As I predicted, the gun nuts are all saying that if VaTech had not been one of Virginia's few "gun free zones", the tragedy wouldn't have happened.
This argument is based on 2 tremendous fallacies. I intend to ignore my gut and go with some facts on this one.
1. Gun ownership is "Necessary but not sufficient"
Why does the gun lobby think that everyone can be trusted to get proper training on the use of a hand gun for personal defense? Further, why should we believe that everyone will know how to properly care for and maintain their guns safely? It is easier to get a gun than a driver's license in Virgina. Everyday we all see people on the road who very clearly should not have a driver's license. Now, imagine these same geniuses all had conceal-carry permits... Yeah, I thought so. If people handle their concealed weapons anything like their cars -- and currently it's harder to get a driver's license than a gun -- then we would all be shot up dead in the street
2. Criminals will acquire guns illegally anyway, so we all need guns
See 1 above. A gun in the home is 5 times more likely to be used on the residents of the home than a criminal, mostly because people do not correctly store their weapons or maintain them. They do not lock them, clean them, store ammo safely, etc. In addition, the VaTech killer bought his gun legally. No one had any reason to believe he was a criminal.
The gun nuts will try to tell you that ATF gun trace stats are cooked. The anti-gun crowd will tell you that 41% of guns turned up on NYC crime scenes (this number comes from 1993) came from Virgina. Well, that's for the 8% of guns that had traces run on them. So, question, why don't we run more traces? That's the real story -- the gun nuts won't tell you that ATF forbids local law enforcement from running traces themselves and prevents trace data from being shared. It's very hard to come up with any real numbers since the gun nuts have lobbied Congress very effectively to prevent anyone from knowing the real truth.
Mayor Bloomberg of NYC has started two sites, www.protectpolice.org and www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org to educate the public. The latter organization has set up sting operations in Virgina where under cover officers were able to make "straw" purchases. Read more about it in the local VA paper here. You can also read the official report here.
3. Criminals are rational
This is one of my favorites. The gun nuts argue that mass murderers like Cho are rational sane people. They wake up in the morning and say, "Gee, where is a local gun free zone where I can go massacre 33 people and then blow my brains out? Gosh, maybe my local university is the perfect place for my crime spree!" Perhaps it never occured to the gun nuts that people like Cho are CRAZY and they do not think things through in a rational manner. If someone has a gun and wants to shoot you, they are probably crazy and disturbed enough not to think twice about laws and regulations.
And that kind of gets to the heart of it. These are the same people who support the war in Iraq and think that everyone is just like them. Many of them are very strong law-and-order types and are law abiding citizens themselves. They simply are so narrow minded and naive that they can't imagine that there are people out there in the world who don't respect law and order and who don't think things through like they do. Of course, they think they are rational and sensible in their argument, but they are obviously insane. Why do they really want to own guns so bad?
There's a lot of great information at the Brady Campaign website as well.
4. Right to carry laws deter crime
Again, this would be true in gun nut country, where everyone spent all their time polishing and cleaning their guns on their front porch, waiting, just waiting, for anyone to step on their front porch so they can shoot them. John Lott & David Mustard did a famous study that claimed to show that concealed-carry reduced crimes. Yes, they did -- in rural Florida! Read this rebuttal if you're motivated.
5. Bigotry and gun owners
Most gun owners are white, Republican men who live in the South and West. Do you know why they really want a gun? Because they are scared a black man will do them harm. These people still have pre-Civil war attitudes towards minorities, especially blacks, and view gun ownership as their only protection. These are the people who would wear white hoods in public if they could. They believe in lynching, the death penalty, and the right to life. They are incoherent, they are evil, and they need to be stopped. The same logic that has 1000's of innocent black men on death row getting killed is the same logic that has us in Iraq, and it's the logic of the right wing gun nut. As pointed out in previous posts, most gun nuts also live in counties that receive heavy federal subsidies for farming. They all live off of the fat that really comes from the gun industry. Gun companies give to congress and congress gives back to their constituencies. Follow the money and see for yourself.
Conclusion: The gun industry is dying, as most gun owners are old and dying. The gun companies know that the illegal arms trade is a huge source of their billions of dollars of revenue, and they, like all the other corporate American interests, will pay and pay and pay into the pockets of your elected officials to tap into Americans darkest side for their own profit.
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