We’re Up Against Loons!

Dealing With Those Madcap
Gun-Control Zealots
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Perhaps one of the keys to defeating anti-gunners is understanding many of them are nuts, some of them dangerously so as they maintain — and spread — an unhealthy attitude about people who own firearms.

When the Washington Post published a report about a federal challenge to Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and other groups, reader reactions included some of the most alarming comments one might imagine.

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The Real Gun Nuts?

Indeed, I will hazard a guess if gun owners made remarks like this in a public forum, they would be red-flagged and disarmed and perhaps even sent to a hospital for mental evaluation. Judge these comments for yourself:

“All these gun nuts share a common desire — THEY live for the day when they can gun down another person, they LUST for that day, and if it doesn’t come fast enough to suit them, they CREATE a threat, like George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s MURDERER.”

“These gun ‘enthusiasts’ need to be tamped down. In this country we now require strict bans on all such weapons for private citizens enamoured (sic) of gun culture.”

“Assault weapons manufacturers used advertising psyops from the tobacco industry to sell the ‘coolness’ of owning assault weapons…. Gullible Americans, especially weak men searching for their masculinity, responded in droves.”

“We The People Can Solve This … Congress repeals or amends the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The government buys back guns at market value. After one year of buy backs, Congress passes gun control laws. If you get caught with a gun, you go to jail for seven years. If you shoot someone, you go to jail for life. If you kill someone with a gun you get the death penalty. Law enforcement and the military have guns. However, police must return their weapon to the police armory at the end of their shift, and Marines and Army return their weapons to the armory before leaving the base. Hunters and farmers are allowed to keep one shotgun or muzzle loader. However, they must have a background check, and a psychiatric evaluation by a licensed psychiatrist. In addition, hunters and farmers must keep their guns locked in a gun safe, and submit to a yearly inspection by local police.”

“I can’t believe anybody in their right mind is opposed to the banning of military-style assault weapons. Personally, I’ve never wanted to own a gun of any description. I don’t hunt. Yes, I’m small, female, and old, and I live in a ‘dangerous’ city, but don’t feel that I need a gun for self-defense and if I did, I’d carry a small pistol in my purse. Would I actually tote around an assault gun on the street or on the Metro? This is a ridiculous argument.”

Even when they are making arguments in a rational way, some of the things gun control proponents say or write can be enough to make their schooling questionable.

When attorney Rob Reid penned an op-ed for the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper last year, his remarks suggested his unfamiliarity with the 2008 Heller ruling language. Mr. Reid wrote, “The constitution does not provide an explicit right to have guns. I’m not against owning them, but stop hanging your hat on a illigitimate (sic) interpretation of the constitution that was invented around 1973. Use the actual constitution and its actual history. Not this ‘originalist’ version. It is a lie…. The entire originalist or textualist interpretation is made up and as it was intended to provide right wing nuts their fascist government, it can be seen as traitorous.”

Mr. Reid is certainly entitled to his opinion. Of course, he might want to do some serious research on the subject. If, by the time he has read through some writings of people like David Kopel and Stephen Halbrook, he is still on the wrong side, so be it.

Then there are the revisionist historians who are now claiming the Second Amendment’s roots are racist, allowing southern slave owners to form and arm “militias” to pursue runaway slaves. It is a notion so bereft of history and common sense as to suggest the people who believe this rubbish are in need of counseling.

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Dealing With Crazies

Where do such comments take us as a nation? How can anyone have a rational debate about Second Amendment rights, public safety, violent crime and possible solutions, when there are loons like this in the room?

It’s easy — just let them talk. Ultimately, sensible citizens will realize they’ve been listening to marginal kooks who make things up as they go, apparently convinced nobody is going to challenge them or fact-check their arguments.

If you attend a townhall meeting or a public hearing, have the facts with you, because fact is on your side. This column historically deals with fact. It’s why we’ve published data on homicide from the FBI Uniform Crime Report; not the graphics showing the percentages of homicides per 100,000 population — these can be deceptive — but actual body counts.

In the state of Washington where I’m based, I simply keep reminding people two billionaire-backed gun control initiatives and a special gun-and-ammunition tax adopted in Seattle did not result in less violent crime or fewer murders as intimated during the campaigns. The number of murders in Washington, and especially Seattle, has gone up — and this is the only number by which success or failure can be measured.

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Tactics

At public hearings, gun prohibitionists will argue with emotion and anecdotal tales of someone who was murdered or maimed for life. You must be ready to respond with data showing such things as:

• Defensive gun uses with semi-auto rifles

• Defensive gun uses by licensed concealed carriers

• How the number of murders in large, Democratically-controlled municipalities throw overall state data out of whack.

• How the perpetrators of this violence are typically too young to legally own or carry guns, or they have criminal histories precluding them from legally owning firearms.

All of this information is available. You just need to reach out and grab it.

Also understand something else — in our own ranks are people who, also unfortunately, sometimes don’t know what they’re talking about. You’ve got to be the adult in the room to remain calm, provide data and details and offer to answer questions.

Someday, you may be in a room with irrational screamers. They will try to interrupt you and talk over you. It is entirely fair to stop and ask — loud enough for everyone within earshot to hear — “Is there something you don’t want this audience to hear?” By the time they’re finished, you may be thanking all the gods in the heavens you let them open their mouths to demonstrate how closed their minds are.

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