Compare this reasoned, well thought out article about guns and the screeching, fear mongering drivel you hear from the left wing control freaks on MSNBC and the rest of the liberal MSM. The do gooder control freaks want to take your guns because they want the government to have more power and control over your lives. They know what is best for you.
Guns, Like Washing Machines, Don’t Act – People Do
Via James E. Miller of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,
Reprinted from the Middletown Press and Journal
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the usual cadre of politicians, pundits and commentators are hitting the airwaves and condemning believers of the “guns don’t kill” rationale. This exercise in demonization is being followed with pleas to strip Americans of their guns and place a ban on vaguely-defined “assault” weapons.
What’s been lacking in the flurry of proposals that inevitably followed a catastrophe like Sandy Hook has been a deeper look at the kind of environment impressionable minds are coming of age in. Far too often, politically-minded observers fall back on reactionary emotion for the solution to problems without actually engaging in critical thinking as to the root of what they are trying to solve.
As Southwestern University School of Law professor Butler Shaffer put it, we tend to focus too much “attention on the consequences of our behavior” instead of the “casual factors, as the thinking that produces dysfunctional results.”
We then end up looking to government to solve problems which it has a hand in creating. Many pro-gun control advocates are quick to mention that there is little gun violence in countries with “reasonable” gun laws in place. Yet as economist Thomas Sowell points out, countries with stricter gun control laws such as Mexico, Brazil and Russia all have higher murder rates than the U.S. When you compare Switzerland to Germany, where the former has higher rates of gun ownership than the latter, Switzerland has a lower murder rate.
The difficulty with using the empirical method to explain human phenomena is that it ignores the complexity of mankind. Data can be cherry-picked to prove any conclusion. Logic and reason are the best tools to make sense of a tragedy such as a school shooting. And the fact remains that government bans never prevent said goods from reaching the public. More often than not, good people abide by the prohibition while the more criminally inclined ignore the law.
The truth is we will never really know what compelled a young man to take the life of his mother, her coworkers and the children of Sandy Hook Elementary. There are discernable factors that may have played a significant role, however.
Our country’s empathetic response to the ongoing wars that result in the deaths of innocent women and children has certainly resulted in the dehumanizing of fatal violence. The press’s ignoring, and outright covering up, of the human victims (often called “collateral damage”) of the War on Terror has had an immeasurable impact on how today’s society views the loss of life.
When the Washington Post ran a photo of 2-year-old Ali Hussein being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad after an American air strike in 2008, some wrote to the paper and complained that the picture would undermine the war effort. The fact that the child was stripped of a life that was fully ahead of him was lost on most Americans.
There also is the increased use of psychotropic pharmaceuticals that have been shown to induce suicidal and violent tendencies. These drugs were used by the shooter in Connecticut, the shooter in Aurora, Col., and one of the Columbine High School assailants.
The politically-connected pharmaceutical industry, in cahoots with the equally connected medical industry, cashes in by peddling these government-approved narcotics. While correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation, none of these points have been highlighted by a media establishment that would rather make quick judgments instead of taking the time to examine what has become the new “normal” American life.
Those who decry “the guns don’t kill people” line aren’t acknowledging reality. Guns are inanimate objects. They lack free will and consciousness. To say that a gun kills a person is to say that couches, shoes and washing machines can kill people.
In short, guns don’t act – people do. The same goes for television shows, movies and video games with violent content. They are objects that are valued by the minds of the public. Why so many in our society are drawn to violence is worth asking because the Sandy Hook shooting was but another extension of this fascination.
My father often shares with me an anecdote about a classmate who brought a rifle to his high school speech class to demonstrate how to properly clean a firearm. This was in the blue-collar city of Emmaus, and nobody felt unsafe in the presence of a student brandishing a functioning weapon. The question is; what has changed in the decades since the late 1960s? It certainly can’t be access to guns since they were just as widely available back then, if not more.
Eighteenth-century British statesman Edmund Burke once wrote that “the nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity” and that the simplicity often displayed in hasty political action is “grossly ignorant.” It’s disappointing, but not unexpected, to witness another intellectual mob calling for prohibition of the one tool that holds tyranny at bay.
Common sense says that disarming law-abiding citizens will make them more susceptible to harm. But in the aftermath of a tragedy such as Sandy Hook, rational thought is tossed aside in favor of short run solutions.
What must be considered is why some individuals are so drawn to violence, what effect has the increased prescription rate of antidepressants had, and why casualties in war have become so dehumanized. There is an uncomfortable but common denominator in all these factors.
I would hope anti-gun zealots notice it before they ramp up their War on Firearms.
