Over at nationalreview.com, Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru (above right, sampling BBQ sauce at an open carry friendly Harris Teeter supermarket) offers his theory for why gun control advocates are failing to further disarm American civilians — even in the wake of high-profile firearms-related mass murders like the Mandalay Bay shooting and the Sutherland Springs slaughter. But first . . .
Mr. Ponnuru takes us on a magical mystery tour of all the other theories about gun control’s failure to motivate voters from the “great thinkers” foisting their fallacies on their unsuspecting readership. As follows:
CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza – “The central reason for congressional inaction on guns is that supporters of gun rights believe, baselessly, that liberals are out to grab their guns.”
New York Times commentator Charles Sykes – “The National Rifle Association had made the issue part of the culture wars.”
New York Times commentator David Brooks – “Deindustrialization had made people in rural and industrial parts of the country feel their way of life is under attack. If not for that, supporters would be able to see that gun regulations ‘don’t seriously impinge freedom’ — as ‘research’ (astonishingly) shows.”
Atlantic editor David Frum – “Racial and sexual anxieties lay at the root of pro-gun sentiment.”
Daily Beast writer Max Boot – “Political gridlock is killing us. Literally.”
Washington Post commentators E. J. Dionne Jr., Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann – “Anti-democratic features of our government — including gerrymandering, the filibuster, and the overrepresentation of rural areas in the Senate — had thwarted the majority’s preferences.”
Slate writer Dahlia Lithwick – “The gun lobby had fooled the reasonable majority into thinking that a 2008 Supreme Court decision had declared all gun regulation unconstitutional, even though it had not.”
And here, then, is Mr. Ponnuru’s theory:
Over the last 60 years public confidence in government has declined. Most people do not believe that it would be sensible for the government to try to disarm the population, no doubt in part because of the immensity of the task and the resistance it would spark. (The number of guns in circulation in the U.S. is generally estimated to top 300 million.)
They favor a lot of less sweeping measures to regulate guns, but they do not attach great urgency to these measures because they doubt they would do much good.
That view, incidentally, lines up with the data about the effects of gun regulations, as even some of their advocates admit. Boot, for example, concedes that any positive effect of the assault-weapons ban on homicides was undetectable.
And because they have a rational basis for not seeing the gun regulations as important, these ambivalent voters let other issues determine which candidates to back. Pro-gun voters thus have political influence over gun policy disproportionate to their numbers.
In short, many if not most Americans believe that gun control doesn’t work. A belief that “lines up” with reality. Voters who see that reality clearly, and worry about the consequences of gun control’s imposition, fight its imposition vehemently. The ones who kinda know it pretty much ignore the whole thing. So now you know.
How can a subset of the population be designated as prohibited persons for an object that is completely unregulated? Prohibited by what, if not laws and regulations?
Was gonna say something regarding something. However, Esoteric Inanity keeps coming back to the magnificent creature centerfold err center photo that is. She is quite fetching, no?
It’s called Concealed Carry for a reason. What ‘they’ don’t know won’t hurt them. What hurts them is when church-goers think they’re heaven bound and bullet proof.
I carry everywhere, posted or not. My family’s personal security is not in the hands of an hoped-for 9-1-1 call made by some store clerk and while waiting for a cop to decide my life is worth coming to protect.
It’s not support of the gun industry, it’s support of the Constitution and America’s ability for personal self-defense.
The REAL question is the AF (or DOD) is reporting ANYTHING to NICS. DOD works pretty well with routine mindless repetitive task some civilian clerk is assigned to perform. ONE is not reported is less likely than NONE are reported.
ANE this was during the rein of Obumer.
The anti’s problem is that anyone who actually cares about the issue and has two neurons to rub together knows the following:
Nothing they propose will stop any of what they claim they want to stop. Example: People dead set on criminal activity will not be deterred by a law. Someone who wants to shoot up a church will 1) pass a BCG and commit the atrocity or 2) avoid the BCG and commit the atrocity. A UBC would only affect a *legal* sale and the serious mass shooter will simply find a way to acquire the gun illegally.
Secondly, anti’s really don’t care about “gun violence”. You can see this in the way they run their numbers followed by what they actually lobby for. Example: They often include suicides in their numbers yet they never propose anything in the way of dealing with suicide. A magazine capacity limit of seven or 15 doesn’t matter in terms of saving the life of a person who eats a single bullet as a way of dealing with their problems.
