I try my damnest to wait 72 hours before commenting on mass shootings so that I have some idea of actual facts, not media bloviation. The Texas shooter is in custody, and the Ohio shooter is dead (Yay LEOs). The gun in Texas was bought legally, and I believe the one in Ohio was too. No changes to background checks would prevent them from doing it…
The media is whipping up a frenzy against Trump and Republicans, putting all the blame for all of the shootings on them, as it appears the Texas shooter was a white supremacist, while it appears from some reports the Ohio shooter is actually a leftist and has been a problem child since Jr. Hi, including a kill list and rape list in school. Article HERE. Of note, Beto et al, don’t want Trump to come to El Paso, and some congresscritter in Ohio is frothing at the mouth about him going to Ohio. This rhetoric is ridiculously over the top. If it were true, then Bernie is guilty because one of ‘his’ people tried to kill the Pubs at the baseball practice.
And as usual, the left was dancing the blood within an hour, and the typical calls for AWB, gun ban, gun confiscation, etc. are being pushed in conjunction with the MSM. I heard one quote last night that ‘Now is the time to KILL the NRA.’
Really? THAT is the language you want to use? Now???
Here are some thoughts for the “reasonable gun law” crowd.
It’s illegal for kids under 18 to smoke. Kids under 18 still smoke.
It’s illegal for kids under 21 to drink alcohol. Kids under 21 still drink.
It’s illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol. People still drink and drive.
It’s illegal for convicted felons to,possess firearms. Convicted felons still possess firearms.
It’s illegal to take firearms into “gun free” zones and shoot people. People still take firearms into “gun free” zones and kill people.
It’s illegal to break into other peoples homes and steal stuff, including firearms. People still break into other people’s homes and steal stuff, including firearms.
What additional laws, restricting law abiding citizens rights, will prevent mass shootings?
Crickets…
There are estimated to be 300,000,000 guns in the USA, and something approaching 1,000,000,000 rounds of ammunition. ‘Most’ of these are in the hands of law abiding people. Do you really think they are going to give them up voluntarily? Look at what happened with compliance with the CT and NY laws… Or is the goal to turn EVERY gun owner into a criminal?
Although the left/MSM don’t want to admit it, there have been a number of shooting stopped by CCW holders.
The other thing I find interesting is the ongoing gun violence/deaths in places like Chicago, NYC, Baltimore, Detroit, etc. are getting NO COVERAGE… Anywhere… And the congresscritters are blowing it off.
I would have a different proposal, do away with gun laws! Train everyone how to use them, once they pass a mental evaluation and background check, they are allowed to buy and carry whatever their heart desires. Constitutional carry…
Edit- And HERE is Lawdog’s gun rights cake analogy…
I was thinking the same thing yesterday.It only makes sense. After all they have tried increasing the amount of gun control laws, and these incidents continue to happen. What is that saying about doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results??
And I will say it again…it is NOT a GUN issue. It is a MENTAL HEALTH issue. No gun ever, since the Chinese invented gunpowder, ever jumped off it’s shelf, and started shooting folks. It is the mentally ill person who picks up a gun and begins pulling the trigger.
Which I was glad that President Trump brought up (the mental health issue thing) when he addressed his concerns about the spate of group shootings lately.
Now, why does it always seem to be the mentally ill on the left side of the political spectrum? One wonders. Seems to be right-leaning mentally ill tend to take their own lives. Weird.
In the wake of the thirty three deaths by arson at an animation studio in Japan, there has been no call for registering or confiscating flammable liquids.
There are no “reasonable” people among the ranks of the anti-gun zealots, and they will never be satisfied.
300 million guns?
Heh. Heh heh.
That’s the LOW estimate.
And you can add SEVERAL zeros to the number of rounds in private hands…..
Weaponsman undertook an exhaustive survey, and his conservative number, with multiple acknowledged holes in the data, was 600,000,000 guns in private hands in the U.S., as of 2016. (I forget what annual production was recently, so that could and should be added to that total.) An upper limit would be anything south of 1T guns, but 600M was dead-on balls accurate at the lower end.
Not 200M. Not 300M.
With the average owner having anywhere from 25-1000 rounds per piece, that puts number of rounds of available ammunition in the stratosphere.
Anyone thinking they’re going to ban guns is going to get a headache that will make the Irish Troubles look like a church picnic egg toss.
And at the end of the day, any attempt to crack down is liable to leave us with 150M less Americans, and nobody left alive in favor of banning weaponry.
Other than the regrettable bloodbath in store, maybe it’s time to kick off that ball, and get down to the rat-killin’.
They don’t seem to be getting the hint any other way.
@Suz: “it is NOT a GUN issue. It is a MENTAL HEALTH issue.” Not a mental health issue either. It is the fallen human condition issue. God has been kicked out of the home, school and many communities.
