https://youtu.be/QPNiKGcXD6E?t=21s
I’m not responsible for the killing spree at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that claimed 49 lives and injured 53 patrons. I did not organize, plan, aid or abet the murderer. I’m not responsible for “fostering a climate of hatred” against gays that may or may not have contributed to Mr. Mateen’s motives. As for my unqualified support for the Second Amendment somehow making it “easy” for Mr. Mateen to purchase a “weapon of war,” well . . .
The United States Constitution clearly and unequivocally prohibits any government regulation regarding the keeping and bearing of firearms. (Note: it does not prohibit regulation of their use.) Background checks? Universal background checks? Ammunition magazine capacity limits? “Assault weapons” bans? “Just cause” caveats for concealed carry? Tax stamps for suppressors or machine guns?
I’d say all these gun control laws are laughably unconstitutional, but this is no joking matter — what with Congress warming up for another pass at federally mandated background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, and a new law to remove gun rights from people on the FBI’s super secret, unaccountable “Terrorist Watch List.”
Anyway, setting aside the FBI’s failure to detain Mr. Mateen despite obvious connections to Islamic terrorists, ignoring the fact that Mr. Mateen passed an FBI background check when purchasing his firearms, don’t gun rights advocates bear some responsibility for Omar Mateen’s “easy access” to a SIG SAUER MCX and GLOCK handgun?
That’s what diehard (with a vengeance) supporters of the Second Amendment want, right? They want all Americans to have “easy access” to guns — including “assault weapons.” That’s where their “absolutist” view of Second Amendment leads. Wouldn’t gun control unplugged create the same “easy access” to firearms for terrorists, psychos and criminals as it would for law-abiding Americans?
Assuming the bad guys weren’t under lock and key…yes. Yes it would. But here’s the thing: there are more of us than there are of them. More good guys who use firearms for recreation, hunting, self-defense, investment, home decoration, defense against government tyranny and any other legal use we can think of, than bad guys who use guns to intimidate, extort, rape, torture and murder innocent citizens.
Even though armed good guys already outnumber armed bad guys by a wide margin, there’s always of room for improvement. The more that Americans with “easy access to guns,” the more they’ll access guns easily, the less the odds of criminal, terrorist or psycho predation.
Yes it’s true: more guns equals less crime. Law-abiding Americans exercising their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms are the best way to combat armed bad guys. Both in terms of deterrence and effective, on-the-spot counter-attack.
As many as one in 20 Americans have a license to carry a concealed firearm. The percentage of Americans carrying concealed is a fraction of that number. Five percent? Then again, if five percent of the (possibly) 800 people in the Pulse nightclub that fateful night had been carrying a firearm, Mr. Mateen would have faced as many as 40 armed defenders.
Question: would 49 people have been killed and 53 others injured in [assumed] crossfire? Doubtful. But if innocents had been killed or injured by armed friendlies in the nightclub, who, ultimately, would have been responsible? Correct. We are all responsible for our own actions, whether we’re spree killers — which we’re not — or armed Americans — which we are. Or should be.
Calling the event in Daytona “the worst case of gun violence in American history” is the same as saying “9/11 is the worst aircraft crashes in American history”. Our enemies – statists of many stripes – will say and do anything to abridge our rights. Why do they do this, I ask myself constantly. I truly don’t get it.
I’ve often wondered what drives the greatest negative passions and I tend to always get to fear as the driver. There is so much damned fear. “Gun violence is epidemic!” No, it actually isn’t, says both the FBI and the CDC. “Christians hate gays and want them all dead!” No true Christian does this, in fact every Christian I know – as much as they do not approve of the gay lifestyle choices and actions – recognizes that we are all sinners, all flawed, and each aspires to understand rather than hate and judge.
Listening to the news this morning it is clear that everything wrong in America today is because Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15. Clearly there was no evil before that date. The offsprings of that designer’s efforts are the true source of all evil in America. Clearly this must be true because we see it every day, all day long.
