Yet in some states like Pennsylvania, getting a gun is almost as easy as ordering a pizza.OK, Kim, let's see you prove that by extending the analogy you created. Call a gun shop and have them deliver a made-to-order firearm to your house--and remember, you don't need to go through a background check to order a pizza.
KIM LANDERS: How easy is it to get a gun in Philadelphia?
RAY JONES: Extremely easy. I mean, just any kid that I know in the neighbourhood zone, which we walked, either know someone who has a gun or they know where they go and ask somebody to get a gun. So, it's very, very easy.
Oh wait a minute, I see now--you're talking about purchases that violate the law. Sorry, your deceptive pizza analogy threw me off there for a second, because those transactions always take place through licensed businesses that follow applicable laws.
So what you're saying is, it's almost as easy to break the law as to order a pizza? Well duh, Kim.
So having established that breaking the law is as easy as ordering a pizza, why on earth would any rational person be calling for more laws to break? Are we trying to make it as easy as ordering multiple pizzas, or what?
Great unbiased straight news "reporting," there, Kim. Sometimes I wonder if you need to take some kind of stupid lying propagandist test to become an "authorized journalist." Personally, I expect more competent service from the pizza delivery man.
I heard this "report" this morning on the premier morning news program on the ABC - "AM".
ReplyDeleteI thought it was so deceptive that it had to have been deliberate falsehood.
The Philadelphia resident talks about how easy it is to get a gun illegally, then Landers does a hatchet job on the legal process:
"All you have to do to buy a handgun is pass a criminal background check , ...."
Landers is either a fool or a tool, and my vote is for tool.
You can take that any way you like.
Well, it's a step up from what I like to call the "Blank Slate Argument". At least this disarmer now acknowledges the existence of NICS.
ReplyDeleteThis is the same old prohibitionist attitude, and the 20th Century is rich with other examples. The 1908 Sullivan Act which banned smoking by women, for example, or the attempted banning of alcohol. We all know what happened with the latter: black marketeers got filthy rich, then organized crime decided it would be well worth the risk to take over. In response to the crime wave resulting from territorial enforcement within the illicit market, Congress passed the NFA of 1934 after the repeal of alcohol prohibition, delivering punishment years late and directing it mostly to the wrong people. (It's still in effect. Talk about an "antiquated" disarmament law!)
So, had Kim Landers a grasp of economics, (s)he would know that, where there is demand, an illicit market will simply adjust the price high enough to make the risk worthwhile, whether that risk involves theft, selling outside of restrictions, producing "illegally", or importing from elsewhere. That's why getting a gun "illegally" is easier than legally. I suppose the fix for this is simply to descend into fascism. Better living through oppression!
"RAY JONES: We're in North Philadelphia, which has historically been an economically depressed neighborhood."
I bet the illicit markets are very attractive to these poor people, most of whom I am guessing didn't do their time on the education treadmill. All an "economically depressed" individual has to do is demonstrate competence, and the only "regulation" is that he gets killed if he steps on the wrong toes.
"KIM LANDERS: Ray Jones walks the streets of North Philadelphia,... trying to reach out to those most at risk of being shot or shooting someone."
Uh oh, I'm catching a whiff of the guns-as-a-pathogen argument here...
(There's some intervening garbage here. Not worth the effort to pick apart. You know: Guns = crime, and suggesting that CCW holders are responsible -- even though Philly ignored state law regarding shall-issue -- and without actually checking the data to see that CCW-holders are not responsible for anything but their own safety.)
KIM LANDERS: So far this year, there've been 321 murders in Philadelphia, almost all committed with a gun.
SYLVESTER JOHNSON: Eighty-five, eight-six per cent of homicides are by handgun or handguns are out of control here in the city of Philadelphia.
Sounds like animism to me! The handguns are very much in control in Philly. In fact, the guns are in the control of their users.
JOHN PRYOR: But there are days when I really couldn't tell [whether he's in Iraq or Philly]. I say that sometimes I have to look at the ceiling to see whether it's a roof or a tent to figure out where I am.
Sounds like PTSD to me. I hope he's getting treatment, especially since he has such an unforgiving job.
KIM LANDERS: Dr Pryor says gun violence has to be treated as a disease and he wants better collection of data about where the shootings are happening and who's involved.
Hello! There it is! "Gunviolence" is a disease, and guns are the pathogen. Right out of the Disarmer's Dictionary.