Obama on “advanced” countries, gun control, and mass murder
I have a new article at PJ on Obama’s push for gun control in the wake of the Charleston murders.
[ADDENDUM: Obama keeps pressing gun control in the wake of Charleston. As I wrote in my PJ article, “in the immortal words of Rahm Emanuel, ‘You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.'”
Of course, in the case of Charleston and so many others, it’s hard to see how gun control (short of taking away all citizens’ guns) would have done a thing to prevent this heinous act. The weapon Roof used to kill his victims was not on anyone’s list of bannable weapons; it was an ordinary 45-caliber pistol, according to most reports. Initially it was asserted that the gun was a gift from his father, but unnamed police were later quoted as saying that Roof stated he had bought it himself after his 21st birthday with money he was given as a gift. Either way, as I pointed out here as well as here, the transaction would have already been illegal in the state of South Carolina, because Roof had pending felony charges against him.
So, should it be made more illegal? Is Obama suggesting a particular gun law change that would make it even more impossible and unlawful for Roof to obtain a weapon he had already obtained illegally? If he’s talking about better enforcement of the already-existing law (such as improving the felony-pending database), fine, but that does not appear to be what he’s suggesting at all.
I realize it’s too much to ask that we introduce any logic into this. But it seems pretty clear to me that criminals—people who are planning to murder other people—are already intent on breaking a rather important law or laws, and it is doubtful that they would let themselves be held back by anything as paltry as gun control. Ever hear of the black market? The most likely scenario for further gun control laws at this point, when we already have quite a bit of regulation, is that they will hamper the ability of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves.]
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/208909/
Particularly outstanding commentary neo.
Commenter ‘flicker’ over at your PJ Media article does have a point however that Roof did not ‘fall through the cracks’ because those inclined toward mass murder will always find a way, as “locks are for honest people”.
He will lose hard on this. If anything, one of two things will be the result. Either people will demand no gun-free zones, or even, when all numbers are tallied, want no guns in black hands. Nine dead, he says? That isn’t even a busy few days of black on black violence in many major cities. Nor, would I suggest, is that even a busy morning at most abortion mills.
It’s always about gun control for the law abiding with these totalitarians. It’s never about controlling criminals — because that’s their base.
I am so, so sick of Obama.
He’s golfing in the CA desert this weekend.
He’s an egotistical, selfish, lazy demagogue.
Too bad those women in the church didn’t have a small revolver in their purse. That’s a Southern tradition that goes back a long way.
What Obama says has a simply answer: it’s not true that US gun violence es much more higher than the one in other countries.
Of course, if you compare US with Europe, US is much more violent. Bus US has less and less european population. It’s not really fair to keep comparing US with Europe.
Since US is becoming more multicultural, the fair thing is to compare US with Mexico, or with Africa. North of Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world. And Africa has endemic gun violence everywhere. So US is doing quite well, indeed, better than Mexico, or better than any african country.
Somebody should tell Obama than US is quite a pacific country. Of course, you should compare with the ones with a similar culture. Othewise it is absurd.
Their response is so swift, the more paranoid amongst us begin to wonder if they were instigating these incidents to begin with.
Some Bosnian guy (allegedly mentally ill) drove his car into a crowd on one of the main streets of Graz, Austria. At least 2 were killed and many others were in the hospital. No gun was involved, but then again, Austria is an advanced country.
Switzerland is also an advanced country and it *mandates* that the people be armed…
“Doesn’t happen in other advanced countries”
of course, Obama (and anyone else of his leftist kind) can make such bold lies because the news media will never call them out on such lies.
Never. In fact, they believe the lies themselves.
I think maybe I have figured out progressives’ call for gun control laws every time there is a shooting like this.
Their default is government action because that’s what they do: government.
They believe in a utopian society with no evil. That’s not going to happen especially if government is in charge.
What really crystallized my thinking on this issue is the response of the wonderful Christians of Charleston. It was prayer and forgiveness. Love; not hate.
The immortal quote from the shooter is,”I almost didn’t do it because everyone was so nice to me.”
This guy had no religion in his life. Just caught up in the drug culture.
Libs need to face up to the fact that they have driven religion and morality out of modern American life and that is the root cause of all these shootings. Guns aren’t the cause. Guns are completely neutral. They can be used for good or evil.
And I will add I don’t consider Islam a legitimate religion at all. It is a crazy political and social system by and for men to achieve and retain money, power and authority. Mohammed was a murdering warlord and abuser of women. Just compare the response of the Christians of Charleston to the constant Islamists wars in the Mideast and it is clear what the problem is.
We need more of the Judea-Chiristian culture in the world and nothing from Islam.
Defining the problem frames the solution.
Guns are a tool, but the Left is the source of evil. Getting rid of guns won’t get rid of evil. Getting rid of the Left, however, does a lot more than apparent.
Just slap the Hussein fanatics in the head with this one. Run the audio clip where Hussein said “if they bring a knife, bring a gun”. Just keep running that endlessly at the zombies and they will begin obeying, to bring a gun.
If you can’t (will not ) stop a 10 year old from entering the country across the border, what is to stop that same illegal
from bringing cocaine, weapons etc with them
Good stuff, Neo. And I couldn’t agree with you more — the result of gun control is to disarm the law-abiding.
If you don’t break down the stats, at first they look alarming. 30,000 gun deaths annually in the United States, yikes! But then you break it down, and it turns out that about two-thirds of those deaths are suicides. (Tragic, to be sure, but not relevant in a discussion of gun control as a tool to prevent mass murder.) The vast majority of what remains is gang-related or organized-crime related (and therefore unresponsive to new gun-control laws).
