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“We already have laws and regulations to protect us from murderers, at least when we call them terrorists. We have our mouthwash and water confiscated, we take our shoes off, we’re bombarded by X-rays and herded like cattle, photographed and eavesdropped upon. If a Muslim had flown a small plane into a movie theater, do you doubt that stricter laws governing the use of private planes would have followed? Yet you can buy a semiautomatic weapon online almost as easily as you can a book.” – Mark Bittman

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33 COMMENTS

  1. WHen the NYT food columnist is frustrated and decries the lack of “gun control”, you know we are winning. hahahaha

  2. Actually, this idiots quote made me think, we’re kinda lucky that the attacks were not perpetrated by foreign individuals of a different religion. If it had been say a Muslim who attacked in Aurora or at the Sikh temple, the politicians would be banging the war drums, saying we need to protect the people from terrorists, and passing stricter gun control measures because America. And not many would dare oppose the new stricter law in fear of being labeled unpatriotic.

      • True. The Patriot Act is the most unpatriotic bill ever passed, yet it was virtually unopposed in Congress for that reason. Soon the terrorists will figure that out, and they will then hold the key to our destruction.

        • The terrorists have already figured it out and perpetrate false flag operations all over the world. It’s just a matter of time until they do it here.

          Oh, did you mean foreign, Muslim “terrorists?”

          Sorry, I thought you were talking about the real terrorists that infect our government. My mistake.

        • Don’t forget the NDAA that just passed. This will continue until voters decide that the integrity of our Constitution is actually a priority. There are politicians who will repeat “freedom” like a mantra and think nothing of voting for stuff like this. We need to call them on it.

    • Bittman: It’s not fair! It’s SO EASY for Republicans to enact their anti-freedom agenda! Why can’t we catch a break?

  3. “..Yet you can buy a semiautomatic weapon online almost as easily as you can a book.”

    I didn’t realize they had to have books shipped to an authorized book store, fill out a 4473, present an ID and pass a background check.

    I think it’s past time to call for a 10 word limit in stupid shit.

  4. “Almost” must have a different meaning in New York.

    We can have a race. I’ll order a book from Amazon, he’ll start the NYC pistol buying process. We’ll see who wins, and what it costs.

  5. The great thing about Opinion pieces, they are specifically designed to have an emotional reaction and because they are opinion they require zero research or facts. Because it is printing in a big city paper, many will believe it to be facts. Thankfully, many of the people commenting seemed to have more of a brain than this food columist.

    He ignores the fact that we have a 2a and ignores history when there was a time where one could order a gun via Sears catalog and have it show up at your doorstep.

    The people he cites all have one thing in common, they had mental illness but also had done nothing illegal untill they went and shot up a bunch of people. How about, you know, have a real opinon and start talking about the mental health crises that we truely have versus limiting the rights of legal gun owners. He reasons if guns where harder to get, this would not have happened. Where he falls down is, that death happens all the time. Somehow one mass killing is worse than many smaller number of deaths. I look at my local TV stations website this morning and I count 14 deaths from criminals just this past weekend from various parts of the state. Somehow this is OK?? It may be a human trait to think about the one big scary thing that has little probability of happening again versus the many little real deadly things that happen every day. It could also be that our media focuses on the big things and the little things go unnoticed.

    One more thing, I would like to point out, he notes all the stupid things we must endure post 9/11 including all the airport BS but who feels any safer? I travel all the time and I don’t feel any safer — but it does show that scared people are more than happy to give up their liberty to be a little safer which in fact makes them not safe at all from govt. abuse.

    Which brings up the gun grabbers arguments….if we can scare enough people into believing guns are bad….if we can make up stuff to make them scary….then people will gladly give up their rights like we did post 9/11.

    We cannot stop the next human tragedy be it earthquack, tornado, hurrican or the next whack job shooter. Might as say earthquacks are illegal because that is what the gun grabbers are trying to do with gun laws.

  6. This guy talks as though everyone supports all the bvlls!tt, statist “laws” enacted for “our safety” to combat “terrorism.” He’s deluded.

  7. So he’s using examples of oppressive and unconstitutional laws to lament how we need more oppressive and unconstitutional laws.

