Meanwhile Barak Obama has re-affirmed his support of banning "military style" weapons, which are ordinary rifles that look like the real military rifles that have been banned since 1934 but are not. The plan is to keep Americans from the lookalikes so that Mexico won't have a problem with the real thing. Doesn't make sense to me, but I haven't had my morning loco-weed yet. Perhaps we have to evoke the scary drug-war straw man once again to obscure the lack of evidence that the previous ban had any effect whatever on crime in the US. Evidence to the convinced, after all, is like garlic to a vampire and so must not be talked about.
"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons--anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun--can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these weapons."
-Josh Sugarmann, Assault Weapons and Accessories in America, 1988-
Sugarman, although he is a licensed gun dealer himself and should know better, seems to have pioneered the tautological term " assault weapon" and admits to using it solely for it's ability to deceive the public, not for reasons of honesty. The concern that police departments are "outgunned" can only be seen as fictitious propaganda (I'm trying not to call it a lie, since I'm such a nice person) when we note that even the tiny town of Jasper, Florida, population 1795, with its seven man police force equips every police car with top of the line fully automatic military weapons: machine guns.
Yesterday, in the affluent nearby community of Palm City, Florida, a woman home alone was assaulted by a man who used a shotgun to blow open her back door. Somehow she managed to use the family .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol to wound and drive off the assailant, who is now in custody. That pistol of course fires a more powerful bullet than the semi-auto 9mm Uzi "assault weapon" the banners would like to ban and has the same rate of fire. Still, we don't call it an "assault weapon" since it doesn't look like one. Pass me the loco-weed please.
Even better: we don't call a shotgun an assault weapon either even though it was used in an assault. Any way, the woman is alive, thanks to her "defense weapon" and the "shoot the Avon lady law" that was passed in 2006 over the hysterical objections of the anti-gun lobby. So far, none of our Avon ladies are missing and Mrs. Russo is still alive.
What's in a name? asked Juliet. In magic-thinking America: apparently a great deal, and unlike the immutable rose, the same firearm can be different things. Whether it's an assault weapon or a self-defense weapon has nothing to do with the weapon or its use, yet we think of one as much deadlier because people are spending a great deal of money making us think that way. Too bad our president has given them his large ear.
Unfortunately, every time we get a democratic majority, they trot out more anti-gun legislation.
ReplyDeleteThe violence in our country has little to do with what weapons are available and everything to do with the breakdown in civility and community spirit.
We have become a nation of strangers and people feel alone.
Considering the way the winger extremists have been behaving recently, the best defense may be a genetically engineered virus that attacks the winger gene.
ReplyDeleteRocky,
ReplyDeleteYes, I think a lot of the problem is cultural, an object lesson on how intractable social problems can be. On the one hand, I don't care for guns, but on the other, the Second Amendment isn't all that ambiguous. I hear that Canadians have lots of guns, and we seldom hear about Canadians using their guns as weapons to kill dozens of perfect strangers, or co-workers, etc. This horrible mostly American phenomenon seems to have started up with the "go postal" massacres years ago, and it has turned into an almost quotidian affair by now.
I was particularly troubled by the nursing home massacre about a month ago – almost as distressing as the event itself was the nearly total indifference to it on the part of news coverage. The general tone was, "hmmm … bunch of old people slaughtered at a nursing home. Gee, that's too bad. Now for the weather…." The only interest on the part of media outlets when this happens is the so-called "shooter." I wish they wouldn't use that term – it makes an abominable act sound like an almost normal thing to do, and the piece of trash who perpetrates it is thereby transformed into a legitimate social agent. They're not "shooters"; they are the lowest, vilest garbage imaginable (I'll spare us the hyphenated cuss words) and we would do well to consign their names to oblivion. I'm guessing that half the reason why these losers do what they do is that they know they will become posthumous celebrities. A few of them may be psychotic, but I don't think most of them are: they're looking for a way out of life that will fix their names in our minds for a long time, and now they have a tradition into which they can induct themselves.
Captain: Here is 8pus locked and loaded!
ReplyDeleteDino, one of my strongest objections when the media covers these horrible events is the amount of attention they give to the criminals and how little is given to the victims.
ReplyDeleteThat was why, when I posted the story of Eve Carson, I did not name her killers. Bad enough every time I work at the jail I have to look at the monsterous face of one of them. The vile toe rags need to die in obscurity while we honor the lives they have taken.
The nursing home massacre happened in my state and even the coverage here was absymal. Not one photo of any of the victims was shown, only the creep who killed them.
We as a society seem so inured to violence that there is no horror and outrage left.
"I'm guessing that half the reason why these losers do what they do is that they know they will become posthumous celebrities."
ReplyDeleteI think that's easily proved. It's a form of suicide celebrity.
I was discussing this with an English barrister this week and apparently now that handguns are "banned" there, knife crime is soaring and they're thinking of banning knives.
" locked and loaded"
ReplyDeleteIs that a water gun or an ink gun?
Water ... at least a quart, I think.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's fresh water or we'll have to confiscate it. Looks like a salt weapon to me!
ReplyDeleteIt shoots 80 proof bourbon.
ReplyDeleteAHA! an illegal flame thrower!
ReplyDeleteHow did I know you would say that.
ReplyDeleteAt least those who find themselves in the line of fire drink it straight.
Easy for you to drink fire -- you live underwater.
ReplyDelete