Empty chair

The other day I heard that for the State of the Union Address in POTUS’s area of the gallery there was to be an empty seat to honor victims of gun violence (which I assume also means gang-bangers who shot each other in POTUS’s town Chicago).

From Live Action News:

In response to the Obama administration’s announcement that it would be leaving an empty seat in the guest box at this month’s State of the Union Address “to honor the victims of gun violence,” pro-life Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, declared that as president he would give similar recognition to victims of abortion.

How many die of “gun violence” in these USA? How many die of abortion?  Of those who dies of “gun violence”, how many are “innocent”?  Of those who die of abortion, how many are innocent?

There were 13,348 deaths due to firearms in 2015, which comes to approximately 37 per day. By contrast, 1.1 million people were killed by abortion in 2010 (the most recent year with available data), or approximately 3,014 deaths per day. Further, the actual abortion numbers are likely higher due to several states, including Maryland and California, not reporting abortion data at all.

Planned Parenthood alone performed 323,999 abortions in 2015, which is 24 times the number of gun deaths emphasized by President Obama, who last week vetoed legislation to defund the abortion giant and in 2013 declared, “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

Obama.  Pro-death.

Didn’t Pres. Obama advocate post-birth killing of infants?

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24 Comments

  1. stuart reiss says:

    Great breakdown father!

    As a European I dont fully appreciate the application of the second amendment of the US constitution. It seems silly to allow people to buy machine guns however, and I can see the need to have some control over responsible gun ownership. I suspect, there’s many in the US who dont appreciate the 2nd amendment either, and thats worrying.

  2. Catholic_Convert2 says:

    My dear sir, it appears you’ve been a victim of anti-self-defense distortion (lies). The truth is that it is illegal to own a machine gun in the US without a very special license that is extremely difficult to aquire. These licenses are costly, and the machine guns are far more costly: upwards of $27,000. Because of that there are only a few (0.001% of all American firearms).

    Furthermore, there’s never been a mass shooting involving a machine gun in the US (though there was one in France less than two months ago).

    Apparently, Americans with $27,000 to spend on a machine gun are a pretty trustworthy demographic.

    Stuart: I respect your beliefs – but I ask you to question (since you believed people could and do commonly own machine guns until a moment ago) your other beliefs about American firearm ownership. Perhaps they’ve been equally distorted…

  3. tz2026 says:

    Didn’t Pres. Obama advocate post-birth killing of infants?
    I assume you are referring to his No vote in Illinois on the born alive infant protection act, so yes.
    The act applied if during an abortion, a viable baby made it out before being murdered, doctors would have to work to keep it alive instead of dumping a living baby struggling for breath in to a medical waste dumpster.

    When I hear of Islam, ISIS, “death to America”, look at Planned Parenthood. Only the Nazis were more efficient at death.

  4. Facta Non Verba says:

    You queried: Didn’t Pres. Obama advocate post-birth killing of infants?

    Yes, our Dear Leader did exactly that while he was in the Illinois state legislature. While many topics of controversy produced nothing more than a vote of “present” by Mr. Obama in the Illinois legislature, this was an issue which he felt strongly enough to advocate for and vote favorably.

    Recall, also, while President, he said he wouldn’t want his daughters to be “punished with a baby” if they made a mistake.

  5. APX says:

    I woke up this morning thinking this was a sede vacant posts and that something happened during the night.

    Being Canadian, I’ve never understood the need for Americans to have so many guns. I’m not anti-guns, I just don’t understand this need for carry a gun everywhere. When I drive in the US, I always have this fear that if I cut off the wrong person my accident, it’ll be someone with a gun and a bad temper. I don’t get that feeling driving in Canada.

  6. albinus1 says:

    I’m reminded of the cover that The New Yorker magazine published in the wake of the first presidential debate of the 2012 campaign. To illustrate Obama’s lackluster performance against Romney, the artist showed Romney standing at the podium, while at the other podium, where Obama would be standing, was … an empty chair.

    http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/cover-story-the-first-presidential-debate

  7. Kerry says:

    APX, has Canada passed laws mandating “crimes must be committed here zone” laws, that one may know where to be prepared and where not prepared to defend the innocent? The most ‘common sense gun law’ known would require criminals to give 48 hour notice before committing 95% of the most common criminal acts, and if they wish to use a firearm, must buy special permits, and wait several weeks, and then, and only them may they apply for the 48 hour WBT committing a crime permit. (WBT, “We be thugs”.) I’d also try for the “Barney Fife” ammo restriction clause, “Only one round may be carried during the commission of a crime using a firearm, and it must be kept in the upper right shirt pocket, taken out only if an armed citizen offers resistance”.

