There has been much talk about how “progressives” don’t believe in individual responsibility. There’s the stereotype that liberals attribute volitional powers to firearms…that firearms cause violence. In anticipation of the Missouri legislature’s veto override of SB656, Kansas City Mayor Sly James tried to get out in front of the issue in an address to a gaggle of community organizers . . .
As fox4kc.com reports,
Violence, the mayor says is committed by guns.
I listened to the video of the speech. That isn’t exactly what Hizzoner said, but rather a paraphrasing of the speech by Kerri Stowell of Fox4 News. As I heard it , she said that Mayor James said “Too much violence is committed by guns”.
Ultimately tt doesn’t matter much whether the Mayor said it or if Kerri Stowell misquoted him because that’s what most viewers will hear. It’s a major misuse of the language to say that violence is committed “by” guns instead of “with” guns. “By guns” attributes agency and volition to guns, a nonsensical statement. “With guns” correctly attributes agency and volition to the people using the guns.
I see and hear poor language usage repeatedly and I don’t think it’s accidental. Saying that violence is committed “by guns” removes the volition and responsibility from human hands, and offers a simplistic and irrational solution to a complex problem — remove the guns and you remove the violence. As with most simplistic solutions to complex problems, it only creates more problems.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch
![By Larry Keane President Joe Biden traveled to New York City for a media event to try and show America he’s doing something about rampant crime. Instead, he blamed the Second Amendment and lawful gun owners, said nothing about holding criminals to account and repeated the same tired lies about the firearm industry he keeps at the ready – lies “fact-checked” as being false each time he’s previously recited them. It makes no difference to the president. He’s not even trying anymore. To President Biden and national gun control groups the problem is always the gun and the law-abiding members of the industry. It’s never the criminal. Blaming the ‘Resistance’ President Biden was joined by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams for a “Gun Violence Strategies Partnership” meeting to talk about how to solve the crime surge, particularly those involving firearms. Instead of real solutions, the focus devolved into blaming law-abiding gun owners and again pushing a gun control agenda. “Enough is enough,” President Biden said. “Because we know we can do things about this, but for the resistance, we’re getting from some sectors of the government and the Congress and the state legislatures, and the organizational structures out there.” That “resistance” the president spoke of is the American people. Over the past two years they’ve become fed up with police defunding policies and soft-on-crime prosecutors, like Manhattan’s Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg. They’ve invested in their own safety. The “resistance” is the 21 million lawful gun buyers in 2020, including more than 8.4 million first-time buyers, and the 18.5 million gun buyers in 2021, with more than 5.4 million first-timers. The ”resistance” has backstopped Congress from passing federal gun control that don’t address crime. It also stopped President Biden’s nominations of paid gun control lobbyist David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and banking activist Saule Omarova as Comptroller of the Currency because not even all U.S. Senate Democrats could support them. They would have turned those agencies into bludgeons to hammer the firearm industry to achieve a special interest, gun control agenda. Favorite Falsehoods The president turned his aim from lawful gun owners towards the firearm industry and repeated a lie he’s rehearsed several times before. “Imagine had we had a liabil… [sic] they’re the only industry in America that is exempted from being able to be sued by the public. Only one,” the president protested. “Why the gun manufacturers?… It’s got to end. They’ve got to be held responsible for the things they do that are irresponsible.” He repeated the claim for emphasis. “And I find that outrageous.” This is flatly false. The president knows by now, or his speechwriters do and they don’t bother with the facts. CNN, Politicfact and Washington Post have all checked President Biden on his remark, including after he said it in the White House Rose Garden. CNN cleanly rebuked it. “This is false. Gun manufacturers are not entirely exempt from being sued, nor are they only industry with some liability protections.” Politifact rated it “false.” Washington Post wasn’t kinder, saying, “Biden is wrong to claim the gun industry is totally immune.” The firearm industry has liability protections under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), bipartisan legislation enacted under former President George W. Bush. The firearm industry cannot be held liable when unaffiliated third-parties, in this case criminals, misuse a legal, lawfully sold product. It’s fundamental tort law and is similar to an individual attempting to hold Ford and Budweiser responsible for drunk driving deaths. The law was passed in direct response to lawsuits filed against the industry by control groups and municipalities like the city of New York and the state of New York. These type of lawsuit continue to be filed, now even by foreign governments represented by the same gun control group, the Brady Center. Colonial-Era Error President Biden continued to ignore facts on the Second Amendment and its history. He even erred when speaking about the Revolution-era days and why the right to keep and bear arms was so sacrosanct. “When the amendment was passed, it didn’t say anybody could own a gun and any kind of gun and any kind of weapon,” President Biden remarked. “You couldn’t buy a cannon, and when – the – when this, uh, this amendment was passed.” It did, and does, say the right of the People “shall not be infringed.” Even The Washington Post was brutal in their assignment of “Four Pinocchio’s” to this statement. “Biden has already been fact-checked on this claim — and it’s been deemed false. We have no idea where he conjured up this notion about a ban on cannon ownership in the early days of the Republic, but he needs to stop making this claim.” In fact, the Constitution of early America – before the Bill of Rights, and Second Amendment, was even ratified – granted and encouraged “special waivers” to American merchants and sailors, “allowing private individuals to act as pirates on behalf of the United States against countries engaged in war with it.” Americans given waivers and who owned warships obviously also obtained cannons for use in battle. In fact, it is still perfectly legal to buy a cannon today. It is the presidents’ fundamental misunderstanding and blatant lying about the Second Amendment that informs his gun control agenda and misguided approach to solving the crime problem. Millions of law-abiding Americans took ownership of their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves, understanding the president won’t. Instead of mangling the meaning of the right and pushing for more gun control on law-abiding Americans, the president should keep it simple. Take on the criminals and punish them for breaking the law.](https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/download-26-218x150.jpeg "Mainstream Media Lies to Cover for Kamala")
Does removing cars prevent drunk driving? Yes. Do cars cause drunk driving? No. Will people still do stupid things while intoxicated even if they aren’t allowed to own cars? Of course!
