And that’s why the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is a deeply flawed enterprise. This quote from Executive Director Josh Horowitz, lifted from an anti-gun polemic in the anti-gun polemic-friendly Huffington Post illustrates the gun control organization’s amoral core: “Byron Williams was obviously not 100% mentally stable, but good mental health is not currently a prerequisite to amassing an arsenal of firearms in our society.” You may remember Byron as the nut job who decided to shoot some people both he and right-wing commentator Glenn Beck didn’t like . . .
Be that as it may, as you know, everyone who buys a firearm from a gun dealer must sign a form stating that they haven’t been incarcerated for mental health issues. The feds maintain links to various state records for verification (with increasing efficiency).
It’s a sly lie; implying that a severely mentally ill individual can buy guns legally. And that has implications! Other than giving mentally adjusted gun owners another reason to own or carry a gun.
Google the phrase “An armed society is a polite society” and you will find hundreds of references to gun lobby spokespersons who claim that the push to arm every man and woman in America will not only make us safer but result in a utopia of good manners (sort of like the threat of mutually assured destruction in the nuclear age was at one time thought to temper angry rhetoric among nations). It is worth looking at this claim again in light of a disturbing new report issued yesterday by Media Matters for America. The report demonstrates a clear link between armed violence and the contemptuous political rhetoric that seems to be the raison d’être for Fox News.
I’m not going to parse Horowitz’s exploration of the link between impolite (a.k.a incendiary) speech and gun violence. The fact that he’s guilty of the same extremist tone and language, willing to lie about gun laws to promote gun laws, happy to smear Fox News without giving the media company or its viewers any respect or consideration, is indictment enough.
What I want to know is this: where is the gun organization that’s FOR gun rights AND reducing gun crime? Why do the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, The Mayor Against Illegal Guns, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and their ilk get to corner the market on gun crime reduction.
It’s not enough for the NRA, GOA and the NSSF to be FOR guns. They too should be AGAINST gun crime. As Sun Tzu said, 是故百戰百勝，非善之善者也；不戰而屈人之兵，善之善者也. One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.