Let's Have That Conversation About Guns

Kurt Schlichter:

For once I agree with liberals. It’s high time to have a conversation about guns. Let’s start with the problem that there are far too few guns on our streets.

Wait, we can’t have that conversation. In fact, we’re not supposed to have what people might commonly describe as a “conversation” at all. We’re supposed to shut-up and listen as liberals, barely masking their unseemly delight at the opportunity, try to pin the murder rampage of one degenerate creep on millions of law-abiding Americans who did nothing wrong. The conversation is then supposed to end with us waiving our fundamental right to self-defense.

Because that is what the goal is – a total ban on the private ownership of firearms. There’s always another “common sense” gun law which fails because it is targeted at law-abiding citizens and not criminals, thereby inviting another round of onerous new restrictions until finally no citizen is keeping or bearing anything more than a dull butter knife.

Well, almost no citizens. “Gun control” means all guns under the control of the government and available only to it and, of course, to politically connected cronies. Gun-grabbing poser Michael Bloomberg is going to be surrounded by enough fire power to remake the movie Heat. He’s always going to be protected. The purpose of gun control is to ensure that we aren’t.

So let’s have that conversation, and let’s lay the cards on the table. Modern firearms (which really aren’t that modern) are highly effective weapons in the hands of an evil little freak who gets off shooting children. They are also highly effective weapons in my hands when defending my children from evil little freaks.

Liberals ask why I need these weapons. The answer is simple. I’m going to be as well-armed or better armed than the threat. Period.

Here’s the fact – bad people are going to have guns. And if you’ve ever smoked a joint, you are disqualified from arguing that prohibition works.

So, while we are talking, let’s talk about what we lawyers call “causation.” Since apparently we need a whole batch of new laws, perhaps we ought to see what laws might have prevented this crime. Well, we outlawed murder, but that didn’t seem to help. We outlawed stealing, but that creep stole the guns from his mother. He transported them, took them to a school, loaded them – all criminal violations, as was merely possessing the pistols at his age.

Well, maybe he would have been stopped by new laws. Maybe we could ban 30 round magazines? Well, when one walks into a class of children it is unlikely that a couple more magazine changes – a relatively unskilled user can do it in three seconds – would make much difference.

Maybe we could have better background checks. Wait, the creep stole the guns from someone who would have passed any background check. No causation there.

Well, then maybe the only real answer is to ban all semi-automatic weapons, which is pretty much every defensive weapon outside of shotguns and revolvers. It’s also contrary to the Second Amendment and the constitutions of at least 40 states.

We should talk about the Constitution. Liberals have an amazing gift for finding things in it that have eluded everyone else. They have divined a right to abortion that the Founders apparently intended to enshrine within it, however subtly. However, they cannot seem to find where it holds that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Perhaps it is obscured by a penumbra.

Regardless, our conversation needs to address the tens of millions of Americans who bitterly cling to this right. Perhaps it should focus on just how the liberals propose to conduct this disarmament. They should probably start with who they assume would conduct this task. I highly suspect the advocates of turning government force upon its own citizens to deprive them of what they consider a fundamental right do not envision themselves strapping on body armor and locking and loading to go kick down the doors of people known to have guns.

So, since risking enormous violence as a consequence to turning government force on millions of armed American citizens who would believe their fundamental rights were being tyrannically breached is probably a non-starter, we should converse about reality. Liberals love reality, or so they are always saying.

The rest here.