Sorry folks, but evil has always been with us. As we move forward, we carry it with us. I chose sometime ago – a long time ago – that I will not live my life in fear. I tooled up. I carry. I own my own protection. I go forward boldly – without the overwhelming gnaw of fear in my gut. I am prepared. This is how people were meant to live. I wish more people did so.
Daytona?
Hey! It was early here. Daytona, Orlando… they’re all in Florida, right? I live in one of those dry, dusty flyover states and my geographic accuracy is caffeine-dependent.
Homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice.
Let me clarify. Being gay or straight is not a lifestyle choice – used to think it was, but I’ve known way too many gays and lesbians to believe that any longer. Certain ways that can be expressed I think qualifies as lifestyle. I support a local LGBTQ rights group and attend various fundraisers they conduct. One of those is an annual Drag Queen Bingo. Gay, not a choice. Drag queen, lifestyle choice. I don’t understand it, really, but I don’t care that I don’t. I can support someone’s right to do what they want without understanding it. If that makes sense. Not sure, I need more caffeine.
Choice or not is irrelevant, Golden rule applies to all.
“Not a lifestyle choice,” Help to arrest my curiosity – as many others’. How so?
Neither psychological issues nor DNA programming are lifestyle choices. Discuss!
Homosexuality as a choice, or genetic, or a mix of both is really immaterial when you’re talking about a few percentage points of the overall population. What impacts the greater culture is when the vast majority of heterosexual men and women decide to embrace “alternative life styles”, (which usually means other than a monogamous married couple) that creates the greatest damage to our children, if they decide to have children at all.
Like I mentioned in a different post, the worst mass killing in a single event (outside of war) this decade was done with an Aircraft and a depressed German pilot. 144 people died because of that asshole. The media seemed to just gloss over the whole event compared to these shootings.
I like your analogy. Sort of like when Obama branded the Fort Hood shooting workplace violence. Both that incident and Orlando were terrorist attacks carried out by radical Muslims. The ultimate responsibility for each act rests with the terrorist who chose to take innocent lives – not the victims, American society, Christians, conservatives. or the firearms used.
1) Homicidal nut uses gun to shoot a bunch of people.
2) Response is to take my guns away, punishing me for what the homicidal nut did.
Fundamental disconnect. But then again, proggies literally don’t believe we are responsible for our actions, at the fundamental level, and that causes them to try to use prior restraint on everyone.
So what’s up with the comment system? For quite some time all I got when I tried to post was a blank page thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-comments-post.php.
Not the first time this has happened to me.
“But if innocents had been killed or injured by armed friendlies in the nightclub, who, ultimately, would have been responsible? Correct.”
The problem is, LE keeps being lumped in with the ‘friendlies’, when the cops start launching lead while under the effects of a major adrenaline dump the people in the immediate area suffer the worst…
Terrorists don’t just use guns. What if it had been a strap-on bomb instead? Much like what terrorists around the world use on a monthly basis. Would we start flagging/banning bulk purchases of nails/screws at home improvement stores? While the nation is being distracted by gun rights/legislation issues (yet again), we are missing the bigger picture this time around.
The “happy land” social club fire was more than half again worse. In “A Good Job” the firefighters that were there said they thought the “floor” was going to cave in because they were stepping on so many bodies in the darkness that they thought it was soft.
Rights delayed or denied based on SECRET LISTS with no Due Process is NOT who WE are !!
Democrats and Rino’s are ALL lying to us. There are many ‘ watch ‘ lists , if you are placed on one , you must PAY big $$$ Money yourself to Prove innocence. This is NOT American in any way ….. ‘ Will Not Comply ‘ …… IS.
Pending Appropriations Bills with ANTI – GUN amendments = SA-4685 and HR-2578.
Call your senators NOW – Tell them , NO New Gun Laws …period ! * 202-225-3121
Call the N.R.A. and tell Chris Cox and the rest : NO MORE COMPROMISE , No More crappy ‘ Deals ‘ that surrender OUR RIGHTS. —> Secure the Border FIRST ! Then Repeal NFA & abolish ATF . ; 703-267-1141
Of eight hundred only one armed (guard). If forty more, I’ll step up and say less patrons would be dead or wounded.
