*Alternate Headline: Carry Your F***ing Guns People (stolen from Caleb Giddings)
Well, that was one hell of a weekend, wasnt it? I first want to say that I pray for those victims of the Colorado shooting and their families. This is absolutely tragic.
I dont want to get into over blown hyperbole here, but I think that the major underlying commonality among all of these active shooter situations are those damn “Gun Free Zones”. With as many shootings like this that we have now had in this country its become pretty clear… These deranged lunatics are seeking out these locations because they have come to know that these places are killing fields. If you cant see that by now then its because you just dont want to see it.
The simple fact is that you will never be able to keep guns out of the hands of lunatics nor keep them away from places that have massive amounts of people. Everyone is going nuts about the fact that this guy bought his guns legally, but all signs point to the fact that this guy was as clean as a whistle and was a fine upstanding citizen right up until the point where he pulled the trigger. Unless you are suggesting that we put all neuroscientists and academia types on a gun ban list then STFU… the adults are talking here, and your claims of being able to screen these people out through greater scrutiny is moronic.
I will also say that my perception of the things that went on this weekend after the shooting is that the anti-gunners have seemed to have moved the goal posts. Aside from the Lame-Stream-Media who is still trying to twist this into a call for a full on ban on guns all guns. (which doesnt really matter because they are so far removed from reality that it is ridiculous – They are also just talking to themselves anyway)… Anti-gun people and anti-gun activist groups seem to only have in their sights a desire to vilify the AR15 (the number one selling gun in the country) as well as a continuation of Gun Free Zones as the norm. That seems to be all they are really talking about on the social media nets and what not.
Their arguments are of course ridiculous. The type of gun that this guy used or the simple fact that he used a gun at all is a pointless debate. I could list out a 1,000 other things he could have used that would have resulted in far more death and bodily harm. Like I said, the AR15 is so commonplace now that all these media types going on and on about their “disbelief” that these guns are legal is just laughable.
Additionally, their argument that having armed individuals trying to fight back in an environment like this would lead to a greater loss of life is preposterous. I mean, come on… Someone is already slaughtering people at will… it aint gonna get much worse than that. Returning fire can only help the situation. They are also leaning heavily on the idea that this guy in Colorado was armored up like a Juggernaut in Call of Duty or something and thus was completely unstoppable. As the facts continue to come out, I believe we will find this to be overblown sensationalism with little to no factual basis for these claims (remember,it was initially reported that he had an AK47). CNN has already obtained an invoice which claims to list the “bullet proof vest” which the shooter purchased shortly before the attack. Guess what…. it was a $100 Blackhawk tac-vest. Not a ballistics vest in the least. This means that, yes, indeed an armed civilian could have done a lot of good in this particular situation.
Simply put, if you want to have any kind of impact on discouraging these attacks in the future then its time to take down the damn gun ban signs. Step away from your political dogma for a moment and realize that these environments do nothing to keep people safe, but rather they are in fact the places that these murderers seek out to carry out these horrendous acts.
I will leave you with a couple of other things to read on the matter…
Ebbs gives us his thoughts on the incident… (He was only an hour away in another theater watching the same movie – Wow!). He also has a nice read about how to carry more often…. its pretty simple actually, just carry less. Timely, but it was actually written a few days before all of this happened.
Michael Bane also has an important read on the matter.
Girls Guide to Guns also has a wonderful response that you should check out too.
