There are various degrees of anti-gunner out there in the world today. Some are articulate in trying to promote their gun control ideology--they might be wrong, but they can at least present that argument in a way that makes sense--but a lot of others aren't.

It's not that they're necessarily stupid, at least in the general sense. They're wrong on guns, but they're not inherently dumb in general.

Some are, sure, but not all of them. We're all kind of idiotic on something.

And when someone who isn't articulate on the issue of guns tries to opine on the topic, what we get is a jumbled mess.

What I'm going to do is break down this piece sent to a local Georgia publication. I'll be addressing different sections as we go in a style known as "fisking." I won't be actually removing anything, however.

Increasingly lax gun laws, passed by myopic politicians, are creating a dangerous situation for our citizens. In the last week, there have been 2 articles in The Citizen regarding gun violence. One was about an incident in Upson County (“2 gang members sentenced to 16 years for shootout in park”) where young people employed assault rifles. In the second case (“Officers chase, arrest carjacking, gun-toting juvenile”) the incident involved a car stolen in DeKalb and recovered in Fayetteville.

If you look up the two stories, you'll see that one is what's presented, but the other has almost nothing in common with the first except that they took place in roughly the same place. The second involves juveniles, people who cannot lawfully purchase guns in the first place.

If this seems like it's a bit of a jumbled mess, just wait. You ain't seen nothing yet.

A couple of years ago, Time magazine ran a column regarding gun companies manipulating states concerned with gun violence by threatening to move (https://time.com/6206785/gunmakers-remington-ilion-firearms-economy/ ). Georgia’s successful attempt to lure gun manufacturing (including Remington to Troup County) by being a lax gun law state was a key part of that piece.

Georgia has the 11th loosest gun law in the nation. Per RemArms CEO Ken D’Arcy, “The decision to locate in Georgia is very simple: the state of Georgia is not only a business-friendly state; it’s a firearms-friendly state.”

As has been reported for the last couple of years, Remington is gradually moving its international headquarters to our neighbor city, LaGrange. That move has created and will create some jobs and, despite extensive tax breaks, may eventually generate some tax revenue. However, that does not mean that guns are good for us as patriotic Americans, Georgians or citizens of Fayette and Coweta County.

That's right, he's upset that Georgia has lured a business to the state simply because it's the wrong kind of business.

And what does this have to do with the first paragraph? Absolutely nothing. That's what I meant about it being a jumbled mess.

But this section is coherent enough to address, so I will.

Remington made a business decision because the state they were in was constantly restricting the products it sold. If you made cars, would you want to operate in a state that kept tripping over itself to deny you a market in your own state?

Of course you wouldn't.

So Remington looked for a state that would make sense as a new home and Georgia it is. There's nothing about this that's dirty, underhanded, or sneaky. It's just common sense.

And for the record, guns aren't just good for patriotic Americans--of which I'm not sure I can count the author as one--but necessary. How can you defend freedom if you give up the means with which to defend it? Words are great, but we've already seen some lamenting their inability to restrict those. There comes a time when you need more than words.

For a prime example, Remington’s semi-automatic rifle (an Uzi type) was the weapon used to murder little kids at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Georgia firm manufacturing arms has new ownership and is now known as RemArms.

Wait..."an Uzi type" was used in Sandy Hook? That's hilarious.

No, it wasn't, and if this person who keeps wanting to be taken seriously for his opinions can't get such a basic fact correct then why should we take literally anything else they assert seriously? Especially since the weapon used there was a stolen but much-vilified AR-15-style rifle.

In the state of Georgia alone, 100,000 students have reported depression (https://www.freeyourfeels.org/). Nearly 6 million of our American children ages 3-17 have diagnosed anxiety (https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html ). An incredible 3 million adolescents have seriously thought of suicide. That’s 19% of our teens aged 12-17. And almost half of them (9%) have already attempted suicide.

Bullying has increased due to electronic communications. School after school has been raising a red flag regarding cyberbullying issues and the deteriorating mental health of our students. These trends are leading to more violence in our schools. And students are being arrested for gun possession

And students can't lawfully purchase firearms.

The author's whole premise is, apparently, that Georgia needs gun control, yet if you're going to push that line, you should probably not be going down that particular road. If gun control worked, then how did these kids get guns in the first place?

Prayers will not help. We are a much more religious state versus most others. Yet, Georgia’s age-adjusted death rate is 17.7/100K, versus Illinois at 14.1/100k. In other words, there are 25% more gun deaths per capita in Georgia versus Illinois, a much less religious state.

I honestly don't know where he's getting this information. For someone going out of his way to include links previously, he's not doing any of it now.

Yet we need to remember that the term "age-adjusted death rate" includes all causes of death, including cancer, suicides, car accidents, and everything else. It's not limited to murder and it's not limited to suicides, much less those carried out with a firearm.

So it really looks like this data is less than pointless because either he doesn't know what he's talking about--which, considering his Uzi comment above, is plausible--or he's mispresented it.

And neither will loose gun laws, Kemp’s ill-conceived NRA promoted solution. Designed to eliminate the license now required to carry a gun in public, SB 319 was passed and signed into law by Governor Kemp. But four of the five states with the laxest gun laws have more gun murders per capita than the national average. Having more guns is simply leading to more firearm deaths.

Homicides dropped across the state of Georgia after constitutional carry went into effect, thus negating his entire last sentence. 

We might have more murders here on average, but gun laws don't actually drive homicides. Look at South America sometime. Most of them have gun control laws California could only dream of and a homicide rate that looks like our worst states' rates added together--not averaged together, straight out added to one another. Anti-gunners love to look at Europe, but the truth is that we have a lot more in common with South America than Europe in some regards.

As Georgians, we must start looking realistically at gun violence and stop moving in the wrong direction. Let’s do much stricter background checks, stop gun sales to minors, regulate gun show sales, and restrict assault rifles sales.

Background checks are already as strict as required. Gun sales to minors are already prohibited by both federal and state law. Most sales at gun shows are made by gun dealers, meaning they conduct background checks. So-called assault rifles account for fewer homicides nationally than hands and feet.

Basically, what we have here is an anti-gunner who is really just regurgitating talking points with no understanding of the reality surrounding the topic he's opining on, much like most of your average anti-gunners. It's a bit of a jumbled mess, trying to hit everything in a short amount of time, and most of it poorly thought out.

Just like the average anti-gun mind.