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Rolling Stone: Gun Control Wouldn’t Have Stopped Las Vegas Slaughter But . . .

Robert Farago - comments No comments

Over at ammoland.com, David Cordrea advises readers to counter gun control advocates with a simple question: “What ‘gun law’ would have prevented the Las Vegas massacre?” You may be surprised to know that some gun control advocates asked themselves the same question. And answered it correctly: there isn’t a law that would have stopped spree killer Stephen Paddock. You be less surprised to discover . . .

that fact does nothing to deter the antis from the civilian disarmament agenda. Here’s Rolling Stone scribe Jesse Berney (above) “wrestling” with the truth about the Mandalay Bay slaughter, in an editorial headlined Evil Doesn’t Kill People – Guns Kill People:

The problem here isn’t evil. It’s not the devil. It’s us: human beings. We have motivations and justifications and rationalizations and reasons for everything we do. We don’t know why Stephen Paddock murdered those people. Maybe we never will. And maybe the sensible laws we could pass, like universal background checks and a ban on all assault weapons, wouldn’t have stopped someone so wealthy and motivated to commit horror. But it could stop someone else. It would save lives.

So gun control could stop someone poor and poorly motivated? And that’s good enough reason to deny Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms? I don’t think so. But a lot of people do.

Blaming evil is an excuse to do nothing in the face of tens of thousands of gun deaths a year. Only a fraction of those deaths are the result of mass shootings like in Las Vegas. We can and should work to reduce all gun deaths, from suicides to accidents to crime-related deaths to massacres like Sunday’s. That means passing laws that keeps guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. The only other option is to do nothing.

So close! And yet so far.

Like all gun control advocates, who are by their very nature statists, Mr. Berney sees gun control as a panacea. If we pass the right laws, we can reduce suicides! Accidents! Crime-related deaths! Massacres!

Yeah, no. Gun control doesn’t work.

But there are things we can do to tackle these firearms-related injuries and deaths, reaching out more effectively to people contemplating suicide.  Educating school children and teens on firearms safety. Eliminating the revolving door justice system in big cities.

As for massacres, I’m not so sure there’s a lot we can do, save arming ourselves and making sure we have the best law enforcement tax money can buy.

But I am sure that doing nothing on gun control is the correct course of action in the wake of the Las Vegas killing, or any other firearms-related tragedy. Take it from the son of a Holocaust survivor, the “cure” would be far worse than the problem.

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “Rolling Stone: Gun Control Wouldn’t Have Stopped Las Vegas Slaughter But . . .”

  1. And just how the heck does Tim Cain know this? Was he talking to the man? The only way he could make that statement was if he was communicating with him. That man stopped because he had cameras set up in the peep hole of the door and on a cart in the hall. He say the police coming and turned his focus on them and realized that they were coming to get him and took his own life. Tim Cain knows this but he jumped on the lefts next agend which is banning silencers. Tha left wants to ban silencers why? So if they come after Americans they won’t be able to fire at them and hide their location. If I’m wrong then I’ll say so but with all that is going on with the left I believe this. They want to take control of this country and us. They = elitist and NWO. I put nothing past these people and neither should anyone else.

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  2. On the upside, maybe it would signal the end of manufacturers putting shitty triggers in their rifles, since there would be a market for good ones from the factory.

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  3. No one says ban trucks when a terrorist runs over people. The mass murderer could have had a “mass casualty event” with a simple semi. The lefttard wants you disarmed. Period…

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  4. “The problem here IS evil. It IS the devil. AND IT’S YOU.” You stupid mf.

    The Federalist No. 51

    It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. – http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm

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  5. “We can and should work to reduce all gun deaths, from suicides to accidents to crime-related deaths to massacres like Sunday’s. That means passing laws that keeps guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.”

    “People who shouldn’t have them”—at some indeterminate point in the future. So this will be the responsibility of the Department of Pre-Crime. Got it.

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  6. The great irony here is that these same people, after every Islamic terror event, will try and convince us that ‘this is the new normal, and we’d better get used to it’. The mayor of London actually said that. Hell, Obama actually implied it in a speech. Well, they need to ‘get used to it’. Freedom is messy.

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  7. They posted the anti-machine gun, anti-bump fire post because they want to increase sales by having the government shut down the competition. After the hate mail started flowing, they realized that they’d be the ones going out of business due to consumer backlash for betraying gun owners, and they deleted the post. Just like that gun store that carried the “smart gun” in New Jersey and knew it would get all non-smart guns banned suddenly changed his tune after he saw he was going to lose all of his customers and be blackballed by the industry.

