“Here’s the truth,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy declares in a fundraising email for the Democratic Party, “will universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, fixing NICS, banning bump stocks and more stop every gun death? Of course not. But I shudder to think what it says about us as a nation if we don’t even attempt to make a good faith effort to try and end this carnage.” For the truth about Murphy’s “truth” we turn to logicallyfallacious.com:
[A false dilemma exists] when only two choices are presented yet more exist, or a spectrum of possible choices exists between two extremes. False dilemmas are usually characterized by “either this or that” language, but can also be characterized by omissions of choices. Another variety is the false trilemma, which is when three choices are presented when more exist.
Senator Murphy’s call for universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, fixing NICS and banning bump stocks goes one further: a false quadrilemma.
He presents a list of partial solutions for stopping “gun death” that doesn’t include more effective policing, harsher penalties for criminal firearms use, more effective suicide prevention programs and, of course, “allowing” law abiding to exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
Anyway, let’s turn this thing on its head. What does the lack of Murphy-esque gun control say about our country?