This was an email I received from a friend, after he read my article on gun control entitled, A Blast to the Past. He is: Pro Gun, Pro NRA, Pro Trump.
He said:
You list a few places where criminal acts were committed with guns. What is conspicuously not listed is the countless years and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of gun owners who do not commit crimes. The complicit media also suppress the many times mass murders were prevented by private persons intervening with the guns on their persons. The statistics of occasions and persons who properly use weapons compared with those who do not render the anti gun argument worthless. Inanimate things do not sin or commit crimes. Fallen men do.
Part of this in a summation from David Pakman.
Let’s recognise that we have some informational incongruities.
1. For example. Abortion should be safe vs it should be illegal.
2. The importance of an issue. Gay marriage is an important issue vs it is not important.
3. People are unaware of the issue all together. For example: Oh climate change? I have never heard of that.
We are at level 3. The most dangerous.
The end of my article stated clearly:
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Current Gun Laws
Two things seem to fuel gun violence in Arizona. One was the Assault Weapons Ban sunset which occurred in 2004. [22] The expiration of this ban, provided Jared Lee Loughner with legal means to purchase a high capacity 30 round clip for his 9 mm Glock. Secondly, the Arizona legislature is considering allowing concealed weapons on Arizona’s college’s and campuses. [23]
These two items can only foster security and safety issues. What prevents any of these events from occurring again? Guns do NOT kill people. People do. But we need better screening and training, to prevent future tragedies such as these from happening. Perhaps just like in the movies of the Old West, the bad guy will help us out, by wearing a Black Hat.
“I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.”
— Henry David Thoreau — Civil Disobedience
Yes I agree that guns do not kill people. People kill people.
Laws, as we have seen, do influence the culture. (Positively or negatively). Take marijuana for example. it was once illegal. (Pakman) Now it isn’t. We have seen a plethora of states legalising marijuana. California being the latest.
We have a unique problem that does not exist in other cultures. A gun fetish. dictionary.com defines a fetish as:
any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion:
to make a fetish of high grades.
Eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect or devotion. That inculcates, permeates and uniquely identifies the American Culture and its love affair with guns. That was conspicuously absent from your article.
We need at a minimum, the following changes to laws (my opinion):
- Access to mental health must be easier. This was a central issue for the cause of the Tucson Shootings. (See my article on Loughner here: Dominoes to Descent). Reporting must be mandatory. No fly = no buy.
- Universal background checks must become mandatory. We should close the gun show loophole as well.
- Re-instate the assault weapons ban, by defining what an assault weapon is. The ban’s sunset in 2004, (see previously cited article on Loughner) allowed him to legally purchase the high capacity magazine that he used.
And Wayne LaPierre’s statement: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.
LAME! Where was the good guy with a gun when Loughner killed 6 people? Why is La Pierre’s statement lame? It took Loughner only 15 seconds to fire those fatal and mortally wounding rounds. Not enough time for the good guy with a gun to react, and shoot the bad guy with a gun.
Imagine this scenario for a moment. One bad guy with guns vs 20 good guys with guns. The Swat team shows up. Chaos ensues. Whose the bad guy? Maybe he will help us out and by wearing a black hat. Just like in the movies. If we arm teachers, then death my teacher will become a thing.
Why does John Q. Citizen need an assault style weapon? They are a weapon of war unitasker: their singular purpose is to kill the maximum amount of people in the least amount of time. I don’t know about you, but I have never heard of anyone going hunting (for other than humans) with an AR-15.
Your list was an ad hominem. There were no sources cited. I cited sources. It is one man’s opinion. I have written op-ed pieces without citing sources. Op-ed’s by definition, are an ad hominem.
As a journalist, I MUST cite sources….It is essential and morally reprehensible to NOT do so. If I am unwilling to cite sources and so ordered, rather than compromise, I must be willing to suffer the consequences of my actions; That would mean jail.
Let’s agree to discuss politics offline. For the most part, politics and religion should probably not mix — except when it compromises what the Word clearly states. Abortion for example.
Finally….These are my ad hominems for the night:
Personally, I see Trump as one of God’s instrument of judgment to America. Others hail him as a Saviour. Both of us can’t be right. Ir-regardless, God commands us in 1 Timothy 2, to pray for those in authority over us. It is tough, but my prayer is that God would make known His Salvation in the halls of our government. Can you name a politician who isn’t morally bankrupt? Neither can I.
We are moving towards an economic singularity. The TBTF Banks will fail. The economy will be in shambles, and people will wrongfully blame the President. It is pure Central Banking (The Federal Reserve). IMO, the second greatest evil ever unleashed upon mankind.
The talking heads I follow (non-Keynesian: Peter Schiff and Chris Martenson for example) are rightly convinced thst the burgeoning debt load, rising bond rates, tanking US Dollar, and rising oil prices, will usher in a depression, mostly likely within 18 months. Some are saying this year. I would not be surprised if we see oil priced in another currency, like the Chinese Yuan.
Will Rogers was absolutely spot on when he said: We have the best politicians that money can buy.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Rev 6:9-10 NIV
Wayno