Hammers v. Bullets

Earlier this week Rep. Dan Benishek, place holder for Michigan's 1st Congressional District, visited Alpena for a meet-and-greet.  In response to a question about gun legislation currently percolating in Washington, our congressman declared that "more people are killed by hammers each year than with bullets."

Will Barack Obama send in the black
helicopters to confiscate your hammer?

That one sure stopped me in my tracks!  Murderers prefer hammers over guns?  How could I and millions of other Americans have been so deluded?  While the "Lamestream Media" is all in a froth over Walmart selling combat rifles and high-capacity magazines, in fact it's Ace Hardware and Home Depot which peddle the really dangerous weapons!  Think of all those nasty claw hammers, ball peen hammers, and rubber mallets which criminals buy without background checks and use to slay thousands of innocents every year!

Naturally, I checked Rep. Benishek's facts, and naturally, I found them wanting.  Doing so was impossibly easy.  A quick trip to the FBI's web site and its uniform crime statistics page was all it took.  It's unfortunate that Dr. Dan (he's a retired surgeon) or his staff didn't do a similar online check before our congressman shot off (or should I say, hammered off) his mouth in public.

If you are a congressman trying to dazzle the voters and justify your $174,000 annual salary for which you work about 125 days a year, then maybe the good Doctor ought to set his bar a little higher.  Sloppy doesn't impress.  And Dan Benishek is sloppy.

In a fine snit, I fired off a letter to the editor of the Alpena News, which appeared in today's edition.  You can read it here.  A reader from Alpena also expressed herself on Rep. Benishek's statement, observing, "Guns killed more than 17 times more people than hammers [in 2011] and are responsible for nearly 70 percent of total murders.  There's a reason you don't hear about mass hammering sprees." •••