I was going do something on our out of control debt and the "looming"
fiscal "cliff" but I was distracted reading this piece written by Piers Morgan of CNN published 12-29.
The heading states he may deport himself if "America won't change its crazy gun laws". Now given
such a heading filled with hyperbole you can expect the rest of his viewpoint
will be littered with more attention whoring exaggerations and
boy does he not disappoint.
He starts out with his experience with guns. This, being a singular event, was a trip to Prague where he and some friends shot targets for a few hours and he said afterwards that the experience "quite demonstrably guns are killing machines".
He starts out with his experience with guns. This, being a singular event, was a trip to Prague where he and some friends shot targets for a few hours and he said afterwards that the experience "quite demonstrably guns are killing machines".
I find that rather meaningless. For I, have never
owned or shot a gun at any point in my life. I grew up in a single parent house
with my mother and three sisters. Hunting is something I have never done
either. But I don't have to hunt nor own a gun or to even have shot one to know
guns are killing machines. After all, I have watched thousands of movies and
played call of duty until the wee hours of the night (I’m just sticking with the meme).
After setting up his "experience" he then proceeds to name drop his relatives who are employed in England with exposure to weapons as some type of twisted street cred:
After setting up his "experience" he then proceeds to name drop his relatives who are employed in England with exposure to weapons as some type of twisted street cred:
"Well, I do know a bit about guns, actually. My brother’s a lieutenant colonel in the British Army and has served tours of duty in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. My sister married a colonel who trained Princes William and Harry at Sandhurst. My uncle was a major in the Green Howards."
I find this rather humorous. I have an Aunt & Uncle who both
work in one of the biggest state universities in Pennsylvania in science. Both have their PHD's. I
have three other Aunts who are teachers. I have a grandmother who retired with
an MBA in accounting and a step father who has worked in a foundry for 35
years. I have a brother in law that is a barber. Do you know what i know about
what they do?? Jack-shit. I would also find it disrespectful to assume that i
know about what they do, in what, conversations over Sunday dinner at Nana
& Papa's house? Please.
Mr Morgan demonstrates his arrogance and obvious agenda to make the world England when he uses the reasoning for owning the AR-15 Bushmaster (used in Newtown)
"The only apparent reason anyone seems to offer up is that using such weapons is ‘fun’. One gun-rights guy I interviewed last week even said admiringly that the AR-15 was ‘the Ferrari of guns’."
When you see someone cite "One guy
I interviewed" as backing you know to take that not with a grain of salt;
but probably a quarry. Because the bullshit meter is broken. And if you say the
"only apparent" reason "anyone" seems to offer up is 'fun'
without any evidence, it just compounds the fact that you are basically making
it up. What’s next, an "anonymous quote" from a “high ranking
official” in the NRA doesn't “really like guns”? Wasn’t 'ol Piers an editor at a newspaper one time
in England?
Well, that doesn't surprise me. Have you ever read a newspaper
from England? Look at the link for his piece; it’s
plastered in 'tabloid-celebrity' nonsense. Hard news does not exist over there.
How do I know? The paper 'has ads for other story's'. It 'apparently' must be
devoid of hard news because I cant find a paper in England that doesn't cater
to 'tabloid-celebrity' nonsense... see this subjective, make it up as see fit
game can be fun and effective!
So, we have established Mr. Morgan's experience and his relatives
with guns are bunk or meaningless to the discussion and probably just a cheap
way to fill a word count commitment. We also know he has no reasons why people
own guns, other than he says, they said: 'its fun'. So there is no opposite
side in this piece with relative viewpoints, just his opinions.
Pictured in this article is a picture
of a gun show. It also has statistics with gun sales exploding after these last
few instances. It has a picture of a man at a gun show holding an AR-15. There
is also the statistics that Americans own more guns per person than anywhere in
the world outside of Yemen. Do you see the link? These gun sales
are going to create more crime. But is that really true?
According to the 1997 Survey of
State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun
was from -
- a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
- a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
- family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%
During the offense that brought those offenders to prison, 15% of
State inmates and 13% of Federal inmates carried a handgun, and about 2%, a
military-style semiautomatic gun.
