By Roger Katz
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” – Philip K. Dick
In a recent article titled Texas Shooting Brings new Urgency to Gun Debate in Congress, the New York Times presses Congress to cave to the frenetic urging of the Leftist antigun crowd, hell-bent on further weakening the Second Amendment. They believe they have an opening in the recent spate of random shootings that occurred in El Paso, Dayton, and now, Odessa.
Exploiting these tragedies, they appeal to emotion, rather than to reason, employing the informal logical fallacy of ad misericordiam, the fallacy of appealing to pity, and misery, and sympathy, playing on the public’s emotions, rather than appealing to reason, to obtain their goal.
That goal is an unarmed citizenry that, should it come to pass, won’t secure public safety, but would further endanger the lives of the citizenry and be an open invitation to tyranny. Where will appeals to pity and sympathy for Americans rest, then?
Extremist elements are hammering Congress, first and foremost to enact more expand background checks, even as the Times acknowledges in its own story that . . .
In fact, whether a background check would have prevented the West Texas gunman from acquiring his weapon is not known. Chief Michael Gerke of the Odessa Police Department said the gunman, who had been fired from a trucking job, had used an AR-15-style rifle, but had a criminal record. It was not clear on Sunday whether the gun had been acquired legally, and the authorities stressed that they had not established a motive.
It was subsequently determined that the Odessa shooter obtained his gun through an illegal sale.
What is deeply disturbing is that President Trump seems to be allowing himself to be caught up in the frenzied emotion of the moment as well, seeming to give in to moronic emotional, irrational rhetoric spawned by another convenient shooting incident.
We say this because President Trump has himself resorted to using the same language of the anti-gun zealots; “common-sense” gun laws; “really common-sense sensible, important background checks.” This as he appears to be actively considering the proposals coming from Presidential Democratic Party candidates.
The New York Times details this in their typical fashion. The article, appearing in the national news section of the paper, reads more like an op-ed than a news story. But, then, from the content of New York “news” reporting today it’s clear that no distinction between the reporting and opining exists any longer.
The deadly shooting spree in West Texas this weekend — the latest in an especially gruesome summer of massacres — has intensified pressure on congressional Republicans to take up gun safety legislation, giving fresh urgency to a debate that was already expected to be at the top of lawmakers’ agenda when they return to the Capitol next week.
The attack in Midland and Odessa, Tex., which left seven dead and 22 wounded, comes weeks after a 24-year-old gunman with an assault weapon killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, in early August. That massacre, hours after one that killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, thrust gun violence into the Washington debate just as Congress left town for its annual August recess.
President Trump expressed new openness to gun safety laws — including, he said then, “really common-sense sensible, important background checks” for gun buyers — and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, promised a Senate debate. But in the weeks since, with lawmakers scattered across the country in their home districts, the issue seemed to drift from public view.
Now it has come roaring back, with Congress set to return on Sept. 9. At a briefing about Hurricane Dorian at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters on Sunday, Mr. Trump, who has a record of flip-flopping on gun safety, pledged to find a way to “substantially reduce” mass shootings. But he earlier appeared to dismiss background checks, telling reporters that “they would not have stopped any of it.
Behind the scenes, in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, White House officials have been quietly engaged in talks with senators who support expanding background checks and enacting so-called red flag laws. The laws make it easier for law enforcement to confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous by a judge without benefit of due process.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said in Sunday morning talk show interview that the two sides still seemed far apart. Blumenthal said much would depend on whether the president, who has been consulting with the National Rifle Association, was willing to stand up to the powerful gun rights lobbying group.
‘I think there is a sense that the American people just desperately want something to be done, and they have to respond to that imperative,’ he said, ‘but are so far nowhere near crossing the Rubicon to stand up to the gun lobby and the N.R.A. as far as I can tell.’”
Thank you, New York Times, for spinning elaborate fairy tales about the horrors of guns and “gun violence,” and about the evil, “powerful gun rights lobbying group.”
We suspect the Founders — people who knew a thing or two about tyranny and the importance of a free populace — would be less than thrilled by the headlong rush toward disarming a free sovereign people, living in a free land.
This article was originally published at arbalestquarrel.com and is reprinted here with permission.
Nothing of substance is going to come of this gas baggery. Except the more extreme the left gets the bigger the win for Trump in 2020. And that means more conservative justices in the fed courts.
I’ve been saying it since he first got elected. We will have constitutional carry nationwide by the end of his second term.
I sincerely hope you are right… But I won’t speculate or make any assumptions either way. The Republicans, especially the Florida ones, seem pretty supportive of red flag laws and seen like they would be more likely to pass some “gun control lite.” And I haven’t really heard then pulling hard for increased gun rights, if anything they might sheepishly include in a bill and yank it if anyone dies.
