Gun Control

On a personal level I don’t use the word “gun” unless talking about smoothbore firearms. The recent Sol Pais episode and Red Flag legislation has been a hot topic here at grey and wrinkled headquarters, aka Peakview Trails.

I try to be informed and not let my feelings become facts when discussing the topic with others.

Poking around the internet leads one to all types of propaganda. Consider, “The Trace”.

https://www.thetrace.org/2018/12/gun-violence-facts-statistics-2018/

Don’t know to what choir they are preaching but they certainly are passionate.

That bastion of journalistic integrity, CNN delved deeply into the subject.

tps://www.cnn.com/2018/12/13/health/gun-deaths-highest-40-years-cdc/index.html

All kinds of neat charts and, oh my god, conclusions.

Here is another statistic I like to quote.

United States Population 2019. According to the US Census Bureau's population clock, the estimated 2018 United States population (February 2018) is 327.16 million.Nov 21, 2018

When I get a chance to talk to people who might, just might, have an open mind, I point out that 40,000, 60,000 or even 100,000 deaths out of a population north of 300,000,000 won’t make a pimple on a statistician’s ass. Usually gets a laugh or two.

Going further, I do agree if you are caught in a firearms violence situation, or have family caught in that situation, numbers are of no comfort. The numbers of accidental injuries are harder to pin down.

Why is “gun control” so popular with (P)regressives? Many reasons but the number one reason, IMO, is it allows them to assume a perceived high moral ground, to make much noise, and obscure their lack of enthusiasm for tackling hard, even insoluble, problems. It is possible they even believe their own emotional bullshit.

Out there is someone who will say, “Just wait until it happens to you, WSF”.  My reply, it has. A cousin died from a .22 round to the head when his rifle went off while he was riding in a vehicle. His parents, his siblings, and his relatives were saddened but not one thought banning firearms was an answer.

On another occasion my co-worker and I were standing on either side of the cash register paying for our coffee to go. Dumb shit steps between us, points a semi-auto at the cashier and announces a robbery. He immediately got two hot cups of coffee in his face. While my co-worker grabbed the handgun and racked back the slide, I stomped on the dumb shit’s ankle. (400 block S Colorado Blvd, Denver, 1970).  The point? Two individuals (veterans) with knowledge of firearms who weren’t paralyzed when confronted with an armed individual didn’t become “victims”.

My NRA membership has lapsed. When we have both houses of Congress in GOP hands, plus a kick ass GOP President and National Reciprocity isn’t passed, I ask myself why support the organization? Yes, they do other important work in safety and education. They also have a president I dislike and several board members I consider buffoons. YMMV.

The insolence of (P)regressives across the country will hopefully provoke such revulsion in the general population that the next election will see many thrown out of office along with the go along, get along RINOs. Maybe we will see a resurgence of the Tea Party or something similar. I can only hope.

For me, it is all academic. All my firearms were lost in a boating accident on Horsetooth Reservoir and I’m too poor to replace them.