    Back to the empty chair. Will President empty rhetoric park one of his many empty suits in the empty chair? When he said, “(you know Whom)- bless Planned Parenthood” was he speaking from the chair?

  8. Mr. Graves says:

    “Furthermore, there’s never been a mass shooting involving a machine gun in the US (though there was one in France less than two months ago).”

    As an American ex-pat in Europe, I can say with confidence that every European I’ve met who has never lived in the U.S. is, without exception, significantly less knowledgable about U.S. law than he or she imagines. This is true without regard to age, sex, or educational attainment. The European press (at least in Belgium and most of Germany) is liberally biased to the point of ridicule, but people take it quite seriously. It’s entirely possible to be an educated adult of good will who regularly consumes multiple daily/weekly/months publications and has NEVER been exposed to anything but the NYT view of politics. Anything that doesn’t tow the far-left line is deemed “hate speech” (which, FWIW, will likely be how the German government disbands the inconveniently aware PEGIDA demonstrators in Germany, particularly in the wake of the Cologne New Year’s Eve sexual assaults).

    The Paris terrorists are proof positive that restrictive gun laws don’t do anything but make law-abiding folks (the only one who actually obtain weapons legally) soft targets for criminals.

  9. Sonshine135 says:

    I believe strongly in gun control. I use both hands when firing my weapon.
    The only “empty chair” at the State of the Union is the one standing behind the podium.

  10. TNCath says:

    The fatuous demagoguery of this man is terrifying. The fact that there will be a substantial number of Americans who will buy into Obama’s dog and pony show on gun violence is equally terrifying. What’s even more terrifying than the aforementioned is the fact that if the Republicans don’t nominate someone for President who can actually win (which is very possible), Monica Lewinsky’s former concubine’s wife will be President of the United States and will bring her own brand of demagoguery to the White House.

  11. DisturbedMary says:

    Cruz should invite Clint Eastwood to the State of the Union. Eastwood original and funny use the empty chair prop would make a mockery of this sick President’s crocodile tears.

  12. Facta Non Verba says:

    TNCath – I agree whole heartedly! Further, I saw yesterday that Monica Lewinsky’s former concubine’s wife is advocating for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, so that taxpayers will be on the hook for paying for abortions.

  13. benedetta says:

    Even with all the most that the tax base and maximum expenditures of government fisc to support programs envisioned and designed with the Obama world view in mind, in public schools and in all areas of government, still, the situations are far from enlightened or evolved or tolerant, and the time it took for p.d. to arrive to that Brownsville playground, after a bodega owner refused to help, was atrocious.

    Gun violence, much of it through illegal gun ownership, is atrocious in this country. But, if the Obama and company isn’t going to protect us, and many of us noted long ago that they choose not to, and choose to look the other way, commonly enough, predominantly even, then, we are made to feel uneasy about confirming guns in the hands of a certain strangely favored sector which only wants to take away the peace of ordinary citizens, many of whom even may have voted for or supported Obama and his party. A lot of us will easily concede that this country has a gun issue. But why does the president whom a lot of Catholic shills for him like in the antiCatholic Reporter refuse to dialogue with us…as to what the culture of death has wrought? As to the larger picture? As to the contribution of their rhetoric and divisiveness and alinskist hatreds and bigotry to the disturbance of the peace and the violence suffered by many? A government that refuses to acknowledge that torture and violence in the womb, and the denial of so many diverse voices in our midst, is a crime and contributes to the violence more generally wrought by the youths brought up to live a forked tongue and mind without logic that says “beloved and desired child and/or blob of tissue ok for dismemberment and flushing”. Go ahead. pass the gun laws, tighten it all up, and yet the violence never changes. New York is of course one of the most progressive and pro abortion states in the union and very tough indeed in terms of gun ownership. And yet. Our civil discourse is a travesty to our own leaders. I will not be watching the charismatic non leader but I pray all the time in solidarity with the millions of empty chairs and real human beings sacrificed to this ideology and justified greed.

  14. APX says:

    Kerry, Canada has a substantially lower crime rate than the US. I don’t see a current need for Canadians to be armed. Furthermore, my uncle was shot in the line of duty along with one his partners. Both, being police officers, were armed. His partner was killed, my uncle was saved, not by his gun, but by his wallet. What finally brought the shooter down was running over the building he was in a tank.

  15. mtpensaventus says:

    He said he didn’t want his daughters “to be burdened” by pregnancy.

    How many more days does he have as President?

  16. LarryW2LJ says:

    I do not own a gun. I have considered acquiring one, however, there is so much Amateur Radio gear that I would like to purchase first ……..

