The Newtown Massacre: Time For Gun Control?

No.

I suppose I could end this post with the obvious, but I'll document with the thoughts of my betters.

Jeffery Goldberg (no conservative he):

People should have the ability to defend themselves. Mass shootings take many lives in part because no one is firing back at the shooters. The shooters in recent massacres have had many minutes to complete their evil work, while their victims cower under desks or in closets. One response to the tragic reality that we are a gun-saturated country is to understand that law-abiding, well-trained, non-criminal, wholly sane citizens who are screened by the government have a role to play in their own self-defense, and in the defense of others (read The Atlantic article to see how one armed school administrator stopped a mass shooting in Pearl Mississippi). I don't know anything more than anyone else about the shooting in Connecticut at the moment, but it seems fairly obvious that there was no one at or near the school who could have tried to fight back.


Here's the story Goldberg refers to above:

When he entered the school, he fatally shot Lydia Kaye Dew and Christina Menefee, his former girlfriend. Pearl High School assistant band director, Jeff Cannon, was standing five feet away from Dew when she was fatally shot. Woodham went on to wound seven others before leaving, intending to drive off campus and conduct another shooting at the nearby Pearl Junior High School. However, assistant principal Joel Myrick had retrieved a .45 pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham inside his mother's car. Then Myrick demanded "Why did you shoot my kids?" to which Woodham replied, "Life has wronged me, sir."


Roger Kimball goes back to the Virginia Tech Massacre:

Jim Sollo, representing Virginians Against Handgun Violence, told reporters that “We live in a society where guns are pretty well accepted. There are 200 million guns in this society and obviously some in the wrong hands.” Well, yes. And that means? That we should concentrate all instruments of violence in the hands of an increasingly bureaucratic and meddlesome state, thus rendering ordinary citizens even more defenseless? I don’t think so...


How's gun control working out in Great Britain?  Whoops - *Pesky Inconvenient Facts Alert*:

The latest Government figures show that the total number of firearm offences in England and Wales has increased from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year - a rise of 89 per cent.  In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold. In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled...

He's armed in defiance of the law; you are unarmed in obedience to it.  He wins, you lose...everything.

Let's have another liberal weigh in:

"We're a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the Second Amendment. We've got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves."
~Barack Obama, Presidential Debate - October 16th, 2012


Ace of Spades:

Liberals talk about banning guns as if it's the same as banning murder and banning evil. That's why they are so dogmatic and emotional on the point: How can you be in favor of murder? How can you oppose banning evil?


It's the simplicity of liberals, Ace.  I note that the Left crowed when they passed new regulations forcing all car-makers to push their average fleet MPG to 55 MPG.  As if all they have to do is demand it, and it will happen.  So simple.  No doubt they will be holding on to their SUVs for dear life while the rest of us are driving plastic deathtraps stripped down to the bare bones in order to meet federal standards....while costing twice the price.  But their intentions were good, Ace.  Just like the British politicians.

Remind me again...what was the road to Hell paved with?  Oh, right...

Finally, for some black humor (literally and figuratively) - Chris Rock talks about how he is scared to death by "young white males".  Funny, but there's a point in there that should be explored:  Most of the senseless mass-murders over the past few years have been done by that "subgroup" (think Columbine, Tuscon, Aurora, last week's mall shoot-up, and yesterday's horror in Newtown).

If not for the color of their skin, we might be having an parallel discussion right now...





(Via RS McCain)