Here’s the thing lawmakers do not understand. They write laws base on a common culture of democracy; however they are responding to crimes commited base on laws & customs of a religion. After living in the Middle East, I firmly believe our lawmakers have no clue how to respond radical Jihadist, so falling back on what they know, working to solve a problem through legislation and hope compliance. Trouble is Islam has its own laws and followers intrenched in their faith more than secular law.
Mass murders shooting are contained when victims return fire. No other course of action is as effective until law enforcement arrives. Once enough shooting are stopped, jihadist will switch tactics and go bomb via suicide vest.
What lawmakers won’t tell citizens is we’re in an ideological war and Muslims are more commited to their cause than we are to ours.
First off I’ll have to disagree with your statement about the use of firearms. Why “bear” arms if not for use? If you bear arms then it is to use it when you believe the circumstances exist for its use.
If a bad guy starts to kill people in a crowd and you respond by shooting at him, but miss and hit an innocent are you at fault? I would hope that the law says no. Certainly, the police, whose aim is questionable and have wounded or killed many an innocent, are not guilty of killing someone other than the bad guy.
The Republicans of the FL legislature have seen to it that pulse had to happen. They are scum who love “gun free zones”. They always have a large majority.
The Gunwalking ” Fast and Furious ” plan was supposed to bring violence and carnage to our streets , resulting in an
….. ” Excuse ” for greater gun control / disarmament. Fast and Furious may have been exposed , but Wide open BORDERS and mass importation of probable 5th column jihadi actors ……. is working exactly the same way.
———– Call it ‘ Plan B .” ——–
Gun Free Zones should be the responsibility of the place posting it. If you are going to deny my right to defend myself and those I care about and even innocent strangers, then the business posting it should be completely responsible for making sure no guns can come through the door and be fiscally liable to any victim or their family’s when one does.
If the shooter in Orlando pledged himself to the KKK or some other hate group the left would never have never stopped to question his motives, they would have ran with it full throttle. But now when this guy pledges himself to Daesh on Facebook, then through a 911 call, and finally another call to a local TV channel somehow he’s not an Islamic terrorist, just an angry man who may have had a sexual identity crisis and, of course, because guns.
In Israel Lior Akerman, former brigadier-general in the Shin Bet, is calling it like he see’s it:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-FBIs-failure-in-Orlando-457121
It pretty obvious who holds a good portion of responsibility in this entire fiasco, but you’ll never hear this in the states with the media lapdogs we have here.
Lior Akerman, former brigadier-general in the Shin Bet, says this about terrorists. “Terrorism knows no boundaries, has no political aspirations, or demands for independence or money” He also never mentions in his article that Mateen was licensed as an armed security guard. Now why is that?
This guy is either an idiot, or he has another agenda. I’ll pick another agenda. Terrorists are always motivated by a political agenda, this is why they are called “terrorists” and not simple mass murderers.
What agenda? I believe he wants to create an environment of fear that will allow an even greater growth of limitless government power to arrest and incarcerate these potential terrorists. After all, he is proposing these are “random” mass murdering psychopaths what have no motivation beyond simple blood and death: and that the FBI, in following “procedure’, were not able to arrest one of these potential mass murdering psychopaths.
Yeah, the guy isn’t an idiot, just another statist trying to convince the sheeple that we need to give up our freedoms for safety and security.
Where have I heard the warning that doing that does not give us actual safety and security?
I’ve been to rock concerts in Providence at a venue with a capacity of 1500 and dozens of on-duty cops around. Dozens. Some were inside in uniform or in mufti, some were on horseback outside. There were cops everywhere.
And The Pulse had one cop to protect 800 people?
“Don’t gun rights advocates bear some responsibility?”<
Here's a thought: If we have a "terrorist watch list", how about we get the terrorists on it, then watch them?
Maybe the people who's job it is to run that list are most responsible, I mean, after the whack job who set out to kill a bunch of people to make a point. (I keep forgetting that some folks make the case that this isn't foremost on the guy who killed people on purpose. Probably because I don't get it.)
