That's the opinion of Tucker Carlson. In this case, I entirely agree with him. I strongly urge you to watch the 16-minute segment below; or, if you don't have time to watch it, or prefer to read, click here for a transcript of what he said. It's important information, and right on the money.
Mr. Carlson concludes: "They're not trying to control guns. They're trying to control you." Again, he's absolutely right. This isn't about guns. This is about control - of the populace and the country, and the suppression of any and all ability by the people to resist that control. An armed populace can't be suppressed. A disarmed one can. It's as simple as that.
L. Neil Smith put it in a nutshell years ago. Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.
What I've chosen, in a world where there's never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician -- or political philosophy -- is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center.
Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.
If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.
If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.
What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?
If he doesn't want you to have the means of defending your life, do you want him in a position to control it?
If he makes excuses about obeying a law he's sworn to uphold and defend -- the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights -- do you want to entrust him with anything?
If he ignores you, sneers at you, complains about you, or defames you, if he calls you names only he thinks are evil -- like "Constitutionalist" -- when you insist that he account for himself, hasn't he betrayed his oath, isn't he unfit to hold office, and doesn't he really belong in jail?
Sure, these are all leading questions. They're the questions that led me to the issue of guns and gun ownership as the clearest and most unmistakable demonstration of what any given politician -- or political philosophy -- is really made of.
He may lecture you about the dangerous weirdos out there who shouldn't have a gun -- but what does that have to do with you? Why in the name of John Moses Browning should you be made to suffer for the misdeeds of others? Didn't you lay aside the infantile notion of group punishment when you left public school -- or the military? Isn't it an essentially European notion, anyway -- Prussian, maybe -- and certainly not what America was supposed to be all about?
And if there are dangerous weirdos out there, does it make sense to deprive you of the means of protecting yourself from them? Forget about those other people, those dangerous weirdos, this is about you, and it has been, all along.
Try it yourself: if a politician won't trust you, why should you trust him?
There's more at the link. Essential reading in the gun control debate, IMHO, and highly recommended.
For those who, even today, argue for "compromise", for meeting the gun-grabbers halfway . . . we've done that for years, and it's gotten us nowhere. My friend Lawdog settled that argument in fine style several years ago.
I hear a lot about "compromise" from your camp ... except, it's not compromise.
Let's say I have this cake. It is a very nice cake, with "GUN RIGHTS" written across the top in lovely floral icing. Along you come and say, "Give me that cake."
I say, "No, it's my cake."
You say, "Let's compromise. Give me half." I respond by asking what I get out of this compromise, and you reply that I get to keep half of my cake.
Okay, we compromise. Let us call this compromise The National Firearms Act of 1934.
There I am with my half of the cake, and you walk back up and say, "Give me that cake."
I say, "No, it's my cake."
You say, "Let's compromise." What do I get out of this compromise? Why, I get to keep half of what's left of the cake I already own.
So, we have your compromise -- let us call this one the Gun Control Act of 1968 -- and I'm left holding what is now just a quarter of my cake.
And I'm sitting in the corner with my quarter piece of cake, and here you come again. You want my cake. Again.
This time you take several bites -- we'll call this compromise the Clinton Executive Orders -- and I'm left with about a tenth of what has always been MY DAMN CAKE and you've got nine-tenths of it.
Then we compromised with the Lautenberg Act (nibble, nibble), the HUD/Smith and Wesson agreement (nibble, nibble), the Brady Law (NOM NOM NOM), the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act (sweet tap-dancing Freyja, my finger!)
I'm left holding crumbs of what was once a large and satisfying cake, and you're standing there with most of MY CAKE, making anime eyes and whining about being "reasonable", and wondering "why we won't compromise".
I'm done with being reasonable, and I'm done with compromise. Nothing about gun control in this country has ever been "reasonable" nor a genuine "compromise".
Again, more at the link, and very important reading.
Nothing in President Biden's gun control proposals and edicts will solve the problem, because - as we've pointed out all too often, most recently just a few days ago - the problem is not guns. It's people who have evil intentions, and act on them. If they don't have a gun, they'll use something else - but the evil is in them, not in the instruments they use.