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  8. Everyone I know with autos would like nothing better than to lose their entire investment. They’d have 20 times as many if they cost what they should– like $400 for a M-11/9. $600 for an M16, etc.

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  9. As we at least those of us not seeking to financially benefit from an appearance on National TV expected TTAG got punked by CBS so much so even Breitbart is reporting on it.

    And tell us “Professor” Farago just what is an “automatic round” and where can I get some? http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/04/cbs-news-automatic-rounds/

    Yeah lets appear on a Liberal Media/Fake News outlet we will enlighten the firearm ignorant, yeah that’s a great idea SAID NO ONE with an ounce of intelligence in the pro-2nd Amendment movement.

    By the way thanks again Bob now we have someone else to “Primary” next year (he’s from Texas of all places) it’s as if we didn’t have enough spineless weasels in the GOP to run out of office on a rail in 2018. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/04/gop-rep/

    What’s your NEXT bright idea? Are you going to appear on CNN and show the folks how easily gun owners can change magazines in semi-auto handguns? I can see it now, Dems/Libs/Progs and the firearm illiterate demanding a “ban” on having more than one mag per firearm and the requirement that ALL factory mags be chained to the butt of a handgun/rifle ala WWI Enfield rifles, all “for the children”.

    Please stop “helping us”.

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  10. You don’t need any gismos to bump fire a semi-auto, including many pistols, It’s just a technique that doesn’t cost a dime. Watch the HOW-TO video’s on Youtube.

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  11. I’m willing to say the sheriff misspoke. He clearly hasn’t been getting much sleep.

    As for the accomplice, he seems to have actually had some form of tactical awareness most mass-shooters (even the Fort Hood one, the only one who we know was trained in firefight tactics or had professional firearms training to any degree) have obviously lacked. The contrast between him choosing an elevated position and using a bipod (so either prone or bench) and utter lack of planning in even long-term premeditated attacks like the Virginia shooting (standing position in an open field allowed him to get pinned down and shot with a handgun). If this was just him being smarter (he was a great deal richer) or if he was trained by ISIS is still up in the air.

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  12. Bump fire is just a trick to make the recoil of the semi auto weapon do the work. This is much different than full auto and takes practice. The belt loop on your pants and even a shoestring can so the same

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  13. I’m just thankful that he and Killary didn’t get the W/H. Can you imagine what would have happened? Same O as the previous regime different color same retarded vice president !

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  14. They’ve had days to review surveillance footage. Vegas hotels are some of the most camera-ridden places on earth. If he had accomplice, they sure as f**k know it by now, and not just because of the sheer volume of gear.

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  15. Some jurisdictions classify airguns as firearms. Modern paintball guns have adjustable rates of fire. Can’t even consider that a slippery slope.

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  16. I agree that bump fire stocks are a gimmick, and I have no use for one.

    However, I will not support a ban on these stocks unless the GOP gets gun owners something in return. We’ve waited long enough for ridiculous suppressor and SBR/SBS laws to be repealed. If the GOP strategy is anything but a quid pro quo, I will vote against my GOP representative and senators in their upcoming primaries. And I intend to let them know it.

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  17. “None of these laws would have helped, but let’s do them anyway.”

    It’s almost like the point isn’t saving lives.

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  18. It was only a matter of time before some moron used a bump fire in a mass shooting. I’ve shot bump fires and many machine guns and neither of them are very useful for hitting anything accurately after the second shot at distances past 50 feet. I don’t believe in banning anything gun related but there are always high emotions after an incident like this, Thank goodness the shooter did not use single shot aimed fire with bolt action, lever or even semi-auto timed fire.
    When you show live or video of a bump fire in action there is not much defense, despite the ATF letters, that they sure do look and smell like machine guns. It is indeed a hard defense, So the NRA and Newt Gingrich’s idea to let ATF possibly make these items NFA… hopefully only AOW’s, may be the only way to save them,
    On the other hand, by the time the post Sandy Hook bills came to a vote, a lot of time had passed and America had moved on to the next big news story or hurricane or ISIS threat and all the anti gun bills failed. I think there were at least 5 bills.
    So I’m just going to write a few letters, make a few calls urging no bans and wait and see. I can’t afford to continue to worry about everything because I don’t think I can drink that much.

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  19. What people like Michael Moore can’t get their head around is that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms pre- dates the 2nd Amendmendment. You can appeal it, revise it, gut it whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s a God given right, and it doesn’t derive from the state. The State cannot take it away. They can only protect it or violate it. Oh, and it’s non-negotiable.

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