Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Puerto Rico: The Murder Capitol of the World


According to ViceNews, Puerto Rico, one of the toughest locations on Earth for gun control, has the highest number of murders by firearm in the entire world. Ninety-one percent of Puerto Rico's murders being from the use of firearms in the hands of criminals. In the year 2011 alone, the nation had over 1,100 murders. The year after, Puerto Rico found its murder rate higher than that of countries known for war-torn landscapes, such as Sierra Leone, Guatemala, and Honduras. The police have attempted to crack down on the use of illegal firearms and murders, but it has not done very much, as Puerto Rico continues to have massive amounts of murders each year. Sicarios are known for their aid in this rising body count. Sicarios are roughly translated to "assassins" or "hitmen." They have access to great amount of firearms, including fully automatic firearms, which are even illegal in states with barely any gun control, unless the owner has a class III license and pays a 200 dollar tax stamp, plus the ridiculous price of the fully automatic firearm itself. Of course, the great difficulty to own firearms in Puerto Rico allows
criminals to possess them, but not the law abiding citizens, so therefore they have no means of protecting themselves. However, there has been a large surge of firearm ownership in Puerto Rico by women. This is primarily due to one woman by the name of Wanda Torres and her story. Mrs. Torres is a hair stylist and one night she had been closing up her shop when one man broke in. The man proceeded to aim a handgun directly at her chest at point blank range. Had Mrs. Torres not had a firearm, she would most likely be dead, but that is not how the story goes. She drew her Glock 31 handgun and, after being shot in the chest, shot the man in the groin and then two more times after that. They both lived, but when Mrs. Torres was in the hospital, the same man she shot had been wheeled in on a stretcher into the room she was in. He received 15 years in jail and she gets to smile when she tells her story. Unfortunately, due to Puerto Rico's absurd gun control laws, it is pretty much easier to purchase and carry an illegal firearm than a legal carry gun for protection. Even more insane is that people do not see that having a legal firearm will save the children that continuously perish every five minutes in Central America. I hope that the new NRA branch in Puerto Rico can teach those in the area that firearms have the ability to save lives, not just take them. Who knows, that might even knock some sense into the anti-gunners in the United States that firearms are not terrible and evil devices.


Minor language used. Viewer discretion advised.

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