Worried about Truth? You’re Living in the Old Days
Re: the meme at left, yes, of course, there was such a story, but you’re living in the old fact/truth-based world. Those things are more or less irrelevant today.
Now, trickle-down economics can be a valid economic theory, climate change can be a hoax, parents who lost their children to AR-15s can be paid actors, Nazis can be morally equivalent to those who protest against them, and defunding public education can be a good strategy for American excellence.
Specific to the meme itself, is the massacre in Las Vegas, there were lots of good guys with guns all over the venue, but the shooter was not hit once by return fire. He hit human flesh with over half his 1,100 bullets, not a single “good guy with a gun,” as they like to say, was able to hit him.
Worried about this? You think too much. Have another beer.
Craig,
There’s sad truth about gun control, and it’s hard to accept.
The proliferation of firearms in the US has resulted in deeply ingrained gun culture in US society. That’s not going to be changed, not for a long time, and certainly not by passing laws or stentorian bleating from earnest liberals, living in privileged enclaves.
All over the world, even in nations with very strict gun laws, like Australia, Mew Zealand and Norway etc, there have been these absolutely unpredictable, random, senseless, mass shouting perpetrated by mentally deranged malcontents.
In the aftermath, there’s always a heart wrenching outpouring of grief and desperate need to fix fault and blame on anyone, but the actual perpetrator. The desire to prevent a re-occurance is natural and arises from the helplessness and impotence every feels at being unable to prevent such disasters.
Would gun control help avoid such tragedies ? In reality, probably not. The idea of preventing criminal behavior by passing a law requires a belief by the perpetrator that 1) he thinks he will be caught, and 2) cares if he is caught.
Therein lies the problem ! A person bent on perpetrating a massacre isn’t interested in the consequences. They’ll obtain a firearm, legally or illegally, they don’t care. Nor do they care if caught, they expect, in fact aspire to die in the shoot out.
Passing gun control laws will have the same effect as prohibition,it may criminalize the harmless gun owner, without having any effect on malcontents.
It won’t really make it harder, just more expensive, for malcontents to posses a firearm.
Why do nations like Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and even Cuba and Germany not have a problem with firearms ? What’s so different in these cultures ?
There’s an argument correlating societies with gun control issues and a belief in prohibitive law enforcement, not social cohesion are inherently prone to firearm deaths. There’s a direct correlation between nations with harsh terms of incarceration and the death penalty, and an increased rate of violent death.
It’s not a superficial or simplistic problem for the US. Whether it be alcohol, drugs, homosexuality or any perceived problem in US society, the clamor begins among well meaning puritans to resolve social issues with punitive prohibition style law enforcement.
The result always just makes the problem worse, but for a while delights the puritans.
The truth is sad and hard for American’s to accept, but in reality America doesn’t want to change and gun control is not going to occur because it’s only a symptom, not the cause of the American love affair with firearms.
A strong argument exists for the cause of America’s passion for using firearms to settle disputes arose from the permitted terrorist activities perpetrated against the Tory or loyalist minority during the founding of the US. Perhaps it may have been better if Washington had been defeated ! In which case, can I please have our 600 acres in New York returned ? 🙂