It's Gun Violence Awareness Month. Huh?

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It’s impossible to avoid knowing that June is “Pride Month,” but did you know June is also “Gun Violence Awareness Month?” That’s quite the assertion, as there is no such thing as “gun violence.” I’m still waiting for someone to declare some month: “Old White Guy Writer Month.” I may have to do that myself.

Gun violence does not exist because inanimate objects have no agency, no ability to commit violence. They’re tools made of metals and polymers for propelling projectiles, for projecting force. People commit violence, yet we never hear of “hand violence,” or “foot violence,” or “blunt object violence,” even though those kinds of violence are far more common than that committed with the use of guns, and often as deadly. Knives are often used to deadly effect, but we hear nothing of “knife violence.”

It’s a favorite Democrat and anti-liberty/gun cracktivist tactic. I know what you’re thinking: they’re the same thing, and you’re right. They’re adept at warping the English language, because they know if they can define the terms of a debate, they’re well on their way to winning it. Of course, if you have a media propaganda arm ready and willing to support and amplify your linguistic distortions, that helps enormously.

That’s why chemical sterilization and surgical mutilation of children is “gender affirming care.” It’s also why magazines standardized since the Vietnam Era are “high-capacity magazines.” It’s also why common semiautomatic firearms, a technology more than a century old, are “assault weapons,” a term that exists nowhere in firearm nomenclature.

This is a Glock 17, a standard police duty sidearm with 17-round magazine capacity:

Graphic: Glock 17, Author.

It was Glock’s 17th patent. The number has nothing to do with magazine capacity. It’s a semiautomatic handgun among the most popular in the world.

This is a KelTec CP33:

Graphic: KelTec CP33 (Competition Pistol). Author.

Does it look scary? Its magazine holds 33 rounds of .22LR ammunition. It’s a semiautomatic target pistol, longer and taller than the full-sized Glock 17.

And this, a H&K MP5SD6, is one of those assault weapons doing all the gun violence:

Graphic: H&K MP5SD6, Author.

That’s part of the language warping tactic. It outwardly resembles an actual H&K MP5SD, suppressed submachine gun, but it’s actually a semiautomatic, .22LR copy. Its magazine holds 25 rounds. People in the know can immediately tell, on sight, it’s not the real thing--the magazine has a slot in it, the “suppressor” is too long, and the selector lever has no “automatic” position—but most people can’t. It is that upon which anti-liberty/gun cracktivists rely.

But why does anyone need a “high-capacity magazine?” That’s the wrong question. The right question is why would anyone want to ban one, and why do they lie about guns in particular and language in general if their arguments are so convincing and morally compelling?

Standard-capacity magazines have two primary utilities: they reduce reloading time on the range, and they can mean the difference between life and death. One never knows how many opponents they’ll be facing, and handgun ammunition often requires multiple rounds to stop an attacker. Leftist mob violence and mobs of criminals such as carjackers are common. So are groups of home invaders committing “hot” burglaries—burglaries where residents are present—they’re particularly violent and aggressive.

Just as many Americans always carry a concealed handgun because we have no way of telling when and where we might need it, they also carry standard-capacity magazines because we have no way of knowing how many rounds might be necessary.

And why not “Put Violent Criminals in Jail and Throw Away the Key Month?” Here’s another good idea:

[T]he Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says there should also be an “Armed Self-Defense Awareness Month” to recognize the thousands of people who defend themselves and others each year.

“Not once have we heard a peep from the gun ban crowd when a legally-armed private citizen intervenes to save lives from mass killers, or protect themselves and their families from violent criminals,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Whether it was a would-be mass casualty incident at an Indiana mall, an attack at Price Chopper in Missouri, a retired Marine partnering with a Massachusetts state trooper to stop a Cambridge gunman, or a citizen stopping a fleeing attempted killer on a Seattle street, these incidents are universally ignored and swiftly swept under the nearest rug by anti-gunners and their cheerleaders in the media.”

Those are genuine American heroes, unlike people trying to steal the God-given, unalienable rights of Americans. They, not manipulators and liars, deserve a month of praise and recognition. “Awareness” that such people are everywhere and that armed Americans use guns in lawful self-defense as many as 2.5 million times a year, usually without firing a shot, just might reduce the need for self-defense. That would be worth a month, wouldn’t it?

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.