Aside from being sort of clever satire --- albeit heavy-handed and poorly acted --- its overarching point is pure mythology and has no basis in fact. All it does is foment fear of something that just isn't happening. Here's proof.
Name one federal law that’s been passed in the last three years (i.e., under the current Democratic administration, which is the real issue here, make no mistake about it) that limits gun ownership in any way.
Just one.... go ahead.... I’ll wait.....
You can’t because there haven’t been any. This whole imbroglio is based on getting everyone to fear something that just doesn’t exist.
The U.S. Government’s constitutional mandate is to protect the well-being of its gun-owning and non-gun-owning citizens, even as the NRA’s mandate is to protect the well-being of its membership. We can argue all day about how well each is doing with its respective responsibilities, but this isn’t the point.
Even as each new federal administration is doing its job, the NRA’s Mr. LaPierre is doing his job as an effective and powerful paid lobbyist. He’s not a crusader or anything like it. He just needs to protect his job and his organization’s existence. This is why this phony, fear-bating B.S. keeps flying around the Internet. I’m sure he has someone’s best (special?) interests at heart, but let’s not lose sight of his real role and see it for what it is.
Look, many of us own guns, and we are perfectly able to do so. It’s legal. It’s constitutional. Hell, it's fun!
So what’s the issue? Fear of the unknown? Why? We own guns, for crying out loud, what’s to be afraid of here!?
Are there elements in the U.S. who would like to see hand-guns go away, who are sympathetic to hand-gun restrictions, who hate guns and think gun-owners are nothing but knuckle-draggers?
Sure.
But this just won’t happen.
The premise of John Ross’s 863-page “Unintended Consequences” (an interesting, if overly long, read) is that it could happen here simply because it’s happened in other countries, but this is a completely false comparison.
It will not happen in the U.S. Full stop. And for those who say it hasn’t yet happened here simply/only because of the NRA, fair enough; but remember: I already said the NRA is an effective and powerful lobbying organization.
This whole our-guns-are-going-to-be-taken-away-from-us dust-up is pure B.S., but it sure makes for funny YouTube stuff. Look at the ammo-buying panic back in 2008. Now, you can’t swing an AK without smacking into some hoarder who’s selling off his or her 2008-issue ammunition... at least not in New Mexico, you can’t. And let’s be honest here. The ATF is its own worst enemy.
This is completely obvious. The ATF will never be anything more than an incompetent, buffoonish agency run by incompetent buffoons. It can’t get out of its own way let alone get in the way of anyone else. Look how badly it fucked up at Ruby Ridge and at Waco, and now this “fast and furious” cock-up? ...sheesh. Q.E.D.
And so, if you want to get good and pissed off about losses of liberty, real losses of liberty that affect everyone, you’ve only to look to the...
- Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act,
- gross diminishment of habeas corpus laws,
- religious right’s barely concealed desire to put a Christian theocracy in place in the U.S. government, and
- repeated attacks on the 4th Amendment, much of which was put in place during the previous administration, let’s not forget.
(And don’t even get me started on the FEC v Citizens United supreme court ruling. This alone is already doing us all far more harm than even the most egregious gun law ever could.)
Yup, there’s some seriously weird shit that has taken place, there is no doubt, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with guns. This is a classic MacGuffin. A smokescreen. Camouflage. Read “The Shock Doctrine.”
If you want to do something real, something meaningful to protect gun laws and everyone’s rights to own same, work harder to keep bona fide, bat-shit-crazy assholes --- like Tucson's Jared Lee Loughner or Sanford, MI's Rachel Marie Moore --- from opening fire on their fellow citizens. Hell... even a man who had his concealed-carry weapon on him at the scene in Tucson said he almost drew down on the wrong person.
What a world.
More facts. Less fear.
Yup, there’s some seriously weird shit that has taken place, there is no doubt, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with guns. This is a classic MacGuffin. A smokescreen. Camouflage. Read “The Shock Doctrine.”
If you want to do something real, something meaningful to protect gun laws and everyone’s rights to own same, work harder to keep bona fide, bat-shit-crazy assholes --- like Tucson's Jared Lee Loughner or Sanford, MI's Rachel Marie Moore --- from opening fire on their fellow citizens. Hell... even a man who had his concealed-carry weapon on him at the scene in Tucson said he almost drew down on the wrong person.
What a world.
More facts. Less fear.