This whole piece written by Mr. Morgan is centered on the use of
semi-automatic weapons. So we are talking about 2% of felons using these types
of guns. Two must be the magic number because only 2% of felons using a gun -
get said gun, at a flea market or gun show. Talk about living on the margins?
Maybe Mr. Morgan should spend some time in Switzerland where households pack fully automatic
rifles and experience less crime than England, where he says there are only 35
deaths per year due to handguns.
Which I find odd considering this article written in the Wall
Street Journal the day after Christmas by Joyce Lee Malcolm, a professor of law
at George Mason University Law School - who has written several books on the
subject including: "Guns and Violence: The English
Experience"
In this article Ms Joyce points out that:
"Within a decade of the handgun ban and the confiscation of handguns from registered owners, crime with handguns had doubled according to British government crime reports. Gun crime, not a serious problem in the past, now is. Armed street gangs have some British police carrying guns for the first time. Moreover, another massacre occurred in June 2010. Derrick Bird, a taxi driver in Cumbria, shot his brother and a colleague then drove off through rural villages killing 12 people and injuring 11 more before killing himself."
If that wasn't enough Mr. Morgan points
to a recent Gallup poll showing that: "58 per cent of Americans now
support new gun-control laws, up from 43 per cent in 2011" He then says
"that's a big jump"?
You think? Does he even understand that
his network is one of many that help perpetuate these acts by these deranged
nut jobs and fears of the public by sensationalizing them at every waking
minute to push their filthy ads? Mr. Morgan even takes aim at video games and
movies... does he have no culpability in this? No of course not, because
you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the
week, Monday through Friday. You make the news. You're God.
Now allow me to weave this all together all nice and tight for
you, using Mr. Morgan’s own words:
"This gun debate is an ongoing war of verbal attrition in America – and I’m just the latest target, the advantage to the gun lobbyists being that I’m British, a breed of human being who burned down the White House in 1814 and had to be forcefully deported en masse, as no American will ever be allowed to forget – Special Relationship notwithstanding. It’s no exaggeration to say that America’s unique fondness for guns pretty much got cemented by hatred of us Brits and the War of Independence. But the main reason the more fervent gun-rights activists give is a fear of their own US federal government using its army to impinge on their freedom"
Americans don't hate British citizens or look at them with disdain nor reject them simply because of their birthrights. We do have a problem thou with someone from another country telling us how we should change our laws and be more like the country that we fought from our independence from some 200+ years ago. Americans had to use guns to fight off tyranny in the form of the British government. Now you supported using guns to fight tyranny before:
" I’m not a pacifist. Guns win necessary wars and defeat tyrannical regimes like the Nazis"
I
find it ironic you do not see the British government circa 1770 a
"tyrannical" government. We agree the Nazi regime was just that.
This, being the same Nazi regime that took the US and her (gun loving) involvement to keep England from being bombed into oblivion? You know what
they say about history don't you, Mr Morgan? If its written by the victors and
while we know who won WW2 and the Revolutionary War; maybe you're in need of a
history lesson, chap?
Now i saved the best for last:
Now i saved the best for last:
"Obama should follow up by launching a Government buy-back for all existing assault weapons in circulation (as worked successfully in Los Angeles last week). I would go further, confiscating the rest and enforcing tough prison sentences on those who still insist on keeping one. He should also significantly increase federal funding for mental health treatment for all Americans who need it."
Piers... lets scrap the history lesson, instead lets do a real quick American Civics primer. "He" is just a President, nothing more than a mouth piece for the corporate elite, like the guy before him and the guy before him and the guy after him and so on and so forth. We may elect lackeys and "yes men" but we don't elect Kings. Here all men are created equal; we don't value one person’s blood more than another.
You claim to "love" this country, despite the fact that it’s obvious you don't understand our financial situation as you are directing for "King Obama" to start "buy backs" and additional spending of revenue via mental health (has he not heard of Obama Care), when we are facing two trillion dollar deficits annually. You don't respect our history or even understand it. You want prisons sentences for people wanting to uphold their Bill of Rights. Your views are based on fringe ideas and failed data from England, the country you left - to obviously pursue something better for you and your family.
Let me offer you some parting advice courtesy of one, Mahatma Gandhi:
