gun flag protest trump
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The crucial variable in mass shootings is not ideas but weapons. We cannot control ideas or speech and should not attempt to do so even if we could. But we could reduce access to the weaponry that converts ideology into atrocity. At least, other advanced countries find themselves able to do so. Almost every country on Earth has citizens filled with vitriol, but no comparably advanced country has a gun-violence epidemic quite like America’s.

Yesterday’s alleged shooter appears to be a white supremacist. If the next killer is Muslim or vegan, many of those now most eager to assign blame to the Buffalo suspect’s co-partisans will be anxious to do the opposite—and of course, those now most anxious to restrict blame to the alleged killer alone will next time be eager to spread the blame as widely as possible.

Racist ideology is an evil in itself. But the American exception that bathes this country in blood and grief again and again and again is not that we are uniquely susceptible to racism or jihadism or veganism. The American exception is the unique ease of access to weapons.

Condemn the words if you will, but understand what those words do and what those words do not do. To save lives, focus on what is taking lives. Americans die by the gun in such terrible numbers because Americans live by the gun with such reckless disregard.

— David Frum in America’s Gun Plague

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

103 COMMENTS

  1. Is the author saying these individuals would not have acted in their beliefs if they didn’t have firearms? They wouldn’t have bombed, poisoned, arsoned or used any other methods?

    Sounds to me the author proclaims these individuals are innocent and the method is at fault.

    • True. That sound like exactly what he’s saying but he is also wrong when he says to blame guns and the ease of getting them. The system needs to be updated so those who should/could not purchase & own guns don’t BUT also that guns don’t kill people. inanimate objects as you know don’t do anything on their own. It takes a person making a conscious decision to pick up a gun and go out to intentionally harm someone or a group to kill. A gun is a tool just like a shovel, screwdriver, knife, or gasoline. You don’t see people wanting to ban those only guns. I think that people who think that guns are the evil killers are personally idiots. For example if I place a gun and a shovel on a table & don’t touch it to use can it kill you? NO, agreed.

      • The shovel is always nice to have around, you never know when you might have to bury somthing.

      • Loretta,

        “The system needs to be updated so those who should/could not purchase & own guns don’t”

        Cool! How, EXACTLY, would you do this? Do you have ANY evidence that your proposed solution actually works (other than dacian the stupid and MinorIQ’s assertions that “everyone knows”).

        Get back to us when you can answer those questions.

        • Each state has its own registry of who is banned from owning guns & updated regularly, there needs to be some type of cohesiveness where states can communicate better with each other. If a person in West Virginia is banned from owning/purchasing a gun here I should not be allowed to cross the border to Ohio or Kentuck or Virginia for example and purchase one. If I was banned here I should not be able to go to those states and purchase one but I could because I’m not banned there & they don’t know I’m banned here. I’m NOT BTW. I’m saying each state has their database & reports to the ATF so why can’t they report to each other

        • Loretta if you get stopped traveling through another state do you believe the officer has no way to find out things about you? Furthermore any FFL who runs a NCIC today can and will find red lights. And some red lights can be false alarms about a legitimate purchase. There is no need for additional background check hoops or a data base that force citizens exercising a Constitutional Right to jump through like silly circus animals. You like so many others are stepping on the law abiding and yourself only to assume you are getting at criminals.

        • @Loretta,

          Your topic is a veritable Pandora’s box of conversations. Who is banned, and why? Who makes the decision(s) to ban certain people and not others? Why does the Constitution say “shall not be infringed”, yet many propose restrictions on an increasing portion of society? If the answer is to say “felons shouldn’t own guns”, then how do we address the creep of penal codes toward making more and more actions in our lives felonies? What if one State considers an action to be only a misdemeanor, or even completely legal, but another State says it’s a felony? If you commit that act (let’s use concealed carry without a permit) in one State and are within the bounds of the law, then commit that very same act in an adjacent State while on vacation and are convicted as a felon, why are you barred from ever legally committing that act again in your home State?

          Why do so many who profess to be POTG and 2A advocates also supports BGCs and NICS, which are unconstitutional on their face by assuming guilt and requiring a person to prove his/her innocence before being allowed to exercise a natural and constitutional right?

