Please Stop Calling It Gun Violence by Dr. Aaron Lewis

Words have more power than you can ever imagine. The wrong words or a combination of deceptive phrases often shift the mindset of an entire society. Allow me to explain. On May 17, 2022, I attended an unveiling of a painting of Mayor Toni Harp, New Haven, CT’s 50th mayor. There were more than 200 guests at the New Haven Town Hall occasion. I was there with my colleague, and we two were the only unmasked people in the hall. There were several different speakers and performers present. A Dominican-born pastor gave a beautiful prayer translated from Spanish to English.  

One gentleman stood out more that day than any other, a man by the name of William Ginsberg, President, and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Trained as an attorney, Mr. Ginsberg graciously commented on the impact and difference that Mayor Harp made during her tenure as mayor of Connecticut’s second-largest city. During his talk, he made various references to the crime that New Haven suffered and the ongoing challenges relating to the crime in the city. What disturbed me was that to an overwhelmingly African American crowd amid scattered Caucasian and Latino city officials, the mayor, and other city workers, Ginsberg continued to use the term “gun violence.” I imagine that he was trying to highlight that New Haven’s problem, the inner-city problem, and problems in cities, in general, are guns.

I imagined a scene in my mind, standing up, interrupting his speech, and yelling, “Will you stop calling it gun violence!” There is no such thing as gun violence, yet far-leftist sincerely yet erroneously believe that there’s such a thing.

If a person was stabbed in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, or Waterbury, would the 6 O’clock News run a breaking news story on knife violence? Would they begin to ban cub scout knives or filleting knives from general consumption?

Dr. Aaron Lewis

If someone was purposely poisoned by their predator, would Congress move to restrict certain foods or chemicals? The answer is relatively straightforward. They would not.

So then, why do we continue to use phrases that lie about the facts, create false alarms, and engender tremendous fear throughout our country? Guns are not violent, and they’ve never been, any more than a steak knife is violent, or a glass vase is violent. Yet, politicians and public officials continue to vilify guns and the people who legally and lawfully own and use them for their protection and recreational pleasure. Every time the words gun violence is spoken, this lie is a scary reminder that there are people in our great country that will persistently go to great extremes to violate our 2nd Amendment Constitutional rights.

After several decades of discussion and debate and passing restrictive legislation concerning gun reform and gun policy, many of our inner cities remain unsafe.

Dr. Aaron Lewis

The reason for this stands in total contradiction to what policymakers have posed as a solution.

More guns create safer communities, not the other way around.

Dr. Aaron Lewis

Cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Detroit have some of the strictest gun laws in America, yet those cities have the highest rate of murders. The real solution has never been getting guns out of the hands of lawful gun owners but instead getting guns out of the hands of criminals. So once and for all, let’s stop lying and start telling the truth. Stop calling the violence in America’s most dangerous cities gun violence, and instead call it what it properly should be called criminal violence. When we make that shift, we may see a tremendous reduction in crime, not in guns. Which one would you rather see?

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