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Silencers are for Guns not People
by Jayne Lyn Stahl
Earlier this month, I wrote a piece called "Another Poster Child for the NRA" in response to a horrific and disturbing account of a young police officer, in a small town in Wisconsin, who apparently went insane, out of jealousy, and killed his girlfriend, and several friends. As one who has the utmost respect for law enforcement, what I found so shocking was that it was a member of the force who committed this crime.
by Jayne Lyn Stahl
Earlier this month, I wrote a piece called "Another Poster Child for the NRA" in response to a horrific and disturbing account of a young police officer, in a small town in Wisconsin, who apparently went insane, out of jealousy, and killed his girlfriend, and several friends. As one who has the utmost respect for law enforcement, what I found so shocking was that it was a member of the force who committed this crime.Nelson "Family" of Silencers
It was never my intention to rant against the National Rifle Association, or law enforcement, but instead call for a closer look at a national ethos which enables, and legitimizes, the use of weapons, and deadly force in lieu of dedicated problem solving.
No sooner did my piece appear than I was besieged with hate mail,
most of which came from National Rifle Association members, some from
law enforcement, and the military, all of whom mistakenly seemed to
think that I was targeting them with my comments. To the contrary, it
is the intellectual climate, rife with fear and prejudice, one that
provides safe haven, and immunity, for paid assassins while locking up
protestors who belong to Code Pink. This newfangled militarism makes
one nostalgic for the culture of narcissism.
So, by way of rejoinder: for openers, no one in their right mind would blame any one person, or group, for the outrageous escalation in violence in American society, much of it involving hand guns, in recent years. About a decade ago, then President Bill Clinton said "Every single day there are 13 children who die from guns." How many more children are dying from guns today? Yet, there hasn't been any gun control legislation since 1994, and those who defend their right to bear arms are ostensibly unnerved by the prospect that their friends, the hunters-in-chief, are leaving town.
Why this egregious absence of legislation attempting to stem the proliferation of assault rifles, hand guns, and illegal firearms in the past several years? A virile, righteous, and omnipresent gun lobby has successfully managed to silence their opposition, as has a vice president who, while he may not have the best aim, is himself a devout hunter, and a foreign policy which caters to the hunter ethos. Silencers aren't only being used for firearms; they're now handy ways to stifle dissent, too.
Indeed, the gun lobby has never been in better shape in Washington than it has been under the tutelage of President George W. Bush, so not a peep has been heard from those whose custom it is to speak out against guns, and the rash of violence in our nation's public schools; schools like Columbine, Virginia Tech, in our nation's inner cities, cities like Compton, East Los Angeles, in our nation's workplaces. We've not heard a peep from the usual suspects who would be active in speaking up for more stringent laws to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of our youngsters.
Increasingly, in a world in which the American flag has become synonymous with another four letter word "duck," and yet another "bomb," this is not time to mince words. These folks who equate what they think of as their constitutional empowerment have, for the past several years, had a free ride, but now that a changing of the guard is in sight, they cling to their illusions of entitlement like a leper clings to what little skin he has left. And, to parody the Dylan Thomas poem, it's as if every gun-toting Tom, Dick, and Harry decided not to go "gentle into that night," but to "rage, rage, against the dying of the might."
The gun lobby has managed to exercise that might religiously, and faithfully, to quiet their opposition, over the past half dozen years, because they have been the vocal majority, but that may be about to change, and they may well lose their leverage once the hunters, and Bible-thumpers, leave town. And, faced with the prospect of another Clinton in the White House, and the real prospect of yet again having to defend their right to bear arms, those who extol the virtues of the Second Amendment while ignoring the First and Fourth Amendments may be scared, scared of losing their leverage, scared they may be slipping. Violent crime isn't slipping, though.
We're experiencing what may be called a renaissance in violent crime, and can anyone not ask how it is that a youngster in high school can amass an arsenal in his bedroom which would rival any one might expect to find in a bunker in Baghdad, and how it is that moms and dads are giving Johnny his first gun for Christmas, as well as access to the kind of cache that could decimate an entire schoolyard? Why does it take a shooting at Columbine, or Virginia Tech to wake people up?
No one is suggesting, for a moment, that even if guns were to be eliminated from the face of the earth, random, and heinous crime would disappear with them. Where there's a will to do grave bodily harm, there's always a way.
