Ten Years After Columbine, It’s Easier to Bear Arms

…
In the decade since, massacres perpetrated by deranged gunmen have continued – including the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in which Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and wounded many others. But something odd has occurred. Whatever momentum the Columbine killings gave to gun control has long since petered out.
…
But efforts like Woods’ are up against powerful headwinds – and not just because of the powerful gun lobby that often strangles gun-control laws. Americans in general have cooled significantly to the idea of restricting gun rights. A poll released last week by CNN showed that support for stricter gun laws was at an all-time low, with just 39% of respondents in favor. Eight years ago that number was 54%.

The author blathers on about how this makes no sense at all, and that people who oppose gun control are obviously confused. However, while gun control advocates like this author continue along in their willful ignorance, a growing number of people are recognizing two important facts:

1. Crazed gunmen almost always strike where the lawful population has been disarmed (schools, etc), reducing their ability to fight back;
2. When a shooting starts, seconds count. A personally carried pistol is one second away, whereas police are hundreds and hundreds of seconds away. Further even if the police show up within 300 seconds, they might sit outside with their thumbs up their butts for another 3600 seconds before moving inside.

We can talk about getting help and treatment for those who carry out these attacks, and that’s all well and good. But we must also face reality: when the shooting starts, the single best thing to do is to fight back, and the best tool for the job is a personally-carried gun.

Those of us who oppose new gun control and advocate the private carry of arms see reality. It’s the gun-control crowd that is confused.

Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.

…

“Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades,” the warning said. “Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico, but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez.”

So, what you’re saying is that automatic weapons and grenades are available on the US market? Damn, and all this time I thought I couldn’t own those. I guess I’d better get down to Big 5 and pick up a Stoner & Pineapple special!

If that hasn’t gotten your blood pressure high enough yet, check out this additional ABC buffoonery. Amazingly, even when something is illegal (straw purchases, smuggling, possessing firearms in Mexico, trafficking and using drugs, etc. ad nauseum), people still do it. According to ABC, that is somehow my fault.

ALEXANDRIA, La. – An Alexandria man was recovering after accidentally shooting himself while showing his girlfriend how to handle a pistol on Saturday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

Police said the 21-year-old man told investigators he forgot he had just reloaded the gun, and squeezed the trigger while putting the gun into the driver’s door panel. The bullet went through his inner left thigh.

Police said the man repeatedly told investigators he was ex-military and knows how to handle a gun, and was very embarrassed by the incident.

Umm, yeah. It just seems to me that “the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant” isn’t the most appropriate place to demonstrate how to handle a pistol. But then, that would require common sense, which — admittedly — we men tend to lose when there’s an attractive woman in the vicinity.

Amazing Beliefs:

That 1 firearm owner in 10,000 will commit an act of violence in his or her lifetime, and this is far more frightening than the 25% of drivers who will cause a serious or fatal accident.

Heh. It’s a long comment, but definitely worth the read.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The SKS is not an assault rifle.

The term assault rifle has a very specific and technical meaning: an assault rifle is a rifle that is capable of selective fire. That is, it’s a rifle that can fire both semi-automatically (one shot per trigger pull) and fully-automatically (multiple shots per trigger pull).

The SKS is not an assault rifle because it is not capable of automatic fire.

The SKS doesn’t even count as an “assault weapon” — that chickenshit, scary-sounding, made-up word that leftists use to refer to semi-automatic rifles that simply look like assault rifles — because it doesn’t have a pistol grip or a detachable magazine.

I’m not sure if the press has an agenda or is merely incompetent when they report on shootings. Certainly, using a real term incorrectly (assault rifle) is little improvement on using a made-up word (assault weapon).

Update 12-7-2007: It looks like it was a Kalashnikov, not an SKS. Most people refer to these as “AK-47s”, probably because that sounds scarier. However, while these commercial sporting rifles are based on the AK-47 design, they are not true AK-47s, nor true assault rifles, because they are also not capable of selective fire.

AK-47 (and later AK-74) refers to the assault rifle issued to Communist bloc soldiers. Kalashnikov (also AK clone) refers to semi-auto sporting arms sold commercially and resembling the AK-47. So:

The Kalashnikov (or AK clone, if you like) is also not an assault rifle.

The Kalashnikov is considered by some to be an “assault weapon” because of its pistol grip, detachable magazine, and general resemblance to the military AK-47, but remember that “assault weapon” is just a made-up word that doesn’t mean anything.

UPDATE: An excellent essay by John Lott.

U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people
Reuters – 37 minutes ago

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

That just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Of course, it’s a Reuters story, so I’d best not read the rest of it if I don’t want to get pissed off at their blatant, leftist, alarmist bias.

Many students heard the shots. Two who did were Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges. Mikael was outside the school having just returned to campus from lunch when he heard the shots. Tracy was inside attending class. Both immediately ran to their cars. Each had a handgun locked in the vehicle.

Bridges pulled a .357 Magnum pistol and he later said he was prepared to shoot to kill if necessary. He and Gross both approached Odighizuwa at the same time from different directions. Both were pointing their weapons at him. Bridges yelled for Odighizuwa to drop his weapon. When the shooter realized they had the drop on him he threw his weapon down.

Ready for another non-surprise? The press usually leaves out the fact that the heroes were armed:

You wouldn’t know much about that though. Do you wonder why? The media, though it widely reported the attack left out the fact that Bridges and Gross were armed. Most simply reported that the gunman was jumped and subdued by other students. That two of those students were now armed didn’t get a mention.

James Eaves-Johnson wrote about this fact one week later in The Daily Iowan. He wrote: “A Lexus-Nexis search revealed 88 stories on the topic, of which only two mentioned that either Bridges or Gross was armed.” This 2002 article noted “This was a very public shooting with a lot of media coverage.” But the media left out information showing how two students with firearms ended the killing spree.

Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise either.

BROCKTON, Massachusetts (AP) — A man lifting his infant daughter out of his car was killed in an apparent case of road rage by a motorist “who obviously exploded” and shot him four times at close range in front of dozens of witnesses, authorities said.
…
Walter R. Bishop, 60, who was taking medication for depression, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Sandro Andrade. He pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail; a hearing was scheduled for August 26.
…
Police said Bishop has a valid handgun license.

Incidents like this — a murder committed by a law-abiding gunowner — are rare. But when they do happen, they provide a compelling counterexample to those who wish to ban and confiscate guns. This tragedy will be trumpted by the anti-gun lobby.

When you choose to own or carry a gun, you take on a big responsibility. Not only are you responsible to not harm those around you, you are responsible to all gunowners to not harm our right to keep and bear arms. Murders like this not only cost lives — they cost rights.

Mr Bishop, you have failed. You have failed as a man, as a gunowner, and as an American. The circumstances leading up to the shooting matter not. Because of your actions, a little girl will now grow up without a father. Further, you have irreparably harmed the already shaky position of Massachussetts gunowners.