1. On Gun Control
Jews were forbidden to own guns in Hitler's Germany.
Nothing ensures peace & security better than means and willingness to confront tyrants.
Jews were forbidden to own guns in Hitler's Germany.
Nothing ensures peace & security better than means and willingness to confront tyrants.
2. Besides, the claim in the above chart is misleading. Gun murder rate in the U.S. too has been declining for decades, even as gun ownership keeps going up. And suicide rate in the U.S. hasn't changed much for decades either. It's just that more of the suicides now involve guns.
3. All I need to change my mind in favor of gun-control is one graph. Cut the statistical subterfuge and show me that. Show me a graph of gun-ownership vs gun-related homicides in America over the last 50 years. That is it. Period.
4. America is unique with exceptionally high gun ownership. But gun-related homicides have been steadily going down in America, even as gun ownership has been going up. This is an inconvenient fact for proponents of gun-control, so they hide it and parade other tangential data.
5. I am sympathetic to some form of gun-control. What I detest is dishonest arguments for it. If we are going to constrain a constitutionally guaranteed right, we need to start with an honest discussion, not blow statistical smoke.
6. Data does not support gun-control. So why am I still sympathetic? Because qualitative arguments are not always nonsense. Qualitative arguments should not be dismissed out of hand. We should respectfully listen to both sides, and have patience to persuade.
7. People should know that "gun-related deaths" is also misleading. People should insist on looking at data for "gun-related homicides" only. A large proportion of "gun-related deaths" are actually suicides.
8. Number of suicides committed with a gun has indeed been rising in the U.S., but the number of suicides has not been rising. Tragic for sure, but guns are not causing any more suicides, only causing a shift in method. We address the problem of suicides as a separate issue.
9. Then there's an argument that goes like this: "All major developed countries have far fewer guns, far fewer shootings, fewer murders overall." To which I say, point me to a time in American history when that was not true.
10. For better or worse, mostly better, U.S. is unique. Yes, America is exceptional. It may mean different things to different people, but it means one and only one thing to me.
11. What makes America exceptional is that it is the first and only country which at its very founding made government subservient to people, not the other way around, which was everywhere the order of the day when America was founded. Many have copied us since our founding.
12. Anything that changes that fundamental equation, people will resist it with all their might. Gun-control strikes at that equation. Do not underestimate what gun-control means to millions upon millions of Americans in whom the frontier spirit is alive and well.
13. Bill of Rights was not an academic exercise in niceties. These are life-or-death conditions upon which the states agreed to form a Union. Bill of Rights cannot be waived simply because coastal elites have a snooty and visceral disdain for those thingies called guns.
14. Confiscating guns requires a Constitutional amendment, as it damn well should. This is not a matter to be taken lightly. I do not favor such an amendment, but even any significant proscription of right to bear arms will require a Constitutional amendment.
15. Many, including me, are open to be persuaded, but it will require intense and protracted give and take to hammer out an acceptable formulation. Anyone who is not up to the task shouldn't expect to make any headway beyond indulging in twitter snark and vacuous virtuous poses.
16. And when we talk statistics, intellectual honesty requires we also take into account number of homicides prevented with the use of a gun. On which planet the antidote to criminals having guns is only criminals having guns?
17. Moreover, look at the Australian chart at the beginning of this thread once again. It's more damning & chilling than it looks at first sight. All law-abiding citizens have been disarmed, but gun homicides continue. Every single gun homicide victim is now an unarmed one.
18. Gun control advocates cannot fathom why millions upon millions of Americans refuse to submit to such a fate to placate their angst. There are two sides to this coin. Adamant and obstreperous refusal to look at the other side will not make it a one-sided coin.
19. Now there are a lot of gun-control advocates (comedians, pompous academics, let alone self-serving politicians) who preen by uttering something called "common-sense gun control," because their superiors handed down that phrase to them after extensive focus-group testing.
20. Well, hallelujah! You would think they discovered the holy grail of gun control debate. But here's the thing. Common-sense gun control is pretty much already the law of the land. Clueless advocacy of focus-group tested phrases is what the leftists use their useful idiots for.
21. Steve Scalise: People use guns way more to defend themselves against criminals than criminals use to hurt people. He should know.
22. Those who think Hitler analogy is overwrought, and need another jolt to come out of their gun-control stupor, see if this makes a difference.
23. When a problem is too complicated to address comprehensively, it's wise to pursue practical solutions for critical elements first. Addressing school safety is saner, wiser, and more consequential right now than striking indignant ideological poses on gun-control.
The End
The End