    Yup, sounds like a “progressive” to me.

  8. We should put a $200 tax and require a license to own a dictionary. They provide the owner with the opportunity to use a variety of words in different contexts.

    We must ban sales across state lines. Such sales take tax revenue away from states and allow ideas to pass freely.

    We have to demand a ban on private sales or transfers of books. A friend of mine recently loaned me Unintended Consequences. What if he’d loaned me The Federalist Papers at the same time? Oh, wait, I already have that one.

    To carry a book out in public, we must require licenses. Some states will only issue those to people who demonstrate a need. Since I teach, I’ll be allowed certain books, but only ones that are approved by the state.

    We must regulate the size and form of books. If they’re too small, they can be put in pockets and passed around easily. If they’re too big, they could be used in educating the masses.

    Shall I go on, Mr. Bittman?

  9. Bittman used to be cool. But then at some point he decided he wasn’t eating healthy enough, then he decided everyone else isn’t eating healthy enough… then he decided we all need government to force us to behave “correctly.” It’s really kind of sad to see how little it takes for some Americans to beg for a nanny.

    • is that where Mayor Mike got the idea for the ban on sodas, beef, smoking, drinking, sex, and anything else that makes life enjoyable?

  10. from the link:
    “We’ve experimented with little or no gun control. It doesn’t work. Let’s try something else: real gun control….
    Then perhaps we’ll be encouraged to move in better directions on other issues we need to tackle: Health care. Diet. Climate change. Our lives ride on all of these.”

    🙂 The guy is nuts. He seems to ‘feel’ that If America passes and acts upon new real serious gun control Then emotionally America will feel empowered and motivated to solve the problems in health care, climate change, etc.

    As usual, the real underlying issues to some of the violence in our society are not addressed such as our unnatural national diet and sedentary lifestyle that is physically poisoning people, a culture that is fragmenting, excess use of prescription drugs, people without a sense of direction or core accountable ethical beliefs, the stress of modern society, lack of a healthy family upbringing, etc. FYI, 85% of the men is prison for a second violent offense grew up in a family without a father present. That is of course OK in the feminist book since a woman does not need a man to help raise her kids except for his or the entitled tax-payers extra money.

    • The best response to his comment is this: We’ve experimented with total gun control, total bans on gun ownership in major cities like Chicago and D.C. It didn’t work. We’ve experimented with onerous restriction on carrying of weapons, and licenses required to purchase or possess weapons, issued at the discretion of the police; that didn’t work either. There was still crime. There was still murder. There were still illegal guns. What did we accomplish?

  11. Thank God we have these “Enlightened Ones” to tell us what we should do and think. Otherwise you would have subjects running around with guns, buying the wrong type of toilet or light bulb, or maybe even spending money that they earned on something frivolous, like a DVD player, instead of “investing” it in their children s future, whatever that means.

  12. Hey, Bittman, here’s some news for you. A consumer cannot buy a gun online, unless you’re talking about C&R firearms and you have a federal license. However, you can buy Rogaine online. Please do. Now. Because your brain disease is rotting away your hair.

  13. Hey, Muslims DID fly aircraft into several buildings a while back…and then we went to war with some states that were predominantly Muslim…then that Muslim guy shot up Fort Hood…

    And we *STILL* didn’t end up with laws restricting the practice of Islam.

    Any difference?

  14. You left out a lot of the important stuff… Like the FFL required shipping. Do you know what is required to get an FFL? The state/fed. checks that are done at the Shop that has an FFL runs before your allowed to take it home plus any number of other things that are required by state or local… Ignorance is not an excuse for speaking out of turn…

  15. I often have nightmares where I am driving down a road at night and one of these poor creatures jumps in front of my truck with this dazed look on it’s face and freezes in place. There is no time to hit the brakes. Later I back up to see if I can help the poor creature,,,I back up just a little to far,,, then I have to pull foward again,,,It’s a horrible nightmare.

    • “It’s a horrible nightmare”

      Yep, followed by a hot skillet, onions, black pepper, a couple of brews and a prayer of thanks followed by a self-satisfied belly-full drive home. The hide will be fine on ice until noon tomorrow.

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