...that East Coast leftists have been pushing for the last 35-plus years. From always-reliable leftist hack E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post:
Have you noticed that Washington politicians have given up on thinking about new solutions to gun violence?
Well, no. I have, however, since we've gotten ourselves a Republican House and Senate, and a Republican in the White House, that we've more or less been holding the line on gun rights and that gun owners in general aren't quite as persecuted and demonized as much as we were in the halcyon days of the Clinton administration ca. 1993. And this, in my mind, can only be a good thing, though I know very well that things could be much, much better on the gun-rights front -- i.e., perhaps a nationwide "Castle Doctrine" law, legal open- or concealed-carry without the permit system, perhaps a law or two decreeing that no municipality on these fruited plains shall ban any type of hand-held firearm (i.e., bye-bye to laws such the ones in place in Chicago and D.C.), laws forbidding any kind of registration or licensing system for ownership or purchase of weapons...in short, this country's system of gun laws could indeed use a complete overhaul, just not in the way Mr. Dionne and his leftist ilk are thinking -- but again, things could be a LOT worse than they are.
Bloomberg is a Republican, if hardly a partisan sort, and it may take a Republican to restart a debate that many Democrats have fled after a careful examination of the electoral map -- and years of exhaustion from demagoguery on the issue.
Now, if Dionne gave a damn about letting his readers know what Bloomberg's real agenda was, this would more accurately read, "Bloomberg is a Republican In Name Only, and he is dancing in the blood of innocent people to advance his agenda of New York-style gun laws all across the country -- in an attempt to restart a debate that was settled in the minds of right-thinking people long, long ago. Democrats have fled from this debate, after a careful examination of the electoral map showed they were completely out of step with what most Americans think in regards to more so-called 'gun control'-- and years of demagoguery on the issue have left them exhausted and completely out of new ideas, so, of course, they regurgitate the same old leftist cant that wore itself out long ago. They're doing just that in New York, as we sit here."
national leadership in the war on gun violence.
Example No. 1: Demonization of inanimate objects.
The mayors, Menino said, do not want to meddle with the rights of hunters.
Example No. 2: Attempting to reassure us here in the red states, "We don't want to take your deer rifle or your duck gun," completely ignoring the fact that Founders did not put the Second Amendment in the Constitution to protect a damned sport (no offense to hunters).
criminals can easily obtain weapons in jurisdictions with looser regulations.
How did they do that? They broke a few fucking laws, actions that can put them in the Greybar Hotel for a long, long time, that's how. "Oh, but just a few more laws will fix the problem." Uh-uh, Scooter. I'm callin' bullshit on that one, and I'm sure I ain't the only one. Anybody who knows a damned thing about the gun laws in place now, knows that every single gun purchase (both defensive sidearm and long gun) from a federally licensed dealer since 1993 is on record, subject to audit by the ATF. Now, whether it should be that way is a debate for another time, but it's more than a little disingenuous for the anti-gunners gathering in New York City to sit there and claim that the violence in their fiefdoms is the fault of "other jurisdictions," when the fact is that the criminals broke the laws in those "other jurisdictions" in the first place.
Supporters of gun regulations are always cast as metropolitan highbrows lacking in respect for the way of life of law-abiding country folks.
Uh..maybe that's because they are? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, and has a bill and feathers...well, it's quite obvious it's not a three-toed sloth.
Yes, there is a cultural difference between big cities and rural areas, but it's a difference in how guns are used. Rural people treasure their guns mostly for hunting and recreation, and as collectors. In inner cities, guns -- especially handguns -- are used almost entirely to threaten or kill other human beings.
Once again, the great Bill Whittle drives the point home better than I ever could (emphasis mine):
It is abundantly clear that the rate of handgun murders in the United States is not uniform. Very large murder rates can be observed in small, exceedingly violent populations of every race in this country, and these rates seem to be more related to issues of income, education and living conditions. Certainly guns are freely available in areas where our murder rates are appallingly high. They are also found in very large numbers in communities where handgun crime is virtually nonexistent.
Doesn’t that tell us that there is something deeper at work here? Could it be, perhaps, that the problem is not with the number of guns in this country but rather in the hearts of those who we allow to wield them, repeatedly? Could it really be as simple as apprehending, and punishing, those that would do harm to innocents and to civilization? Rather than banning guns, should we not attack the moral rot that infests these small, violent populations of every color who put such horrible numbers at our feet?
...I hate seeing our kids get shot on the street, I hate it, I hate it. But that is the cost of freedom. People get horribly killed on Spring Break road trips to Florida at age 18. They're driving drunk. We could prevent them from going. We would save lives. Enron and MCI steal like the worst characters from Dickens, taking people's Christmas dinners so they can have gold plated faucets. We could regulate more, make things harder for the millions of honest businesses that build and trade honorably each day. The day may come when someone flies a Cessna into a stadium. We can ban the airplanes. Ditto for pleasure boats. We can ban and confiscate and regulate to our hearts content, and we will undoubtedly save many, many innocent lives by doing so. All for the price of a little freedom.
I believe we should punish the perpetrators. I will not agree to restrict the freedoms of the vast numbers of people who abide by the concomitant responsibility and live lives of honesty and decency.
Punishing the perpetrators. Attacking the moral rot in certain subcultures in this country. There's your "new gun arguments" right there. But just hold that thought, for a moment. More from Mr. Leftist Hack "Journalist":
We desperately need a new politics of gun regulation in which law-abiding gun owners see the fight for tougher laws not as a form of disrespect for their culture...
It'll never happen, and I'll tell you why -- because every time some blowhard politician starts making noise about "gun violence," he (or she, as the case may be) always, always ends up demonizing law-abiding gun owners (and the organizations many of them belong to, such as the National Rifle Association), professing some half-assed "support" for the Second Amendment and pooh-poohing our God-given rights, in short, insulting our culture, repeatedly. It'll be no different this month in New York, with the likes of Bloomberg, Menino and Anthony Williams -- three of the biggest gun-haters who ever walked, it's a surprise Dick "The Turd" Daley ain't there -- at that conference. (I hear people raising hell now and then, about the persecution of smokers because of what many perceive to be the political incorrectness of the habit. I always tell them, "it could be worse -- you could be a gun owner.") All the while, the aforementioned blowhard politicians whining about "gun violence" do and say not a damned thing to address the breakdown of the nuclear family, bad parenting, absence of positive male role models in the lives of this country's young men, the denigration of getting an education as "selling out," and the list goes on. It's not the guns that are the problem; it's a dysfunctional culture. And until we get started on fixing that, nothing is going to change. But don't expect any answers out of New York City this month; if you do, you'll be sorely disappointed.
(h/t David Codrea)
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