Even more sneaky and insidious is the attempt to make misdemeanors a reason to permanently lose your rights. Did you use the wrong pronoun when talking to a LGBQBBWTF snowflake ? That’s a ‘ hate crime ‘. ( Disarm Hate Act passes out of committee .)
https://www.newsweek.com/gun-control-hate-crimes-house-bill-1458826
“Even more sneaky and insidious is the attempt to make misdemeanors a reason to permanently lose your rights.”
I predicted that *years* ago. If Leftists are forced to accept that ‘guns will be everywhere’, then they will work to drastically expand what a ‘prohibited person’ can be.
Examples – Careless driving – Someone who operates a motor vehicle (that can easily kill) carelessly can’t be trusted to have a gun.
Get into a heated shouting match at work? Someone who can’t control their emotions shouldn’t have a gun.
Oh, and you know that new law that’s supposed to catch potential mass shooters? That can easily be weaponized to create prohibited persons. And you can just bet that Leftists will bust a nut to classify prohibited persons, because it’s “better to be safe than sorry”.
That is what awaits us when SCOTUS rules that the ‘bear’ in “keep and bear arms” means that any law abiding citizen can carry a gun if they want. They are genuinely terrified that the streets will be rivers of blood if nationwide concealed carry is the law. Even though in each and *every* time CC came to a state, ‘gun violence’ dropped…
‘Hate crimes? Ha! According to the San Francisco board of supervisors, I’m a member of a ‘domestic terrorist organization’. I think that makes me a terrorist. That is how it usually works, right?
Someone needs to send me a brochure or something explaining the details. Do I need to go to Gitmo myself, or will they send me there?
I don’t trust or take any of our dipsh$%^s in the senate to do anything right.
I don’t believe Rubio any further then I can spit in the wind.
Scott well he has already proven himself he goes to the highest bidder.
And as for Trump…………..Lets just see how much he really wants a 2nd term.
If things go in the crapper which I don’t think they will. None of this at my age will affect me personally.
Toss me in jail if they can.
There has to be a 3rd choice out there someplace.
Realistically. Id like to wish anyway.
Whatever you smoke, me like!!
I like a lot of what you have to say but that’s pretty pie in the sky man. I really do not see nationwide constitutional carry ever happening.
All well & good jwm IF Drumph doesn’t reveal his true NY fudd persona…I hope you’re right.
It’s all about the judges.
They should be thinking about what a ban would look like with no grandfathering and little to nothing offered for the property.
They are under some spell that passing a big bad law makes weapons land in a open pit where they can be flattened out.
This ain’t OZ.
I would like to see a lawsuit and a ruling from the Supreme court stating that congress cannot exempt themselves from laws that are passed . If they had to live by the same laws imposed on the rest of us as well as having to eradicate the Federal retirement plan and put those monies into Social Security , things would be different in the legislatures calendar.
Man, Oz ain’t Oz!
The left likes to pretend that everyone just showed up one day and threw down their arms like a French surrender monkey. In truth they got somewhere between twenty and thirty percent of what was actually banned. The ongoing confiscation process in New Zealand looks to get less than half the percentage that Oz did.
Here in the US where we have an actual written constitution which protects the right to keep and bear arms, such a ban would be impossible to enforce.
“Nadler said, “[O]n, September 25th, in two weeks, we will have a hearing on the assault weapons ban, and one of the bills we reported yesterday was to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines, which, by all testimony, is what makes these mass shootings much worse. So, we’re doing that. Buybacks may go a little further than people are willing to go — mandatory buybacks, but certainly, an assault weapons ban, we will consider, and I assume we will vote for it.””
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/09/11/nadler-i-think-the-judiciary-committee-will-vote-for-an-assault-weapons-ban/
Nadler thinks he’s living in New Zealand.
I might have to think about ordering a few more “standard capacity” magazines, given that the Judiciary Committee passed a potential regulation to ban them. Just a thought before the prices go up.
When a mag bill was introduced in my blue state i bkugh a few hundred dollars worth kf mags. Even another 12 rounder for the SW22
There should be some sort of monetary penalty for Representatives that substantially waste taxpayer time with bullshit bills that have no chance of ever becoming law.
The NRA has been declared a terrorist organization by some.
Others are calling the NRA a hate group.
It’s not a coincidence that these bills and declarations are happening now , at the same time.
This is how you destroy your opponent. You create a crisis in minds of the people, preferably one that can theoretically kill any one of them.
You twist the facts and twist the language, plaster your “crisis” on all newspapers and tv screens, until it burns itself into people’s minds.
You accuse your opponents of greed, selfishness, callousness, hate, phobias and straight evil as their motives for standing in the way of your common sense proposals that will bring tranquility and end of your manufactured crisis.
Make it a sin not only to be one of your opponents, but to associate with them, do business with them or even consider their arguments. Make it a crime, if you can get away with it.
