Letters to the editor can be a source of entertainment, usually because so many letter writers are absolutely clueless about the subjects they're talking about. Especially when it comes to pushing gun control.
This one from the Los Angeles Times would be a prime example, except that it almost reads like a parody.
See, it starts with a quote from Mayor Karen Bass following a shooting at a warehouse party. She offers the typical platitudes of how there's no place in Los Angeles for violence, how those responsible will be caught, and so on.
The letter writer cites this, then offers up this:
No slam against Bass intended, but I’m fairly sure her quote could have been copied, almost verbatim, from any number of concerned local politicians 10, 20, 30 or even 50 years ago here in Los Angeles.
Progress on gun control? We have met the enemy and he is us.
I say it reads like a parody to me because, in the time that the writer cites, California has seen an incredible amount of gun control passed. Rosters have been created, gun rationing has been passed, so-called assault weapons have been restricted many times over, gun registration has been a thing, and so many other bits of legislation have been passed and still stand firm.
And yet, there was a mass shooting in Los Angeles, the largest city in the entire gun-controlled state of California, and the writer brings up gun control?
I mean, it's entirely possible he actually is mocking the entire thing. That's the beauty of this. I honestly can't tell if he's lamenting that more hasn't been done, or making fun of how there have been a pile of laws passed and something like this still happened.
After the shooting in Manhattan and the rhetoric from anti-gun officials there, it's impossible for me to determine which it is.
Of course, if we assume it's a parody of typical anti-gun talking points, it's fair. Like I said, we heard the same things out of New York, which has had a ton of gun control passed in recent years, and it did nothing to stop the shooting there.
In Los Angeles, it's never stopped anything. I remember the 1990s and how bad Los Angeles was. While there was still all the glitz and glamor of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, the South Central part of the city wasn't someplace you went while playing tourist unless you wanted to risk being shot in a drive-by.
While things settled down a bit, it settled down across the country, without California-style gun control rules.
Right now, things are happening, and a lot of people are screaming for gun control, much like the letter writer seems to do. However, if New York and California can't stop the violence with the laws they promised people would, in fact, keep guns out of the hands of bad guys, then why should anyone believe anything else they're pushing?
Of course, with the media pushing the exact same thing, it's not difficult to envision just how many people will keep buying what the anti-gun jihadists are selling. It's a damn shame, too, because the failures are obvious.
Which, if the author is poking at the idea, is evidenced by the parody here.
If the author isn't, then it's clear that the pushing is working way too well.
And without finding this guy and asking him one way or another, I doubt I'll be able to be any clearer about it than what we have here, and I'm not about to play the role of a stalker and find this guy's phone number or anything. That's just creepy, and who do I look like, Taylor Lorenz?
