Sunday, December 16, 2012

Yes, I Am Holding Off Posting...

...I have many friends, including one of my best friends, in Newtown, the home of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and they are living in a hell I can't imagine. Again, we are reminded that Evil does indeed exist, and that despite our most fervent beliefs, no place is truly safe. I will speak to this nightmare on Wednesday's podcast.

In the meantime, let me point you to several exceptional pieces on the Internet. The first is from Say Uncle:
A 20 year-old had a couple of handguns (illegal). And, depending on the press report, had an assault weapon (illegal), automatic rifle (illegal), or machine gun (illegal). Shot his mom in the face (illegal). Stole his mom’s vehicle (illegal). Transported the gun in the vehicle (illegal) within 1,000 feet of a school (illegal). Carried it onto school property (illegal). Broke and entered (illegal). Carried a gun in a school (illegal). Discharged a firearm (illegal). Shot at people (illegal). Killed some people (illegal). Killed himself (not sure if illegal).
The next is from my good friend Paul Markel, host of Student of the Gun:
Society’s well meaning, but totally deluded sheep, are obsessed with their little white signs and placards declaring this building or that to be a “No Gun Zone” or “No Weapons Permitted”. (Unless of course you are a homicidal maniac and don’t give a damn about the sign, then feel free.) Ask any cop how effective a civil protection order or restraining order is. It’s a piece of paper, nothing more. Shiny placards, clever little signs, and policy papers don’t stop crime. They might give the prosecutor one more charge to hang on the guy if he’s ever brought to trial, but they don’t stop crime. You can’t sterilize the world.
From Jeffrey Goldberg writing in The Atlantic:
People should have the ability to defend themselves. Mass shootings take many lives in part because no one is firing back at the shooters. The shooters in recent massacres have had many minutes to complete their evil work, while their victims cower under desks or in closets. One response to the tragic reality that we are a gun-saturated country is to understand that law-abiding, well-trained, non-criminal, wholly sane citizens who are screened by the government have a role to play in their own self-defense, and in the defense of others (read The Atlantic article to see how one armed school administrator stopped a mass shooting in Pearl Mississippi). I don't know anything more than anyone else about the shooting in Connecticut at the moment, but it seems fairly obvious that there was no one at or near the school who could have tried to fight back.
From Reason.com, another intelligent analysis:
The general decline in gun-related violence and the inability even of mental health professionals to identify future mass killers should be the essential starting points of any serious policy discussion generated by the absolutely horrific slaughter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. We should also add a third starting point: Few good policies come from rapid responses to deeply felt injuries.
This is from John Fund at National Review Online:
Almost all of the public-policy discussion about Newtown has focused on a debate over the need for more gun control. In reality, gun control in a country that already has 200 million privately owned firearms is likely to do little to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals. We would be better off debating two taboo subjects — the laws that make it difficult to control people with mental illness and the growing body of evidence that “gun-free” zones, which ban the carrying of firearms by law-abiding individuals, don’t work.
This heartfelt piece from The Truth About Guns publisher Robert Farago, a person I with whom I often take issue:
A good man will do the right thing. It is his nature. But if you disarm him (or her) you make it more difficult for the good man to confront and defeat evil. You allow evil to fester, spread and destroy all that is good in our world, if not the world itself. In just three minutes, Adam Lanza destroyed the safe little world of Newtown Connecticut. In truth, it was never safe. In truth, none of us are safe. All of us, especially those caring for our children, should be prepared.
Finally a quote from the Internet that is being attributed to actor Morgan Freeman, although I cannot find the direct attribution (and given his views on guns, unlikely)...the words are true, regardless of who said them:
You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why. It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
...
So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next. You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.

27 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:35 AM

    Obama & Congress Quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse. In Part Responsible for Deaths? http://bit.ly/ZaPNmM

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  2. There is only one person responsible for this attrosity. Not lack of funding for a federal program OR an inaniment object.

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  3. Anonymous7:15 PM

    The link has Morgan Freeman's name correct. I'm trying to "fact-check" the origin.

    Life Member

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  4. Anonymous7:19 PM

    "Zap2it-dot-com" says the "Freeman note" is a hoax.

    Life Member

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  5. God bless those babies. I am just sick about them.
    I used to work as an attendant for a state mental hospital back in the 60s. Most of these places are closed now. The left said it was against those people's constitutional rights to warehouse them.

    There was a reason for such places.

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  6. The best gun control is self control, self respect, respect for others! Live by the golden rule!

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  7. Anonymous6:57 AM

    There are 2 reasons for these sort of incidents .
    The stabbing of 23 students in China earlier Friday shows that guns are neither reason .
    The first reason is dangerously deranged people.
    In every case of a mass shooting we find that the individual had mental health issues that were being treated, or "friends" and family members state they were "obviously unstable".
    That is a failure of the mental health industry, not the gun industry.
    The second reason is the way the incidents are turned into major media events .
    No matter how worthless, pointless, and meaningless your existence, if you go to your local mall, school, or other "gun free zone" and shoot a bunch of people the media, left, right, and center, will drop everything, rearrange their schedules, and spend days making your name a house hold word .
    Tom Bogan
    Laconia NH

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  8. Anonymous7:10 AM

    Am I the only one who is starting to feel that I am living in one of Matt Brackens novels?
    John

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  9. Rob Drummond9:16 AM

    Even ewe's will defend their lambs unto death.

    It's so simple to blame the gun for the deaths of evil people. Evil happened on Sept 11th but 911 didn't involve the use of a single gun & near 3000 people died. Niether did the Oklahoma City bombing involve a gun. If the pilots were armed before 911 would we have had the same thing happen? Who knows but there may have been a better chance to prevent it.