          The problem is not the gun, as we would all agree. But it’s also not a lack of cohesion between reporting agencies. The root problem that is causing today’s violence is a breakdown of morals and the resulting loss of respect for life and property of our fellow Man. We’re simply reaping what we’ve (collectively) sown decades ago.

          To point at someone and say “you should not be able to buy a gun and I want a network of agencies to make sure you never can” is a trip down the rabbit hole.

        • “If I was banned here I should not be able to go to those states and purchase one but I could because I’m not banned there…”

          Certainly you could, but you would be violating federal law, for starters. Any out of state firearm purchase must be run through an FFL in your home state, where you would complete a 4473 and they would run a NICS check, or at least confirm your concealed carry license if applicable. That applies to gun store purchases and private purchases.

        • “MinorIQ’s assertions that “everyone knows”.

          You are incorrect, I have never stated “everyone knows” about any subject on this forum.

          If it wasn’t for disinformation you would have no information at all.

        • “Any out of state firearm purchase must be run through an FFL in your home state”

          Unless you talk your sister’s boyfriend into making a strawman purchase in his state of residence, with your money from your Covid stimulus check, and then unlawfully transferring possession of the firearm to you shortly before you use it to kill and wound individuals.

          Then it’s all good, and you can get any weapon you want in any state at 17 years old.

        • Loretta,

          “Each state has its own registry of who is banned from owning guns & updated regularly, there needs to be some type of cohesiveness where states can communicate better with each other.”

          Obviously, you trust the government (ANY government) with this information; I don’t. More importantly, we’ve seen MANY instances where military authorities, local LEOs, and even the FBI failed/refused to report “disqualifying” events. My former state, the People’s Democratic Socialist Republic of KKKalifornia has such a registry; many states don’t. They SUPPOSEDLY maintain databases of criminal convictions and court records of adjudicated mental disqualification – but if they don’t consistently report them to NICS, of what use is that?? The only “background check” required in most states is a NICS check, done on the spot. If the basic information isn’t forwarded to NICS, then it will not show up on a NICS check. On the other side of the coin, we have the FACT that Teddy Kennedy was once on the no-fly list (SHOULD have been on the “no drive” list). Again, you seem to trust the government; I don’t.

          Add to this the UNDENIABLE fact that the vast majority of firearms used by criminals are either stolen or purchased (illegally) on the street – in both cases, without any “background check” at all. Is it your contention that, if dacian the stupid’s “universal background checks” become law, criminals will stop stealing/illegally purchasing guns?? How’d that work out for us with the “War on Drugs”??

          Overall, it appears you have NO idea how the NICS system actually works, or retail gun sales, for that matter.

        • MajorStupidity,

          As to your assertions, we will have to agree to disagree. You almost ALWAYS state your OPINIONS as known facts (like your idiot assertion that Article I Section 8 expressly authorizes universal federal gun control, or that “right wingers” are racist/sexist/misogynist/Islamophobic/xenophobic/homophobic/transphobic bigots. I stand by my statement.

          As to your second idiot assertion, that you can just get someone to make a straw purchase for you, that not only proves MY point, that “universal background checks” are an ineffective joke, but that is also IMPLICITLY stating that you are aware that people can, and DO, flaunt gun control laws on the daily . . . go tell that to your idiot buddy, dacian the stupid.

          Logic. It’s a thing. Learn it.

        • register demtard or institutionalize nutters or self declared insane by as not knowing their birth sex (male or female) are ineligible.

        • Miner49er — “If it wasn’t for disinformation you would have no information at all.”

          Ah, so you admit that you’re spreading disinformation.

          I knew that there was a reason for you being here!

      • “The system needs to be updated so those who should/could not purchase & own guns don’t…”

        There’s no way to do that without truly draconian mandatory gun registration, and even then, evil people will still get guns.

        There’s a much, MUCH simpler solution. Make it so that the criminal has no desire to be caught with a gun. If a criminal knows that if he is caught with a gun that he will serve a 10 year mandatory sentence for a first offense, 20 years the next time, and life for a 3rd one, that motivates them to never pick up one in the first place.

