Gun Control Folly

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on August 27, 2015

Yesterday morning, Vester Flanagan approached two of his former colleagues as they did a live report for the morning news. He shot and killed Alison Parker and Adam Ward in cold blood.

WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward.
WDBJ reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward.

This has led to the usual calls for more gun control and "common sense gun regulations" to keep firearms out of the hands of black, gay, Obama-supporting journalists.

The Blame Game

Actually, no. That's not what there have been calls for—that would be a focused solution that would likely save lives. No, what we've heard instead is blaming the NRA for Flanagan's actions.  You've  got another hack/paid communicator communicating poorly:

And then attempting to backtrack.

Which is, of course, false. No one (not even me) is seriously blaming the black community, the gay community, the Obama-supporting community or the journalistic community for Flanagan's horrific crime.

What we're trying to point out is that individual people do evil and the individual people are to blame. That's what we always try to point out. It's the political left that plays the collective guilt card every time a white male snaps and goes on a killing spree.

So, enjoy a few brief moments of your own medicine. It'd be nice if it had some effect on you for the next time something like this happens, but it won't. It's not possible to use logic to affect behavior that wasn't arrived at logically to begin with.

Gun Control Folly

One of my former colleagues at The San Diego Union-Tribune "liked" a Facebook post by Jon Gold, a sports reporter at the Arizona Daily Star. It's apparently gone semi-viral with 92 shares and 196 likes as of this morning. But since I'm a friend of a friend, I can't comment on the post on Facebook. Which is why I will here.

Arizona Daily Star reporter Jon Gold's Facebook post.
Arizona Daily Star reporter Jon Gold's Facebook post.

Let's set aside for Gold's request that everyone watch the snuff film so that we can generate the appropriate level of righteous anger to "do something" about guns.

First, get the history right. A practiced soldier could reliably fire 3 shots in a minute from a muzzle-loading musket. Second, the Girandoni air rifle was invented before the passage of the 2nd Amendment. It had a 20 round magazine. The amount of firepower available to today's civilian gun owners isn't different by degree, but by pervasiveness and affordability (a Girandoni wasn't cheap).

Gold says he's not coming for my guns. I don't expect he is. He sounds like a typical leftist hoplophobe. But, if "no one" is coming for my guns, then why does Gold and his ilk, including New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof and President Obama keep praising Australia's gun-control laws which are based upon mass confiscation of firearms?

No, Gold wants to come for "my culture." Which, when informed by Gold that "my culture" is black, gay-rights and Obama-supporting—my former colleagues will laugh their asses off at thinking that's me.

That's not my culture. That's Gold's culture. It's the political left and their perpetual victimhood and calls for "social justice."

CNN anchors do the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" sign based upon a lie told by a friend of thug and strong-arm robber Michael Brown.
CNN anchors do the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" sign based upon a lie told by a friend of thug and strong-arm robber Michael Brown.

It's these four CNN clowns pretending that a 300lb "unarmed" young man trying to get an officer's gun and charging him is somehow a victim.

Guns are too easy to get, according to Gold. Tell that to Carol Bowne, murdered by her ex-boyfriend because New Jersey wouldn't let her buy a gun.

Laws are blunt objects. You want to make it more difficult for Flanagan to get a gun, then you make it tougher for Bowne to get a gun too.

My culture? Gold doesn't know squat about my culture.

The facts are this: As gun laws have been liberalized (in the classical liberal sense), the murder rate has fallen.

Rate of Firearm Homicide Deaths, 1981-2010
Rate of Firearm Homicide Deaths, 1981-2010
Rate of Firearm Homicide Deaths by Race/Ethnicity
Rate of Firearm Homicide Deaths by Race/Ethnicity

Gold should have the courage of his convictions, man-up and say what he really wants: A repeal of the 2nd Amendment.

Tags

[custom-twitter-feeds headertext="Hoystory On Twitter"]

Calendar

August 2015
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Archives

Categories

pencil linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram