The motivating event is a horrible tragedy. The way the media and the anti-rights organizations are exploiting it is revolting. The sorrow of the families and friends of the victims is harrowing and the shock to the small town where the crime was committed is all but overwhelming -- and there is not a thing you or I can do to mitigate any of it. It cannot be made to unhappen. The process of grieving, of coming to terms with the loss and being able to move on will, for those affected in Newtown, have to take its own time.*
It is vital, in this day of mediated connectedness, to realize the distinction between seeing it happen and actually being there; between reading news sites and tweets and losing a child, a spouse or a friend.
You weren't there. Dan Gross wasn't there. Josh Horowitz wasn't there. Neither was the weasel penning editorials for the New York Times. Nobody from the networks was there when it happened. National networks were not on the scene for a couple of hours after it was secured; what you saw prior to that time came from local stations -- or helicopters from the big network-owned stations in NYC.
However badly you want to help, there's a not a lot you can do for the affected in Newtown.
And the people who hate and fear your rights can't do anything to help them, either; in fact, they don't want to. They see this as a grand opportunity -- I just heard the host on TV interview program muse, "Since 1990, surveys have shown less and less support for stricter gun laws. We'll see if that will change in light of this tragedy...." The most visible anti-rights groups were exploiting the murder of children and schoolteachers within an hour of it happening.
And the pro-rights side still has voices solemnly averring, "it's...too...soon."
No. It ain't. The people most affected are barely going to notice the debate, except as they get trotted on screen and into print in support of the people who would take away your rights over the actions of a suicidal child-killer. Meanwhile, every antigunner groups and every gun-hating or undecided pol in D.C. and the State capitols has his or her ear to the ground -- or up against the TV speakers. If they believe they can use this tragedy to restrict your right to buy, keep and bear arms, they will leap at the chance. They're not going to claim "It's too soon!" Nope; the sooner, the better for their purposes. Unopposed, they will act.
GOA's Larry Pratt -- not on my list of dinner companions -- has leapt in, pressing for armed schoolteachers, and some gunnies are blushing for him. Okay, I get that he's as embarrassing as the red-to-the-core Republican uncle loudly opining at a Libertarian dinner (or Gawker); I even get that most elementary school teachers simply don't have the kind of mindset or personality that is comfortable with armed self-defense -- but "most" is not "all." There's no reason to run teachers through boot camp or require they all bear arms; all it takes to remove the barriers preventing the few who would be armed from being armed and publicize the possibility. The deterrent effect would not stop these crimes but it would slow them down. (Pinch of salt, but it now appears that the mall-shooter in Clackamas moved from murder to suicide as soon as he realized an armed citizen had a gun aimed at him. Interestingly, the man who found himself in the position so many Walter Mittys dream of did not shoot; there were too many innocent people on the far side of the criminal. [Yes, bedwetters, decent people are unwilling to fire towards bystanders, how about that.] Nevertheless, someone else taking aim at the killer appears to be all it took to end his shooting at others.)
The foes of your rights spent half the day Friday and much of yesterday -- Bill of Rights Day! -- promoting their agenda. They're back at it again this morning. Their relented drum-beating it likely to enable copycat crimes. They don't think it's "too soon" to exploit this tragedy. It's not too soon to stop them, either.
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* A talking head on NBC, right before segueing into solid gun control not five minutes into this morning's Special Report, actually reported that "...officials are preparing to lead the people of Newport through the next stage of grieving." You need leaders for this? Really?
HERMES "ROCKET"
5 years ago
15 comments:
not doubting you in the least, but I cannot find any corroborating evidence regarding the claim that a CCL holder was in any way connected to the Clackamas mall shooting (or stopping that shooting).
If you have a link, please email it to me?
THanks
http://www.kgw.com/news/Clackamas-man-armed-confronts-mall-shooter-183593571.html
(Take with a grain of salt, of course.)
I am a 54 year old male gunny who was going to school to become a teacher in elementary school. I hit the lass wall in my third year. A professor who seemed to fail half the male students in her class but passed all the females. The rubric for her class was so soft you couldn't prove anything by it though.
Even unarmed at 260 pounds and with a love for children I would have run to the gunfire and would have had a better chance then most to at least slow him down. I respect the principle of the school, she did what she could once the shooting started. Just wish she had had the tools to take him out.
StanB
As we sit here there is a young lad in jail with a million dollar bail for planning to BOMB his school. Let us not forget the sons of allah who are champing at the bit to start the bombing routine in our countries malls. The NRA has not bee heard,yet,because it does not scream and shout and run about like our liberal antigun nuts and the NRA is quietly planning and gathering its forces for a powerful and measured response for this WAR ON GUNS.
People can't stop a killer. People with guns can.
That's really all I have to say.
Oh, it sucks to have to say it. It sucks to have to step up and still speak the truth, because its not pretty. Sporting and collecting are bloodless, but the deeper nature of self-defense and national defense are decidedly not. The hard part is that we have nothing to say that will ease the pain that people are feeling, because we speak truth, and do not have soft words or empty promises to give. And right now, people don't want hard truths, they want consolation. As much as I would like to be able to keep silent and give them their room to grieve, I dont have that luxury. Our truth will intrude on their grief, and they wont thank us for it- the antigunners know this, as well as they know that they can offer empty words that contain no substance, yet manage to look compassionate by comparison. So it sucks, but I concur. Lets get goin- there's congressweasels to contact.
the mall-shooter in Clackamas moved from murder to suicide as soon as he realized an armed citizen had a gun aimed at him.
In keeping up with the enemy, I read batshit crazy Joan's blog. In the comments on one of her rants a guy posted the link to the story about the mall shooter. She immediately dismissed it as a NRA fantasy and a outright lie. This is the mentality of the people we are up against.
The gun haters and politicians will be on this like a duck on a junebug. You can bet that Carolyn McCarthy already has multiple bills ready to fly. Along with all the rest of the usual suspects. I haven't checked the Sunday talking heads, you can bet Fineswine and others will be trying to get face time.
And then, we find out that the scumbags from the Westboro church are going to Ct. to protest at the funerals of children murdered by a psychopath. I don't know if I should cry or puke.
What is lost upon those who buy ink by the barrel is that restricting the rights of good people never has and never will protect them from bad people.
Mind commenting on the proposed letter? http://genejockey.blogspot.com/2012/12/talkin-points.html
As much as I can not understand the mindset of the individuals that commit these atrocities. I will never understand, when it is obvious that the first gun on the scene after these violent events start, most often is the gun that ends these tragedies, why do people not understand that guns are tools wielded by human beings, both good and evil. Removing guns from the hands of good and honest people, can not help stop these evil events from happening.
I live in Portland. THe CCL story is true.
I always find it interesting that the Anti-Gunners want to Disarm the Citizenry, and have us use 911 to call for a Person with a Gun to get us out of trouble when we have have to deal with a Goblin with a Gun.
Don't they get that we are just eliminating the Middle Man?
Sorry to be so late to the party, but Larry Pratt has been my dinner companion. I found him charming and genial.
His public persona is a bit more aggressive; I guess someone has to take rhee hard line.
(I also spent an hour talking to firebrand Rabbi Meier Kahane twenty-some years ago, and a more grandfatherly, mild-mannered man I've never met.)
Sorry to be so late to the party, but Larry Pratt has been my dinner companion. I found him charming and genial.
His public persona is a bit more aggressive; I guess someone has to take rhee hard line.
(I also spent an hour talking to firebrand Rabbi Meier Kahane twenty-some years ago, and a more grandfatherly, mild-mannered man I've never met.)
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