        BTW, the states do talk to each other via the NICS check (yellow sheet), prohibited in one state means prohibited in all 50 states…

        • Joint demonstration project of the “Once Dept of Justice” and the NRA about 30yrs ago in Virginia proved this works. Felon in possession were 100% charged to the max allowed by Fed law and go to prison. Inconvenient for the demtard party as it was the special interest group (dem voters) that the dems OWN that was largely (successfully) locked up. Too many dark complexion felons in prison hurts dem fraudulent voting “outreach”. Project wa killed after a few years.

    • Well, yes. Muslim terrorists have never used explosives. And anti white African American terrorists have never used vehicles. And no terrorist ever has committed a plain old stabbing attack with a knife. And ordinary crazy people have never used explosives or set fire to a building full of people to commit mass murder. Clearly it is all just the guns /sarc

      • Muslims, anti white African Americans and ordinary crazy people. Is the word white not in your vocabulary? I would refer you to Oklahoma City and other acts of terror or mass murder that were committed by whites. For many people here the only white people who are terrorists or mass murderers are just crazy or on drugs. Heaven forbid they are republicans or christians or trump boot lickers.

        • I believe I’d rather be a Trump bootlicker then a Biden bootlicker. Bidens boots got poop on them from what’s squeezing out of his diaper and running down his leg.
          Good God Almighty we’ve sure got one hell of a President to be proud of dont we.

    • I hate to rain on david frum’s Salem Witch Hunt blame the inanimate object parade of knee jerk stupidity…

      History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is an agenda rooted in racism and genocide. In a nutshell that means david frum is carrying the water of the socialist nazi party and the Gun Control military wing of the democRat Party better known as the kkk. So david frum chew on the following and post a reply or stfu and go pound sand…

      1) The Second Amendment is one thing.

      2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing.

      3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.

    • Yes, you’re correct. Almost any object can be used to kill. It takes a person with malicious intent to do the killing.

  2. Mr. Frum, then you should relocate to France where idealistic persons use trucks to kill dozens…or England where acid, lye or knives might be used, or China where knives and fire are the preferred methods, tribal genocide in Africa with machetes…people expressing their particular ideas or speech will use whatever weapons they find to implement their rage against whomever it is that has so pissed them off to the point of transgressing the social mores most societies have against attacking / killing innocents. With the continued destruction of mores and values the line constraining “civilized” behavior decreases until it is easy to rationalize that “they” are the enemy and deserve extinction. I offer the current view of Progressives wearing red themed costumes shouting to kill those persons who are voicing opposition to the Progressives preferred choice of killing infants in the womb – the true, classic definition of oxymoron.

    Unfortunately, there are all too many neutered boi’s, like you, who flail about blaming the weapon and not the persons committing the atrocities.

    • Quote: ” to the point of transgressing the social mores most societies have against attacking / killing innocents.”

      Yes, most societies have moralities that do not support killing innocent people, but not all.
      Take Boko Haram as an example. This Islamist terrorist group has murdered thousands of innocent people, often with machetes, because they reject a particular religion.

      So, in one instance our leftist friends have an example of a fanatical religious, racist, homophobic, anti “LGTBQXYZ” group not using guns to do mass killings.

      I will not hold my breath while waiting for them to condemn Boko Haram.

      • @Gordon

        What kind of radical are you in that you would expect U.S. Progressives to condemn Boko Haram for enslaving, raping and forcing marriage on young women…many of them 12 – 14 years old…but, only after slaughtering their fathers, brothers and mothers in the name of their “faith”.

        /sarc

    • Montana, it certainly isn’t confined to one or more particular country as we all have our outspoken, ignorant, virtue signalling azzholes but I believe this particular ignorant azzhole originates from my national neck of the woods and for that I can only do the Canadian thing and apologize: Sorry, eh.

      • You could also ask to get him back, but you no doubt don’t want him either, and nature abhors a vacuum, which means we’d be playing Whac A Mole, and you already have your hands full with junior, so, never mind. Hopefully a couple elections help us on both sides of the border. Then, let the rat dogs yap away. One of my favorite Larson comics:

        https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.ZJPALRP8mGHBy4B4EJ2yggAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1

        • Ha! Funny, thanks. And yeah, one can dream/hope. Or be the “whumpf” I guess.