Wood Burner says:
“The truth is we will never really know what compelled a young man to take the life of his mother, her coworkers and the children of Sandy Hook Elementary.”
We’ll never know because he didn’t kill them. He was simply a poor little idiot caught up in a government black op, like many before him. It’s amazing how many articles in defense of constitutional rights parrot the narrative being spoon fed to the bleating sheep without ever once questioning whether the entire premise of the debate is legitimate. If you’re looking for pure evil, look to the federal government (the, not our).
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
15 
3
9th January 2013 at 7:56 am
flash says:
another shit-eating statist cur sporting a chest of medals lines up to take a swing at what s left of this frayed Republic.
…replacing Big Sis with a cold blooded professional killer ‘…the noose tightens.
GEN McChrystal Applies For Job As New Homeland Security Secretary, Replacing Napolitano
http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/gen-mccrystal-applies-for-job-as-new-homeland-security-secretary/#comments
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
1
9th January 2013 at 8:07 am
flash says:
The sure sign of a halfwit is someone who believes a politician’s promise.
James E. Miller Ludwig von Mises Institute
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
1
9th January 2013 at 8:12 am
flash says:
..saw this from commenter nmewn over @ ZH…
Big Pharma kills..ban Big Pharma
Its not the gun.
Its time to “go there”…
Huntsville, Alabama – February 5, 2010: 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft and “other drugs for the conditions.” He had been seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist.
Kauhajoki, Finland – September 23, 2008: 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. He was also seeing a psychologist.
Dekalb, Illinois – February 14, 2008: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system. He had been seeing a psychiatrist.
Jokela, Finland – November 7, 2007: 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.
Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.
Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.
Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”. He had previously seen a psychiatrist.
Wahluke, Washington – April 10, 2001: Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.
El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School. He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2001: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.
Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.
Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold’s medical records remain sealed. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. Harris had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.
Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending “anger control classes” and was under the care of a psychologist.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
19 
1
9th January 2013 at 8:18 am
David says:
Gun control from Obama is a distraction to keep your eyes away from the things he really wants to do. What are those things, I don’t know but I am sure it is not good. Watch his other hand friends.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
1
9th January 2013 at 10:30 am
Administrator says:
Facts are so inconvenient to liberal do-gooder douchebags. The homicide rate in this country is 4.8 per 100,000. Where is the real problem?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
13 
0
9th January 2013 at 10:38 am
JIMSKI says:
Yes it is ” time to go there ” and call this what it really is. It is a continuation of the war on us vrs them.
It will soon be time to choose sides. Before you could get away from not choosing sides. I choose not to fly so I can not be molested. When I see a sign preventing me from being armed I choose to not enter. I bought my home in the country out of a township for a reason, to be left alone. Now it looks like I will not be left alone.
Sigh……
The audacity of these fuckers is just………. fuck I have no words. They are no longer talking grandfather clauses they are talking ban. New York is fucked as the governor seems to think he may have to get the national guard involved.
So much of what I have done such as water, food, fuel, defense actually puts my on a list. Not on a list that says ” this guy can take care of himself and his family ” but on a list that says ” this guy is a threat ”
I am being made into a criminal.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
0
9th January 2013 at 11:37 am
Chatham Police says:
JIMSKI
You are under constant surveillance, as are all the anarchist domestic terrorists on this site. We will track you down like the mangy curs that you are. Don’t try to hide. We know your every move.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
9th January 2013 at 11:52 am
Stucky says:
JIMSKI petitions TBPers for help moments before his arrest.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:01 pm
Hope@ZeroKelvin says:
The gun grabbers, ie libtard proglodytes, are very dangerous people. Discount them at your peril.
Here are my 4 points of the underpinnings of their worldview, how crazy it is and where it can conceivably go.
I am also assigning you some homework to get you to start thinking.
#1) The gun grabbers believe in, and support, Big Government as the “solution” to all of life’s problems. Since life is full of Big Problems, we must have Big Government to solve them they say, to make us safe and make us prosperous. Despite the complete failure of BG to acheive these things, the libtard proglodytes will scream that anybody that disagrees with this is obviously crazy and must be “helped”.
Please review the history of how the former USSR used the psychiatric profession to declare dissenters as enemies of the state and thus “crazy”. Dissenters were then committed to psych hospitals where they were lobotomized or drugged into insensibility.
Please note how this gun issue is being inextricably wound up with “mental health issues”.
Couple national gun registration with some kind of fed.gov administered/sanctioned “psych exam” and we go, where? See Solzhenitsyn.
