Friends, today you're in for a treat: a guest essay by the incomparable "Jack", whose devotion to our Constitution, and to the liberties guiaranteed therein, is legendary. See if you agree with his take on gun rights, in the light of the recent calamity in Texas...
Since the "American" left cannot be as gracious as to allow a decent interval after these insane tragedies before hastening to disarm law abiding real Americans, we are constrained to defend our 2nd Amendent rights now. There is only one defense against force: FORCE. The gun truly IS the great equalizer. Practically the only defense against an armed maniacal thug is a good person(s) with lawfully possessed guns. Andrew Cuomo presumed to go to Buffalo after theshooting and preach about his "tough gun laws". Ehh, Buffalo is in "safe" NY state as is the NYC shooting gallery. Go figure, Andrew. If law abiding citizens were not as justifiably afraid of NY's gun laws, there might have been lawfully armed citizens able to stop that subhuman in Buffalo! But in NY we KNOW that to fire in self defense is certain to invite prosecution!
The definition of an assault weapon is a firearm with full automatic selected capability (one pull, continuous fire). Such arms are almost totally illegal. Semiautomatics (one pull, one shot) have been popularly owned since at least the '50s. But these truly insanely presumptuous atrocities did not occur with such sickening frequency until the moral rot (thanks Dan Bongino for the term) so obvious since the late '60s in far left infested America!
The American left disingenuously blames assault weapons, which can only be possessed by the military and law enforcement for atrocities. It means to convey the falsehood that civilians can obtain the weapons used by our armed government forces. They lie!
It is incumbent on our country to effect IMMEDIATE PHYSICAL DEFENSE, at the point of attack,in all likely settings. Let the chattering classes dither about"causes" endlessly and unproductively. THE REAL AMERI CA NEEDS ACTION NOW! School shootings could be stopped overnight by increased police presence coupled with lawfully gun armed community volunteers present in and around the schools. This would be especially practical in rural areas where everybody has guns, and knows guns. Of course the touchie feelies and the antigunrights demagogues like frantic 'ol Beto, will not hear of it. C'mon real America: tell those types to step the hell off! Then DEMAND that responsible authority immediately enable the defense of our kids I have urged.
Then for personal defense in other settings: let the real America INSIST that antigun legislators and executives CEASE their endless, counter intuitive crusade to block or intimidate or discourage possession of firearms by lawful Americans!!! Scotus may be close to dealing a body blow to the gun grabbers, who extol criminals but who distrust the law abiding. That may help.
Finally: to those of good will who sincerely believe that increased gun control means increased public safety; please, consider anarchic DC, Chicago and NYC. Their "tough" gun laws have served only to disarm the innocent and encourage thugs. Please consider reading John Lott's book More Guns, Less Crime.
And there you have it! I'm sure Jack would welcome your reactions and questions. Above all, let's not stand idly by while the Dems hurl themselves, and our country, directly into the politicized muck and mire of finger-pointing self-righteousness, while America's wounds are still (literally) bleeding. Let's give the victims the respect they deserve, and let's temper our rancor with compassion and reason, shall we?
Dr.Waddy from Jack: We need volunteer armed SDAs (School Defense Aides) NOW, RIGHT NOW, in EVERY school. Our children are under present, direct physical threat. Laid aside must be all misgivings about armed defense of our schools which would obtain in normal times. These are intensely bizarre times; we are UNDER ATTACK !!! SDAs could be supervised by School Resource Police Officers;if there are not enough officers available there could still be SDAs in all schools. Americans are an armed and knowledgeable gun owning people, almost all of whom are law abiding. We CAN do this, lawfully; the government powers that be MUST enable it! Spread the word!!
ReplyDeleteNick, the majority of Americans want common sense laws and regulations to govern responsible gun ownership. Unfortunately, politicians (such as Cruz, Abbott and Trump) are bought and paid for by the extreme organization, the NRA.
ReplyDeleteWhat needs to be done right now is to publish pictures of the 19 student and 2 adults victims of the 18-year-old who had an AR-15. Some of the children's bodies could only be identified by DNA. The public needs to know what a massacre with those weapons looks like.
The only good news is that the GOP once again looks like it will snatch electoral defeat from the jaws of electoral victory. Go Blue!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Common sense gun laws would enable the lawful to defend themselves and their's against monsters. Ill conceived present gun laws, based on the preposterous notion that criminals (including the criminally insane) will see in them moral or objective deterrent, are utterly discredited. These abominations did not occur with anything approaching their insane copycat frequency prior to the consummately counterintuitive '60s! Dealing with the post '60s consequent appalling overall moral corrosion is a matter beyond laws.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Prior to the gungrabbing of the last 50 years: far freer access to and unremarkable ownership of guns (eg guns brought to school for after school activities like hunting or sporting shooting) obtained in even now unthinkingly antigun NY state. But gee! VERY few mass shootings. Go figure, gungrabbers!