      • @R/S

        No need to apologize. It appears that every country has a surplus of political scumbags each vying to outdo the next in crushing someone’s Rights.

        Is Kokanee Gold still available? In the old days we’d head to Nelson, B.C. and have a Gold for dinner. Have not seen it down here for years. Regular Kokanee tasted like formaldehyde.

        • Montana, I’m a bit of a beer snob so I haven’t sampled the regular formaldehydes in many a moon and I’m not sure I’ve even heard of Kokanee Gold. As down south though the micro brewery places are very alive n well up here, praise be to whomever. Not sure I could carry on without them and a fine bottle of Usquebaught to round out the month. Nelson used to be a regular haunt of mine years ago when close friends lived there. Sadly it ain’t the same and the woke crowd has infested it like the parasitic nannies they are. I just ride through as fast and loudly as I can now 😁.

        • And get this: I opened the dictionary to check my spelling on the Water of Life (I see people way more smarterer than I have seen fit to add a ‘t’ to the end) and damn if I didn’t open it to that exact page! Chance, coincidence, paranormal telekinetic spookiness 👀 or just a well established crease in the binding?

  3. ease of access?

    I guess THIS is why only ONE person shot back when he should have been takin down by a couple hundred rounds by a dozen armed patrons of that store?

    As if guns are somehow the factor that turns someone into a homicidal maniac, that if not for the magic talisman the hold, these same people would be filled with love and be productive members of society.

    Owning a Bible doesn’t make someone a Christian any more than owning a computer makes someone a black hat hacker.

  4. If guns were completely confiscated, these deranged perps would simply use other means.

    Frankly, fentanyl is likely to replace firearms as a mass extermination method at some point because it’s cheaper, easier to get, much more potent and capable of causing real mass hysteria. Imagine eating at some restaurant and the patrons around you start collapsing into comas…..how would that feel ?

    The problem is people, not guns. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.

  5. In every mass murder case this decade the killer was known to law enforcement or other authorities with the power to deny them from lawfully obtaining firearms, detain them, deport them, or put them away in a facility for the mentally ill.

    I submit it has been policies and laws put in place by democrats that have allowed the mentally ill, known criminals, illegal aliens and terrorists to go free in society knowing they present a dangerous threat to others.

    These communist lawmakers, judges, law enforcers, and prosecutors knowingly are enablers to the killing of the innocent as it helps advance their agenda of disarming the law abiding.

    The communists have steadily advanced gun control wherever they can and used every killing by firearm as justification to deny law abiding Americans their rights to posess arms of their choice. Never forget the 2nd Amendment does not grant Americans their rights to go armed. The 2nd Amendment tells Government it must not infringe on the rights of Americans to posess firearms and ammunition. The Government has continually violated this law yet not a single lawmaker, regulator, or judge has been held in contempt of the law where the 2nd Amendment has been violated.

    • AMEN! JB The way to try and correct it is to do our civic duty in November and vote them all out. Put good Conservatives regardless of party who care about and love GOD & Country.

      • And money. I wonder how many would run for offices if they got paid minimum wage? Uhhh

        • Marsupial One, it ain’t their civil servants salary that’s making them millionaires. Or maybe they’re all just astute investors. If that’s the case one would think our national finances would be in better order. I’m gonna go with professional career grifters for $200 Alex…

    • New York has a red flag law. Even if he didn’t have a gun yet when the high school plot was investigated, that would seem like a good opportunity to red flag him into the NICS system. Heck, even under pre red flag conditions a psych eval or involuntary commitment could have resulted in his being prohibited.

      Then again, not properly reporting newly prohibited people to NICS only goes back to Virginia Tech. So it’s not like anyone was aware fo that problem or had any time to do anything about it…….

      • In fact one of the things we discovered in PA after 2014 when the pooper troopers started prosecuting all non appealed PICS denials was that a lot of people who had been to a hospital for mental observation are improperly being classified as prohibited persons. Reportedly this persons hospitalization was in NY, and reportedly he purchased his shotgun (not his AR) in PA. A PA resident would likely have been denied.