That’s not to say that people who own guns legally are NEVER responsible for gun crimes. They are. But they are in vanishingly small numbers. It’s actually pretty easy to count such things, because when a licensed gun owner commits a violent crime, the license is revoked as a matter of course. And, according to some stats I’ve seen, the percentage of legal gun-owners who commit violent crimes is lower than the percentage of violent crimes committed by cops.
In short — legal gun owners are not the ones to be worried about. (Indeed, as many have pointed out, a single person carrying concealed in that Charleston church could have made quite a difference.)
“All that is necessary for Evil to triumph is for Good to do nothing.” Never has this been more true, than in the case of law-abiding unarmed citizens.
WONDERFUL piece, Neo!! I’m sending it to dozens of both our tribe and the other side as well.
In our backward plight we manage to somehow allow the occasional psychopath or mentally deranged to get his hands on a gun and kill piecemeal. The enlightened bien pensant Euros, far advanced, somehow allow the occasional psychopath or mentally deranged to get his hands on a country and kill wholesale. In some cases they managed to build an entire industrial complex (see Auschwitz for example) for murder.
It was remarked upon by a socialist Frenchman, so kudos where it is deserved:
the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.
– Jean-Frané§ois Revel
I am convinced that presently, in the makeup of the EU, there are great quantities of nameless, faceless, apparatchiks of the qualities of Adolf Eichmann. They await only the one they’ve been waiting for.
“So, should it be made more illegal?”
we need strict gun control is sorta like the belief in climate change. Neither is presented with specifics. If you press on both; the strict gun control advocate usually has a few lines they can throw back (universal background checks, national registries, et cetera)… none of which would ever have done anything about stopping the incident that sparked their lecture.
Its mostly a faith based argument… like belief in climate change.
<George Pal Says:
June 20th, 2015 at 5:02 pm
It was remarked upon by a socialist Frenchman, so kudos where it is deserved:
the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.
– Jean-Frané§ois Revel
Mr. Jean-Frané§ois Revel, RIP, socialists! ???
Better do your readings Pal ….
Note that by law, South Carolina churches are
gun free zones.
The proverbial 800lb gorilla in the room is race and culture.
In 2010, Vermont had the lowest gun murder rate in the country per 100,000 at 0.3%. Washington DC had the highest gun murder rate at 16.5%. Vermont is 95.3% white and 1% black. Washington DC is 37% white and 47% black, the highest percentage in the nation.
The top gun murder rates in states and black and Hispanic population percentages closely correlate. Asian percentages do NOT correlate, which indicates that it is NOT race that is the determinative factor but culture.
Overall, US white gun crime rates closely match European gun crime rates.
“They believe in a utopian society with no evil.” Cornhead
On the left, only the liberal, willfully blind, useful idiots believe in the possibility of a utopian society with no evil. The hard core left knows differently but that illusion is useful to the furtherance of their agenda; power and control.
G6loq,
Very well, a socialist changer.
“The USA has, by far, the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Progressives will tell you that this is what makes America the Murder Capitol of Planet Earth. But we’re not, and in this devastatingly effective Firewall, Bill Whittle shows why the center of Gun Nut Nation is in fact one of the safest places in the world.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELwCqz2JfE
(Published on Jan 23, 2015)
G6loc:
I do not know of a state that by law declares churches as “weapons OK” territory.
M J R Says:
June 20th, 2015 at 8:34 pm
“The USA has, by far, the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Progressives will tell you that this is what makes America the Murder Capitol of Planet Earth.”
Also; you have to look at the murder stats for countries with lower murder rates before they made guns hard to own. They already had lower murder rates than the US… when guns were available… ergo gun control did not cause the lower murder rates….
Europe trade home invasions, rapes, stabbings, and other violent assault for gun deaths. It’s how they like things, being a serf is safer than being a free citizen or warrior.
Of course, when people speak of Europe, they don’t really meant Switzerland or Iceland.
Hey if any of your friends are posting that Jim Jeffries video about banning guns in Australia I’ve already got a retort. More people were killed in Australian in mass killings in the 10 years after Port Arthur than the 10 years before.(38 killed in the 10 years before Port Arthur, 48 in the 10 years after.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_mass_murders
Frog Says:
June 20th, 2015 at 9:50 pm
G6loq:
I do not know of a state that by law declares churches as “weapons OK” territory…
We know what happens in these gun free zones.
Maybe churches should be declared “weapon OK” territory:
Putting Church Shootings Into Context.
Also why should you put your physical integrity in the hands of an indifferent institutional agent?
If you don’t defend yourself, who will? Church territory or not …. jeez!
Some are willing to take a stand for a gun free country:
Karl Rove: Only Way To Stop The Violence Is To Repeal Second Amendment
Land of the Sheeple, home of the docile ….
Well, now it’s the fault of the SC flag. If it’s not one foolish liberal meme, it’s another.
Well, now it’s the fault of the SC flag….
Modified Confederate flag.
As they were ….
The Democrats are experts at committing human atrocities, such as getting a bunch of white people killed in a war about slavery when the slave owners could opt out of the war draft entirely, and then they demonstrate their skill by laying the blame at the feet of their enemies. Republicans were the KKK ers you know. Republicans were anti black, they were pro slavery, and the cause of Jim Crow and racial discrimination, dontcha know.
That, along with anti Sherman propaganda views, seals the deal. It’s always some foreigner’s fault, those Northerners. If Sherman had killed and destroyed as many Southern things as the Democrats said he did, the Democrats would never have retaken the South demographically, even with the KKK executing Republicans, whites, and blacks.