The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - When did the Anti-gun movement start?

vito · February 26, 2013, 09:41 AM

Gun control efforts have certainly been around since at least the Civil War, but the current climate of significant public interest in gun control is a relatively new thing. I'm pretty old, born in 1943, and I can tell you that even after the assassination of JFK there was relatively little public demand for new gun control laws. Things certainly escalated after RFK and MLK Jr. were killed, but the explosion of interest in this subject seemed to come after the TELEVISED shooting of Pres. Reagan and the universally reported shooting of John Lennon. The liberal minset, when faced with the evidence that high taxes and increased government spending does not bring about prosperity, say that what we need is MORE taxes and MORE spending and heaven on earth will arrive. Similarly, when obviously gun control does not change human nature and thugs keep using guns in a criminal manner, the liberal, aka progressive, says the problem is that we just didn't make the gun laws strict enough. Even if all guns were banned and confiscated, crime would not go away, so the do-gooders would say something like "the problem is knives, and clubs and bombs, so if we just pass more laws controlling these things everything will be fine". Just look at Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, someone I have mentioned many times on these forums. NY law insured that all the law abiding folks on the commuter train were unarmed, including her husband and son. But these laws did nothing to stop the Colin Ferguson from entering the train with a 9mm semi-automatic and shooting dozens of commuters who were essentially helpless to resist. Instead of recognizing that her husband might be alive today had he and/or others been armed and capable of stopping Mr. Ferguson, she continues to this day to just demand more and more restrictive gun laws that the criminals will continue to ignore. Remember, you can't fix stupid.

February 26, 2013, 09:41 AM	#39
vito Senior Member Join Date: June 20, 2004 Location: IL Posts: 853	Gun control efforts have certainly been around since at least the Civil War, but the current climate of significant public interest in gun control is a relatively new thing. I'm pretty old, born in 1943, and I can tell you that even after the assassination of JFK there was relatively little public demand for new gun control laws. Things certainly escalated after RFK and MLK Jr. were killed, but the explosion of interest in this subject seemed to come after the TELEVISED shooting of Pres. Reagan and the universally reported shooting of John Lennon. The liberal minset, when faced with the evidence that high taxes and increased government spending does not bring about prosperity, say that what we need is MORE taxes and MORE spending and heaven on earth will arrive. Similarly, when obviously gun control does not change human nature and thugs keep using guns in a criminal manner, the liberal, aka progressive, says the problem is that we just didn't make the gun laws strict enough. Even if all guns were banned and confiscated, crime would not go away, so the do-gooders would say something like "the problem is knives, and clubs and bombs, so if we just pass more laws controlling these things everything will be fine". Just look at Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, someone I have mentioned many times on these forums. NY law insured that all the law abiding folks on the commuter train were unarmed, including her husband and son. But these laws did nothing to stop the Colin Ferguson from entering the train with a 9mm semi-automatic and shooting dozens of commuters who were essentially helpless to resist. Instead of recognizing that her husband might be alive today had he and/or others been armed and capable of stopping Mr. Ferguson, she continues to this day to just demand more and more restrictive gun laws that the criminals will continue to ignore. Remember, you can't fix stupid.