Pro-Second Amendment author Emily Miller appeared on CNN and dismantled a gun control guest. CNN Newsroom anchor Brooke Baldwin talked to Arkadi Gerney of the liberal Center for American Progress and Miller about the announcement that powerful studio mogul Harvey Weinstein plans an attack film on the NRA.
Gerney lectured, "Emily is wrong when she said there isn't evidence that gun laws lead to reducing gun violence." Miller shot back, "Name one then...Name one." Gerney replied, "If you compare that to the ten states with the weakest gun laws in the country, you see gun deaths that are half, half the gun deaths in those states." When asked to prove it, Gerney offered himself as a source: "That's a report that I wrote and published last year on the website for the Center for American Progress."Miller zinged, "Oh, it's yourself. Oh, okay, so you're a leftist organization and your own information." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
On the issue of gun violence, Miller pointed out: "And gun violence is down 50 percent now than it was 30 years ago. So, gun violence is decreasing and gun ownership is the highest rate it's ever been. But almost half the country has a gun in the home now."
An August 21, 2013 Investors Business Daily editorial echoed Miller's argument:
What that study revealed, though, does not fit in with the media-Democrat message.
"Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals," says the report, which was completed in June and ignored in the mainstream press.
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Here are a few more salient points from the study:
• "Whether gun restrictions reduce firearm-related violence is an unresolved issue."
• "Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies."
• One "body of research" (Kleck and Gertz, 1995) cited by the study found "estimated annual gun use for self-defense" to be "up to 2.5 million incidents, suggesting that self-defense can be an important crime deterrent."
• "There is empirical evidence that gun turn-in programs are ineffective."
Miller wrote the 2013 book Emily Gets Her Gun, a recounting of her struggle to buy a weapon in Washington D.C.
A partial transcript of the January 16 CNN Newsroom segment can be found below:
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EMILY MILLER: There has never been a gun law in this country that has reduced violence. Ever. Not once. And gun violence is down 50 percent now than it was 30 years ago. So, gun violence is decreasing and gun ownership is the highest rate it's ever been. But almost half the country has a gun in the home now.
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ARKADI GERNEY (Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress): There are 300 million Americans are not members of the NRA. And the reason to make this movie is not because NRA members have been doing things that lead to violence. It's because the NRA has blocked policies to cut down on gun violence. And Emily is wrong when she said there isn't evidence that gun laws lead to reducing gun violence.
MILLER: Name one then.
GERNEY: There's a mountain of evidence that shows –
MILLER: Name one.
GERNEY: The ten states with the strongest gun laws in the country, if you compare that to the ten states with the weakest gun laws in the country, you see gun deaths that are half, half the gun deaths in those states.
MILLER: Where – Cite where you're getting that information.
GERNEY: That's a report that I wrote and published last year on the website for the Center for American Progress.
MILLER: Oh, it's yourself. Oh, okay, so you're a leftist organization and your own information. Well, the CDC –
GERNEY: Well, it's a report that was published in the New York Times as well.
MILLER: Okay, well, for the viewers to know, the CDC is the government research– is the government arm. The Centers for Disease Control did a study of all firearms laws.
GERNEY: Which is the data we used.
MILLER: Okay, so you're saying the government is wrong and you're correct. That's fine.
