Yeah, let's talk about gun control.

Reading Material

I keep seeing these editorials in news outlets.  It seems that the anti gunners have been relegated to their cubicles at USA Today and their pages on FaceBook.  This article is berating our two socialist candidates for not sufficiently addressing the issue of additional gun control.  The problem, according to the author is the lobbying done by the NRA.  It is true that the NRA supports political candidates, but how many people cry foul at the donations by unions?  Gun control legislation isn't stopped by the NRA.  It's legitimate grassroots action that the anti gun cultists have failed to garner.

Once again, the author uses the fallacious metric of "gun violence" to demonize firearms.  How is gun violence fundamentally different than any other kind of violence?  The honest answer is that it's not.  It is not okay to just focus in on one type of violence, while ignoring the others.

Now, what about the claim that "assault-style" weapons have no sporting or self-defense purposes.  This is a completely ignorant claim.  Who defines what a "sporting purpose" is?  There isn't a Supreme Sports Council that decides whether an activity is a sport or not, so wouldn't it make sense to default to "If people get together to compete, its probably a sport"? United States Practical Shooting Association, anyone?  Now, self defense is even more obvious! My AK with it's short barrel, red dot and normal capacity magazine (30 rnds) makes a great home defense weapon.  I don't have to worry about working the action like my shotgun between shots.  I would argue that any gun that can fire a projectile has a self defense purpose- that is, you can use it for self defense!

The article ends with a shameless appeal to emotion for those bleeding heart readers out there.  It reads "Prosecution of shooters is of cold comfort to the victims and their families".  How is taking my semi auto rifles going to be a comfort to them?  Is putting a dangerous criminal, who has proven to the world that they are willing to hurt another human being, really less of a comfort than taking away my hunks of steel and plastic?  My rifles haven't hurt anyone, and hopefully, they never will.