It isn't use of a weapon, per se, but the abuse of weapons, in general, and the lack of oversight that requires our attention. It's not an issue with an occasional bad apple, in law enforcement, that requires our attention, but a culture in which intellectual lassitude is a way of life. Anyone possessing even a modicum of reason, whether they be a member of the NRA, or the AARP, can see there's a need for all of us to sit down and talk about the proliferation and abuse of legal and illegal firearms, and how to keep guns out of the hands of those who can least handle them, even if they've been deputized to do so.
If it's true, as we hear, that guns don't kill people; rest assured that ignorance does. Awareness, and education, are essential steps in the direction of finding a solution, not sweeping, under the rug, all those who dare to speak up in violation of a code of silence that is as outmoded as it is deadly.
From the beginning of time, the forces of darkness have somehow managed to overpower, and silence, the forces of light. This explains the phenomenon of extinction. And, if things continue at this rate, we, too, will be staring down the barrel of an existential shotgun.
One can only hope that it isn't loaded.
So, by way of rejoinder: for openers, no one in their right mind would blame any one person, or group, for the outrageous escalation in violence in American society, much of it involving hand guns, in recent years. About a decade ago, then President Bill Clinton said "Every single day there are 13 children who die from guns." How many more children are dying from guns today? Yet, there hasn't been any gun control legislation since 1994, and those who defend their right to bear arms are ostensibly unnerved by the prospect that their friends, the hunters-in-chief, are leaving town.
Why this egregious absence of legislation attempting to stem the proliferation of assault rifles, hand guns, and illegal firearms in the past several years? A virile, righteous, and omnipresent gun lobby has successfully managed to silence their opposition, as has a vice president who, while he may not have the best aim, is himself a devout hunter, and a foreign policy which caters to the hunter ethos. Silencers aren't only being used for firearms; they're now handy ways to stifle dissent, too.
Indeed, the gun lobby has never been in better shape in Washington than it has been under the tutelage of President George W. Bush, so not a peep has been heard from those whose custom it is to speak out against guns, and the rash of violence in our nation's public schools; schools like Columbine, Virginia Tech, in our nation's inner cities, cities like Compton, East Los Angeles, in our nation's workplaces. We've not heard a peep from the usual suspects who would be active in speaking up for more stringent laws to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of our youngsters.
Increasingly, in a world in which the American flag has become synonymous with another four letter word "duck," and yet another "bomb," this is not time to mince words. These folks who equate what they think of as their constitutional empowerment have, for the past several years, had a free ride, but now that a changing of the guard is in sight, they cling to their illusions of entitlement like a leper clings to what little skin he has left. And, to parody the Dylan Thomas poem, it's as if every gun-toting Tom, Dick, and Harry decided not to go "gentle into that night," but to "rage, rage, against the dying of the might."
The gun lobby has managed to exercise that might religiously, and faithfully, to quiet their opposition, over the past half dozen years, because they have been the vocal majority, but that may be about to change, and they may well lose their leverage once the hunters, and Bible-thumpers, leave town. And, faced with the prospect of another Clinton in the White House, and the real prospect of yet again having to defend their right to bear arms, those who extol the virtues of the Second Amendment while ignoring the First and Fourth Amendments may be scared, scared of losing their leverage, scared they may be slipping. Violent crime isn't slipping, though.
We're experiencing what may be called a renaissance in violent crime, and can anyone not ask how it is that a youngster in high school can amass an arsenal in his bedroom which would rival any one might expect to find in a bunker in Baghdad, and how it is that moms and dads are giving Johnny his first gun for Christmas, as well as access to the kind of cache that could decimate an entire schoolyard? Why does it take a shooting at Columbine, or Virginia Tech to wake people up?
No one is suggesting, for a moment, that even if guns were to be eliminated from the face of the earth, random, and heinous crime would disappear with them. Where there's a will to do grave bodily harm, there's always a way.
It isn't use of a weapon, per se, but the abuse of weapons, in general, and the lack of oversight that requires our attention. It's not an issue with an occasional bad apple, in law enforcement, that requires our attention, but a culture in which intellectual lassitude is a way of life. Anyone possessing even a modicum of reason, whether they be a member of the NRA, or the AARP, can see there's a need for all of us to sit down and talk about the proliferation and abuse of legal and illegal firearms, and how to keep guns out of the hands of those who can least handle them, even if they've been deputized to do so.
