I always marvel at the fact that I disagree with about everything your senior writer, Ed Griffin-Nolan, writes about and believes in. He has this unwavering belief in big government, more taxes and taking away people’s rights and freedoms. Also, his misunderstandings on economic matters are simply overwhelming. Will someone please tell him to study Murray Rothbard’s books, starting first with For a New Liberty.
Ed bases most of his thinking on his feelings rather than logical, critical thinking. If he ever took a course in logic he would learn that he promotes his views by using the common fallacy called “appealing to a person’s emotions and feelings.” Most of time this fallacy has very little to do with the truth of the matter.
So when I found out he had a column about gun control (“Chambers of Horror,” Dec. 26), I knew that it was going to be shot full of misrepresentations and illogical thinking. He starts out his column by saying he gets the flu shot every year. The flu shot is one of the greatest scams ever perpetuated on the American public by the drug companies. The flu shot doesn’t prevent anything. Even a former head of the Food and Drug Administration admitted that.
The flu shot actually gives you the flu. That’s why we always have a flu season every fall and not in the spring or summer. It’s no accident that there was a rash of flu cases this fall in our local nursing homes. Their patients are forced to get the flu shot every year, then they get the flu.
After Ed gave his views on how great the flu shots are, he talked about how important it is to ban so-called assault weapons. Assault weapons are what our military uses. They are automatic rifles and carbines. They are already banned.
Sporting rifles are what is available at your local gun store. They use the military-style gas-operated platform, but they are semiautomatic like a lot of shotguns. What that means is you have to squeeze the trigger every time you want to fire it. Naturally Ed refuses to mention that fact, and calls every semiautomatic weapon an assault weapon.
Another fact that Ed refuses to mention is that in almost every case where someone starts shooting at a lot of people, these shooters were on some kind of medication, especially anti-depressants. Two of the key side effects to a lot of behavior-modifying drugs are suicidal and homicidal behavior. There’s a whole website that lists the different medications these shooters were on.
Ed mentions that Australians’ gun rights were taken away, and these “measures were remarkably effective.” This is simply not true at all. The crime rate in Australia has soared now that mostly only criminals have guns.
Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Yet it has, per capita, one of the highest crime rates and also murder rates in the country. This same thing happened in England when they banned guns. The violent crime rate increased.
John Lott was a liberal, legal scholar who decided to study the statistics on gun control laws and crime rates. He was shocked to find out statisticians “cooked” the data for the anti-gun lobby on both subjects. He also found out most reporting on the subject was slanted and biased. Before Ed decides what’s best for everybody I suggest he read John Lott’s books on the subject: More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard About Gun Control is Wrong.
Another thing Ed refuses to mention in his column is that hundreds of thousands of crimes are prevented every year because the victims were armed. Many personal injuries and even murders are prevented every year because the victims were armed. I guess Ed would rather have all of us just use slingshots instead.
I believe people like Ed will never change their naïve feel-good viewpoints until they are actually assaulted and robbed. I would never wish that on anyone, but most people feel they are impervious to a crime happening to them. But the fact of the matter is that we live in a dangerous world, whether we like it or not.
—John Butler
Syracuse
