It’s been a depressing day. As most of you aware aware by now, yesterday a defective 22-year-old missed a flight to Hawaii, or got his girlfriend pregnant, or maybe just realized how retarded he looked with idiotic gaping holes in his earlobes. Said douchebag stole an rifle from an acquaintance and shot up a mall in Clackamas, Oregon.
Before taking his own life he killed two innocent people, and critically wounded a 15-year-old girl who had previously survived a serious car crash.
I spent some time with Oregonian columnist Steve Duin, then Geoff Norcross of OPBNews, this afternoon, trying—perhaps in a futile effort—trying to explain that it is the man, not the weapon, that is the source of this tragedy. I tried to explain that an AR-15 is just another rifle, one popular with target shooters and hunters alike, that fires an intermediate cartridge of far less power than most deer hunting rifles. I tried to explain that culture and mental health played a role in previous events, and probably did here as well.
Did it make any difference at all?
People tend to try to shape tragedies into something they can understand and manage.
Those who know firearms know they are merely a tool used by man, and are thankful that this man wasn’t competent with this tool. Those who understand the influence of culture know that desensitization to violence in a grotesque society may have played a role. Those who have witnessed mental illness know that a broken human being is capable of anything. And of course, those who know power look upon this an an opportunity increase their standing and influence, such as opportunist state Sen. Ginny Burdick, who is proposing a magazine ban, as if it would have made any difference at all.
Pray for those who have been hurt in Oregon, and protect us from those who would “protect us.”
Update: Duin’s column posted. Apparently I didn’t persuade him much at all.
I live not far from Clackamas. Predictably enough, most of my more liberal friends completely freaked out. Although one of my lady friends who has a CCW permit noted that the average nut could have done more damage with a kitchen knife or crowbar. This did not seem to affect the reasoning of any of the hysterical anti-gun ranters. Apparently there is “absolutely no reason why anyone should have access to such weapons”.
Didn’t this used to be called a double homicide with a wounding and a suicide?
I posted the following on another board when the story of the shooting first broke. It was a conservative forum, but there were liberal trolls calling for more gun control legislation.
“Not to make light of the situation, but to use what has been described as an AR15 in a mall containing thousands of people and only hit three tells me this was not the act of someone familiar with firearms. I expect we’ll find that he obtained the rifle illegally, and that if he owned other firearms (which I doubt), they were also obtained illegally.”
What sane person believes that more legislation (other than a 100% successful universal confiscation of all firearms) would prevent a deranged punk from stealing and using a firearm that he could not legally obtain?