By disarming innocent people, all one accomplishes is to render them unable to defend themselves effectively against rampant evil.
Peter
"By disarming innocent people, all one accomplishes is to render them unable to defend themselves effectively against rampant evil."
ReplyDeleteThat is their intent. Do not misunderstand them. "Gun control" is to protect the politicians from the people.
As someone has recently put it, "After over 240 years with widespread gun ownership, the only reason they'd come after your guns now is they intend to do something you'd shoot them for."
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm so sick of the same old lies in the gun control arguments. Biden actually talked about the mythical gun show loophole idea. Along with tons of other loopholes their fever dreams talk about. "Weapons of war", as if anything ever made by man hasn't been used when it gets ugly. I'll cut it short there.
And, of course, it's not about guns but arms, all arms. Brass knuckles, knives, machetes, hatchets, the front of my van, baseball bat, spears, rocket launchers, maces and Mace, and, well, arms. Yaknow, weapons.
ReplyDeleteAll weapons and armor are legal according to the 2nd Amendment.
And it used to be common for a private citizen to buy job-lots of actual 'war weapons' for to which to equip his/her private army for to go wage war. Teddy Roosevelt did it by securing new manufacture of the Krag-Jorgensen rifle for his 'Rough Riders.' And it's how many companies up to and in the Civil War were equipped, by private money sponsoring said company...
Disarmed citizens are just subjects. Subjects have no control over how they're ruled. Citizens are supposed to decide how the place they are in is controlled.
They want subjects.
I read L. Neil Smith's article many, many years ago shortly after he first came out with it and it has defined my personal philosophy ever since.
ReplyDeleteExtreme gun control simply does not affect the criminal element. Illinois has some of the strictest gun laws in the US, and Chicago levies more on top of those. How's that working for Chitown? Great Britain has draconian gun control, no handguns at all and strict limits on long arms. According to the gun ban crowd they should be a bastion of peace and safety, yet according to UN crime statistics they have a violent crime rate five times that of us here in gun crazy USA. On the other hand, after Israel experienced a number of school shootings they trained and armed teachers. There have been no school attacks in Israel since then.
ReplyDeleteObligatory gun rant:
ReplyDeleteEVERY mass attack has ended when the attacker is confronted with effective resistance, almost invariably by firearms in the hands of good people. Two notable exceptions, flight 93 and the Paris train incident.
Invariably, the attackers are captured, killed, or forced to take their own lives when met with force. Until then their intent always seems to be to rack up as high a body count as possible.
It is a simple fact that the longer it takes to present that effective resistance the more harm will be done. Law enforcement must be contacted and respond. Armed guards may be at the opposite end of a campus, or may have been the first target taken out by the shooter.
Mass shooters almost always choose gun free zones to commit their crimes. The Colorado theater shooter skipped several cinemas closer to his home to stage an attack on the one that prohibits concealed carry. It would appear obvious to the casual observer that school campuses, churches, malls, and other venues where people gather that prohibit law abiding citizens from being armed are nothing more than target rich opportunities for a sick individual to carry out their evil intent.
No one is proposing to arm children.
No one is suggesting that teachers be forced to carry weapons.
But why do the anti gun crowd so slavishly resist allowing licensed legal adult permit holders with proper training from being armed while going about their daily business?
Even those stun guns I can't stand the sound of in gun shows could kill someone.
ReplyDeleteThen there is piano wire. Guitar strings, and as we all know, David killed Goliath with a slingshot. Something a lot of boys used to carry in their back pockets.
If they can disarm us, then they really CAN control us...
ReplyDeleteIt would be illegal for me to state that the only way to defeat these communists/globalists/satanists/nazis/gun grabbers would be to [them]. So I will leave that to your imaginations to fill in the blank. WHY has no one yet begun fighting when they stole our government ? I don't know. Maybe the left is correct- we are all too comfortable and fat. We are all talk. We do not respect the sacrifices made by our fathers and forefathers so that we could be free. Maybe we deserve this. I just don't know.
ReplyDelete