Fairy Tales and Guns in America

While just about every American is familiar with the pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment National Rifle Association, far fewer people are aware of NRA Family, the family friendly side of America's largest firearms-based non-profit.

In an attempt to appeal to the children of America, NRA Family has published alternative takes on the fairy tales that we all grew up with, however, there is one key change to the story; at least some of the characters are carrying firearms of one sort or another.  Here's how the stories are introduced to young readers and their parents:

"Most of us probably grew up having fairy tales read to us as we drifted off to sleep. But how many times have you thought back and realized just how, well, grim some of them are? Did any of them ever make your rest a little bit uneasy? Have you ever wondered what those same fairy tales might sound like if the hapless Red Riding Hoods, Hansels and Gretels had been taught about gun safety and how to use firearms? The author of this piece, Amelia Hamilton has—and NRA Family is proud to announce that we’ve partnered with the author to present her twist on those classic tales. We hope you and your children enjoy this first instalment!"

In the first story about Little Red Riding Hood, Little Red learned that her grandmother was not feeling well so she loaded up a picnic basket, slung her rifle over her shoulder and headed for Grandma's place in the woods.  Along the path through the woods, she noticed some wolf tracks in the snow; fortunately, Little Red "felt the reassuring weight of the rifle on her shoulder" and, after a brief conversation with the big, bad wolf, she shifted her rifle so that it was in her hands and scared off the wolf.  Unfortunately for the hapless wolf, he foolishly showed up at Grandma's cottage and this is what happened:

"The wolf leaned in, jaws open wide, then stopped suddenly. Those big ears heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun’s safety being clicked off. Those big eyes looked down and saw that grandma had a scattergun aimed right at him. He realized that Grandmother hadn’t been backing away from him; she had been moving towards her shotgun to protect herself and her home. 

“I don't think I’ll be eaten today,” said Grandma, “and you won't be eating anyone again.” Grandma kept her gun trained on the wolf, who was too scared to move. Before long, he heard a familiar voice call “Grandmother, I’m here!” Red peeked her head in the door. The wolf couldn’t believe his luck—he had come across two capable ladies in the same day, and they were related! Oh, how he hated when families learned how to protect themselves." 

The two ladies tied up the wolf, rescuing themselves thanks to their trusty firearms.

Here's the new story of Hansel and Gretel who, in this version, had to help their families hunt for food because times were tough.

The brother and sister had been trained in the safe use of firearms and had been hunting with their parents for most of their lives.  As they headed into the woods with their hunting gear, they were able to bag a few squirrels and rabbits and bigger game as you can see in this quote from the story:

"Before long, they heard a rustling in the leaves, and slowly turned to see a magnificent 10-point buck drinking from a stream. Gretel readied her rifle and fired.

Her training had paid off, for she was able to bring the buck down instantly with a single shot. She and Hansel quickly field-dressed the deer and packed up to head back home, hardly believing their luck. They were excited to show their parents what they’d gotten."

Unfortunately for the duo, the lost the light of day and got lost in the woods, only to stumble across a candy-based cottage.  This is what happened next:

"Tired and hungry, Hansel and Gretel were tempted to stop for food and a rest, but knew that it wasn’t safe to talk to strangers. So, with a sigh, they kept walking. And heard an urgent whisper.

Hansel heard it first and stopped his sister, and they both heard it again. ”Help us!” the whisper said, as Hansel and Gretel looked to see who it was. “We’re in the gingerbread cottage,” the whisper continued. “The witch has us!” They went to the window, where they saw two young boys, clearly brothers, locked in a cage before a simmering pot.

“We thought nobody would ever come!” the boy whispered excitedly, seeing Hansel and Gretel. “We have been here a week. The witch is fattening us up to make us into a stew! I don't know how much time we have left” Hansel and Gretel exchanged horrified glances.

“Where is the witch now?” Gretel asked.

“Asleep,” the boy replied, looking over his shoulder, towards the bedroom from which they could hear the soft sounds of snoring.

“We’re going to get you out of here,” Hansel told the boy, hoisting himself up and climbing into the window, helping Gretel in after him, for he was stronger than his sister.

The boys directed Hansel to the key that would unlock their cage while Gretel stood at the ready with her firearm just in case, for she was a better shot than her brother. Hansel unlocked the cage and opened the door. The hinges gave a groan and the sound of the witch's snoring stopped, the silence filling the room as they looked at each other in panic. Gretel got her rifle ready, but lowered it again when the snoring resumed. They helped the boys back out the window and hurried into the forest, breathing a sigh of relief when the cottage was out of sight. They knew they had to get home to their parents to get help with the witch."

The author of these two stories is Amelia Hamilton, a conservative blogger with a Master's degree in English and 18th century history and a post-graduate diploma in fine and decorative arts.  She has written a series of books for children called the "Growing Patriots".

