Deliver up your arms said Xerxes

Once again, I see so many posts about gun control following a tragedy. The emotional reaction is understandable, but the failure to think logically is not. We want to protect the defenseless from those who would do them harm. But the emotional reaction is to remove the tool from the would-be attacker's hand, never getting to the logical conclusion that you also remove the same tool from the hands of the defender.

In an emotional state, we want to remove "assault weapons" from violent criminals. "Assault weapons" sound very dangerous, so on an emotional level, it seems to make sense to remove them from reach of criminals. But if we do, the criminal either obtains the weapon illegally, or they simply choose another weapon. The defender has become defenseless against such a person unless they too become criminals.

But who needs an assault weapon to defend themselves?

“Why do you care about gun control?"

“Why do you care about gun control? Do you want criminals to have guns?”

That’s a false dichotomy and faulty reasoning. The removal of guns from criminals is not the same as gun control.

One of the problems is that self-protection is a natural right, not a right conferred by a governing body. So all people have the right to protect their lives and bodies by the best available means. If guns are removed as a means of self defense, many people will be at the ‘mercy’ of anyone who would do them harm. The old, the infirm, the disabled, the small, the weak; they would be subject to harm by anyone stronger or larger or younger.

How gun control is proposed is also a problem. The attempt is to register all guns and limit their movements and transfers. By doing so you limit the ability of non-criminals to possess means of protection. What you aren’t doing is limiting the criminal’s ability to possess means of harm. With or without guns, criminals possess the ability to do harm by their willingness to commit crimes.

The de facto result of gun control is the creation of a gun registry. You no longer simply have a registry of guns, but a registry of gun owners. This creates a plethora of issues in itself, but the primary one is of definition. What defines a disallowed gun owner? Gun control proponents say, ‘criminals’. But what crimes? Violent crimes? Is assault a violent crime? One can be convicted of assault for what would generally be deemed non-violent. Sexual assault can be a streaker exposing him/herself to an unwilling participant. Fraud is usually non-violent, but is often deemed violent when coupled with coercion or threats of consequence (i.e. “Sign this document or I’ll tell the cops your son sells drugs”).

Gun control proponents also want to limit those with mental issues from having guns. Again, to whom would this apply? A new mother with postpartum depression? Should we remove guns from all new mothers until they are cleared by a doctor? Bipolar disorder is diagnosed in about 5% of people. Are they unable to buy a firearm?

And how do you prevent events where a person who would be unable to purchase a firearm obtains a firearm by violence or theft? The man who walked into that school in Sandy Hook and killed those children first killed his mother and took her guns. Some might suggest that you remove guns from the residence, but now you remove them from more than the criminal; more precisely, the pre-criminal. Entire families are held helpless against those who might do violence on them.

Those who are against private gun ownership often insist that government gun ownership is the solution. But often, the police are unable to respond to crimes quickly enough to prevent the crimes. During the LA riots, the police were unable to respond, in some cases never responding. Korean shop owners prevented loss of property and life by private gun ownership. In Ferguson, Missouri, black gun owners protected white owned businesses from being burned by rioters. A cop posted a warning which advised people to “get [a gun] and get one soon.” What is one person to do against a mob without a gun?

Why am I against gun control? Because with gun control, people are denied a basic human and natural right of self-preservation. And anyone who says you are granted this right from the government is also proposing that this right can be removed by that government. Any government which denies its people the right of self-preservation is a tyrannical one. Gun control is the foundation of tyranny.

Ferguson's night of broken glass

is this going too far?... or not far enough?

there is a man, a rabbi, who has made the assertion that the riots in Ferguson and beyond are similar in many ways to Kristallnacht in Germany... on the face of it, it's absurd to equate the two.

isn't it?

let's set the stage and see who the performers are.

circa 1920 Germany.

• one portion of the population was being demonized... the reason?... the Jew was seen as traitorous to the German state.

• the armistice of 1918 was propagandized as being wrought by the "November Criminals" who stabbed Germany in the back by overthrowing the government, thus creating the Weimar Republic.

• many WWI military commanders blamed businesses for turning their backs on the war effort, allowing profits to come before patriotism.

• the focus of this ire specifically fell to the Jewish businessmen, with the thought being they could not be patriotic Germans and also Jews.

• the Jews in the military were seen as profiteers, spies, or demoralizing agents.

• the Jews were falsely tied to communism, attempting to paint them as having designs on world domination.

• one well-known author later charged, "[Communism was] Jewry's 20th century effort to take world dominion unto itself."

• additionally, the Germans were propagandized as being betrayed by the socialists among them, saying they had not done enough to overcome the communists and Jews.

• the socialists seek to unify Germany by focusing on race and a state controlled economy.

circa 2014 United States of America.

• the wealthy and the business owners are being demonized... why?... the poor are told they are being stolen from; not being given their "fare share".

• the faceless "Illuminati" are seen as seeking world dominion... they are, of course, bankers and businessmen.

• some would even go so far as to attack those who support the nation of Israel as being part of this conspiracy.

• communism is no longer the adversary... capitalism is.

• instead of businessmen turning their backs on war efforts, the war mongers are seeking to foment war for their own profit.

• the socialists among us are doing everything they can to overcome these forces.

• there is great division among the races; some seeking their own national identity.

• the people want businesses to have less power, therefore they seek to have the government reign in, in some cases rule, businesses and their "obscene" profits.

November 7, 1938 - Herschel Grynszpan, German-born Jew, shoots Ernst vom Rath, German diplomat, over the deportation of his Polish-born parents.
November 9, 1938 - Kristallnacht,

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August 9, 2014 - White policeman, Darren Wilson, shoots black man, Micheal Brown, suspecting him of a strong-arm robbery minutes before.
August 10, 2014 - The beginning of looting of businesses and the targeting of white people, especially business owners, for violence. This violence has ebbed and flowed for the last two months.

so... does Rabbi Lapin have the right performers for his modern Kristallnacht play?... or is he reading from the wrong script?... there are extreme voices on each side... but is this a tipping point from which there is no return?

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November 12, 1938
"I have received a letter written on the Führer's orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another... I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today's meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me."
- Hermann Göring

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source:
Rabbi Lapin on Ferguson Riots: Liberalism’s ‘Twisted Pathology … It’s Kristallnacht in Germany’