Even if they budge and repeatedly give up some of their freedom to look reasonable (and your “crisis” predictably doesn’t get any better), you always come back with more demands, while accusing your opponents of unwillingness to compromise, hardlining and radicalism. Rinse, repeat.
It doesn’t matter who they are: democrat, republican, liberal, “conservative”, they ALL think ordinary citizens can’t be trusted and must be controlled by their morally superior betters. From Trump on down, they ALL think they are princes and princesses and that we are nothing but peons.
Thomas Jefferson said, “… that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God.”
Politicians today have forgotten their place and Citizens today are allowing that to happen.
Well said. The fact that we the people are afraid of gun control legislation at all demonstrates that we’ve accepted our place as slaves. Free people would laugh, and then continue to manufacture and trade in all manner of arms.
Why aren’t they attaching guarantees if they are confident these laws will work, say something as simple as we could beat the snot out of them when they fail. You know, money where the mouth is.
I unplugged. I’m sick T F D of the LYING MAINSTREAM MEDIA. They are a bunch of lying scumbags trying to tell me what and how to think. It’s not going to work. FK them!
Someday I might tell how I really feel. I’m working on it.
Journalists wonder why they are targeted? It is because they are no longer seen as impartial observers and instead are now active participants through their biased reporting.
With the overwhelming public support for red flag laws and universal background checks this is soon coming and may be law before the 2020 elections. Elizabeth Warren stated her bill for Universal Background Checks had 57 Senators (many Republicans) backing it previously and it only failed because of a filibuster. That was then, not now, and now there is even more support for her bill. If Moscow Mitch McConnell released the bill to the Senate it would pass tomorrow.
As far as an Assault Rifle Ban that will hinge on how many Senate Seats are gained in 2020 by the Democrats and remember there are Republicans in the Senate that would vote for assault rifle bans and there will be no grandfathering either. If they are banned you can totally forget the Courts doing anything to stop the ban and the corrupt Supreme Court will simply do what they have always done about controversial gun ban laws, they simply let the lower court anti-gun bans stand and they can then avoid the heat from the Far right. Remember in the last two years the corrupt courts at the State level have blessed every assault rifle and magazine ban that was passed. It was not even given a debate or second thought.
Remember down through history the courts have voted mostly with public opinion and it is the courts and the legislature that misery dole out what little freedoms you have. The Constitution has always been a farce and good only for wiping your ass with.
Remember most importantly of all I am a liar who identifies as a sewer rat and Elizabeth Warren is a liar who tried to tell everybody that she is 25 per cent sewer rat but we all know that is not true she is probably about 99 per cent sewer rat.
“Democrats and the Media Beat the Drum for More Radical Gun Control Laws”
More like beating their meat…kind of difficult to get any results when you’re continually flaccid…
It is a very simple equation, and all gun owners have to learn it…..any vote, for any democrat at any level of government is a vote to end the 2nd Amendment. Learn this, or lose your guns. The local demcorats will pass gun and magazine bans…..the state democrats will do the same and the federal level democrats will nominate and appoint judges and justices who will give these bans and confiscations the veneer of Constitutionality…….any vote for any democrat is a vote to end the 2nd Amendment.
Who cares?
18-280 along with two in waiting if that doesn’t work. Along with more coming up.
These battles do not matter. The balance of the war has changed and we will soon be reaping the benefits. The antis are in disarray and they’re becoming more and more radical with their ideas as they have realized the repercussion of what is about to happen. Its a tale as old as time. When the writing is on the wall the losing side always becomes more extreme in their goals no matter the subject.
update: 18-280 will hear oral arguments 12-2-19. per scotus blog.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
What do you think it would take for them to get their minds right? Maybe an in-person, up close conversation.
What the hell do Americans expect when they kick God out of schools and government? God has politely “left the building” some time ago. What did anyone expect would happen? Evil moved in, got comfortable, and Americans were never-so-ignorant and stupid as to what evil could truly do to a nation that though they were too damned exceptional and special to crash and burn like so many other, formerly great nations of the world. All the gun control in the world will never erase evil from men’s hearts who are hell-bent on carrying out what is within them.
That’s how stupid the Democratic party is they don’t have any balls so they look for someone or something to blame so as not to admit the truth, that they screw up it’s time to face the truth, it’s not the guns it’s the stupid laws they passed years ago, now they want a excuse for what’s happening, why is there so many act’s of violence, well dumbems look at what’s on t.v. shows,news, radio’s this is were 85% of crime starts, people see, hear all about it,giving them ideas, I saw a boy get his father’s gun and shot some kids so that’s what I’ll do, get the massage, people see people do.not guns see and do all people are not easily lead,but some are and that is where the problem starts. In GOD we trust not people they must earn it.