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The Trouble with Guns
PJ Media's Klavan On Culture ^ | January 12, 2014 | Andrew Klavan

Posted on 01/12/2014 1:44:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

“A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel or an axe or a saddle or a stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good — and as bad — as the man who carries it.” Shane, by Jack Schaefer, 1949.

No one could call me a gun nut. I go shooting with friends at most once or twice a year and, while I enjoy it, it doesn’t inspire the sort of obsession that grips me whenever I manage to get my hands on a fishing rod, which nowadays is less often. But as far as I’m concerned, the wisdom above from the best western novel I ever read (and reiterated in the famous 1953 film) doesn’t go far enough. A gun is not just a tool, it is the great democratic tool, the tool that put an end to knights in armor and gave (and gives) the little guy and gal a fighting chance against the powers that be.

The left claims it is determined to violate, if not end, the Second Amendment’s guarantee to our right to bear arms in the name of safety. “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them… ’Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ‘em all in,’ I would have done it,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein after she and Bill Clinton managed to enact an “assault weapon” ban in 1994.

But yet another study has now shown that safety does not justify this sort of anti-constitutional fanaticism. The study comes from Applied Economics Letters, an academic journal. Quinnipiac University economist Mark Gius studied thirty years of statistics and determined that anti-gun laws are bad for humans and other living things. According to the study’s abstract,( h/t Mediaite):

Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level.

Add to this the fact that, according to FBI statistics, more people are killed in the U.S. each year by hammers and clubs than by rifles of any kind and you get Shane’s point: tools can be used and misused. That’s no reason to ban them.

But in fact, neither Dianne Feinstein nor any other leftist really wants to ban guns. Not at all. They merely want to prevent private citizens from owning them. You can bet the official officers of the state will still be allowed to carry them, no matter what happens. Which makes one suspicious given the, you know, facts. If guns protect the little guy from the powers that be, and if leftists are, in effect, the powers that be, it seems likely that all Feinstein and Bloomberg and Schumer and their ilk are really trying to do is make sure that the state and only the state has the power to defend itself.

Golly gee, Shane! Good thing we have a Constitution!


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: banglist; congress; democrats; elites
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1 posted on 01/12/2014 1:44:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We need to get this message out to “Mr. and Mrs. America”. There’s little point in arguing about this directly with Mr. and Mrs. Leftist. It’s the largely apolitical people in the middle that have to be made well aware of facts like these.


2 posted on 01/12/2014 2:31:26 PM PST by RC one
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...it seems likely that all Feinstein and Bloomberg and Schumer and their ilk are really trying to do is make sure that the state and only the state has the power to defend itself kill.
3 posted on 01/12/2014 2:32:30 PM PST by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s just a dang tool.


4 posted on 01/12/2014 2:36:47 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

5 posted on 01/12/2014 2:43:29 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I will give up my guns when someone explains and convinces me that the second amendment does not mean what it says, and Diane Fienstein and all Federal and State officials and police give up their guns.

I want to see Presidents walk down Pennsylvania Avenue with Secret Service Protection but no guns. I want to see Diane Feinstein walk through East LA with no protection, I want Senator Mary Landrieu to walk the fifth ward at night and no weapons on her or her body guards, I want to see SWAT Squads go into a confrontation with no guns. When that happens we can consider talking about me turning in my weapons.

I want to live. I will not give up my weapons to a Dictatorial State. I live in Texas and we do understand that weapons are the last resort against tyranny. We do remember Concord, Massachusetts, we do remember WWI, WWII, The Alamo, The Goliad, Inchon Reservior, and the jungles of Vietnam.

“Do not tread on me, Come and take it. Molen Labe.”


6 posted on 01/12/2014 2:55:16 PM PST by cpdiii (Deckhand, Roughneck, Mud Man, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist. THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Make no mistake, the Democrats’ ultimate goal is to completely disarm ALL citizens so that the government thugs will be able to enforce their draconian laws they have planned for the peasants.


7 posted on 01/12/2014 3:05:25 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The War on Drugs has been used as an excuse to steal your rights. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: mylife

I’ve been looking at the FAL clones for a while, but the PTR 91 is real tempting. (Its a HK 91 clone done up like the Cetme version)


8 posted on 01/12/2014 3:07:39 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

*** Shane, by Jack Schaefer, 1949. ***

I read that book! Shane dressed in Black, not buckskins.


9 posted on 01/12/2014 3:08:24 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Black in the book (I can still remember the cover of my paperback version); buckskins in the movie (check out a movie poster for the flic - most have Alan Ladd in fringed buckskins).


10 posted on 01/12/2014 3:19:41 PM PST by Stosh
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Guns are not needed until your government comes for you and you don’t have one!!! Ask the survivors of Ruby ridge, Waco and the ovens of the Nazi’s!!!


11 posted on 01/12/2014 3:21:45 PM PST by ontap
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To: mylife
That is a cool graphic is it from a t-shirt?
12 posted on 01/12/2014 3:58:54 PM PST by Nebr FAL owner
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

See my comment on this article at PJ MEdia as Ward Dorrity


13 posted on 01/12/2014 3:59:40 PM PST by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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To: Noumenon

Well said, old friend. Well said indeed.


14 posted on 01/12/2014 4:03:49 PM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: ontap

and the USSR and China and Cuba and Cambodia, etc., etc.


15 posted on 01/12/2014 4:13:49 PM PST by jospehm20
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To: Tijeras_Slim

The PTR 91 is a decent deal this week at centerfire systems.

http://centerfiresystems.com/RIFLE-PTR91GI-GRN.aspx


16 posted on 01/12/2014 5:06:58 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: Nebr FAL owner

They put it on shirts.


17 posted on 01/12/2014 5:07:49 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

I think that is about $300-400 less than PTRs regular price.
Century’s C93 is only $50 less


18 posted on 01/12/2014 5:17:52 PM PST by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: mylife

Ah, the FAL..dang fine battle rifle.


19 posted on 01/12/2014 5:26:33 PM PST by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why the push to take away guns? My guess is tied to what Glenn Beck said on his program a couple of nights ago. He said the German government was to have 80 tones of gold repatriated from the Federal Reserve, but only received 37 tons which incidentally wasn’t their original gold that was deposited. I think this is the tip of the iceberg.

If the Fed has engaged in massive theft, how about those pension funds that you can’t touch for years .... do they really contain anything? Has anyone audited and accounted for all the stock issued and owned by serial number ... remember that most stock is digital. Has the SEC actually tracked and accounted for the accuracy of all naked shorts or regular short sales?

I think the real real for gun control and confiscation is that the financial system will blow up in the future and they sure don’t want the victims to have guns.


20 posted on 01/12/2014 6:03:25 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (It's difficult to differentiate between a hog calling contest and a Senate rollcall.)
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