If citizen self-defense advocates have any responsibility it's for not making our case well enough. There should have been half a dozen weapons in that club, in the hands of people who could use them.
Proportional Responsibility:
There's this notion of proportional responsibility in tort law. (I am still not a lawyer, and still don't play one on the interwebz.) To illustrate, the guy who didn't check his air bags function every year might be a little responsible for getting injured in a car crash. The guy who drove drunk into airbag-guy's car somewhat more so. The bartender who over-served the drunk missile pilot is somewhere in the middle. I'm pretty sure the people who made the cars, and yes the booze are somewhere way down the stack in "proportional responsibility." (Airbags are a great, illuminating analogy for arms carried for self-defense. I'm just noticing this.)
I do suspect that maybe citizen self-defense advocates bear some responsibility … for not making our case well enough. What the hell are they doing having a massive soft target without active security, meaning people with guns, protecting the place?
I think in terms of responsibility, that if you're gonna take away somebody's means to protect themselves, now you're responsible for protecting them. Pardon my analogy, but if we mandate "No condoms for you." in gay-hookup land, now it's on us to protect the people we've imposed that risk on. Contrarywise, in a world with Aids in it, if you're gonna play, it's prudent to "bag it up." And that ain't our fault – we didn't make Aids. (OK, maybe the CIA, (<- Joke) but I doubt it; they're not that good. (<- Funny because it's true.))
Muslim terrorist-nothing more and nothing less. Omar could have just as well targeted women and kids at DisneyWorld. PERIOD…lookin’ for soft targets.
Can’t we get past Mr Mateen and just call him Omar the dead terrorist?
Not only are [virtually] all gun-control laws unconstitutional, empirical observation shows they are ineffectual for their stated purpose. If you just look at the myriad laws enacted in the era of modern gun control (e.g., since the GCA of 1968), not one can be correlated to a reduction in crime, violent crime, gun-related crime, shootings or murders.
The laws are, however, very effective at their unstated purpose: to disarm law-abiding citizens and infringe on the R2K&BA.
Apportioning responsibility for this attack goes like this:
Government employees, politicians, policymakers: 100%
Citizens, regardless of whether gay or straight, gun owner or unarmed: 0%.
The failure here is to admit that Islam is a religion that fosters, breeds and rewards homicidal loons. Period, full stop.
There’s an old bromide that says “Those who fail to learn history are condemned to repeat it.” Well, the failure here is to learn what happens when peaceful people allow Muslims within their borders. You get things like this. Russia has had attacks like this inside their borders. India has had attacks like this inside their borders. The UK has had attacks inside their borders. The Spanish have had attacks. The Germans, especially their women, are finding out that importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims wasn’t a suave idea. The Swedes (and again, especially their women) have found out that importing Muslims wasn’t a bright idea. African nations (Nigeria, Kenya) have had attack after attack inside their borders.
The Philippines have had Muslim terrorists in their midst who have mounted attacks like this, killing similar numbers, since the early 1970’s. On and on and on. None of this is new. For those who read history, the only thing that has changed are the weapons and the media. The doctrine, the suicidal fanaticism, the treatment of women and the captured – has never varied.
A normal human being, being possessed of even a modicum of common sense, would at some point look upon these events and say “You know, I see a pattern here…” and when given an opportunity to import people who believe in the doctrine that leads to these events, say “No thanks, we are good just the way we are.”
But no, we have political leaders who are both ignorant of history, and true believers of their own tropes (“Islam is a religion of peace” – the single biggest political lie of our lifetimes…).
Umm….1 in 20 is 5%.
Just putting that out there.
My rights don’t depend on some terrorist.
I was raised in a world where I was instructed to always look for a common denominator when investigating any unknown or attempting to answer any question that does not have a cut and dry answer , so here it goes ……….
What is the common denominator in all the mass shootings since Columbine ?
‘ GUN FREE ZONES ‘ .
We should petition our representatives in DC to immediately ban ‘ Gun Free Zones ‘ as unconstitutional and make all existing ‘ Gun Free Zones ‘ null and void .
I think Ripley’s right , It’s the right thing to do .
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