In which we highlight a columnist and a major media outlet outing themselves a buffoons:
"The failed Boulder law would have at the least significantly reduced the chances of the recent mass shooting in the city."
The thing that really gets under my skin here is the headline.... the idiot media making it harder (instead of easier) for people to get a factual grasp of complex issues.
It sells advertising, but it costs lives.
How many of you, with a straight face (and without contorting yourselves into twisted reasoning that no person with a reasonable grasp of reality would agree with) are willing to argue that the Boulder shooter would not have driven into Boulder with his AR-556 pistol and murdered 10 people if only that particular pistol had been illegal in Boulder?
Partisan hysteria (in either direction) or a refusal to look up and understand the meanings of the words you use will get you instantly blocked.
Anyone wanna try to make a rational and good faith case that if that particular type of pistol had been illegal in Boulder that the murderer wouldn't have driven into Boulder and committed a mass shooting?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I can't begin to imagine that mindset that leads one to believe that someone wouldn't have driven to town and committed a mass murder if only his particular type of pistol had been illegal.
I'm of the opinion that guns do make it easier for the average psycho to kill people.... but the idea that he wouldn't have committed mass murder if that particular kind of gun hadn't been legal in that particular municipality is beyond irrational. It's right up there with claiming we can lower the murder rate by forcing rifle shooter's thumbs to be vertical or banning bayonet lugs.
I think gun bans (especially the bayonet-lug bans, controlling what direction our thumb is, caring whether a stock can be extended, etc) are bound to fail... as has been shown repeatedly. I think any real gains to be had in reducing the amount of violent crime using firearms is going to have to come from efforts to keep guns out of the hands of people that most of us agree shouldn't have them.