ReplyDeleteDr. Wardy from Jack: Fair enough Rod but let us also post pix of the thousands, including kds, killed by thugs proven thereby utterly disdainful of ALL law and usually not stupid enough to brandish an AR 15 .Civilian AR 15s are semiautos only, just like grampa's semiauto 12 gauge or 30-06 for hunting. Just like them !
ReplyDeleteCivilian available AR15s just look like military. If you gave our forces civilian AR 15s they would be murderously out gunned. Oh, so you may say, "let us ban all semiautos". Why!? A pre 60's America in which semiautos proliferated also possessed the common sense not to extol and give license to, THUGS, be they insane or not! Look elsewhere, to a moral or spiritual true common sense revival, for a a counter to these injustices!
We have, by far, the largest per capita gun ownership in the world. We also have, by far, the largest per capita mass gun shootings in the world. Coincidence? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteRod is right that most Americans support the kind of gun control he wants. That doesn't make it a good idea, however. As Jack points out, the guns the Left wants to ban are the ones that LOOK scary (which are of course the same guns that maniacs like to use, because they LOOK scary). The functional differences between those guns are thousands of other guns, however, are trivial.
ReplyDeleteRod's call for us to plaster images of the victims of Uvalde all over the MSM is fitting, because the argument for gun control is emotional, not rational. What's more, as usual, the Left arrogates to itself the right to decide which victims are important, and which will be swept under the rug. As Jack observes, pistols are far more often used to kill than rifles, but the Left isn't calling for us to ban pistols (or, I should say, the Democratic party isn't). Is there logic there? If so, I can't find it.
Anyway, the bottom line, as per usual, is that America is full of guns, and it's full of entitled wackos, and once in a while the two will coincide and tragedy will ensue. No one has ever found a realistic solution to that problem.
And then... the mic was dropped.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: America has always had more guns but we did not have the present outrage. Immediate physical defense against this physical threat must be our immediate priority.
ReplyDeleteThe gun is not the problem.
DeleteAs others have stated, not so long ago the majority of pickups in the school parking lot had a gun rack on the back window with a rifle and/or shotgun on it. No incidents.
Since 1972. The percentage of households in the US owning one or more firearms is relatively unchanged compared to today. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/249740/percentage-of-households-in-the-united-states-owning-a-firearm/)
So what's really changed?
Increased Moral Decay + Mental Illness + Parental Incompetence = More Violence. OK, call it Outrage. None of those real problems are an easy fix.
So what does one do?
Defend against it, (just as Dr Waddy and others have suggested) while we (hopefully) suit up and tackle the root causes.
Yet many join the nonsensical, virtue-signaling anti-gun chorus whose hollow lyrics feigns addressing reality.
We are the most violent developed nation on earth (by far) with the most guns (by far). We have no more "moral decay" (whatever the heck is meant by that) or mental illness or "parental incompetence" (whatever the heck is meant by that).
ReplyDeleteWhat we have is a culture that celebrates the gun, and which has the most elaborate lobbying structure to keep fanning the flames of that celebration.
The meaning of any noun or adjective is available using the same browser for which you post on this forum.
DeleteAre you suggesting the root cause of what we are seeing is a "culture that celebrates the gun".
If so, that is hysterical.
Think.
To suggest the inanimate object employs the "most elaborate lobby structure"? Laughable.
The poster child for leftist propaganda (NRA) spent $2 Million (notice the "M") in 2021 on lobby efforts in 2021.
Any guess what industry was number one? Any guess on the amount they spent?
The NRA and the Gun Manufactures are lilliputians compared to your straw man.
Do your research Rod. You're embarrassing yourself.
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Faulting NRA for defending lawful gun owners' rights is like attacking any other civil rights organization for opposing infringment of their rights. Moral decay?! I've often thought that if my grandfather, who passed in 1968,were to come back, I'd be terriblyashamed to show him even one evening of present day network TV!