    I carry a pistol everyday not because I expect something to happen but I want to be prepard if it does. In addition to my carry pistol I have a 1911 cocked & locked in my desk at work not because I expect work place violence but I want to be prepared if it does. I practice with them so I know what I am capable of in their use. Here in NH there isn't as much gun crime & I think it's because crimials know many are armed.

    Schools have locked doors but they can be breached, they might even have metal dectectors but a bad guy isn't about to go through them. Security systems can & will fail & if someone is intent to do violence they will find a way.

    If one teacher or official in the school was armed would it have made a difference? Who knows but at least there might have been a chance to make a difference. Blaming the gun is a simle excuse & allows us to escape the reality the evil is out there and sometimes shows it's ugly face.
    Rob Drummond
    Hillsboro, NH



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  11. Michael, we cannot wait to respond. We know gun free zones are KILL zones. CNN just reported that the Republican Senators were strangely quiet. Once again we are letting the enemies of LIBERTY get out in front and define the argument. There are no mass shootings at gun shows, Cabela's, Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, and I dare say parochial schools. Silence is failure.

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  12. nj_larry5:13 PM

    Yup silence...its the secret mojo plan that will win the battle. Never respond or let the other side know what your thinking. Its the rope a dope plan that Muhammad Ali used. Let them punch themselves out on our heads....

    AND if our side DOES decide to speak it will be like the second coming. The sky will part and the earth will shake.

    See ya in January after the vote on the AWB.

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  13. Michael

    Do you have a guess as to how many AR pattern rifles are in private hands? The left talks about banning them.... might as well try and ban air.

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  14. Anonymous9:45 PM

    Feinstein Introducing Gun Ban; Durbin to Holding Hearings Reconsidering 2nd Amendment

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she will introduce a gun-control bill on the first day of the next Congress: "It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession -- not retroactively, but prospectively --" of "assault weapons" as well as high-capacity magazines.

    And Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he will hold a hearing in two weeks on "this constitutional question," a reference to the Second Amendment. "That's the starting point," he said...

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  15. Star Tripper4:53 PM

    Michael, just saw on the Cheaper Than Dirt site that they don't sell guns anymore. Is the industry chickening out already?

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  16. Anonymous6:18 PM

    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

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  17. Rico2238:15 PM

    Everybody is trying to make nice, Dicks Sporting Goods, Walmart and now Cheaper Than Dirt.

    It is bad enough that anti gun propaganda is being spewed on FOX News by fake conservatives( they are not your friend ).

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  18. Anonymous7:17 AM

    Holding off is a mistake.
    It hands the initiative to our enemies who have spent the past week repeating the same old lies that mental illness issues can be solved by banning guns.
    Respect for the families and such may be fine when dealing with reasonable people, but we are dealing with democrats.
    Tom Bogan
    Laconia NH

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  19. Anonymous8:16 AM

    It's ten ay-hem on wed.,waiting on podcast.....here's some houghts..the damn Dodd family (ironiclyof Conn.)helped saddle us w/GCA 68, on the wave of outrage due to the assinations of JFK, RFK & MLK. If we don't get unified quick, we're gonna be struggling to catch up for 20 yrs.

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  20. Anonymous9:57 AM

    Larry Pratt and Alan Gottlieb only ones who are speaking because they have clear values and beliefs. Draw your own conclusions about those silent.

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  21. This silent stance from the NRA and from other gun media pundits reminds me of the stance of John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. When asked why he didn't go after Barack Obama with more aggression, McCain stated he was a man of honor and principle.

    He summarily had his ass handed to him in the election.

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  22. Anonymous2:42 PM

    I expect the NRA to probably sell us out on a few points when they reveal their plan.

    They should stress funding for armed school security ie. soldiers and police officers.

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  23. Anonymous7:09 AM

    Don't expect any real solutions from POTUS. Assigning Joe Biden as the leader will only get us bans, restrictions and confiscation, which are "his thing".

    The people leading the charge to solve the violence problem are the same people who caused our economic collapse in the first place and they can't fix it now. They rammed-through "ObamaCare" that was supposed to reduce costs, but it resulted in dramatic increases in costs AND taxes and the whole plan isn't even fully implemented yet. They caused our foreign policy to result in a dead ambassador and having chaos overseas. Our position in the world is reduced to "joke" level. They are the ones leading us all over the "Fiscal Cliff" and politicizing that. How can anyone believe that they can solve any problem? They continually do the opposite of what is required.


    Life Member

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  24. Anonymous5:55 AM

    In yesterday's morning news up here near the "Motor City", we heard of a stabbing on a "D-DOT' bus, that resulted in the death of one person. Witnesses said the "stabber" killed the victim "because he was standing too close to him". Also, at the University of Toledo, just to our south, two more victims were stabbed, resulting in the death of one of them. This is all happening when the call to eliminate this type of violence had "morhed" into ONLY a call for gun control.

    Then, on another national news site, in the comments section regarding an article announcing that the NRA will join the discussion on violence reduction and offer suggestions, there were many defamatorty and threatening comments directed at the NRA and its members. One post called for the execution of NRA members and THEN confiscating their guns! Many other similar "death-threat" captions were read on other sites. Where is the Justice department and other law enforcement agencies on that? I think that we also know what the answer will be there.

    Michael, we need to also introduce into the dialogue these types of things. We have a current movement by the liberal left to villainize anyone that disagrees with them. That has to be factored into the discussion on reducing violence. It's a leadership issue!

    Life Member

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  25. Anonymous7:29 PM

    The person responsible for the horrific CT murders broke a multitude of laws. We don’t need any more restrictive and ineffective gun laws.

    The 2nd Amendment is not about hunting. We have a personal role to play in our own self-defense; don’t let government take that away from us.

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