        • They weren’t “improperly classified”, they were being prudent, following Leftist Scum ideology that you can’t be too careful.

          (I’m not nearly as good at that as the esteemed Mr. Sam I Am…. 🙂 )

      • ‘In every mass murder case this decade the killer was known to law enforcement or other authorities….’

        Could someone remind me please once again, what contact with law-enforcement did Stephen paddock have before he executed his massacre in Las Vegas.

        And I’m also having trouble recalling exactly what contact police had with White nationalist Patrick Wood Crusius before he targeted Hispanic folks in El Paso, killing 23 people.

        Thanks!

    • ‘In every mass murder case this decade the killer was known to law enforcement or other authorities….’

      Well, when you have mass surveillance of a society, nearly everyone is ‘known to law enforcement or other authorities’.

      The real question? At what point does someone become ‘known’?
      Is it because they purchased a box of ammo?
      Or did a drawing of a gun in study hall?
      Or showed up at a school board meeting to question what their children where learning?
      Or walked around DC on 1-6 while being a conservative Caucasian?

      I’m waiting on a tax stamp for a suppressor, willing to bet that makes me ‘known’.

      The threshold is hardly defined.

      • Well sure it’s going to make you known, and probably on a watch list.
        I still dont get the big hullabaloo over suppressors. I guess it turns everyone into a hitman.

    • “In every mass murder case this decade the killer was known to law enforcement or other authorities”

      JB, do you recall what contact Christopher Sean “Chris” Harper-Mercer Hedworth police before he killed 9 people in Roseburg Oregon in 2015?

    • “In every mass murder case this decade the killer was known to law enforcement or other authorities with the power to deny them from lawfully obtaining firearms, detain them, deport them, or put them away in a facility for the mentally ill.”

      What this REALLY means is, that the status thugs can put anyone away for some/any/no reason if they are so motivated.

  6. David Frum is a Deep State Shill, who only cares about increasing the power of the state. They never speak about disarming the body guards of the rich, not allowing taxpayer money to be spent on hundreds of state, local and federal officers to protect celebrities at the Oscars or other events and especially, not demanding that cash flush Hollywood foot the entire bill for their protection.

    They never advocate for Liberal/Socialist/Communists disarmament as to set an example. Finally, their hammer against the People, the Federal Government should never be defunded or it organs of power be dissolved, defunded of disarmed. “Defund the Police” they shout, but never the FBI, DEA, CIA, NSA, Federal Reserve, IRS or DOJ, as these are their dogs that do their bidding, not those that protect the average citizen or the poor. like local law enforcement.

    It is only the poor, the great unwashed who still believe in God and those old documents written by dead white slave owners, that oppose them that be stripped of arms. Of course we have seen this toon sung before in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey and normal Americans have no interest in becoming subject to their prospective “Enlightened Masters”.

    David Frum’s reasons or arguments make no difference, as his goal is one that leads to repression and totalitarianisms. Since David Frum is a “Smart Man” he must realize this and therefore he himself is a supporter and enabler of this Evil.

  7. Let’s just completely ignore events that take thousands of lives in a single day where NO gun was used at all. All done as a direct result of the evil in peoples’ hearts.

  8. I always find it funny when people exclude some countries in their analysis (“At least, other advanced countries find themselves able to do so”). It’s as if they think people from Brazil, venazuela and the like aren’t fully human.

    • So the moose-lamb lowlife who annihilated 80 some people in Nice would have been worse if he’d shot ’em? I assume this 18 year old in braces drove there. This latest mass murder sure looks like a false flag event. “Yeah we knew about him”. Mom & pop blissfully unaware too. Frum is dumb…

  9. How about the guy who mowed down a Christmas parade with his vehicle killing little kids and the ‘Dancing Grannies’?

    Where were the guns then?

    • same place softserve poopy pants was, not present.
      sure shuffled off to buffalo quick.

  10. We’ve always had plenty of guns here and for much of our history they’ve been easier to access in the past than they are today.

