I figure we're going to be talking about the events of this past weekend for a little while yet to come. I honestly wish I didn't have stuff to write about over having to write about such senseless tragedies. I've experienced the loss that comes from one of these things, and I don't wish that on anyone. If I could snap my fingers and make them end, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
But, unfortunately, that's not an option.
So, instead, we get to talk about guns, gun control, and the absolute futility that comes from a debate where one side is convinced they're right and will manipulate the data to prove it.
Yet the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms notes that gun control is, naturally, the wrong takeaway from a trio of incidents, including the stabbing murder of actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife.
From a press release:
Following a weekend of tragedies both here and abroad which included a terrorist attack in Australia, a deadly shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island and the reported stabbing deaths of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said guns aren’t the problem and restrictions aren’t the solution.
“If anything,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “this trio of tragedies underscores the fact that it is the evil in some people, not the instrument they use, which is ultimately to blame. Look at the facts. Rhode Island has very strong gun control laws already on the books, and murder has always been against the law, but that didn’t prevent Saturday’s violence. And let’s not overlook the fact that Brown University is a gun-free zone.
“Australia adopted some of the strictest gun control laws in the world following the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting,” he continued, “but that did not prevent the father-son terrorist attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Yet the first thing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to do is add further restrictions, including a limit on the number of firearms Australian citizens may own. Sadly, Australia does not allow its citizens to carry firearms for personal protection, and we saw the result of that foolishness on the Sunday evening news.
“And no California gun control law prevented what happened to Mr. Reiner and his wife,” Gottlieb observed, “because they were stabbed to death.
“The only common denominator in all three of these horrendous crimes is the evil intent of the perpetrators,” he said, “and that is not something which can be prevented by passing another law that only affects honest citizens. To suggest otherwise defies common sense, and only illustrates the flawed single-mindedness of the gun prohibition lobby.
“Those who advocate for more restrictions on personal freedom in response to criminal violence are admitting they don’t have any real solutions,” Gottlieb concluded. “They refuse to acknowledge their policies have accomplished nothing, while creating scapegoats to hide their own failures.
“With this wave of terrible crimes,” he said, “it is no surprise that so many more people are buying and carrying firearms for their own protection, and that of their loved ones.”
Gottlieb absolutely nails it when he points out the common denominator in these incidents.
We haven't talked about Reiner's murder, mostly because it wasn't a gun thing, but that's kind of the point as to why we should have. He was stabbed to death, allegedly by his drug-addicted son. His wife was murdered with him. A fantastic director responsible for some of my all-time favorite movies, including The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men.
But guns weren't needed for Reiner and his wife to be murdered. All that was needed was murderous intent. The tools one needs to take a life are readily available. Guns aren't the only way. Hell, we're blessed with hands and feet, which are used to kill more people each year than so-called assault weapons.
At Bondi Beach, extensive gun control laws did nothing to stop a mass shooting that would be a major incident even by American standards, and they did it all with bolt-action rifles and shotguns. They didn't need a semi-automatic rifle to do it. All they had to do was train a little bit to work the actions fast and learn to keep their eyes down range.
We still don't know enough about the Brown shooting to really form much of an opinion, other than the fact that Rhode Island does, indeed, have extensive gun control laws and the university itself is a gun-free zone.
These were three awful tragedies that piled up on one another, and all three show the futility of thinking gun control is the answer to anything. What we need is to empower regular folks to protect themselves, and not just through legislation. The stigmatization of gun ownership and concealed or open carry needs to end.
If good people had guns, they might have saved a lot of lives this weekend.
Unfortunately, they couldn't.
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