tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2224204979128038089.post8705010494539653005..comments2023-09-24T04:49:37.439-07:00Comments on Randy's Rag: GUN TALK!A. Randy Naborshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16582652319512391777noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2224204979128038089.post-35815363337541726552012-12-23T16:08:22.766-08:002012-12-23T16:08:22.766-08:00I like the post, but there are some issues that ar...I like the post, but there are some issues that are not addressed. First, and most important, one separates something like a school shooting from the gang violence. The people who take part in both are very different, and while guns are used in both cases, the makeup of the shooter is very different.<br /><br />Second, much of the gang violence centers around prohibition of drugs. Nearly a century ago, we had gun violence due to gangs fighting for territory in which to sell alcoholic beverages, which were prohibited by law. Today, we do not have the same kind of violence tied to the sale and distribution of alcohol.<br /><br />Drug prohibition also has spawned a huge industry of police violence (which also is "gun violence") that I NEVER have seen discussed in the mainstream press. There are 70,000 SWAT raids a year, most of them invasions of places where people are using drugs, with the potential for violence growing exponentially because we are arming police with military gear and then encouraging them to be violent. <br /><br />My guess is that the editor was referring to the violence associated with the prohibition of prostitution and drug use and sales, not the "attendant violence." As I noted before, there was "attendant violence" with sale and distribution of alcohol during the 1920s; there is none today. Likewise, the "attendant violence" tied to drugs and prostitution comes with their prohibition, not the activity itself.<br /><br />One does not have to like prostitution or drug use to understand why violence accompanies prohibition of these things. Nor do I believe it is necessarily "racist" to question prohibition; in fact, our prisons today are full of African-Americans arrested and convicted of drug crimes, and I would hope one day that we actually find a way to discuss that fact, as opposed to just decrying the racial makeup of prisons, as bad as that situation is and as much as I agree that the racial makeup is wrong in and of itself.<br /><br />(The "Progressive" approach to this problem is not to deal with the underlying issues, but rather to demand that more whites be arrested and imprisoned. That is not a solution, but nonetheless is makes Progressives feel good about themselves.)<br /><br />School shootings are part of a larger pattern in which spree shooters pick the "gun-free" zones in which law-abiding people are unarmed. Now, I have no desire to carry a gun anywhere, least of all a school or a shopping mall or theater, and I would prefer not to do so. <br /><br />However, spree shooters are the type of people who want to prey on others that they perceive to be helpless or defenseless. Many spree shooters have been bullied themselves and are just getting back at others, or they simply have gone to the nihilistic dark side and just don't care.<br /><br />They do know, however, that they are at a huge advantage and they love that fact. Now, whether or not this means we should scrap the whole "gun-free" zones approach or not is beyond my scope of suggestions. I'm just laying out the facts, and if Americans want to believe that a law against gun possession by civilians in certain areas means that everyone will obey that law, that is their business.<br /><br />Unfortunately, what we are seeing is a clash of agendas and the attempt for more feel-good legislation. Outlawing the Bushmaster will not result in fewer shootings, but it will make the editors of the Chattanooga Times feel good about things. (They like to feel good about Progressive causes like abortion on demand.)<br /><br />There is no "dialogue," only a series of monologues.William L. Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01802990642236807359noreply@blogger.com