If it's true, as we hear, that guns don't kill people; rest assured that ignorance does. Awareness, and education, are essential steps in the direction of finding a solution, not sweeping, under the rug, all those who dare to speak up in violation of a code of silence that is as outmoded as it is deadly.
From the beginning of time, the forces of darkness have somehow managed to overpower, and silence, the forces of light. This explains the phenomenon of extinction. And, if things continue at this rate, we, too, will be staring down the barrel of an existential shotgun.
One can only hope that it isn't loaded.
Comments (9)
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written by Porcupine9, November 05, 2007
You were wrong to call a murderer a poster child for the NRA. That was deliberate hateful and inflammatory rhetoric on your part. Your half-hearted effort to recant your previous ad hominem attack on the members of the NRA show that you know you were out of line.
That, though, does not stop you from piling on this time, accusing the "gun lobby" of silencing others, and of not supporting the First and Fourth Amendments. If you knew anything about the grassroots individuals who make up the "gun lobby," you would know that we are very passionate in our support for the entire Bill of Rights and the Constitution as a whole.
How has the gun lobby silenced anyone? Are you not freely expressing your opinion now? Does the Brady Center not continue to spread its message freely?
The letters you get when you smear the members of the NRA are the result of the individuals expressing themselves, exercising the very right you accuse them of disregarding. We express ourselves just as freely as you do, and we exercise our right to petition our elected officials for redress of grievances. The NRA only has political power because of the millions of individual voters who support gun rights.
That is why there has not been any federal gun control since 1994-- the year that Bill Clinton's gun control delivered control of both houses of Congress to the GOP.
Fortunately for pro-liberty voters like members of the NRA, politicians have not forgotten the lesson of the 1994 election. The people of America recognize that the problem is criminals, not guns, and since it is impossible to prevent criminals from getting guns (just like it is impossible to stop them from getting drugs), we good people need to be able to defend ourselves.
The anti-gun Clinton Administration and the equally anti-gun Centers for Disease Control have both studied a broad variety of gun control measures, looking for some proof that gun control reduces crime, and they have failed to find it. No scientific study has ever shown that gun control reduces crime! In fact, the data show us that allowing lawful people to carry concealed handguns reduces crime. If anyone is a poster child for enabling murder, it is those people who would deny the lawful citizens the ability to defend themselves.
That, though, does not stop you from piling on this time, accusing the "gun lobby" of silencing others, and of not supporting the First and Fourth Amendments. If you knew anything about the grassroots individuals who make up the "gun lobby," you would know that we are very passionate in our support for the entire Bill of Rights and the Constitution as a whole.
How has the gun lobby silenced anyone? Are you not freely expressing your opinion now? Does the Brady Center not continue to spread its message freely?
The letters you get when you smear the members of the NRA are the result of the individuals expressing themselves, exercising the very right you accuse them of disregarding. We express ourselves just as freely as you do, and we exercise our right to petition our elected officials for redress of grievances. The NRA only has political power because of the millions of individual voters who support gun rights.
That is why there has not been any federal gun control since 1994-- the year that Bill Clinton's gun control delivered control of both houses of Congress to the GOP.
Fortunately for pro-liberty voters like members of the NRA, politicians have not forgotten the lesson of the 1994 election. The people of America recognize that the problem is criminals, not guns, and since it is impossible to prevent criminals from getting guns (just like it is impossible to stop them from getting drugs), we good people need to be able to defend ourselves.
The anti-gun Clinton Administration and the equally anti-gun Centers for Disease Control have both studied a broad variety of gun control measures, looking for some proof that gun control reduces crime, and they have failed to find it. No scientific study has ever shown that gun control reduces crime! In fact, the data show us that allowing lawful people to carry concealed handguns reduces crime. If anyone is a poster child for enabling murder, it is those people who would deny the lawful citizens the ability to defend themselves.
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written by Jep Poole, November 05, 2007
No wonder you were beseiged by hate mail. Your article is full of half-truths and lies!
The anti-gun left has been in an uproar since Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech, etc.! California has passed absolutely feckless legislation regarding micro-stamping and NJ joined them in the banning of .50 cal guns...all based on irrational fear & myth. There is the constant pummeling of congress trying to get the non-existant "Gun Show Loophole" closed and drive gun shows out of business by regulating them out of their traditional venues.
And with columnists such as yourself calling that boy's collection of 30 guns an arsenal...when in reality, only 3 were real guns, and the rest were TOY AIRSOFT GUNS that shoot tiny plastic BB's, that do not hurt and are not lethal. There was a 9mm Highpoint Carbine (magazine capacity of 7 rounds), a .22 hangun and a .22 rifle, all with limited magazine capacity. The rest were TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! TOYS!
