Saturday 5 December 2015

Full of Heat, Without Light

A Vain, Imaginary World

What is it with gun control zealots?  Their mindless incantations and angry expletives become more and more empty with each passing shooting.

In the recent murderous rampage by a husband and wife--apparently radical jihadis--in California, we were treated to the furious umbrage of the gun zealots.  Within an hour they were demanding that politicians should stop uttering faux religious sentiments and convert to the real religion--gun control.  If politicians got serious about gun control then overnight the scourge of guns being used to murder people would disappear.

Adjectives like "simplistic", "naive", "idiotic" to qualify the noun "zealotry" come quickly to mind.  When your case is riddled with (bullet?) holes, shout louder.  Thus raved the New York Daily News, zealot of zealots in the matter.
"As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes," the paper thundered.  Among those criticised were Republican presidential candidates, many of whom shared similar messages in the aftermath of the attack. Ben Carson wrote: "My thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims and their families in San Bernardino."
Ooooh.  The paper "thundered", likely attempting to clothe itself in divinity, like a new deity on Mt Sinai.  How we quake in penitential fear in the face of the wrath of  their zealous god.

Gun control, bun control.  Zealots rarely let facts get in the way of a sensationalist story, propped up by faux moral outrage.
  Let's pause to think about a country which has pretty strict gun control laws.  Which shall we choose.  Ah, yes.  France.

In France, private possession of fully automatic weapons is prohibited.  Possession of semi-autos is permitted, but only under license.  Possession of handguns is prohibited.  Civilian possession of rifles and shotguns is strictly regulated by law.  How did that work out at the Bataclan?  It would appear that France has gone way beyond " meaningless platitudes", maintaining a very strict gun control and regulation regime.  It's effectiveness in preventing mass murder by gun?  Zippo. Thus passes the the parade of mindless zealots advocating stricter gun laws and regulations as the way to prevent murder-by-gun in San Bernadino.

But it gets worse.  San Bernadino already has stricter gun control laws than France.  Let's say it again slowly in order that the full imbecility of the simplistic, naive, idiotic gun control zealots can be displayed.  In France, private possession of semi-automatic assault weapons is permitted, albeit under licence, whereas in California they are prohibited outright, with only narrow exemptions, according to the University of Sydney.

Yet such laws, strict in France, and stricter in California, did nothing to protect against gun crime and the murderous rampage of the two misanthropes in San Bernadino.  As the old adage has it, "when guns are outlawed, only the outlaws will have guns." And so it has come to pass.

Which leaves only three rational things to be said to American gun control zealots: your fulminations are stupid, stupider, and stupidest.  Please take your spleen-venting some where else.  Whilst your anger and passion may be compelling to some, your invocation of a fictional, unreal world to argue your case is both petulant and childish.  Go back to the childish, make-believe world whence you came.  Back to fairy stories.



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