Almost as if on cue, Jennifer Rubin makes a righteous fool of herself in an Opinion Piece at the Washington Post about the Aurora Massacre Shootings. It is the same old. same old “Gun Controls would not work” which is music to NRA ears and a GOP which has gone draconian on any regulation. No attempt here by Ms. Rubin to find any value whatsoever on limiting the overwhelming automated firepower granted to gun buyers in the US.
Holmes allegedly did immense, horrific violence without (at least for a time) his semi-automatic rifle. (It is also noteworthy that in 1/2 of the ten worst shootings in the U.S.no semi-automatic rifle was used.) Well, maybe the problem is not the type of guns that can be acquired.
You can talk about “reasonable gun control laws,” all you like, but we should get past the idea that such laws would have prevented the slaughter.
Rubin in effect is arguing “Let’s be reasonable, NRA hunters need the right to purchase semi-automatics rifles, concealable handguns, and large, automated clips for both handguns and assault weapons because the wackos would find a way to arm themselves to the teeth in any case.“ But that is precisely the problem in Chicago where the murder rate is up by 35% this year making Chicago, not Detroit, Murder City USA. It is precisely because automated handguns with huge clips are so readily and cheaply available that Holmes and the Chicago street gangsters do not have to exercise any ingenuity to acquire their firepower. Gun Control is not about taking away legitimate gun usage but stemming the tide of automated firepower available to wackos and criminals plus the NRA’s strident opposition to any methods like microstamping to aid in the detection of weapons used in criminal activities. So what Ms Rubin completely and conveniently ignores is the issue of the strangle hold that the NRA has in Congress – cross them and you will be shot down in the next election. Jennifer, take the 5th.