    I am not against anyone owning a gun. I think a lot less people own firearms than what most people are led to believe by the media. In any case, the mainstream media in this country no longer objectively reports anything – they support an agenda and if a news item doesn’t fit their agenda, it doesn’t get reported – and that pertains to many issues.

    As far as gun violence goes, I saw an interesting statistic the other day, that the majority of gun deaths on a yearly basis in the United States are actually suicides, not homicides. If true, this would be a fact that doesn’t support the agenda, so it would not be reported.

  17. Semper Gumby says:

    Attending tonight’s SOTU are two members of the terrorist-supporting CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to “The Hill”: Rep. Zoe Lofgren D-CA is hosting Sameena Usman while Rep. Alcee Hastings D-FL is hosting Nezar Hamza.

    In many interviews, articles, and web posts, numerous staffers at CAIR have publicly displayed their pro-Sharia, pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic, and anti-US military goals.

    The United Arab Emirates designated CAIR a terrorist organization. The US Justice Dept. in 2008 named CAIR a co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing trial. After that, the FBI ordered its local offices to end their “outreach” program to local CAIR offices.

    Per numerous news reports, there is a relationship between CAIR and the infamous Muslim Brotherhood. At least six CAIR staffers have been denied entry to the US, indicted, or convicted of terror-related charges.

  18. THREEHEARTS says:

    I too say God bless Planned Parenthood. I ask and pray that God will bless them according to their just desserts. That He will according to His ways and means bless them with a firm knowledge of His will.

  19. JKnott says:

    I guess you have all heard by now that The Little Sisters of the Poor have been invited by the Republicans to also attend and probably will be praying up a storm.
    Ted Cruz is right, there should be an empty chair for the victims of Planned Parenthood. Maybe a whole section of empty seats.
    If Obama, the lawless one, wasn’t the first black president he would have been impeached and tried for treason years ago.

  20. Kerry says:

    Bendetta, Larry, others. You might like this video of Bill Whittle’s, presenting accurate firearm deaths per 100,000 people, in countries around the world.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
    The U.S. is about 37th. Remove a few U.S. cities from the lists, cities where on weekends the atmosphere is 75% bullets, and the U.S. drops way, way down.
    Larry, there are, I believe, about 80 million US firearm owners, and some 200 million firearms. To reiterate, I carry a firearm to protect Christ’s little ones.

  21. benedetta says:

    The plan here is tonight is movie night. Citizen Kane, instead of watching potus sou. Just. Saying.

  22. WYMiriam says:

    Meanwhile, President Obama says nothing at all about “blunt weapon control”, which, if I remember correctly, is far more common as a method of homicide in the U.S.ofA. than guns are.

    *I* think the man is a sociopath.

  23. Imrahil says:

    Dear LarryW2LJ,

    as far as gun violence goes, I saw an interesting statistic the other day, that the majority of gun deaths on a yearly basis in the United States are actually suicides, not homicides. If true, this would be a fact that doesn’t support the agenda, so it would not be reported.

    In fact, if you mean what I think you mean by “the agenda”, it’s actually one of the big points “the agenda” can make in argument.

    Pro-gun people say: “Criminals can get their guns somehow in any case.” And it can’t be denied, nor is it really denied, that this is basically correct. They also might say, “we are” (Chesterton in a half-quip might insert: “regrettably”) “civilized enough that only those of patently criminal mindset, but not the possibly weak and possibly sinful but normal citizens, would tend to draw shooting weapons – or knives for that matter – in heated arguments”. And that seems right too.

    It is the accidents, and then the suicides (especially the not long-planned ones) which the people opposing general popular gun-ownership really can point to.

  24. SKAY says:

    Pro death describes Obama and the Democrats perfectly. Hypocrite is another good description.

    “As an American ex-pat in Europe, I can say with confidence that every European I’ve met who has never lived in the U.S. is, without exception, significantly less knowledgable about U.S. law than he or she imagines. ”
    I appreciate your entire comment Mr. Graves. It confirms what I have suspected. Of course our
    own MSM is no different and those outside of the US could be forgiven for not understanding
    what is actually happening within the US.

    Semper Gumby said:
    “Attending tonight’s SOTU are two members of the terrorist-supporting CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. According to “The Hill”: Rep. Zoe Lofgren D-CA is hosting Sameena Usman while Rep. Alcee Hastings D-FL is hosting Nezar Hamza.”

    Interesting that CAIR members were honored guests of the Democrats at the SOTU given their history. It is also interesting that they have been guests of the Obama White House many times.
    http://www.investigativeproject.org/3777/a-red-carpet-for-radicals-at-the-white-house#

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