Gun Confiscation
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)-The war on guns marches on. Instead of concentrating on real solutions like getting rid of “gun free zones,” focusing on mental health, and allowing teachers to carry guns the mainstream media pushes “common sense” gun laws. These proposed laws are anything but common sense.
“Texas shooting suspect’s choice of guns complicates debate over assault rifles,” reads the headlines in the Chicago Tribune.
The Texas shooter used a revolver and a shotgun to kill ten students. The Chicago Tribune article highlights that only the most extreme gun grabbers want to ban shotguns and revolvers. At least publicly. The article quickly points to the Las Vegas and the Parkland shootings to show more people died there.
“The reason most mass shootings are conducted with assault weapons is that shooters know full well what weapon to select, if they want to kill the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time possible, and that’s an AR-15-style gun with a large-capacity magazine,” the article quotes Avery W. Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “If this shooter had had one of those, quite likely there would have been more deaths and injuries. But we don’t know.”
Gardiner is living in a world of hypotheticals. This tactic is one of the most commonly used techniques by the left. When a tragedy happens that proves your theory wrong, instead of accepting the evidence and reevaluating your theory, you change the reality by using hypotheticals. “It was bad, but it could have been really bad.”
Michael E. Diamond of NBC News calls gun culture a “dysfunctional mess.” They know the respect veterans have in the gun world, so they wheel out a vet who is anti-gun. They do this for two reasons. First, being in the military, the vet speaks from a place of authority even though this vet admits he really didn’t use a gun in the military.
The Second reason is that they want to try to frame it that every veteran agrees with the one outlier. Just look at the headline “The Texas school shooting reminds America what vets already know: civilian gun culture is a dysfunctional mess”
He encourages people not to listen to the NRA or other pro-gun groups. Instead, he wants people to look to vets. I would be willing to bet that most vets do not agree with Diamond. So, what he really means is that he wants people to listen to him.
He starts by pointing out that most soldiers are unarmed. He uses this fact to push that most people should be unarmed. He says that only MPs are armed on base. He points out that professional soldiers get extensive training with firearms. He suggests that civilians should be required to get the same amount of training as the military. Also, he says that the military tracks their ammunition and firearms. I track my guns as well. Most gun owners do.
His great solutions are to impose military-style regulations on civilian populations. Without saying as much, that would mean a gun confiscation for everyone besides the police. He finishes the article by reminding people that he fought for our country in Desert Storm (even though he didn’t see combat) so we should listen to him.
The Atlantic runs the headline, “It’s the Guns.” Right away you know where this story is going.
What “The Atlantic” does is throws various misleading stats from anti-gun groups at the reader in hopes that they don’t actually look into them. Anytime you see statistics you have to take them with a grain of salt.
I once had a professor who told that class that you can use statistics to prove anything you want. He took the same study and framed the stats in two different ways. The results were polar opposites. This “statical jiu-jitsu” is what David Frum of The Atlantic is doing.
The United States is a big country. We have over 300 million people. That is a hell of a lot more people than most countries in Europe. This fact alone means that you can’t use raw numbers. You have to use per capita numbers. According to the Crime Research Prevention Center, you are 27% more likely to be killed in a mass shooting in the EU than in the US, but that doesn’t fit Frum’s narrative.
He then goes on to attack gun owners. He calls us irresponsible. He points out that most gun owners don’t feel the need to inform visitors that there are guns in the house. “Hey come in! By the way, I have an AR15 and a Glock in a safe downstairs.”
Then there is an article in “Deadline” attacking movie posters. The author, Michael Cieply, thinks that Han Solo holding a blaster on a Star Wars poster is damaging to our kids. Yes, a blaster from Star Wars could be making our kids the next mass shooter.
He claims Chewbacca has the space equivalent of an assault rifle. He goes after other movies posters as well. For example, the hilarious poster from Deadpool 2″. That poster shows a cartoon Deadpool riding a unicorn with a gun.
Adam Swiderski, of Syfy, writes that he is very anti-censorship, but he thinks that the movie industry should look at their movies and tone down the guns. Yes, in one breath he says he is anti-censorship then in the next asserts that the entertainment industry should censor itself.
The most ridiculous article I ran across was one from Jill Lawrence of “The USA Today.”
The headline reads, “Would the Founders want our kids to die in school shootings like Santa Fe? I doubt it.”
She says that the Founding Fathers were unbound by the past and wouldn’t let something like that pesky Second Amendment get in their way. She claims since a lot of the signers of the Constitution had children that died that they would support gun control. Later she claims that The Second Amendment was put in place to control slaves.
“Does anyone think they would expect us to live by a 230-year-old document,” She asks referring to the Constitution.
My response would be an astounding “Yes!”
I do believe the Constitution should bind us. That 230-year-old document is the bedrock of our country. It stops people like Jill Lawrence from trampling on our rights. If the founding fathers were alive today, they wouldn’t change a damn thing in that Masterpiece.
About John Crump
John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on the history of the patriot movement and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss or at www.crumpy.com.