(My Clovis News Journal/Portales News-Tribune column for July 27, 2012. Also, read "part 2".)
Once again, the inevitable results of "gun control" have claimed more innocent lives. And, once again, those whom the majority of the media fawn over have begun their ritual blood dance; blaming everything and everyone but the shooter for the murders.
Predictably they are calling for more violations of the fundamental right to own and to carry any type of weapon you see fit, wherever you go, in any manner you choose, without asking permission from anyone, ever. You have this right not because of the Second Amendment, or because of your citizenship, but because you were born a human being. A government can either respect this right or violate it. There is no middle ground.
No new laws could have prevented this massacre, nor could the enforcement of existing laws. People who have decided to murder don't worry about whether there is also a law prohibiting them from having a gun. They don't see a "No guns" sign and turn away in disappointment. No, they ignore those laws and walk right past that sign knowing that their grim task has been made much easier because most decent people will obey those dangerous rules even at the risk of their life- and the lives of their loved ones.
But what about the "mentally ill"? Shouldn't something be done to keep guns away from them? Any law that can forbid anyone from owning a gun can be used against you, too, and it still won't stop the bad guys from getting one anyway. Also consider that the anti-liberty bigots who don't want you to have a gun consider your determination to own one a "mental illness" that should disqualify you from owning one. It's a "catch 22" and you aren't permitted to diagnose yourself.
What about an outright ban? Even if you managed to get every gun away from every member of the public, you would also have to remove them from the hands of police and the military since any gun can be stolen, or sold for black market prices. This is what all prohibitions will always do for any product. Plus, guns are not that hard to build from scratch.
The people calling for more gun laws, stronger enforcement, or a bigger surveillance state "for safety" are ignoring reality in favor of feeling like something is being done. Next time I'll look at more of the problems with the failed social engineering experiment euphemistically called "gun control".
Predictably they are calling for more violations of the fundamental right to own and to carry any type of weapon you see fit, wherever you go, in any manner you choose, without asking permission from anyone, ever. You have this right not because of the Second Amendment, or because of your citizenship, but because you were born a human being. A government can either respect this right or violate it. There is no middle ground.
No new laws could have prevented this massacre, nor could the enforcement of existing laws. People who have decided to murder don't worry about whether there is also a law prohibiting them from having a gun. They don't see a "No guns" sign and turn away in disappointment. No, they ignore those laws and walk right past that sign knowing that their grim task has been made much easier because most decent people will obey those dangerous rules even at the risk of their life- and the lives of their loved ones.
But what about the "mentally ill"? Shouldn't something be done to keep guns away from them? Any law that can forbid anyone from owning a gun can be used against you, too, and it still won't stop the bad guys from getting one anyway. Also consider that the anti-liberty bigots who don't want you to have a gun consider your determination to own one a "mental illness" that should disqualify you from owning one. It's a "catch 22" and you aren't permitted to diagnose yourself.
What about an outright ban? Even if you managed to get every gun away from every member of the public, you would also have to remove them from the hands of police and the military since any gun can be stolen, or sold for black market prices. This is what all prohibitions will always do for any product. Plus, guns are not that hard to build from scratch.
The people calling for more gun laws, stronger enforcement, or a bigger surveillance state "for safety" are ignoring reality in favor of feeling like something is being done. Next time I'll look at more of the problems with the failed social engineering experiment euphemistically called "gun control".
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