Ultimately the problem for the anti’s is that they are, at best, disingenuous about nearly everything they say and anyone with an IQ above 50 who cares to listen to the anti’s statements for more than 10 seconds know this.
“The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something.”
Ah, the infamous “do something”.
Well, Senator – what exactly?
Methinks he is experiencing the aforementioned, non-existing “impotent helplessness.”
I choose to tool-up.
Let Shannon Watts, Gabby Giffords and the rest of those who slaver at the government teat suck on this for a while.
When I was a churchgoer, I went armed. If I am ever a churchgoer in the future, I will go armed.
I imagine God doesn’t care IF you carry a gun into a church. He cares WHY you carry a gun into a church.
Probably the best thing about the Trump presidency is that some on the political left are having their eyes (forcefully) opened to the downsides of government control. They are realizing that that this “government is the answer” line that they have been feed since grade school is BS. A few of them are learning the lesson.
You shouldn’t always assume that your preferred political party will be in power. Therefore, be extremely careful when ceding power to the government. The power you give the government to crack down on your political enemies today could be turned against you in less than 4 years. If you truly believe that the current administration is run by a Fascist, then why in the hell would you to give them the power to limit your guns?
It absolutely is inevitable if you support the idea that the American people enjoy a certain degree of freedom and privacy.
People still like to distort words to fit their delusional reality. I am sure people were terrified both in NewYork and the church in Texas. The reason New York is considered terrorism is because it was an attempt to advance a political agenda with violence. The Texas shooting was not political.
Outstanding job by this citizen have the presence of mind to direct deadly accurate fire like that, considering it came out of the blue and he had to engage in a running tactical load situation (no ammo in his magazine). Plus, it’s highly unlikely he had ever encountered a live fire situation before. His preparation in life both as a shooter and NRA instructor is the result. Always carry proudly and be prepared to be a hero if you have to — for yourself, your family, your friends, and the innocents around you.
The chances of your being a victim in one of the 130 mass shooting incidents since the first one in the 1960’s that took place in Texas is one in some unfathomable hundreds of millions number. I can safely say it’s not going to happen to you, much less anyone you know, not likely anyone they know. Yes, they happen and certainly they are horrible. But you might as well worry about being caught in one as being struck by lightning on a clear blue day. And this politician’s “solution” is — what. Right, exactly. Unworkable, untenable, impractical, hysteria driven and in violation of my 2nd Amendment rights, which I will not tolerate as an American. So. Let’s try this. Before ever more onerous gun laws are passed … lets enforce the hundreds, nay thousands, already on the books, shall we?
Good grief, John… why in the world would you want old infringements? They are all useless at preventing problems for ordinary people, and very useful for preserving the power of those who would control everyone else.
NO indeed, there is no rational good in any old “gun control,” any more than in any new “laws” that infringe on the right of people to be self defenders and self reliant.
Not trying to trash anyone here but after most mass shootings there are a lot of comments about avoiding crowds. I can’t help but wonder what percentage of the people who say things like that still go to church and don’t realize they just joined a crowd that might be a target.
Just wait until some terror group figures out how to do shit right. Damn, that’s gonna be a mess and if they really do it right they’ll be hitting a few small towns pretty hard.
17,342 murders, rapes and other crimes STOPPED by gun owners for every death in a mass shooting in the US, according to the LOWEST estimate of crime prevented by gun owners in the National Academy of Science 2013 report. More than 50,000 crimes prevented by citizen gun owners for each death in a mass shooting in the average of estimates.
This is why I took the money I was saving for a Springfield M1A and did something else with it. No M1A for me until I can afford one from Fulton Armory! Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms are dead to me. I will never again by anything from them, nor will I shop in any establishment that carries their products.
Thanks, Springfield Armory.
Last night at the GSL meeting in Springfield, Todd Vandermyde was there. Said the NRA fired him last Friday after 25 years of his working for them in Illinois.
You could just about hear a pin drop.
I can’t help but wonder if a semi-penitent Springfield Armory was behind that.
Ramesh Ponnuru? FLAME DELETED at worst a traitor to our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
…. and National Review? Who takes that cuckolded rag seriously anyway, hell they endorsed Evan “Egg” McCuckin in last year’s Presidential race?