Contributors

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Insanity or Greed?

Gun control advocates like to portray the NRA as madmen, but like the old saw about malice and incompetence, never attribute to insanity that which can be explained by greed.

Exhibit A is Wayne LaPierre's insistence that everyone would be safer if everyone was carrying guns. Yeah, and gun manufacturers would sell a hell of a lot more guns.

Exhibit B is the gun industry's push for accessorization. Not only do they want to sell us lots and lots of guns of every shape and size, but they want to sell us large capacity magazines, laser sights and noise suppressors (silencers).

These three "accessories" are a mass-murderer's dream. We've already seen the effect of large-capacity magazines in numerous shootings across the country. Laser sights will make it even easier to maximize lethality, removing much of the skill required to aim a weapon at a target's most vulnerable locations. Simply point and shoot.

Silencers will allow the mass murderer to escape detection longer, allowing for a larger body count. With a silencer a shooter like Adam Lanza could take out the security guards the NRA wants posted at any school without anyone realizing it. How many more classrooms would he have gone through if no one could hear the report of his rifle?

None of these accessories should be freely available. The NRA's own argument for ubiquitous guns is that the mere presence of a weapon prevents violence. Brandishing a 6-shot .38 Special has as much deterrence value as a 17-shot Glock. Hunters don't need large-capacity magazines because their targets are either dead or have fled after the first couple of shots. The NRA says that silencers are needed to preserve hearing, but a lifetime supply of ear plugs is much cheaper (silencers do not eliminate all sound; sharp-eared game can still hear suppressed gunfire).

This kind of weaponry, combined with the ballistic armor and helmets that James Holmes bought off the Internet, allow mass murderers, criminals and terrorists to freely outfit themselves like police SWAT teams and KGB assassins. I'm constantly tempted to say it's madness, but it's just greed.

Through the NRA pretends to represent grass-roots gun owners, the NRA receives millions of dollars a year in donations and kickbacks from gun manufacturers. Even worse, gun manufacturers who make rifles like those used in Aurora and Sandy Hook have received more than $19 million in subsidies from states in the last five years. Including Michael Bloomberg's own New York state.

As Mark noted the other day, the greed motive may now be used against the NRA: Walmart, the country's largest firearms dealer, may be getting behind closing the loophole that allows people to avoid the background check by buying from private dealers.

The gun industry is funding the NRA in the same way that the tobacco industry funded "smoker's rights" groups, belittling medical research that linked lung cancer to smoking. The fossil fuel industry has spent millions of dollars to promote skepticism of climate change and fighting pollution controls that reduce the lung disease caused by burning fossil fuels. The Tea Party is another such "astroturf" organization, funded by the likes of the billionaire Koch brothers.

Whenever entrenched monied interests find themselves held accountable for the problems they cause, they always turn to a phony grass-roots proxy like the NRA to dress up their money pipeline as some inalienable right and rouse the rabble.

So, while the people at the NRA might seem like they're crazy, we should follow Deepthroat's advice and follow the money.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your ignorance is approaching Everest proportions with such staggering emotional drivel.

You and M must get all your info from Hollywood.

Anonymous said...

A list of item Nikto has shown himself to be ignorant of in just this post:

Laser sights - $3 laser pointer at the Wal-mart checkstand and a $2 clamp. Try regulating that moron.

Silencers - Already strictly controlled under the 1934 firearms act. (and their called suppressors)

ear plugs - vs. suppressors - neither one eliminates all sound. Combined and one is subject to much less hearing loss. Great job N, you support people losing their hearing!

private dealers - No such thing allowed under federal law.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and this:

Brandishing a 6-shot .38 Special has as much deterrence value as a 17-shot Glock.


What happens when brandishing fails to deter and you must deter by shooting holes into your attacker? Hmmm?

Miss once or twice (still better shooting than most cops), get two or three non critical hits, you ready to bet your life, you wife's life and your children's lives that your remaining to three rounds are for sure going be critical hits, that those critical hits are immediately effective and you are praying that this attacker doesn't have a buddy ready to follow?

Juris Imprudent said...

ignorance is approaching Everest proportions

tsk, Everest is a molehill in comparison.