My friend Bruce Gerencser has put together a detailed examination of the problem of gun violence, and some interesting thoughts on what to do about it. It’s worth a read.
https://brucegerencser.net/2023/02/another-day-another-school-massacre-2/
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There a lot wrong (factually & unconstitutionally) with that link piece. I thought about commenting there, but to be honest, if he’s taking the line that he is, I doubt he’s open to a logical (not emotional) discourse.
I’ve found Bruce to be very logical. He wears his heart on his sleeve, which is not to say he’d agree with you, but he’d be open to discourse.
Well, he hasn’t approved my comment…at least yet. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll also post it here.
“Ben, at Meerkat Musings said that you were a logical guy, so here goes. I can appreciate the emotion after events where people have lost their lives, but we should always strive to be factually correct, no? Unless of course disinformation is the goal, which many in the gun control camp have proven themselves (in their own words) complicit in.
AR pattern rifles (of which their are many, many varieties of) don’t fire any faster than any other semi-automatic firearm, the rate of fire is how fast you pull the trigger…..as with any semi-automatic firearm. Semi-automatic firearms also don’t fire “large volume bursts”. Nor, if you’ve read some other media falsehoods recently, do they render hunted animals ‘destroyed’. As evidenced by the many thousands who hunt with AR pattern rifles. But I mean, hey…..if you want to ban the AR-15 and call it a day, I could almost get behind that. Since it wouldn’t affect my AK or Galil.
And “legitimate reason”? I can come up with a hundred. It’s beyond absurd to me that you would grant the State the power to dictate what a Citizen has a “legitimate reason” in owning something explicitly tied to a Constitutional Right.
Now, I largely agree with your statement on background checks. However, they are already tied to a national system (NICS). It’s the individual states and localities that have been failing to submit information to the DOJ, that would prevent many of these criminal shooters to legally acquire a firearm. The only means to enforce ‘universal’ background checks however, is a firearm registry….which aside from being a pipe dream, wouldn’t net nearly half of the legally owned firearms in this country. I have unkind words for anyone whop would deny a Veteran the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, due to a PTSD rating.
I think open carry is foolish, but open and concealed should be legal. Yes, bullying on school should be punished. Parents should also teach their kids to defend themselves. Bullying isn’t remotely new. People committing suicide pr conducting a mass shooting, is.
Magazines. Here we go again with “legitimate need”. Whatever number you’d offer as the top end would be arbitrary and undefendable other than the emotion behind the offer. Gun owners already have broad definition of standard capacity and high capacity. We’re good with that.
But….I’m perfectly fine with the gun control camp directing all of their ire against the NRA. That organization is corrupt and ineffective. State-based groups and national ones like SAF and GOA are far, far more effective in the legislative and judicial realm.
This nation is trying to put a band-aid on a problem that isn’t the guns (which are more difficult to acquire than at any time in our nations history). The problem is the self entitled, leisure pursing society that cares more about disposable consumer goods and social media distractions, than they do parenting or protecting their families.”
So, I’m guessing he may not be so logical at all. I’m unsurprised.
I can’t speak for Bruce, and I wouldn’t attempt to. I for one can only judge the gun question from an international perspective. I haven’t lived it, whereas you and Bruce have.
You see, when it comes to guns, my approach, from where I sit, is that they are not enshrined as a cultural icon, and they aren’t necessary. The UK is generally safer than the USA, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan… all broadly similar in an economic sense, and all safer than the USA.
As per 2020, there were 6.2 murders where guns were the murder weapon, per 100,000 people, in the USA. The total US murder was 7.8 in 2020, so 79.5% of all US murders involved guns. The UK’s total murder rate for 2020 was 1 per 100,000 people (well, it was England and Wales’ total murder rate, as Scotland often gets classed separately, for reasons even as a Brit I don’t understand). In France, the rate was 1.3. Canada had a rate of 1.95. Australia’s was 0.87. Germany’s was 0.9. Japan’s was 0.3.
Then there is the mass shooting problem, which among developed nations is fairly unique to the USA. I can send my daughter to school every day, knowing that the odds are extremely low that there will be someone trying to shoot the place up. There is no need for active shooter drills or any such ‘training’ in British and European schools. The notion that small children have to go through such drills hurts my soul.
I guess I just don’t get it.
I approved and responded to the the aforementioned comment. I don’t argue back and forth with gun nuts. Disparage me by calling me irrational or acting emotionally—who wouldn’t after countless mass shootings?— I don’t care. Guns are the problem. We must do whatever is necessary to regulate and control firearms. Until we do, the slaughter will continue.
No, you didn’t address the multiple lies you wrote. But that’s to be expected.
Apologies Ben, for the cross post.
No worries on that score.
What I would say is that it’s a pity you and Bruce are at odds, and I’ll repeat that I have Bruce to be a brilliantly honest man, in the short time that I have interacted with him. I would say the same of you as well. I don’t know enough about the details of Constitutional law to wade into a detailed discussion on it, I can only address guns from my perspective, which as you are already aware, differs vastly from yours, and perhaps even Bruce’s.
I am more than happy to have conversations with anyone. But when a conversation starts with “you are a liar,” I have no interest in such conversations. Same goes for forced birthers who lead with “you are a murderer” or Evangelicals who start with “you hate God” or “you are angry/bitter.”
Bruce