#2) The gun grabbers are people that are completely unable to distinguish or acknowledge that there are evil, dangerous, lawless people in the world. Bad behaviour is always blamed on some external force, like “society” or “racism”, NOT that the evil doer has made a conscious choice to do evil things. In their zeal to “be safe”, they reason that removing all guns will somehow remove all external temptation and the evil doers will magically, transform into law abiding citizens. This fits completely with their idea that only by creating the perfect system FIRST you can then get perfect people.
This is totally backward with the entirety of human history but that is “fixed” by just eliminating the people that don’t “fit” in utopia. Hence the 200+million people killed by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, PolPot and the NKs. (Also the 25+ million that Ayers and Dorn thought might have to be killed in the US if their crackpot schemes had succeeded.)
And what happened to these 200+ million before being killed? They were disarmed – first by national gun registration, then by confiscation. See Matt Bracken’s latest piece on this.
Please review the people who mentored Obama as a young man and who surround/advise him in the WH right now.
#3) The gun grabbers are driven by emotion and fear not by facts and reason. That actual violent crime INCREASES when guns are taken from the hands of law abiding citizens matters not. That private gun ownership in the US is a Second Amendment right GRANTED BY THE CONSTITUTION AND BY OUR CREATOR matters not. That Switzerland having fully automatic guns in every home with zero mass shootings matters not. You cannot reason with these people, stop trying, you will just provoke them to the very violence they claim to abhor.
Please review the calls for violence against the NRA and gun owners in general from the gun grabber supporters on social media. Also review the post Alex Jones Piers Morgan segments where the panelists actually called for Alex to be shot.
#4) Despite all the calls for “equality”, the libtard proglodytes completely fail to realize that a gun is the great equalizer. A gun makes your 90 pound granny able to defend herself against the 300 pound bench pressing felon breaking into her home to beat, rob, rape and kill her. An AR15 in her hands would be even better, preferably with a 30 round mag, cuz granny isn’t going to shoot like Dirty Harry and hit her attacker with one shot. Underlying the gun grabbing is the very real message that the life of the felon is MORE valuable as that of your granny, probably cuz of your granny’s racism/sexism/colonialism/imperialism is why the felon is a felon in the first place. Hence granny must “pay”.
In fact, the gun grabbers come from the same political leanings that classify gun owners, patriots, Constitutionalists, anti-abortionists, veterans, conservatives as “domestic terrorists”. And don’t forget the war against the wealthy or people that believe in free enterprise and capitalism. Your granny probably fits into one of these categories, this her life is not equal in value to that of the felon which likely fits into none of these categories.
Please review the DHS circulars on domestic terrorism, the OWS rhetoric, the Obama “biographies”, see the movie “2016″, and start really listening to the rhetoric of the MSM/Fox.
I know this was long, sorry, trying to give some perspective on where the gun grabbers come from and where, historically, at least, they have taken us.
We are in very dangerous times. Personally, I believe we are headed for an economic collapse and/or a hot Civil War 2.0, hope I am wrong, but that is what the tea leaves say to me.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
13 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:03 pm
Politician says:
Let us not regulate more, let us create legislation that requires all citizens to wear the body armor my biggest campaign donor manufactures.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
9th January 2013 at 12:07 pm
Another Politician says:
Well, my biggest donor sells breast implants and this legislation for body armor will ruin his billion dollar industry!! We need to legislate it that all breast implants are encased in Kevlar fabric instead of wearing vests.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:11 pm
flash says:
I propose dividing the county into two separate , but equal(land mass) sectors. One populated of those who want gun ownership,and the other by those who don’t.
It’s be interesting to see how many pecker puffing Piers,bitch-boy Bloombergs or cock swallowing Cuomos still want to live in the gun-free zone.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:19 pm
Da Judge Antonin says:
Clearly the solution to all the problems with gun control can be solved by allowing more anonymous money into the election process. -Da Judge Antonin
~~~
No no no we need more lgislation, via our hired lobbyists, that require ALL citizens, at their expense to have psychological evaluations. Guns dont kill people, crazy people kill people -AMA
~~~
Folks, what we need to fix this problem of crazies killing people is less taxes -Norquist
~~~
Globall warming is making people more psychotic the answer to gun control is climate legislation -Tree Hugger
~~~
The problem can be solved sy giving me billions more in relief aid -Krissy Kris
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:24 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
“Despite all the calls for “equality”, the libtard proglodytes completely fail to realize that a gun is the great equalizer. ”
That granny shouldn’t be defending herself to begin with. If that young entrepreneur is desperate enough that he is breaking and entering then obviously he NEEDS THOSE THINGS!
If he hasn’t gotten laid in a while, then its her DUTY to lay down and take it because he has issues we need to understand!
