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May 29, 2022
A Rational Discussion Of Mass Shootings Must Include Their Causes, Which Are Not The Weapons Involved!
As shocking and horrible as school shootings are, the reality is that they are uncommon, in spite of the nonsense being spouted by leftist politicians and their media pets. They love to conflate shootings on or near school grounds with what people understand to be a school shooting, and that serves not any desire to minimize violence, but to further their anti-gun agenda.
What they won't address is their own failure to recognize that it is their own policies that contribute to violent crime in America. How many times have we learned after some horrible violent event that the murderer was well known to law enforcement, had exhibited clear signs of incipient violence, but had been coddled by "the system," that seems designed to protect the bad guys, all in service to some misguided desire to keep everyone out of the criminal justice system. Dropping gun charges, failing to document violent behavior, revolving door justice...all of that contributes to violent crime in America.
The Ship Has Sailed, Gun-Grabbers Just Don't Realize It Yet
In theory, in an America ravaged by plummeting church attendance and a concomitant crisis of mass despondency, this sentiment could militate in favor of greater "gun control" measures. But in America there is, of course, our cherished Second Amendment -- with its individual right to gun ownership secured in our jurisprudence by the landmark 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller.
Just as important, there is also the unavoidable reality that, in the year 2022, there are now more firearms in circulation in America than there are human beings. Put simply, even if one wanted to better "control" guns, that ship has sailed at this point.
That's a good point, and the author goes on to make several concrete suggestions that would probably decrease violent crime in America.
But let us not forget that the vast majority of that violent crime occurs in the ghettos of our major cities...exactly where law enforcement is hamstrung and the gun laws already on the books are studiously ignored by leftist prosecutors hell-bent on decriminalizing most violent behavior.
And even with the insanity currently percolating through these cities, the murder rate in America is surprisingly, unexpectedly! trending down.
To be fair, I don't expect that downward trend to continue (the graph does not include the last two years), as the policies of the left have firmly taken hold in our major cities, and the indications are strong that we are entering another generation of violence similar to the 1970s and 1980s.
But the cure is simple, and it doesn't require the destruction of our God-given rights. Prosecute real gun crime (not the fake stuff that attacks the law-abiding owners) as aggressively as the Feds are pursuing the January 6th protesters, and we would see an immediate, significant drop in violent crime in America.
Make the illegal possession of a gun by a felon a stand-alone felony that has a significant minimum jail time attached to it. Never drop gun charges--they should be sacrosanct. And the elites know this...they are not that stupid!
Of course the truth is that most gun laws are intended to disarm America, not to minimize violent crime by bad guys. Otherwise how would they justify the inconvenient fact that most gun laws are designed to control purchase, possession and carry rather than the violent use of them?