Let's close this posting with some data from the Centers for Disease Control.  In 2013, this is how many children between the ages of 0 and 19 years were unintentionally injured by a firearm discharge:

Here's how many children of the same age group were unintentionally injured by a firearm discharge between 2001 and 2013:

Here's a map from Everytown Research showing the location of child shootings (aged 17 and under) in 2015 with red dots showing a child death and pink dots showing a child shooting:

That's a total of 278 child shootings in 2015 alone.  And that's most definitely not a fairy tale outcome.

Sanctions on Russia - An Unintended Consequence

As we all know, thanks to Russia's involvement in Ukraine, the United States government imposed a series of sanctions, one of which included the importation of one of the world's best known firearms, the AK-47.

Currently, the AK-47 assault rifle is manufactured by Kalashnikov Concern,  a two century-old Russian manufacturer of civilian small arms, assault and sniper rifles, guided artillery projectiles and precision weapons.  It produces about 95 percent of all small arms in Russia and exports its product line to 27 countries around the globe.  The company is owned by the state corporation Rostec (51 percent) and private investors (49 percent).   Kalashnikov Concern and its predecessor company's history goes back to 1807; it has supplied arms to every significant military victory that Russia has experienced since the Patriotic War of 1812.  The Kalashnikov was originally manufactured by Izhevsk Machinebuilding Plant (aka IZHMASH), however, it was declared bankrupt in April 2012.  In late 2012, Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, a small arms manufacturer founded in 1942, merged with Izhmash and in August 2013, the company was renamed Kalashnikov Concern. 

Here is a screen capture showing the military and law enforcement weapons that the company produces:

Here is a screen capture showing the civilian weapons that the company produces:

You'll notice that all six models of AK-47 assault rifles are considered "military and law enforcement" weapons.

In January 2014, Kalashnikov sealed a deal which would have seen it export 200,000 rifles annually to the United States.  Unfortunately for the company, it was placed on a list of eight Russian arms manufacturers who were sanctioned by the Obama Administration for Russia's role in Ukraine.  The sanctions prohibit American companies from communicating with Russian businesses, including Kalashnikov Concern.

Let's look at the American connection.  Here is a screen capture from Kalashnikov USA, a company that was established to help import products from Kalashnikov Concern:

Here's a product outline for Kalashnikov USA's AK-47:

Now, thanks to the sanctions imposed on July 16, 2014 that are preventing the importation of AK-47s from Russia, Kalashnikov USA is manufacturing the AK-47 on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as you can see here:

Kalashnikov USA has even hired a marketing firm, Laura Burgess Marketing in Pennsylvania, to assist with marketing its products as you can see here:

As a result, Kalashnikov USA now has a Facebook page:

...and even a Twitter feed:

Back in April 2015, Laura Burgess Marketing announced that Kalashnikov USA was moving its manufacturing and shipping functions to South Florida from Tullytown, Pennsylvania.  According to UPI, the facility will be located in Pompano Beach, Florida.

It looks like, one way or another and sanctions be damned, America's Russian gun enthusiasts are going to get their hands on an AK-47.  On the upside, it is creating jobs for America's beleaguered manufacturing sector.

Guns in America: A Statistical Analysis

With the Obama Administration making some moves toward changing gun legislation in the United States, I wanted to take a look at a website that chronicles all gun violence across America.  Gun Violence Archive is a non-profit corporation that was formed in 2013 to provide the public with updated and accurate information about gun violence in the United States.  GVA's mission is simply to document gun violence and gun crime and supply verified and accurate data that anyone can use for any purpose.  They use over 1200 media sources, aggregates, police blotters and media outlets and other sources to verify their data.  Their mission is not confined to the gun rights versus gun registration debate, rather, GVA attempts to help us better understand crime at the street level. 

Let's start by looking at GVA's gun violence archive for the first 5 days of 2016:

Here are two maps showing the location of gun incidents in the past 72 hours alone:

Here is a summary of gun incidents in 2015:

Here is a summary of gun incidents in 2014:

Now, let's total up some of the gun-related combined statistics for 2014 and 2015:

Total number of incidents: 104,369

Total number of deaths: 25,917

Total number of injuries: 49,966

Number of incidents of defensive use of guns: 2,856

Number of incidents of home invasion: 4,927 

Number of children aged 0 to 11 killed and injured: 1,320

Number of teens aged 12 to 17 killed and injured: 5,059

Number of children aged 0 to 11 killed in 357 incidents: 591

Number of teens aged 12 to 17 killed in 489 incidents: 570 

Already, in the first five days of 2016, 2 children under the age of 12 and 10 teenagers have been killed by firearms.

If you are interested, you can go to the Gun Violence Archive website and find out gun violence statistics for your region/city by using their interactive map feature under the "Reports" tab found here.  You can also download the data for 2014 to 2016 as a .csv file.