/sarcasmoff
The number of gun control nuts is scary. They live in so much fear they are willing to trust the lion to hide them from wolves.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
7 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:24 pm
flash says:
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
8 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:38 pm
Ron says:
I thought about making a video of all the things in my house that i could kill people with if i went crazy.But i dont want the problems that would happen because of it.
I would put your personal guided missle at the top of the danger list.(car)
Most folks kitchen holds several means to inflict death.The house hold cleaners in your bathroom and laundry room.
Golf clubs and baseball bats could inflict some serious carnage.
But tyrants want you unarmed so this stuff really dosent matter.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
5 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:51 pm
AWD says:
More people are buying guns right now than in any time in history.
I agree with HZK and Flash, the criminals in Washington represent a bigger threat to our nation and our individual rights and ability to protect ourselves than any threat foreign or domestic. We must protest and fight to protect our arms.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:56 pm
AWD says:
What we need is a war on liberal progressive criminals (before it’s too late).
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:57 pm
flash says:
more drone strikes please….
Obama Signs $633B Defense Bill President Barack Obama signed a $633 billion defense bill for next year despite serious concerns about the limits Congress imposed on his handling of terror suspects and lawmakers’ unwillingness to back the cost-saving retirement of aging ships and aircraft
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/01/03/obama-signs-633b-defense-bill.html?ESRC=army.nl
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
9th January 2013 at 1:01 pm
flash says:
PJ….sorry about the harsh tone, afterall TBP is the choir.
Certainly , we all have something to lose by alienating , friends, family and associates and I wouldn’t want anyone to jeopardize their livelihood just to prove they’re analysis of the current dire political/economic situation is correct , but there will be a price to pay for silence just as there is spewing what many of the sheep consider vitriol .
I’ve even had people tell me that those ringing the warning bell are not the harbingers of hard times , but the cause of via propagation of bad news i.e.negative energy.
One has to be their own judge in aliening others ,especially those they depend on.
Everybody can’t be a hard-ass….just sayin’.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
9th January 2013 at 1:31 pm
flash says:
Rule by executive order/dictatorship ..you know it’s coming.
The Blog
Biden: Obama Might Use Executive Order to Deal With Guns
11:42 AM, Jan 9, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER
Widget tooltip
Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts
Vice President Joe Biden revealed that President Barack Obama might use an executive order to deal with guns.
“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”
Biden said that this is a moral issue and that “it’s critically important that we act.”
Biden talked also about taking responsible action. “As the president said, if you’re actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking. But I’m convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of americans and take thousands of people out of harm’s way if we act responsibly.”
Biden, as he himself noted, helped write the Brady bill.
Eric Holder was scheduled to be at the meeting that’s currently take place at the White House.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
9th January 2013 at 1:35 pm
IndenturedServant says:
HZK said:
“the libtard proglodytes completely fail to realize that a gun is the great equalizer.”
Au contraire! They know this better than anybody! They do not want us to be equal! They want us to be subservient and that will not happen if we are armed. They know EXACTLY what they are doing. They are *educating* a population to BE subservient. The upcoming action to take away our second amendment rights is a test and *may* not work this time but it will succeed next time. It will succeed not because of threats but because there will be enough *educated* and willingly subservient citizens to go along with it.
“The libtard proglodytes” realize that it is far cheaper and easier to *educate* compliance into its citizens that it is to beat it into them. They will rely on this compliance until we are disarmed and then the non compliant will be culled.
Right after that, the compliant will collectively have an epiphany that will fade over the next few generations. The compliant will be compliant for a very long time.
I would love to be there to witness the collective epiphany but that will not be possible.
I will be culled.
I_S
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
9th January 2013 at 4:19 pm
ragman says:
I just got banned forever from Calguns for calling them a bunch of pussies because they didn’t have passion for the Second like Alex Jones. No wonder Kali is a fucked-up socialist paradise. People out there are scared of their collective shadows. For a hoot, go to Calguns.net forums and try to figure out what their fucked-up laws are. TBP forever!
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
9th January 2013 at 6:21 pm
John A says:
Biden said that this is a moral issue and that “it’s critically important that we act.”
“But I’m convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of americans and take thousands of people out of harm’s way if we act responsibly.” – VP Bden
I’ll bet at least 1 million gang members are planning to turn their guns in the same day the Executive Order is signed. And…the lamb will lie down with the wolves and all that. Obama’s Jubliee will transform America overnight. I used to think Joe Biden was senile. Now, I think he is just stupid.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
6 
0
9th January 2013 at 7:28 pm
Stoneman85 says:
Here’s a what if…
What if the Govt knew somthing we didn’t?
What if the Govt WANTED all the people armed?
What would be the best way to go about it?
We have witnessed the answer to the last question for sure…
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
9th January 2013 at 12:40 am