    Something happened along the way to make people think shooting each other is a viable option for airing their grievances. Was it one event at a moment in time or was it a long series of events? Were these people always among us just shut away in asylums or too busy laboring in a factory or on a farm to let their thoughts fester? Are they finding new encouragement in large online communities that didn’t exist only 25 years ago?

    A lot has changed in society. The guns are exactly the same they’ve always been.

  11. Ah the utter hypocrisy of the left, it’s always the tool never the person using the tool because then we have to really address the real problems in this country and that would be the genocide and the stain on the soul of America. This would be the murder of the unborn to the tune of over 60 million perpetrated by Planned Parenthood a desperately evil and wicked organization founded by racist. It is not the guns it is never been the guns and never will be the guns it is evil people and evil people only who are responsible and who are to blame.

  12. The demented and ignorant Far Right call for torture and the death penalty for lunatics but that is locking the door after the horse escapes. It does not bring the dead victims back to life or make the permanently crippled or brain dead well again after they have been gunned down in a pool of blood and carnage.

    All civilized countries have laws that help keep for the most part deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals and the insane. They also provide AFFORDABLE mental health care as well. The gangster criminal Republicans have not only blocked every attempt by Democrats to make health care affordable they have even tried to do away with the Affordable Health Care Act because they are prostitutes of the crooked , criminal, drug and insurance industries.

    Republicans pretend to be pro-gun but in reality they know its cheaper just to ban guns than provide affordable health care.

    All civilized countries have vetting of all firearms purchases, no exceptions and they have safe storage laws. These laws help keep guns out of the hands of lunatics and criminals and save children’s lives as well from being accidentally shot in the home. The safe storage of firearms also cuts way down on smash and grab robberies as well.

    Mass murder will only get worse in Capitalvania until some of these basic sane gun laws are finally enacted as they were decades ago in all civilized countries.

    • “Mass murder will only get worse in Capitalvania until some of these basic sane gun laws are finally enacted…”

      yep, Democrats will see to that for sure

    • Now tell us about Darryl Brooks, and his murders at the Waukesha parade. Must have been the SUV right? /sarc

    • Dacian, the Dunderhead. You are so full of it. Republicans have never called for torture. We leave that to your favorite Communist regimes, like the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.
      Death penalty? you bet we are for it. I don’t know of any executed murderer who came back to do it again.
      If you want “affordable healthcare” you can go to Canada. They accept Leftists like you. We also prevent criminals from getting firearms, at least by law. but we have a DOJ that does not prosecute straw buyers. Why have a law on the books if you are not going to enforce it?
      Your solution to every problem is to pass a law and then sit back and let it enforce itself?
      As to mentally ill getting firearms. in this country unless you have a civil or criminal commitment to a mental institution, it is a violation of the vaulted HIPPA law to reveal any mental health information, but you already know that.

      • to Walter the Beverly Hilljack

        quote—————-Republicans have never called for torture———–quoate

        You are a damn liar. The Republicans promoted torture at Guantanamo Bay incarceration torture center before Obama put a stop to it.

        quote————-Death penalty? you bet we are for it.———quote

        Spoken like a true Nazi pig. As far back as 1973 it was found out that over 250 people were executed in the U.S. that were innocent. Since that time dozens more were found to be innocent because of advanced DNA testing. You damn sadistic jack booted Moron you cannot undue a mistake with Capital punishment.

        quote—————If you want “affordable healthcare” you can go to Canada. They accept Leftists like you. ———–quote

        Walter the Hill Jack, like most Hillbillies you are so ignorant, cheap and stingy you would rather save a penny today in taxes and then go bankrupt tomorrow when you have a catastrophic medical condition. Brilliant idea, do you practice being a damn idiot.

        quote———–As to mentally ill getting firearms. in this country unless you have a civil or criminal commitment to a mental institution, it is a violation of the vaulted HIPPA law to reveal any mental health information, but you already know that.————quote

        Wrong you ignorant Moron. if you are arrested and given a mental evaluation and you fail it goes right to the Brady Background Check system. Even Trumps dwarf Jeff Sessions strengthened this provision during the time period when he was also imprisoning children at the border.

    • I would love to know what actually goes on in your nearly empty head. Why do you expend so much time and energy on this subject? You could care for baseball this much and unless your a Reds fan it would be far less aggravating.

