China and the “news” publications the country’s communist party owns do not like the idea of Americans having firearms. Over and over again, they publish pieces critical of the Second Amendment.

Now, we don’t have to actually care what China thinks of our defense of our civil liberties. After all, it’s not like they value such things in any way, shape, or form.

But they do occasionally find westerners to push that same agenda. People like Stephanie Stone, who published a piece at China Daily recently. It really has to be seen to be believed.

America’s streets and schools are looking less like part of a civilized society and more like the Wild West. As of July 2022, there have been over 300 mass shootings in the United States, leaving over 300 people dead, over 1,000 injured, and many more wondering why there is such staunch resistance from politicians and pro-gun advocates to even reasonable gun regulations.

It’s amazing how, in just two sentences, Stone manages to either lie or mischaracterize reality in so many ways.

First, our streets and schools look no different than they did a decade ago or more except when it comes to technology and fashion. That’s literally it.

Further, there haven’t been any 300 mass shootings. I know the Gun Violence Archive says otherwise, but we all know they inflate their numbers so as to make things sound scarier. Stone does nothing but parrot those talking points.

And as for “reasonable gun regulations,” there’s no such thing. Every single one is an infringement on our right to keep and bear arms, for one thing. For another, every such “reasonable” regulation has profound problems in that it goes after law-abiding gun ownership rather than the criminals who represent the real problem.

Moving on with the rest of Stone’s piece:

In part, it’s because gun culture is almost synonymous with American culture. Many people have positive gun associations, spending time hunting or shooting with their family. There’s also a pervasive film trope of the all-American hero rushing in, guns blazing, to save the day! Many people come from military families and they’re proud to carry forward the tradition of the “well-regulated militia” as mentioned in the Second Amendment of the US Bill of Rights, which also states that a person’s right “to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.

So, this is a very complicated topic, and in my research I found that all of my questions could, really, be distilled into one, which is: do guns keep us safe? Or, do more guns keep us safer?

Nope.

Well, I’m sure she really delved deep into the topic.

Now, let’s understand that Stone, who appears to be American, wrote a piece for China Daily all about how she longed to move to the communist nation, a desire that replaced her desire to abandon her native late for Europe instead.

In other words, there’s every indication that, to her, rights are irrelevant and that her own personal politics lean more toward authoritarianism.

As such, why should we believe she took an unbiased look at the data?

She didn’t. In fact, she provides no evidence of such research and ample evidence she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Take this paragraph, for example:

But isn’t gun regulation a slippery slope to regulating our other freedoms? Again, no. We’re talking about reasonable regulations. Nowhere else do people argue for unfettered rights without responsibility. Why should guns, which kill more children every year than the highly regulated automotive industry, be any different?

Except that the only industry even close to as regulated as the firearm industry is the pharmaceutical industry. Maybe the financial industry is close as well.

The gun industry has tight regulations over the manufacturing and sale of firearms, one well beyond what the auto industry sees. After all, you can sell a car to literally any adult who has the money or the credit to get financed, regardless of their criminal background or driving history.

So why should we believe Stone conducted any real research that wasn’t driven by confirmation bias?

We shouldn’t.

Further, this is someone who admits she desperately wanted to abandon the land of her birth, the land where rights are valued far more than literally anywhere else on the planet. Why would she want to open her eyes that?

Of course, the idea that someone who was born in the US but has moved to China with a desire to stay there for life would not be in favor of guns isn’t surprising, nor is it particularly annoying, truth be told.

What’s annoying is how a Chinese publication continues to think it has any voice in what happens here in the US. It’s also troubling just how much attention the Chinese media spends on a domestic matter when their preferred position would make us more vulnerable to foreign invasion.

But hey, what do I know? I’m just an American with no desire to abandon the land of my birth for one of the most totalitarian regimes on the planet. Surely the anti-American woman who lives in such a place is the one who is truly free, right?

And surely she, who doesn’t even live here, knows how much our streets and schools look like the Wild West as opposed to those of us who live here.