The trouble with hoplophobes is that you spew absolute falsehoods and garbage, and the is no way to hold you accountable. You are like psuedo-jounalist gangbangers. You conduct psuedo-jounalistic drive-by shootings, spraying the page with lies that fit you preconceived liberal/leftist template, and then you move on. There are no authorities to clean up after your messes except vigilant supporters of our Bill of Rights. We call your kind out...we stand up and say, "You! You are a liar." BUt who is there to listen to our words. Too many have seen the carnage you have wrought, and they believe what they see.
This is why you and your fellow criminal psuedo-journalists get "hate mail." Try using logic and fact next time you write, and maybe there will be less to criticize you for.
The anti-gun left has been in an uproar since Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech, etc.! California has passed absolutely feckless legislation regarding micro-stamping and NJ joined them in the banning of .50 cal guns...all based on irrational fear & myth. There is the constant pummeling of congress trying to get the non-existant "Gun Show Loophole" closed and drive gun shows out of business by regulating them out of their traditional venues.
And with columnists such as yourself calling that boy's collection of 30 guns an arsenal...when in reality, only 3 were real guns, and the rest were TOY AIRSOFT GUNS that shoot tiny plastic BB's, that do not hurt and are not lethal. There was a 9mm Highpoint Carbine (magazine capacity of 7 rounds), a .22 hangun and a .22 rifle, all with limited magazine capacity. The rest were TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! TOYS!
The trouble with hoplophobes is that you spew absolute falsehoods and garbage, and the is no way to hold you accountable. You are like psuedo-jounalist gangbangers. You conduct psuedo-jounalistic drive-by shootings, spraying the page with lies that fit you preconceived liberal/leftist template, and then you move on. There are no authorities to clean up after your messes except vigilant supporters of our Bill of Rights. We call your kind out...we stand up and say, "You! You are a liar." BUt who is there to listen to our words. Too many have seen the carnage you have wrought, and they believe what they see.
This is why you and your fellow criminal psuedo-journalists get "hate mail." Try using logic and fact next time you write, and maybe there will be less to criticize you for.
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written by waypasthadenough, November 05, 2007
"...can see there's a need for all of us to sit down and talk about the proliferation and abuse of legal and illegal firearms, and how to keep guns out of the hands of those who can least handle them, even if they've been deputized to do so."
Support the Second Amendment or our most basic right? Hardly. "Liberal"(communist) freaks always start out by claiming they want to talk, about the issues they want to talk about, then reach 'consensus' which means things go their way regardless of what was actually said.
Garbage. As usual. Never dance with the devil. Instead, seek a way to shut him down, kill him if necessary. For if you dance with him he changes you, not the other way 'round.
Our nation was founded with deadly force, maintained by deadly force, and will likely have to be saved by such. When/if the Amerikan Communist Insurgency is beaten down politically it will return to its violent revolutionary ways so well established by Lenin, Mao, and the Wethermen, Amerikan terrorists of the 1960s.
I'm not a member of the NRA. I prefer GOA, the 'no compromise' lobby. We don't need to be fighting gun laws or enforceing the ones we've been burdened with. We need to be repealing all 20,000 of them beginning with GCA '68 and the machine gun/suppressor tax.
We need to look at our real enemies, the Amerikan Communist Insurgents who call themselves "Liberals", progressives, etc. and do what our forefathers did to the Germans and Japanese, demand unconditional surrender.
You can bet that's how they look at us.
They will never cease living for their revolution or demanding that we die for it or apologize for such. We will not defeat them unless we love Liberty as much as they love their communism.
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written by Wendy Weinbaum, November 05, 2007
As a Jewess in the US, I say we must all put our sacred 2nd Amendment FIRST! Silencers on firearms are equivalent to muufflers on cars - no big deal. They should be provided FREE to those who cannot afford them.
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written by James Morgan, November 05, 2007
Ask yourself how many conflicts on TV are
settled by brute force, usually with weapons.
settled by brute force, usually with weapons.
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written by Ted Fuhrmeister, November 05, 2007
Not much else really to add other then the fact that the entire bill of rights is just that. You are trying to use emotional statements and acts to try and justify your need to strip our individual enumerated rights away from us. All you care about is causing as much emotional controversy to get your idea and opinions passed.
