Complaining that we shouldn’t be blamed and punished for the actions of mad men is all well and good, but one has to understand a few realities:
- Ruling classes, everywhere, universally, do not particularly care for the idea of those they imagine they rule being armed. This is deep seated, and the fundamental well from which gun control sentiment is drawn.
- Most people will favor any restriction on something if it wouldn’t affect them or their lives. People who would hew and haw and cry foul if you tried to ban alcohol, skydiving, or skiing, for the good of those who might get hurt by it or hurt others by it, will gladly turn around and agree that your hobby is beyond the pale and no right thinking person would ever engage in it. Especially if they are being fed that crap from the above group.
Mass shootings give the ruling classes the excuse to preen about showing the latter group how much they care… manipulating their emotional reaction to tragedy in order to bring them closer to their position. The actions of the former group forces us to circle the wagons out of self-preservation, which puts is at an inherent disadvantage in influencing Those Who Care Oh So Very Much to support us.
It will never look good defending your hobby in the face of dead children. Yes, I know that by the same logic, people who drink are more responsible for dead children than you or I are for enjoying firearms, but that doesn’t matter. Drunk driving deaths, domestic abuse, and alcohol poisonings are all statistics, not headlines. And most people drink. People will fight for what they enjoy, but aren’t going to fight for what you enjoy.
“But Sebastian, that’s why we make the self-defense argument,” I can hear people saying. Yes. It is. But understand that while that argument is a lot more effective, it also has limits. The self-defense argument will appeal to people who have the emotional disposition to accept it. You aren’t going to win the first group with that argument, who either live in ridiculously safe neighborhoods, or who can afford private security. They’ve never given self-defense a second thought. There are also members of the second group who will not be receptive to that message.
I’m afraid the Vegas shooting was the perfect kind of event to trigger subsequent whack jobs. I am a firm believer that media sensation is what drives these events. We know that mass shooters spend a lot of time planning attacks. They do not occur in a vacuum. The Vegas murderer (I won’t name his name, that’s what they want) set the standard for what would earn headlines. The whole thing was ready made for the next crazy asshole, which is why I think we’re seeing a rash of them now.
So what can the average gun owner do? Relieve ignorance. Breed familiarity. Understand the emotional state of the person you’re trying to reach. Don’t be this guy meme:
Invite people to shoot. Bring them to your clubs. Not a member of a local club? Join one. I don’t care if they are a bunch of Fuddy Duddy old codgers. You can’t change something from he outside, and we have to preserve those places to shoot for future generations. Familiarity is the immunization that will protect the second group from the first. We’re not going to win this by ‘sperging on the Internet (says the blogger). Get out there in the community and help build it.
Most of the areas that still experience discomfort and lack of familiarity with firearms are the places that have basically banned them and driven off all the gun owners. In NY State (an example I’m personally familiar with), the city is basically a gun free zone with zero ownership, no ranges, no concealed carry, no stores, etc. Upstate has fudds who practice in their backyards and can’t understand why people need assault weapons to hunt deer (literal quote). These guys are all old as fuck and they aren’t leaving behind a generation or three of gun owners because all of their children left the state for greener pastures (me included). A lot of these states coincidentally have serious problems besides the gun issue, so I wouldn’t exactly beat a path back if they made my hobby legal again.
The only way to change those places is to override the legal barriers to the hobby (either though Congress or the federal court) so people can begin participating legally again. Without that, you’ll never get ranges, stores, clubs, etc. And without those things you don’t get voters that care about the issue.
Upstate has fudds who practice in their backyards and can’t understand why people need assault weapons to hunt deer (literal quote). These guys are all old as fuck and they aren’t leaving behind a generation or three of gun owners because all of their children left the state for greener pastures (me included).
That, in a nutshell, is the problem of the gun culture in the Northeast. Once these old guys die off, the culture here will struggle immensely.
