The “Gun Problem”

Via Eric Peters Autos

The federal government stands poised to criminalize the possession of things rather than actions, which is the type of “action” that government specializes in. It is also arguably why there is what government styles a “gun problem” – though it isn’t much of one at all, just as the “pandemic” wasn’t, either.

Except insofar as government’s deliberate exaggeration of the supposed problem.

With regard to “guns,” the “problem” is almost entirely due to the actions of a relative handful of people out of some 330 million innocent people. Most of the problematic people are denizens of cities where crime isn’t merely a problem but an institution and a way of life, as in the case of Chicago and Baltimore, to cite two specific examples. If you were to excise the “gun violence” that occurs in such places from the aggregate, there would be almost no “gun violence” in this country. Very much of an intellectually honest piece with the fact that, outside of nursing homes and already-sick beds, there was very little unnatural death resulting from the “virus.”

Some hysterics – just the right word, because that’s precisely what we’re talking about – will insist (hysterically) that no deaths – no possibility of deaths –  whether from sickness or the actions of sick people, can be tolerated and any and all measures to prevent them are justified.

This transcends mere hysteria, of course. It crosses the line into insanity – which can be defined as the intolerance of anything less than perfection at whatever the cost to the good. As in the good of hundreds of millions of people who aren’t the problem nor the cause of any.

There will always be “viruses” – sickness – and some will die.

Eventually, inevitably, we will all die. To obsess about death rather than live life is to embrace living death. If a given person wishes to do so, then that is his (sick, sad) choice as it is his life. But it is sicker to insist that others must embrace their living death. Just as it is sick to insist that because some people are a problem everyone else must be presumed one and punished as if they are one – irrespective of their actions.

Which circles back to “guns” – in air fingers quotes to emphasize the usual usage, which implies that it is the guns that are the problem rather than the actions of the relative handful of people who choose to use them in problematic ways. This attitude is – once again – hysteric. Emotionally incontinent. Of a piece with the emotional incontinence that projectile releases when a hysteric faces someone whose face isn’t hidden behind a “mask.”

The operative psychology is the same.

Weaponized hypochondria and “hypochondria” about weapons, as such, being etiolations of the same underlying derangement. It can be diagnosed, in part, by the dissonance that always accompanies this derangement. In the case of the “pandemic,” we have the weaponized hypochondriacs who wear a “mask” sometimes – but not all the time – which is like wearing glasses sometimes. Either you need glasses – or you don’t. If you wear them and can see without them then you do not need to wear glasses.

You need a psychiatrist.

In the case of guns, the dissonance manifests in the utter disinterest in the actions of criminals; in taking no meaningful action (repeatedly) to do something about them – as opposed to doing something to millions of people whose actions are entirely innocent of having caused harm to anyone.

There is a way to bridge the gap between reasonable people who would like to see the actions of bad people dealt with and those who have had it up to here with being characterized as bad people by fearful people.

On the one hand, leave good people alone. Good people are not the problem. They have never been the problem. “Good people” can be easily identified. They are the people who’ve not caused any problems – defined as not having acted in a way that has resulted in harm to others. There are hundreds of millions of these people. Many of them possess guns. So? It’s pretty straightforward.

In return for being good, leave these people alone. Stop insisting that their mere possession of weapons constitutes actionable action. Respect that they have the same right to possess a gun as people who have not molested children have a right to be around children. Get a grip on your fears. Stop letting your fears cause harm to those who haven’t caused any harm.

On the other hand, deal harshly with bad people. These can be easily identified, too – according to their actions. They are the people who cause problems – defined as their having acted in a way that did result in harm to others. If someone threatens to harm someone (an innocent someone) with a gun, which arguably constitutes a working definition of attempted murder, the threatening alone should (upon conviction) result in heavy consequences, such as many years in prison. A second such conviction, a lifetime in prison. Actually shooting someone ought to be met with even greater severity.

It’s pretty straightforward, too.

Such measures would all-but-eliminate what is styled “gun crime” without causing harm to to millions of people whose actions have never been criminal. Thereby avoiding the creation of a criminal regime – a good working definition of that being a regime that treats as criminals people whose only “crime” is being characterized as “criminals.”

Unfortunately, this is a bridge the emotionally incontinent will likely refuse to cross, because it does not lead to their deranged insistence upon a perfection that can never be, at the cost of much that is good.

Including hundreds of millions of good people.

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