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After Las Vegas, Are We Good or Are We Bad?
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Rob Morse
Website: https://slowfacts.wordpress.com/
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A lot of labels have been thrown around in the last few weeks. We’ve seen the worst and best of human behavior. Each event is a snapshot. Let’s look at the larger picture.
Murder in Las Vegas. Attacks on a church in Tennessee. Neighbors helping neighbors in hurricanes and fires. Time after time, we see enormous benevolence and craven self-interests on display.
We’ve heard politicians and celebrities say that guns should be confiscated, as if the evil that we do is embodied in our tools rather than our character. I wish virtue were that simple. We can wrap the appeal for disarmament in tearful emotion, but I’m not superstitious. We can’t achieve virtue by casting-out plastic demons. Evil doesn’t live in the holster. |
AK: Aim to carry a gun? Best carry skill, knowledge and wisdom too
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Corey Salo
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Described as a "brazen attack" in "broad daylight" by the Anchorage Police Department, the recent assault and robbery of a woman in a parking lot near Northway Mall is one of the latest incidents to prompt private and public discussion about crime in the city. An eyewitness to the alarming robbery emailed me. She wrote:
"I felt more vulnerable after this week's experience here in town than I ever have during my 44 years in Alaska living in the Homer area. There are several women I have spoken with since this incident who are a little leery now in parking lots after something like this happened in broad daylight. … I am a hunter and longtime rifle owner. |
CA: Five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Both of these beliefs ignore an irrefutable historical truth. The framers and adopters of the Second Amendment were generally ardent supporters of the idea of well-regulated liberty. Without strong governments and effective laws, they believed, liberty inevitably degenerated into licentiousness and eventually anarchy. Diligent students of history, particularly Roman history, the Federalists who wrote the Constitution realized that tyranny more often resulted from anarchy, not strong government. |
NC: Debating guns and 'Gorgias' at Duke
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Our Platonic dialogue began with me taking a pro-Second Amendment stance, in response to my partner-in-debate’s decisively anti-gun viewpoint.
My opponent declared that only non-automatic weapons, for the sole purpose of defending oneself from his or her neighbors, need be permitted—raising the contention
that no person would need to own semi-automatic weaponry to protect oneself against other civilians if such caliber weapons were banned. He also claimed that the U.S. government could not possibly become a tyranny, eliminating the need for arms that could rival the military’s. |
NY: State reps: Bump stocks best handled federally
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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A bill to ban bump stocks was brought forward in the House of Representatives recently by a bipartisan group of representatives led by U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida.
In New York, similar bills also were introduced earlier this month in the state Senate and the state Assembly. While there also is consideration across the nation about bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines, New York enacted a ban on magazines that carry more than 10 rounds under the SAFE Act.
State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, said he has not had a chance to review the state legislation regarding bump stocks. Nevertheless, Griffo said the issue cannot be solved from state to state since it’s easy enough to transport items from one state to the next. |
VA: Democrat Fairfax Extreme Views On Firearms Alienate Virginians
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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As you may have heard, Justin Fairfax, candidate for Lieutenant Governor, came out in favor of gun confiscation. Let’s be clear: he called for taking guns away from people who already own them.
His call to get guns “out of civilian hands” speaks for itself. He doesn’t mean guns in store display cases. He means guns currently in your safe at home.
Justin Fairfax is as extreme as any anti-gun candidate in Virginia’s history to ever run statewide on a major party ticket. In backing confiscation, Fairfax has crossed a line to support one of the most extreme positions possible. |
CA: Weapons are not the Issue
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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There have always been guns—most assuredly in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Wise parents educate, train and supervise their children. Life is not safe but it can be managed. Weapons are lifesavers. Were that not true, the law enforcement and military wouldn’t bother with it. Private citizens could simply rely on the milk of human kindness possessed by the felons intent on rape, robbery, murder and mayhem—clearly that is not a viable option. |
SC: Assault weapon regulation
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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The mass assassination of American citizens on Oct. 1 in Las Vegas by a private American citizen who chose to use military-grade weaponry for an unknown killing purpose is analogous to a virus invading our nation, a communicable infection which indiscriminately kills, but whose effect can be thwarted by mass immunization.