“Or is the goal to turn EVERY gun owner into a criminal?” More and more I believe TPTB want to do this. Not that they are ignorant but that this is their goal. Demonize the Jew, I mean the gun owner and promote them as evil and they get the ignorant masses on their side.
I have come to the following conclusion for some time now. The politician, that counts themselves among the elite, believe they have a mandate to be in power. Power is all they want. They believe the government owns the people. That people exist for the pleasure of government. That one is born and raised to become good little voters and tax payors. That what efforts you put in life are not your own but belong to society and the government first and whatever is left over is yours. Our government is no longer a government of, by and for the people it is a government of, by and for the powerful few.
So yes I am coming to believe they do want to turn the die hard gun owner into a criminal. That way when they send goon squads in to take them and you away by force they “feel good” that they have taken away an “evil” person. That “evil gun owner”.
Dang I’m too old.
Constitutional carry has worked well here. Unfortunately the cities elected the governor they wanted and now she’s calling for “common sense” gun laws. Uh governor. We already have that. It’s called constitutional carry.
Thumbs up.
Have to disagree with your premise, NFO, to wit:
“Train everyone how to use them, once they pass a mental evaluation and background check”
There are people in society today that don’t have the mindset for this, you have probably seen a few in your area, because they have the thought that firearms are dangerous and only the police and military should carry them, and they won’t change their thinking. Which is good and bad for us.
On a related note about the Texas punk, here’s an interesting article.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/leftists-change-shooter-patrick-crusiuss-mylife-page-after-saturday-shooting-from-democrat-to-republican/
“Train everyone how to use them, once they pass a mental evaluation and background check….”
Trained by whom, to whose standards, and evaluated by whom?
I vote for…. the Russians.
I didn’t bother turning the sound on the national newts last night. And worse, the 1800 local stuff was 50% national talking points. Ditto the “local” paper.
How many of these things would not happen if the media didn’t glorify the shooters? If other warped or diseased souls didn’t see John Q Shooter going out in a blaze of publicity and think, “Heh, if I can top that, I’ll be famous! Everyone will take me seriously!” would we see so many of these events? (The true terror attacks are a different, but related, animal.)
Somehow the Dayton murderer gets lumped in with the “White Racist” meme, even though he was a hard core socialist and Elizabeth Warren supporter. Also the manifesto of the El Paso murderer contains at least as much environmental wacko crap as white supremacist crap, but no mention of that on the lame-stream media.
“Train everyone how to use them, once they pass a mental evaluation and background check….”
Trained by whom, to whose standards, and evaluated by whom?
Good point. My question is about the mental evaluation. Who gets to decide what it means to pass a mental evaluation. The way the leftist is going, just being a believer in 2A or owning guns is proof you have a mental disorder. Automatic Fail by their view.
All- Thanks for the comments. Grog- THAT is interesting…
Re training- There are a number of professional trainers, NRA instructors, and professionals that have put together training programs that could be easily adopted into school systems. Re mental- Actual professionals in the field who work in conjunction with LEOs to develop correct criminal/mental profiles that can be evaluated. That research has been done, and of course, buried…
Posted from my iPhone.
Which other constitutionally protected natural rights mentioned in the BoR should require a doctor’s note before kicking in?
Freedom of speech?
Freedom of religion?
Freedom of assembly and association?
Right to jury trial?
Right to no cruel and unusual punishment?
Right to no double jeopardy?
Right to not be required to quarter soldiers in your house?
Just curious where and why you’d draw that line…
If I say I don’t want soldiers in my house in peacetime, does that make me therefore crazy, and thus unfit to exercise that right??
Captain Yossarian called, NFO.
All he said was:
“That’s some catch, that Catch-22”
Anybody who would try to put a doctor’s note between me and natural rights should be placed on a permanent mental health incarceration hold for 72 years, or until such time as the delusional state completely passes.
Failing that, I’ll be happy to arrange a meeting for them with 72 virgins.
Or was that 72 Virginians?
I forget…
Either way, it’s not going to work out like you think it will.
The state doesn’t get to put up a hoop – not any hoop – for anyone to jump through before deciding their constitutional rights will be granted.
Natural law rights were earned when my name was typed on my birth certificate, and I had a pulse.
End of discussion.
200M zombies killed by their governments in the last century would like a word with you…
@Suz: “The politician, that counts themselves among the elite, believe they have a mandate to be in power. Power is all they want.” Yes. Gun control is not about the guns.
ATF should be a chain of convenience stores.
Background checks? I can live with that. A single check should be good for….5 years?
Light a match to the rest. Let Darwin sort it out. Harsh you say? Compared to what?
And, of course, the great unsaid. Murder is already very illegal in all 50 states and 5 inhabited (and one assumes also the 9 uninhabited) territories of these United States, and illegal overall by Federal statutes. (Though it does seem there is a movement in California to move murder down a few notches on the criminality scale of things. California… says it all.)
Now, we’ve had several ‘mass shootings’ but no one in the media mentions the open wound that is south LA, or Chicago, or Baltimore, or New Orleans, or D.C., or… Why? Doesn’t the onesy-twosey murders that add up count as much or more than the one flake who racks up a large body count? Statistically, the mass shooter is an anomaly, while the one or two dead style shooters is the norm. So we’re going to change our lives over a (non)trivial anomaly, rather than attacking the actual problem?
Of course, if we attacked the standard shooter, then we’d be called… racist, as it is 1/3rd of 13% that commits most of the shootings in this country, followed by a small number of another minority. That is what needs to be addressed, not the random crazed freak seeking fame and attention.
But, no. That’s not how our news system works. Nor our political system, for the most part. It’s the nail that sticks up farther than the rest that gets hammered.
Tired of it. Tired of being blamed for people who should be locked up (the criminally mentally ill.) Tired of watching our nation’s standards of behaviors slip into Hell (legalization of drugs, decriminalization of criminal behaviour.) And, really, am tired of so much of our resources going to support illegal activity (illegal immigration, overdosing illegal drug users, cleaning up after drunks who don’t get charged,) while our veterans and decent folk are sidelined with no free stuff and huge expenses and no access to the very things the illegal aliens and users have access to. Really, tell me exactly how someone affords a $800.00 a week habit while living on the streets?
We need to address real issues, not anomalies.
Has no one ever thought about the effort and time required to confiscate 300,000,000 guns? It is simply impossible and to attempt it would cause social upheaval. It would require a major SWAT operation at every house. And every time the left proposes tightening gun background checks they end up boosting gun sales. So, the way to restrict gun sales is not to try to limit gun sales. See the link below to see the math behind confiscation.
https://peripateticengineer.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-confiscation-even-possible.html
Again can’t disagree with any of the comments. Thanks folks!
Posted from my iPhone.
It’s not the guns.
It’s the power they want over you.
The power to make you give up your rights.
The power to subjugate you to their whims.
The guns are meant to prevent that.
It’s the guns.
Here here! And then some. Is it bad I throat punch those who spew rhetoric after mass shootings in my mind? Is that still a crime? It’s all about control, money, and reputation.
Ed- Yep…
Fargo- No, no, and yes… 🙂
Y’know, something that’s always amused me…
In the zombie-shooting video game ‘Left 4 Dead 2’, you would perenially see signs insisting ‘no firearms should be kept inside the safe rooms’ by order of the fictional FEMA agency.
Guess what was ALWAYS inside the safe rooms?
Yep. Lotta guns, and a big pile of ammunition.
Laws only work because the policeman inside your head insists on them. When circumstances muzzle that policeman, laws are just words — and have no real weight to them.
Here’s an article about the punk in Dayton.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/shocking-far-left-dayton-ohio-mass-shooter-attended-antifa-rally-armed-with-same-gun-he-used-in-saturdays-attack/
Opfor is no longer hiding who they are, and it could be argued they never were to begin with.
Check six.
Toast- I’ve never played those shooter games, I’d rather go to the range myself… 🙂 Re the other, yep…
Grog- Thanks! Wow!!!
One thing I have not seen mentioned here but has been otherwise discussed and is probably very important as it relate to these two incidents and future incidents.
Look up Incel, (involuntary Celebate) there is an online group and they are generally male, low self awareness, consider themselves ugly and cannot connect with opposite sex. They develop a deep hate for females in general and males as well. I believe this scumbucket in Dayton was an Incel.
There was an FBI profiler state on a show that this group is not being given enough attention as they should be.
a) I understand that the Dayton loony had a ex of some sort. b) Dayton loony seems to have been seriously crazy. Some of the communities that anchored parts of the crazy seem to be far more mainstream than incel. To the extent that it was external influence, it seems improbable that all of the crazy was due to a narrowly focused incel online group.
c) FBI and FBI affiliated people are the source of a lot of the analysis regarding patterns of crime, or at least high profile interstate crime. Recent events force us to examine the possibility that the FBI is a corrupt organization. In theory, a corrupt organization could shade it’s analytical products for political ends.
d) The FBI over hyping organizations and influences that could be painted as right wing, or foreign, and understating possible causes such as drug use could fit such a corrupt FBI model.
e) This esotericcd guy on twitter is a lawyer, formerly with IC ties. He has recently proclaimed himself mystified as to whether there was any plausible motive for Paddock (Las Vegas). There has been a known plausible cause ever since some journalist turned up that his doctor gave him anti-anxiety medication. These IC people may be sincere. That does not mean that they have the analytical chops to form conclusions on their own, that their institutional culture has prepared them for what they are trying to do, or that they have the information to evaluate matters touching on things far outside of their background.