ReplyDeleteDitto Richie, ditto from Jack.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: We, the gun owning and gun knowing real America, WILL NOT tolerate being blamed for abominations we did not cause .!They could have been prevented had you leftist disingenuous gun grabbers not persisted in sneering at us and excoriating our views and reflexively rejecting our advice! So be it! We are enjoined thereby to overpower you in the political arena! We can and we will!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Richie! You make an awful lot of sense, I must say. You remind me of me! Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteIncreased Moral Decay + Mental Illness + Parental Incompetence = More Violence
Well said! There is an epidemic of mental illness, especially depression, in this country. Frankly, given how poorly many of our young people are parented and supervised, I'm surprised we don't have MORE episodes of horrific school violence. Luckily, few people, even if they are wackos, are eager to trade their lives to make a point or to lash out. In other words, the CONSEQUENCE of almost certain death, and/or life in prison, deters a lot of craziness. The only way to get this problem truly under control, though, would be to repair the country's moral fiber and the family unit, and that won't happen overnight. In fact, it probably won't happen at all, given that the Left is working overtime to prevent it.
Rod, Richie is right that the NRA only has power in American politics because it's supported by tens of millions of Americans, who don't believe that their gun rights are the cause of someone else's psychopathic/criminal behavior. As I've said before, though, even if you could make all of our gun rights go away, you'll never make 300 million guns disappear. Forget it. You're living in a fantasy world.
Jack, hear hear! Anyone who doubts the moral rot in modern America has not been paying attention. One thing almost all mass killers have in common is egoism run amok. How about we teach people to value human life, and the happiness and wellbeing of others? Of course, the schools can't do this by themselves. It would have to start in the home -- you know, Rod, the same home that used to have two parents, and now optimistically might have one?
Well, Nick, I agree that the children raised by Trumpsters have been badly parented and supervised (and given guns).
ReplyDeleteThe NRA has only 5.5 million members. The most recent CBS poll this week showed 54% of Americans (and 50% of independents) wants stricter laws on gun sales. Americans (including a majority of NRA members) support stricter gun ownership laws.
As for the "moral rot" argument, that's the usual strategy of Trumpsters. You want to attack education, you falsely claim Critical Race Theory permeates educational curricula in pubic schools. You want to attack gun control, you claim the society is morally rotten. While it is true that there is far too much "moral rot" such as racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and religious intolerance than should exist, those issues exist in all countries. Only our country has the level of gun violence in the world.
BTW, our northern neighborhood, Canada, has a leader in Justin Trudeau who advocating legislation to ban gun sales. Good for him!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The three volume The Criminal Personality by Louis Yochelson and its one volume summation, Inside the Criminal Mind, by psychologists Yochelson and Stanton Samenow support your assertion of oversize egos in mass murderers. They find that in a wide range of criminals. Their works are disdained by apologists for criminals but Inside the Criminal Mind provided me a very plausible model for understanding the criminals I worked with.
ReplyDeleteRod, while you might like to think that all "Trumpsters" make terrible parents, I'd love to see the data supporting that calumny... To the contrary, I think you'll find that Republicans are model citizens in most respects as well as loving and effective parents.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, most Americans want stricter gun laws. Most Americans are wrong, on this issue as on so many others.
And, Rod, if you deny that any "moral rot" besides conservatism exists, you should talk to a schoolteacher once in a while. They'll talk your ear off about the atrocious parenting that is the norm in many communities.
Rod, I think California, New York, Ilinois, etc. have already proven how well gun control works in America. Even our bluest cities, which have criminalized virtually all gun ownership, are awash in guns and in gun crime. Remember Prohibition and how it made all the booze go away? That's your model for guns. It's a recipe for failure. Actually, it's a recipe for more and more government control, and less and less liberty, which was always the point, if you ask me. Gun control is just a means to an end.
Interesting, Jack. It makes perfect sense. Ego leads someone to disdain the interests of others. Stupidity leads one to commit crimes -- and then get caught.
Nick, if you look at the research on drinking and alcohol-related problems during Prohibition, you find that Prohibition led to less consumption and fewer negative alcohol-related issues. The problem with Prohibition was not that it was ineffective. It was that it was not accepted by a significant portion of the population who decided to defy the law.
ReplyDeleteRejecting the law is part of the issue with current regulations on responsible gun ownership. Further, the problem with only having certain areas with gun control measures is that it is too easy to get guns from neighboring states. Plus, like Prohibition, breaking the law led to lucrative illegal trade (such as arms trafficking).
Finally, you can talk about liberty all you want. But, for the victims of the 220 mass shootings (20 since Uvalde) since January, their liberty has been either dramatically changed or ended.
Rod, you're right: Prohibition produced mixed results. I can't deny that criminalizing guns might lead to less gun crime. BUT I would point out that criminalizing everything and locking us all in our homes 24/7 would diminish a great many social ills, but it wouldn't be a solution compatible with American values and human dignity. It's all about striking a balance. I personally don't want to live in a country that denies its own citizenry the right of self-defense.
ReplyDelete