      Why do you do it here? You can surely tell no one here cares a bit what you think. You’re like pocket lint or a styrofoam cup or a used sticky note. Nothing to anyone.

      You are one weird cat.

  13. Given mass shooters are often “statement” killers, and more common murders are typically related to criminal activity, grudges, or anger, motivations do matter and the culture that creates those who solve issues by shooting first needs to change. In major metro areas the vast majority of shooters have at least one adult felony, as do the victims. That is not a coincidence.

  14. On the other hand, what if everyone in that store just happened to be armed when he walked in. My guess is that there wouldn’t be much difference in outcome had everyone including the shooter had been armed with gumns or machetes. Either way he’d be dead and most everyone else would be alive.

  15. If you look at mass murderers in the US the 9/11 hijackers were still arguably among the most efficient and they used box cutters. Each averaged over 10X what this moron did.

    • “they used box cutters“

      You know we can’t be certain, but it’s believed that the Saudi Arabian hijackers perhaps may have killed one to three people with the box cutters.

      Their main weapons were Boeing 737/757/767 jetliners.

      But you can go with the box cutters if it makes you feel all warm and tingly.

      • “But you can go with the box cutters if it makes you feel all warm and tingly.”

        Had to be the box cutters. The feds stopped us from taking blades onto planes, although we could still get on planes. You saying it was a waste of time to take all those thousands of pen knives and nail clippers? Say it isn’t so.

      • Minor MINER49er And just what weapon was used to take control of those Airliners? It sure wasn’t tooth picks. GET A GRIP!

        • Walter, the only thing that he can get a grip on is …

          Never mind. Man, I just threw up in my mouth a little.

  16. I think Frumbag is on to something here. Why, just the other day, I saw a gun carry a Muslim into a kosher grocery store. I was sure that the gun was up to no good. It was frightening.

  17. Sadly, I wouldn’t put too much time and effort into analyzing anything written by Mr. Frum – he’s one of the many formerly “conservative” commentators who’ve slid toward the leftist/statist/collectivist side of most topics – as more and more conservative thought has become mainstream there’s been a number of folks like him. I guess they loved being conservative when they were on the losing side but evidently can’t deal with winning. I don’t know if he still writes for National Review since I stopped reading them a long time ago but I wouldn’t be shocked if NR still runs his stuff. Though I’ll bet he gets invited to way better Beltway parties now that he’s writing for The Atlantic.

  18. Author doesn’t realize that criminals will still get weapons; everyone else will just be defenseless.

    See: every European mass shooting and every U.S. mass shooting in a gun-free zone where the victims were disarmed.

    The shooter in this case SPECIFICALLY chose this location because he knew people were unlikely to be armed; and that those who were armed would be neutered with 10 round magazines.

  19. Do you wonder if TTAG posts this stuff just to keep the echo chamber howling? We know these idiots are out there and posting their article here doesn’t change anything, only makes the education right a little more upset than before.

    • Howling = eyeballs = ad revenue = another mortgage payment plus cash for a few boxes of cartridges for the paid staff.

    • It is difficult to motivate the mob into outrageous actions unless you keep them whipped into a frenzy with agitprop at every opportunity.

      • Seems like FOX news has been saying that exact same thing for years ago what the Democrats constantly do.

      • I dunno, MajorStupidity, it seems to work pretty well for you, dacian the stupid, and the Leftist/fascist media to keep your Antifa/BurnLootMurder buddies whipped into a frenzy, dunnit??

        Assuming the Dobbs opinion gets published, I’m expecting this summer to be another “Summer of Love”, just like 2020. But “everyone knows” its the “right wing” that’s racist and violent – just ask you, dacian the stupid, Rachel Madcow, Queef Olberdouche, Tater Stelter, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer . . . I could go on, but I’m getting an upset stomach listing Leftist/fascist lying douchebags.

        • Especially as the heads of BLM outed themselves as a bunch of embezzling grifters buying multi-million dollar mansions with the organization’s money.

      • Minor MINER49er You mean like you Leftists did during the summer of 2020?

