Gun Control & RKBA

Here are just a few of the high points for me:

"Liberals also now recur to the scourge of “gun violence” as a convenient way to betray their own historic commitment to greater social justice. No longer do they need to tackle such daunting issues as urban decay, low wages, and poor education because they prefer to reverse cause and effect: if we could only get rid of guns… It’s become a catchall mantra for the disorder of too many urban centers and the marginalization of their inhabitants, who are the ones doing most of the dying—and most of the killing."

"I am not interested in any discussion of what the Second Amendment really means, nor am I much interested in any moral discourse either way on guns. I am not, simply, because the horse left the barn a very long time ago and those guns are here to stay. No buyback program, no further restriction laws, no weapons bans are going to make any visible difference. Any control measure that does not start from this reality is about as realistic as signing a petition against earthquakes."

"Gun-control activists need not take my word for it that their strategy has been a rank failure. In 2015, the FBI processed a record number of firearms background checks: more than 23 million requests were handled by the National Instant Background Check System. Again, there is no certainty, but it is estimated that only 1 percent or maybe 2 percent of those checks come back negative, meaning that at least 20 million new guns were put into circulation just last year."


"Consider the case of Dick Metcalf, for decades one of the most respected and followed “gun writers” in America. In 2013 he briefly surfaced as one of those honest interlocutors when he wrote a back-page editorial for Guns and Ammotitled “Let’s Talk Limits.” Arguing the rational position that all rights have limits and that regulation does not mean infringement, he applauded a new provision in Illinois that anybody receiving a concealed-carry permit must undergo 16 hours of certified training. (Some states require no training, and a few not even a permit. Those that do require training usually impose eight hours.)

A tsunami of protest ensued. The magazine was inundated with howls of heresy and threats of cancellation, and gun manufacturers unholstered a possible advertising boycott that would have defunded the magazine—which nowadays is little more than an advertising vehicle.

Within a week, Metcalf was thrown out on his rear and the magazine issued a groveling mea culpa that satisfied the gun-makers and its own subscriber base. That was all to be expected.

Also to be expected was that not a single gun-control group reached out to Metcalf to see if he might find some other like-minded gun owners and experts that could broaden a new coalition. Until the political leadership on gun regulation prominently includes gun owners respected and trusted by other owners, and until the movement sheds its partisan and liberal identification, it is destined to go nowhere."