Hunters — the problem is that “hunters” is still how urban people define us all. How many conversations have I had with someone who comes from a hunting family or is a younger gun owner who still hunts who says “I never cared about that because I never wanted an assault rifle” or “I own guns, but I think there are some guns that should be banned.”
The ironic thing is that the pro-rights movement is the strongest it’s been pretty much ever (at least since gun control became a thing) but the anti-gunners seem like they are getting closer to tipping the scales. Which will not be pretty because they don’t give a damn about “rights” or the “constitution written by slave owners” and are perfectly happy to see police violence rounding up guns they don’t like.
The reason they seem to be getting closer is because, to be honest, the Republican Party is not up for the challenge that is coming. Neither are its voters, who are part of the problem, to be honest. You’re seeing that play out with the whole Roy Moore fiasco.
Both parties right now are very weak. Historically weak. We’re all going to be swept up in that whirlwind, and where all the pieces fall? Your guess is as good as mine. In truth we’re at tipping points across the board on a lot more issues than just guns.
The Post WWII political accommodation is at an end, and something new will replace it. But what?
Had to steal your comment. It was post worthy.
It’s cool.
“We Have to Get Out From Under These Mass Shootingsâ€
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen given where we are politically, culturally, and spiritually in this country. For example, spiritually, God has been ejected from our schools, businesses, the public square, many homes, and believe it or not, even some churches.
No one wants to mention it — but there is a **POSSIBILITY** of (pure evil) skullduggery going on.
Modern mind control techniques are now light years ahead of the ancient Japanese Ninjas, or even the declassified “MK Ultra” mind control experiments of the 50’s and 60’s (which proved that certain mentally weak and/or tortured people can be easily manipulated/conditioned to plant bombs or shoot others).
Take a **CLOSE** look at the faces (especially the eyes) of many of these mass killers and you will see the classic “10,000 Yard Stare” of mind controlled goblins.
No one ever questions the (socially accepted) mind control of advertising, news media, or movies — but when you raise the issue of mind control for instigating killing — oh no, we can’t talk about that.
If/when this could be proven, gun control is a non-starter.
However, “smoking gun” proof is unlikely because few records are ever kept. For example, after the Church hearings in the 1970’s all records of MK Ultra were destroyed — what we know comes from financial records that somehow survived and surfaced years later. On top of that witnesses tend to be silenced, and the public simply “can not handle the truth” that mind control would be ever be “weaponized” for pure evil.
My only suggestions are as follows;
1. Establish and maintain a relationship with God.
2. Try to keep your sanity in an insane world.
3. Be prepared to defend yourself physically.
Scary stuff that we ignore at our own peril.
I’m an engineer that has worked years in the pharma business, and with people who have done extensive work with neurological medical devices, I can assure you that there’s so such thing as mind control technology or a drug that can convince a person to do something they don’t really want to do.
Now, something like this is very real, and I am starting to wonder how much of what’s going on can be explained by it.
“I can assure you that there’s no such thing as mind control technology or a drug that can convince a person to do something they don’t really want to do”.
The operative clause is; “…something they don’t really want to do”.
Unfortunately, there is some (hopefully small) percentage of the population that **DOES** have the propensity towards violence (both the Texas, and now this California killer had a history of violent behavior) **AND** have (weak) minds that are susceptible to manipulation.
Those are the ones that would be targeted for mind control.
Your point about AI is valid — Facebook recently admitted that it manipulates users by managing likes, friends, ads, etc…even to the point of steering lonely people towards anti-depression drugs.
Scary stuff out there.
That’s damned interesting!
I’m not going to look up the link at the moment, but John Ringo described how his then-girlfriend (now wife) had a psychic break due to some anti-depressants she was taking.