      • But the pointy white hat fits his pointy snout so well… 🙂

      • Nah, possum’s not a Leftist/fascist. You did know, I’m sure (he says, sarcastically), that your spiritual/political ancestor, Nathan Beford Forrest, one of the founders of the KKK, was a Dimocrat, right????

        Not only are you a partisan liar, you’re historically ignorant. Go back to your circle jerk . . . or entertain us with another explication of how Article I, Section 8 explicitly authorizes universal federal gun control. If you’d ever respond to my constant taunting over that particular piece of MajorStupidity “brilliance”, I’d be curious to know from what anal orifice you pulled that particular buttnugget. Which one of your Leftist/fascist fellow travelers was the author of that piece of idiocy?? Inquiring minds want to know.

  21. Someone has to tell this idgit that a gun is an inanimate object incapable of firing itself.

  22. Thats the stupidest thing I’ve read today, but I haven’t read anything by 49er or Lil d.
    Not going to either. That crap gives me a headache.

  23. It’s the left that continues to flog racism and keeps it uppermost in the minds of the sick people who are susceptible to committing violence. Charles Barkley told the truth when he said this: “Do you know how to stop racism? Stop talking about it!”
    Politicians and the mainstream media stoke racial tensions and stir racial division for political gain and that’s reprehensible! Then leftist politicians blame guns when it’s them that have stoked the violence! I believe they do it on purpose — so they can blame guns!

  24. The logic is unassailable, and we have to deal with it: no guns; no gun deaths (the anti-gunners are just fine with criminals and gangs killing each other). Even if we cannot end guns for criminals and gangs, the reduction in other shooting deaths will drop dramatically, and “if it saves only one”. This is where the gun grabbers live, and reason from.

    Obviously, “muh rats”, or “shall not be infringed”, or “RTKBA” isn’t even slowing the anti-gun mafia. Quoting stats of thousands, or millions of successful DGUs doesn’t persuade the Left of anything.

    If emotion wasn’t a strong influence, it would not drive the reactions of so many. These are emotional children we are dealing with, and when a child gets hysterical, there is no reasoning with them. And we cannot eliminate all the anti-2A people and groups.

    The megaphones of politics and society are owned entirely by the Left. In short, we (pro-2A) cannot “win”; only accept we are in the battle indefinitely. Having to persuade anti-gunners and “undecideds” one-at-a-time means we are (and always shall be) puts us on “the long march” that will never end.

  26. I’ve put together a fairly substantial collection of firearms over the years. A large percentage of which were manufactured before 1900. As such, they are classed as antiques. Many of the Modern firearms I own were manufactured before anyone ever heard of Eugene Stoner or Gaston Glock. A few were actually used during wartimes and may have been used to kill someone before I acquired them, but not in the years I’ve owned them. And not 1 firearm I own has ever crawled out of the gunrack, safe, or lock box and managed to load itself or go out and shoot itself. Nor has a firearm ever whispered in my ear and convinced me to use them to kill anyone. If the problem is the firearms, and easy access to them, along with the siren song of the gun, why are we even alive today?
    The next question is if it is the firearm at fault, why do we see murders in other countries that have such civilized and strict restrictions on firearms?
    Could it be the same issue that has existed since the first hominid bashed another with a stick or rock? Or if you believe, since Cain killed Abel? That it is indeed the human that commits the murder or other act of violence, and the tool used is just what’s on hand or available?
    Gun control in any form has not, will not, and can not prevent violent crime or murder.
    Nor would restrictions on any other form of arms or weaponry.
    When anyone can give me an iron clad, chiseled in stone guarantee that there will never be an act of violence, or the threat of violence, then I will be the last man to toss my guns on the pile to be destroyed. Until then, pound sand.

  27. Waukesha a racist murdered many with trucks, but they were white people, and it was a black supremacist. Is it the guns? Do we blame the SUVs? or perhaps, we can finally put to bed the blaming of inanimate objects, and blame the murderers? David Frum knows- it is inanimate objects!

    Perhaps we can at least put to bed the idea that pretended gun control laws are ineffective at keeping guns away from crazed murderers. Perhaps we should still try, at political venues, school houses, and prisons, but most often the pretended ‘gun free’ zones merely attract the crazed killers.

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