The Bluff

This is somewhat of a rewrite of an earlier post, but since a commenter actually requested it … here goes:

At the most general level, common sense is trusting what we all inherently know. But you can’t always trust common sense because the more complex the issue, the less likely it is to apply. i.e.:

1. It is the “common sense” of many young men that a happy marriage is based on really good sex.
2. Is is the “common sense” of many young women that a happy marriage is based strictly on love.

But marriage and human relationships are complex, and neither of the above holds true in real life. And seeking knowledge from history and elders is less painful than learning from mistakes (i.e. when facts conflict with “common sense,” facts win).

So when faced with the most complex and serious issue in America, our culture of violence, why do anti-gun groups continue to restate old arguments that have been disproven so many times? Why do they continue to expend their efforts to fight battles that restrict a constitutional right but do nothing to make our society safer? Is it not also common sense that it is what is in the heart, not the . . . → Read More: Anti-gun Group Common Sense Gun Laws and Real Common Sense

Anytime a police officer is murdered in the line of duty is not only a tragedy, but a tragedy of particularly great proportions. Police officers choose their career to man the thin blue line for the benefit of us all, and we should honor the sacrifice that they make for us at the expense of their own families.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use real facts and figures in the debate over the banning of “assault weapons” (semi-automatic military style rifles) to protect our “first responders.”

The facts in table 39 of the FBI Uniform crime Rep rot are quite clear. AK47 and SKS type semi-automatic weapons, identified because they are always caliber 7.62 x 39, are rarely used in murders of police officers. And ironically the highest yearly total of such murders (6) was in the middle of the Clinton era “assault weapons ban” in 1999. The AWB ended in 2004, and in 2005 there were 2 police officer murders by a 7.62 caliber weapon with NONE in 2006 and 1 in 2007.

The number of police officers slayings with the most common AR-15 caliber, .223, were similar.

The simple truth is that police officers are usually killed with pistols, and very . . . → Read More: An interesting statistic — police officers killed by "assault weapons"

Joe Huffman exchanged posts with an anti-gun blogger Stephen Weinstein. Read the comments (including my own).

Mr. Weinstein believes that he is in favor of the 2nd amendment … apparently as long as it is severely restricted. I hope he has a more supportive view of the other 9 Bill of Rights amendments:

I am not against the Second Amendment. I am not against lawful gun ownership. …

… “What is reasonable?” Below are some suggestions that I feel merit consideration:

~ Ban assault weapons from private possession~ Ban .50 caliber (armor piercing) weapons from private possession~ Allow local communities to determine what is appropriate for their circumstances. If cities such as Philadelphia and Washington D.C. feel that stricter gun control laws are needed than state or federal law provides, they should be allowed to govern their particular situation. The view (and conditions) from Idaho can be significantly different from major urban centers such as Chicago, LA, and NYC.~ Improve oversight of corrupt gun dealers~ Limit the number of guns an individual can purchase in a month. This will reduce the number of guns purchased with the intent to sell them illegally on the street, also known as straw purchases.~ Mandate that sales at gun . . . → Read More: An anti-gun blogger parrots Brady campaign rhetoric and gets an education

The battle to reverse Chicago’s oppressive and unconstitutional handgun ban is ongoing, having just passed an unavoidable judicial hurdle on the way to courts that have authority to make a ruling. But Mayor Daley, a major proponent of the culture of fear and paranoia cultivated by the anti-gun groups, continues to proclaim the lack of respect he has for both citizens and police officers:

If the nation’s highest court says it’s OK to keep guns in your home for self-defense, what’s to prevent those guns from being used against police officers and firefighters who respond to a domestic quarrel or other emergency, the mayor asked.

“What does a policeman do when there’s a domestic battery [call] and they’re both armed? Do they enter the home or apartment or do they wait outside?” Daley asked reporters earlier this year.

The answer to that is just plain common sense. A police officer arriving at ANY violent scene proceeds with extreme caution with the intent of determining the aggressor and ending the violence. Any police officer that arrives at a domestic battery call and assumes the participants do NOT have weapons, guns or otherwise, is a moron. So the police officer will proceed as he would in . . . → Read More: More of Chicago Mayor Daly’s anti-gun logic

Today it occurred to me that if MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) fought for a reinstatement of prohibition (ban on all alcohol), or a closing of all bars and the limitation of adults to one alcoholic beverage per day in their own home, or no beverages stronger than light beer and no beer cases that hold more than 10 cans, the hard drinking main stream media and the American population would laugh them into oblivion. And this is in defense of a strictly recreational beverage/drug that 100,000 American deaths are blamed on each year . Including thousands of innocent children. Not to mention the broken families and destroyed lives.

The anti-gun groups promote all types of ridiculously onerous gun laws and restrictions in their fight to get to a complete gun ban, callously drawing others into their culture of fear and paranoia, but because of the outrageous support they get from the Main Stream Media and the party coming to power in January they are still treated with respect rather than as a crazy fringe group. Which is where they should rightfully be placed.

And the tool anti-gun groups are trying to ban/restrict is not only protected by an individual amendment in the . . . → Read More: Guns vs. Alcohol — which is healthier for the country?