Actually removing cars will not prevent drunk driving as any vehicle being operated while drunk would still be drunk driving, bicycle, moped, horse and buggy, are a few examples.
Cruachan!
The idea is that removing the tool does not change the simple fact that a stupid person is behind every crime that has a victim. This analogy works better with antis than many others because they know that cars are in common use and necessary for the workforce of society (getting to work is important, is it not?)
Simply amazing, checking through the latest NHTSA Traffic safety data and see that over a 10 year span, the number of deaths on our highways is -28% lower.
But when review of the total data for over all deaths shows that reduction in deaths, is due to the reduction in drunk driving fatalities.
So having seen a few so called enlightened people stating how regulating the automobiles reduced deaths, the fact is the punishment of those caught drunk driving along with stiffer fines and jail time which actually target and punish those committing the crime, have resulted in the reduction, end of story.
Did the govt. ban certain types of cars from sober drivers, NOPE!
Did the govt. ban certain types of cars from sober drivers crossing certain city or state lines, NOPE!
Did the government impose massive regulatory BS and taxation upon sober drivers, NOPE!
Did the government require breathalyzer locks on all sober drivers cars, NOPE!
Isn’t amazing how if one actually punishes those responsible how a societal problem can be reduced!
Such irrefutable facts of how the guilty and their criminal ACT and not the tool were controlled to reduce the undesired result, a fact lost on the low information low intellect anti gun extremists!
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811700.pdf
I feel like that reporter is too pretty to dislike…
And I feel that’s why they hire women like that.
Must not comment. . . . . . Must not comment . . . . . Must not comment
OK, who are you, and what have you done with Dirk?
Dirk overloaded on shannon apparently!
“…feelings,…..whoa, whoa, whoa, feelings……”
These feelings you’ve been having, how long have you been having them? Was there a triggering event in your life? Do you hate your father and desire your mother, sexually, that is…?
I’m not a doctor or a therapist and I don’t play one on TV…
Epic fail. Staring at data and hoping for a different conclusion. One policy after another contributing to black on black killing and the result well…nothing. Welfare, unemployment, low-cost housing, section eight, minority programs, tax breaks for business, food programs, midnight basketball, and since all that doesn’t work blame guns. Public policy administered by local, state, & federal government is nothing more than a money trough without merit, no accountability and frankly what every politician wants.
She IS pretty. The mayor not so much. There’s some stupid people running major cities 🙂
Why is Sly picking his nose?
And what has he done with the Family Stone?
If you look at the behavior of his son, then you can see why he thinks guns are to blame as it could never be his son’s faults for his troubles.
I will take a wild guess and assume this mayor is in the Democratic party..
Fortunately, the simple counter argument to “guns cause violence” is “spoons cause obesity”.
Well that’s just silly. Everyone knows its hands that cause obesity. Come to think of it, hands cause violence, too. I think I might be onto something here….
You sure are. Remove everyone’s hands, and almost no one will be murdered. Not only that, people will lose a lot of weight. /S
For every difficult problem, there is a simply solution that causes worse problems.
They will just use those vile, evil black prostetic hand claws with the shoulder thingy that goes up then!
Don’t think for a minute it was accidental.
Never attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by incompetence.
The reporter has a third grade literacy level, which is typical of her profession.
One, Corollary: Never attribute to incompetence unless you’re CERTAIN there’s no malice.
Two, your insult to third graders is grievous and unwarranted.
Well, she IS blonde.
Hey, dogs gotta eat. She is just shoveling it out there to the LIVs.
I have guns which exhibit good behavior and do not kill people. None of my guns are assault guns, and lovingly sit in the corner until summoned for proper exercise.
Actually an assault gun or weapon would be one that has assaulted someone wouldn’t it? So “assault” weapon must be a misnomer. None of my weapons have ever assaulted anyone either. By that definition there are VERY FEW actual assault weapons in our country. And most of those that are would probably be owned by gang members or felons. Could that be something that the NRA and others could use? Say and ad with an AR-15 and the owner saying “My rifle here has never assaulted anyone. So why do the News reporters call it an assault weapon?”
Twisting language, been going on a long time.
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