TLDR version: she realized that something weird was happening, so she asked to be dropped off at the local hospital, only to be sent home under 24-hour surveillance because she was convincing the inmates in her group therapy sessions, and even some of the staff, that her plan to serially murder child molesters made perfect sense. For most people, psychic breaks result in sudden outbursts of anger, but for certain patient, meticulous types, it can result in elaborate planning. And any drug can cause this — not just psychotropic drugs — so whenever you start a new drug, for any reason, be sure to watch for changes in personality.
So we don’t need government conspiracies of mind control to explain why we’re getting these shootings. I’m convinced that Sebastian is right, that the media obsession over them is what drives these things. And I remember the news article Sebastian linked to a few months ago, describing how an autistic kid *almost* did something like this, but couldn’t bring himself to do the first step — kill the family he loved. He wasn’t even doing it out of anger! The news article explained that the more often these mass shootings occur, the more likely it is that normal people will do them…and the Las Vegas shooting sent chills down my spine, because the perpetrator was a *very* normal person….
Oh, and as a home-schooling advocate, I have to point out: I agree that God doesn’t belong in State schools — but then, neither does anyone else. And it boggles my mind that God is disappearing from some of our Churches as well…
I think that a deterrent to mass shootings is to publish the photo of the dead shooter laying in a pool of blood with half of their face missing. That is the opposite of what the MSM does; they glorify these shooters by pasting their pretty pictures on the headlines and talking about their manifestos.
Many psychopaths might see themselves on the paper headlines, but few probably see themselves as lying prone on the ground on a pool of blood.
Worth a try. Couldn’t be worse than current practices.
I think it was Reason TV that showed a video clip of a psychology expert describing everything that should be done to keep people from copy catting these things. Things like keeping the shooter anonymous, keeping the story local, and so forth.
The video then goes on to point out that every single time, CNN et al do *just the opposite* of this.
OT1H, I can’t help but wonder if anonymization should be required, merely because most of these people are likely insane, and thus reporting their names will likely be a HIPPA violation. OTOH, as much as I hate CNN doing this, I also accept it (to some degree, at least) as a result of 1st Amendment rights — at least, to the degree that these things don’t clash with the right to privacy.
There are two kinds of public mass killings-terrorists and whackos. The existence of the former is why it is important to get the names out there or we would never know about terrorism. It would just be workplace violence or some such. Take the three most recent. The motive of the Vegas killer remains completely unknown, at least to the public. This lets conspiracy theories grow unchecked. Maybe the guy was just a nut but maybe he wasn’t. In NY, it was clearly terrorism. The name was the first clue and the Allahu Akbar was the confirmation. In TX, DV appears to have been involved but that happens without massacring an entire congregation. UK media found a bunch of people who said the guy was not only a loser but a militant atheist. US media is silent about this. So call this one mixed motives. It is worth noting that ISIS claimed the first two but not the third. It stands to reason that ISIS would not be comfortable claiming atheistic terrorism. Going back further Orlando, Ft. Hood, and San Bernardino were clearly terrorism while others were nuts. Criminal mass killings I have excluded because they are generally done in private. It is a policy and political mistake to assume that all these people are whackos.
I am willing to consider everyone a wacko for the purpose of requiring the anonymization of the shooter in media reports; beyond that, though, you are right: not everyone who initiates a mass murder event is a wacko.
If we can get support for those violence reduction initiatives that appear to have had substantial success where they’ve been tried, and make them more widespread, that would take the wind out of the sails of most gun control.
Imagine if we could HALVE the homicide rate? They’d look like idiots for pressing gun control. It’s in everyones interest to remove the main excuse that fuels their crusade.
We DID halve the homicide rate since the early 90s. Yet they demand more gun control.
https://www.infoplease.com/us/crime/homicide-rate-1950-2014
Exactly Right!
I rural areas shooting is more popular ad hunting is a family tradition. Urban areas less so due to land issues Hard to shoot in the back yard
One of the best way to get urban children into shooting is to start with school programs Trap and skeet and rifle teams. So have to get rid of the idea that schools and guns do not mix