Posted by
John Caile on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 1:27:34 PM
No sooner had the Holocaust Museum shooting hit the news, than the media talking heads began speculating (dare I say, salivating?) over the possibility that "this incident might re-ignite the gun debate." But it didn't happen - and here's why.
When initial reports indicated that the shooter used a "long gun" (i.e. a rifle of shotgun), you could sense the excitement. Would the shooter's "weapon of choice" turn out to be one of those "scary guns," such as an AR15? Or an SKS? Oh, please, PLEASE let it be that Holy Grail of anti-gun news reporting, the AK-47! The press corps was giddy with anticipation.
Until they found out that the gun used was a weenie little 22 rifle - the same kind of gun that many of us learned to shoot at summer camp when we were 8 or 9 years old.
"Damn!" you could almost hear them grumble, "how are we going to demonize THAT?" Because, to the gun control true believers (of which there are many in the liberal press), "the gun" is to be feared more than the shooter himself, and a plain old 22 rifle just doesn't have the same "scare quotient" as one of those "military looking" guns.
But those of us familiar with firearms know that any gun can be used to kill - there is no such thing as a "good" or a "bad" gun. As a friend of mine who is a former member of the Israeli Defense Force put it, rational people "fear the terrorist, not the tool." Even the Marines rightly point out that "this is a rifle - the weapon is the Marine."
In any event, talking about "more gun control" for Washington D.C. is like advocating "more liberalism on NPR" - they already have the most repressive gun laws in the nation. Not only are NO residents allowed to carry a firearm for personal protection, but until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down their overreaching "safe storage" law in the Heller Case, citizens of our Nation's Capitol could not even possess a working firearm in their own homes!
Additionally, regardless of any local laws, accused shooter James Von Brun was already a convicted felon, and thus prohibited by Federal Law from owning any gun. Not that such laws ever stop anyone from obtaining firearms, especially criminals. D.C. gang members routinely carry guns - D.C. has some of the highest violent crime rates in the nation. Even anti-gun Mayor Adrian Fenty admitted as much when he stated that "in these days and times you never know when anyone is going to grab a gun and use it in an inappropriate way."
Now, putting aside Mayor Fenty's obscenely Politically Correct choice of words in describing the senseless murder of a security guard as the "inappropriate" use of a gun, any reasonable person would respond to his comment with an astonished "Well, duh! Ya think?"
The recent upsurge in gun sales, spurred by many first time gun owners (including a growing percentage of women), is a clear indication that, unlike the mostly liberal media, when it comes to guns and crime, the American people get it.
The real issue is when, if ever, the anti-gun political and media classes are going to "get it."