Yes, you should read both of them in full.
We should also keep in mind that the Newtown massacre would not have happened exactly the same way it did only if Adam Lanza had arrived armed with something less than a 5-shot snub-nosed revolver and a deep pocket full of .357 rounds.
That is, had the AR-15 to be banned never existed, he would have shot them with the Glock or Sig. Had he no double-stack pistol, only a single-stack 1911, he could just as easily have dropped and replaced magazines equally as fast as he could pull the trigger. Had he no semi-automatic pistol at all, only a 6-cylinder revolver, he could have reloaded it with a speedloader almost as fast as changing out a semi-automatic magazine.
Thus, to have had any hope at all of preventing Adam Lanza from executing his Newtown massacre, publicly available firearms would have had to have been restricted to something far less than even just a 5-shot snubby hand-reloaded one round at a time from a deep pocket full of cartridges.
So what does that leave us left to conclude in the wake of the recent Newtown massacre?
Why, I think it should be obvious: that nothing primes the pump of political organizing and fundraising – in this instance, initially on the left, then, defensively, on the right – quite like shooting as many little children as possible. As newly elected Texas Senator Ted Cruz pointed out, rigor mortis had barely had time to break in the bodies of the twenty little serendipitous opportunities before the game was on. The courage to do nothing is nowadays simply environmentally impossible.
Let us hope at the least that the Newtown model does not become a pro-active choice for political opportunists any time soon.
However, as we await that predictable cynical horror in turn (if only as a cinematic plot device), what exactly is being done on any broad political basis to mitigate collecting innocents defenselessly for ready harvest like kittens in a bag as was the case in Newtown?
Beyond the undeniable cynical political exploitation currently so garishly on display, could the underlying reality remaining in fact be the case that, because we wish children (and, in the same general vein, other collected defenseless ones like the hospitalized) to grow up as much as possible with the illusion of childhood innocence, as adults we have adopted that same illusion of a threatless world as a pathological delusion coloring our adult world, that is, that we, the adults, have, for so long as the delusion endures, pathologically made ourselves over into little children by collecting badness into a totem and then simply wishing it away?
Update: The classical concept of what we are experiencing in the current Democratic/Liberal cynical political theater of “gun control”, including such curiosities as NPR National Desk reporter Joel Rose referring authoritatively on All Things Considered this past Friday afternoon to “high-capacity rounds”, is agitprop:
Agitation Propaganda (Agitprop) is the systematic spreading and thorough explanation of political, philosophical, economic, historical, as well as scientific, technical, and other types of ideas by the political leadership of a movement, society or organization, advancing the effectiveness of political persuasion and training on the target, leading to rapid action, or mobilization.[1] In a simplified sense, Agitation Propaganda is focused on causing an excitement of emotions in the target, with the aims of stimulating action.[2] The term Agitation Propaganda is interchangeable with the Russian term for the concept, Agitprop(pron.: /ˈædʒɨtprɒp/; from Russian: агитпроп [ɐɡʲɪtˈprop]). The term Agitprop stems from the Bolshevik mastery of Agitation Propaganda, to a level never seen before in history, using the technological advances of the twentieth century to fashion a state system powered by agitating the masses.[3]
Agitation propaganda or Agitprop covers a wide range of activities such as: disseminating posters, leaflets, and movies; fabricating or distorting events, forging documents and spreading disinformation, to even committing acts of terrorism to force the enemy to react. Agitation propaganda’s versatility means it can be applied to endless applications and situations.[4]
H. M. Stuart
Alexandria
Bad things happen to good people – been true since the beginning of time. Of course I want our most defenseless to be protected. But that will not happen as long as the anti-gun advocates in and out of government rush out after a tragedy (‘never waste a crisis’ – Rahm Emanual)and start taking guns away from the people that did NOT do it.
Ever used a speed loader? Faster than individually loading each bullet, but nowhere near as fast as changing a magazine. You have to eject the used casings first. They are a bit awkward when standing, unless you use them a lot. Meh, maybe it’s just me.
As to the gist of your piece, I still predict that little will change. We have already decided we like guns and are willing to pay the price for having them. We may get better background checks to look for some kinds of mental illness. Since “Im mad at the world” is not a diagnosis, it probably wont make much of a difference and just slow down purchases.
Steve
My good Steve,
If I am unconcerned that a magazine falls unprotected to the cold, hard ground, the time it takes to drop a magazine, insert a new one, flip the slide release, and pull the trigger will consume the time it takes to say “one and a”, approximately 0.50 seconds. The time it takes to open a .38 Special cylinder, eject the casings, and insert six new cartridges with an HKS-type reloader (although I personally use the even slower Bianchi Speed Strips myself) is much longer, up to three times as long.
Yes, the gist of my piece is that nothing will change, that is, that nothing will change with respect to either guns or, least of all, with respect to protecting children. The efforts being promoted have far different ends entirely.
H. M. Stuart
Alexandria
Update: The classical concept of what we are experiencing in the current Democratic/Liberal cynical political theater of “gun control”, including such curiosities as NPR National Desk reporter Joel Rose referring authoritatively on All Things Considered this past Friday afternoon to “high-capacity rounds”, is agitprop:
H. M. Stuart
Alexandria
“Beyond the undeniable cynical political exploitation currently so garishly on display, could the underlying reality remaining in fact be the case that, because we wish children (and, in the same general vein, other collected defenseless ones like the hospitalized) to grow up as much as possible with the illusion of childhood innocence, as adults we have adopted that same illusion of a threatless world as a pathological delusion coloring our adult world, that is, that we, the adults, have, for so long as the delusion endures, pathologically made ourselves over into little children by collecting badness into a totem and then simply wishing it away?”
1) I’m not keen on Our Glorious Leader’s syntax, which I couldn’t even find a way to edit into a single-line phrase. But if he’s saying what I THINK he’s saying:
2) This is exactly the opposite of the zeitgeist these days. We view our children as enormously endangered, all the time, everywhere except (maybe) under the biological parent’s immediate and ever-watchful (never-sleeping) eye. The job of parent these days is the ultimate high-stress job–total responsibility and almost no power. We insist on having our children supervised by some “responsible adult” 24/7, and then we’re not too sure we trust any “responsible adult” other than the bio-parents (and sometimes we’re not even too sure about them.) Is this an improvement on the Bad Old Days when half our children died before their teens? Obviously, yes. But OTOH
3) as a former habitue’ of the Juvenile Courts, I think a lot of people prefer to worry about their kids being molested/abducted/murdered by Mr. Stranger-Danger, which happens rather rarely in real life, rather than about similar things happening at the hands of family members and friends, which is relatively common. If most of these incidents happen in the home, after all, where can the parent take her children to keep them safe?