Gabby Giffords: Toddlers with Guns a Greater Threat than Refugees Blocked by Trump

Gun control proponent Gabby Giffords is out against President Trump’s immigration policies and claiming toddlers with guns pose a greater threat to Americans’ safety than do the refugees blocked by the president’s January 27 executive order.

Giffords is a former U.S. Representative who rose to prominence in the gun control community after surviving a January 8, 2011, attack wherein she was shot by a man who passed a background check to acquire his firearm. Thereafter she dedicated herself to ensuring that every would-be gun purchaser has to pass the same background check her attacker passed.

According to The Hill, Giffords voiced her disapproval of Trump’s immigration order in a fundraising email, in which she wrote, “Rarely has such an assault been so disconnected from the threats we truly face. The truth is this: In the history of accepting refugees in this country, none has committed a terrorist attack on our soil.” She also wrote, “Let’s put it in perspective. There is a group that has proven itself to be far more deadly on American soil. A group that has killed someone once a week for the last two years: Toddlers.”

The left has appealed to children and accidental gun deaths for decades as a justification for more gun control. It is an angle taken by Moms Demand, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the New York Times, and now, Gabby Giffords. But this is an emotional ploy that distracts from the fact that more children die via fire and water (drowning) than die in accidental gun deaths. In fact, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers from 2010 show that children under 10 died in fire-related deaths at a rate that was seven times higher than accidental gun deaths for the same age bracket. Moreover, children under 10 died in water-related deaths at a rate that was 16 times higher than accidental gun deaths for the same age bracket.

The emotion of Giffords’ claims also distracts from the fact that the countries which are the focus of Trump’s immigration suspension–Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia–are literal hotbeds for terrorism, containing cities and towns which frequently witness suicide bombings and other heinous attacks.

It is interesting to note that Giffords voiced her opposition on January 30, the same day that leftists like NYT reporter Thomas Friedman and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) expressed their opposition to the order. Friedman and Murphy both suggested that America needs gun control rather than an immigration suspension, and Murphy went so far as to say his ideal immigration policy for America includes “no screening.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.