to be okay."
Gun Owner Saves Cop’s Life by Shooting Deranged Gunman! (VIDEO)- Guns.com
More police arrived on scene an promptly threw Stacy in cuffs, but after Officer Means cleared up what had happened they released Stacy. Brown County Sheriff Bobby Grubbs later said, “The citizen that fired these shots did a tremendous job out there. Had he not had a gun and the presence of mind to do this, we don’t know what the outcome would’ve been.”
70-year-old coach uses gun to protect female players, shoots two attackers- Examiner
An elderly 70-year-old girls basketball coach in Detroit was escorting two players to their cars after practice at Martin Luther King, Jr Senior High on Feb. 1 2013 when they were accosted by two men who attempted to rob them. This is when the coach drew his weapon and fired.
Myrtle Beach robber tells woman "you're dead," runs off after victim pulls gun- News13
A would-be robber's attempt to take money from a Myrtle Beach woman early Friday morning ended after the victim pulled a gun on the suspect.
72-year-old great-grandmother holds men at gunpoint for police- WRCBTV
Two men have been arrested in Lawrence County because a 72-year-old great-grandmother held them at gunpoint for police.
The only "wholly imaginary" thing seen today is David Frum's honesty and integrity.