The spread of military-grade weapons into the public community is a cultural virus sustained by assault-weapon economics. |
DC: What the D.C. Council should do next on guns
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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As the Oct. 11 editorial “A pragmatic decision on guns” said, now that the District has determined not to appeal the court decision striking down the city’s “good reason” requirement for carrying a concealed gun on the city’s streets, the D.C. Council “might want to determine . . . whether other protections should be put in place” to protect public safety. This seems to be a good suggestion. |
Happy To Be A Gun Owner
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Such was the case concerning a recent statement Feinstein made on “Meet The Press.” In that appearance, Feinstein told host Chuck Todd, “America is a gun-happy country, and I think there are many of us in growing numbers that don't want a gun-happy country.”
I can agree with at least the first part of her statement—although in a different way. The disparaging description “gun-happy” aside, millions of Americans are happy to own guns. And millions are also happy that the Second Amendment protects their right to do so. |
Shorter Jimmy Kimmel: No Republican Viewers, No Problem
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Late note comedy host Jimmy Kimmel told CBS' Sunday Morning that he does not mind if Republican viewers turn off his show in response to his increasingly political content on ABC's hit show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
"If they're so turned off by my opinion on healthcare and gun violence then, I don't know, I probably wouldn't want to have a conversation with them anyway..Not good riddance, but riddance." |
FL: Country music is not gun-culture music
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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To those unfamiliar with country music, it may be easy to label it as music for gun-toting rednecks from “The South,” but settling for this stereotype demonstrates willful ignorance.
The country music community is not as monolithic as outsiders might think, a fact that has been increasingly visible since the Las Vegas attack as musicians speak out and in some cases change their minds.
“I’ve been a proponent of the Second Amendment my entire life. … I cannot express how wrong I was,” wrote Caleb Keeter of the Josh Abbott Band, which performed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. |
CA: After Las Vegas massacre, Democrats urge gun laws; Republicans silent
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Senate Democrats were holding the floor into the evening on Monday to talk about the Las Vegas massacre and the need for gun controls.
One California politician offered another possible path forward. Gavin Newsom, the state’s current lieutenant governor and a candidate for governor in the 2018 election, suggested that California act on its own.
“We are heartbroken that we can´t pass commonsense gun laws in our nation,” Newsom said in a statement. “If the Republican leadership of Congress and this president continue with their moral and intellectual abandon, California has and must continue to chart the path of rationality.” |
CA: California Bans Guns in Schools Amid National Gun Debate
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Californians can no longer carry guns on school grounds.
Over the weekend, Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a bill that overturned the right of local school superintendents to permit some employees to carry guns on a case-by-case basis. Superintendents had been granted that role in legislation last year.
Five school districts in California had taken advantage of the provision, but supporters of the new bill argued that guns have no place in schools. |
KS: Will the NRA bully KC-area members of Congress into doing nothing on guns?
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas issued a firm statement. “I will support measures to regulate or ban these types of devices,” he said.
His Kansas colleague, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, aligned with Yoder, as did the most senior member of the Kansas delegation, Sen. Pat Roberts.
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri hedged, noting it was “a little too quick for us to decide” about legislation. But like Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, Blunt seemed open to at least learning more about bump stocks.
Democrats, including Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, didn’t mince words. She supported a ban. That was then.
Now, gun rights advocates are attempting to derail congressional action. Suddenly, they oppose legislation to ban the production and sale of bump stocks. |
LA: Rationality
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Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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Consider all the things man has invented that are dangerous or can be dangerous if used improperly. Throughout history man has taken steps to regulate these things. Today we have cars and airplanes that can only be operated legally by people who meet certain qualifications. Likewise modern science provides us with a wide range of medications that greatly benefit many people but require control because the medicines can cause great harm if used improperly. For those examples, and countless others, we accept controls. They are considered reasonable and rational. |
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