In my nearly half a century on this planet, I’ve heard some bizarre takes in my time. I think we all have heard some wild ones in our time as well. After all, man is not a rational creature but a rationalizing one. People come up with some weird stuff.
Take gun control, for example.
We’ve all heard some weird ideas floated around, but I came across one that might be the most bizarre I’ve ever heard.
It seems that someone thinks that if we pass things like red flag laws here in the United States, we’ll get fewer fatalities as a result of opioids like Fentanyl.
Seriously.
But here’s a new reason for restrictions on unsafe gun purchases: it will reduce the fentanyl crisis. Firearms, legally sold in America and then trafficked to Mexico, are wielded by the same gangs Republicans want to bomb South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, accused leading Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois of ignoring the fentanyl crisis to try and solve the gun crisis. With such legislation, Americans can protect schoolchildren, workers and business executives, and solve this drug scourge that also claims thousands of lives.
Just cut off the cartel’s gun supply by stopping such straw purchases, and they’ll have to be like gun-deprived gangs in England where low supply and high demand make firearms rare. Given 74% of NRA members agree with such universal background checks, it’s a common gun law to shoot for this year in Congress.
Wow. That…that’s something.
First, straw purchases are already illegal. Universal background checks won’t stop straw purchases from happening, either. After all, by definition, a straw purchase requires someone to attempt to buy a gun for someone else, which isn’t what happens in face-to-face transfers.
Passing universal background checks doesn’t change that.
Further, the claim that 74 percent of NRA members agree with universal background checks is a suspect statistic anyway. For one thing, no one has access to the NRA’s membership listing other than the NRA, so they don’t know who is a member and who isn’t. Further, we’ve also talked about the many problems with these questions.
When the rubber meets the road, a lot of support for universal background checks evaporates.
But what about the deeper claim; the claim that if we pass gun control here and now, we’ll see a reduction in opioid deaths?
Well, that’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
“But the cartels get guns from the US.”
Regardless, the cartels have deep pockets. They have a lot of money and if they want guns, someone will happily provide them. We already know they’ve gotten some from the Mexican government via corruption, for example, but someone else will be happy to bring guns into Mexico for them.
That includes straw buyers who, as noted, won’t be inhibited by universal background checks since they already go through background checks.
And this was written by a professor of political science at LaGrange College, my father’s alma mater. Such a shame, too, because it used to be a pretty decent school, but if they’re allowing idiots like this to teach, it can’t be that good anymore.
The cartels will get guns. Gun control won’t stop that, no matter how much people want to wish really hard otherwise.
As a result, there won’t be any difference in the opioid crisis. The idea that there would be is nothing but a rationalization in hopes of pressing Republicans to support policies that would ultimately cost them their seats by pretending it will address something they say is a bigger issue.
What’s more, it’s not even a particularly entertaining rationalization, but one born of ivory tower dementia.
I’d probably feel sad for the author if I wasn’t already so filled with scorn for him putting these words down for public viewing.