I dont believe you even know what true feedom means. You try to claim that we true supporters of the bill of rights are the ones who are afraid and living in fear. I say you need to look in a mirror to see who is really affraid. As to your oversight opinion I ask who will oversee the overseers.
I pitty your very existence, ideas and opinions.
I dont believe you even know what true feedom means. You try to claim that we true supporters of the bill of rights are the ones who are afraid and living in fear. I say you need to look in a mirror to see who is really affraid. As to your oversight opinion I ask who will oversee the overseers.
I pitty your very existence, ideas and opinions.
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written by Peter, aka NYCexile, November 05, 2007
Ms. Stahl, I won't retype the suppressed comments from Atlantic Free Press and the Huffington Post here. Instead, I'll speak on a related topic: power, specifically political power.
Over the course of my lifetime, we Democrats have gone from the gun-owning John Kennedy to the Brady Bunch. Are we really supposed to hate guns this much? I would submit to you that because the Republicans courted the NRA (etc.), we, as a reaction, vilify them, not because of any inherent evil.
The basic fact is that no police officer is going to risk orphaning his children to further your social agenda, so bleating on about Gun Control is a waste of time. The 'inconvenient truth' here is that most folks have cartridges to go along with the guns, and you're not, singly or collectively, going to change that. Sorry.
I would also suggest that one of the reasons President Bush has gotten away with his assault on the Constitution is because he has us gun folks at least theoretically on his side. I've lost count of the number of times when I pointed this out, only to get 'well, at least he's better than Hillary would be' as a response. That's how much damage your disarmament campaign has wrought.
Mark my words: if anything even remotely similar to the travesty of the 2004 Republican Convention happens in a Mrs. Clinton Administration, there will be armed Citizens in the streets. Everyone remembers what Mister President Clinton did (Ruby Ridge and Waco), and they're terrified of a repeat performance. By all that is right and holy, the guns should have come out when the Patriot Act was signed, but they stayed in their safes because the Republicans have spent the last thirty years playing kissy-face with gun owners.
What you're doing isn't working. It's time to try something else, such as talking *to* us rather than *at* us. Because sitting right next to my bug-out bag is a rifle and 420 rounds of ammunition. Which you and yours are never going to take away from me, at least not while I draw breath.
Over the course of my lifetime, we Democrats have gone from the gun-owning John Kennedy to the Brady Bunch. Are we really supposed to hate guns this much? I would submit to you that because the Republicans courted the NRA (etc.), we, as a reaction, vilify them, not because of any inherent evil.
The basic fact is that no police officer is going to risk orphaning his children to further your social agenda, so bleating on about Gun Control is a waste of time. The 'inconvenient truth' here is that most folks have cartridges to go along with the guns, and you're not, singly or collectively, going to change that. Sorry.
I would also suggest that one of the reasons President Bush has gotten away with his assault on the Constitution is because he has us gun folks at least theoretically on his side. I've lost count of the number of times when I pointed this out, only to get 'well, at least he's better than Hillary would be' as a response. That's how much damage your disarmament campaign has wrought.
Mark my words: if anything even remotely similar to the travesty of the 2004 Republican Convention happens in a Mrs. Clinton Administration, there will be armed Citizens in the streets. Everyone remembers what Mister President Clinton did (Ruby Ridge and Waco), and they're terrified of a repeat performance. By all that is right and holy, the guns should have come out when the Patriot Act was signed, but they stayed in their safes because the Republicans have spent the last thirty years playing kissy-face with gun owners.
What you're doing isn't working. It's time to try something else, such as talking *to* us rather than *at* us. Because sitting right next to my bug-out bag is a rifle and 420 rounds of ammunition. Which you and yours are never going to take away from me, at least not while I draw breath.
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The problem is with the word "oversight". Many of us do not trust the "overseers". The Federal government has behaved so arbitrarily and so abusively towards dissidents in the past (Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc.) that many of us have completely lost all trust in the Federal government.
We are also getting tired of being asked to constantly prove our validity as citizens to these "overseers". I've got a gray beard, but I've got to "prove" I'm old enough to buy cigarettes at Wal-Mart. MADD wants us to "prove" to them we're not drunk before we drive (sobriety checkpoints). Airports are absolutely infested with "uniforms" demanding you prove your "validity" to them.
Aren't you getting tired of having to constantly "prove" your validity to a growing army of "overseers"?