This man, Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America (GOA)—a group that considers the NRA to be too moderate on the issue of guns, too willing to compromise and “sell out” the apparent rights of gun owners—, believes strongly that the response to the Newtown massacre should be more guns in America and in more hands, including those of primary school teachers and in the classroom.
This man below, John Lott, thinks likewise.
Imagine that, arming primary school teachers in the classroom. Or any kind of teacher, including me. Me, packing heat in front of my students (or in front of anyone). I’m trying to imagine my 4th grade teacher, Miss Blakely (below, top row left), with a loaded gun in the classroom (and that she would presumably keep in a drawer in her desk, easily accessible to any of us 9 and 10-year olds; and that she would, with her hair trigger reflexes and presence of mind, immediately whip out of the desk the second a mass murderer burst into the classroom, neutralizing him before he could do harm; or, better yet, perhaps she would have the gun on her person at all times, along with all the other teachers: Mrs. Burgdorf, Miss Harney, our art teacher Miss Chris, music teacher Mrs. Heinemann, even gym teacher Mr. Grenke…; what a sight, all of them carrying loaded guns!).
Anyone who thinks it not only appropriate for teachers like Miss Blakely to be armed in the classroom but that they should be, is not only a despicable SOB and with a sick, deranged mind but is also evil. If Larry Pratt’s and John Lott’s wishes were to become reality—of a society where just about everyone is armed, at pretty much all times, and with the arm of his or her choice, including semi-automatic rifles—there would simply be that many more people killed. This certain outcome of Larry Pratt’s and John Lott’s vision makes these men evil. Period.
Lott does have academic credentials and has authored a few books on the issue, and based on data, so it seems, though his arguments—and his use of data—have been rubbished, notably in this article by Ian Ayres and John J. Donohue III in the Stanford Law Review (which was linked to in Nicholas Kristof’s NYT column yesterday, “Looking for Lessons in Newtown“).
Pratt and Lott have been making the rounds of the TV studios the past few days, including Piers Morgan’s show on CNN. Morgan, who is no gauchiste—having spent the early part of his career with Rupert Murdoch’s London tabloids—, nonetheless found these wankers beyond the pale (watch here and here). One notes with pleasure that Morgan told Pratt that “you’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” In addition to being stupid, Pratt is also a raving idiot and a brazen liar—and that Morgan took pains to point out—, in asserting that the parts of America “where guns are allowed freely” have lower murder rates than in Europe or the UK.
Where do they find these people? Under what rocks do they slither out from? Seriously, these men are the dregs of American society. Fifteen of the twenty US states with the highest gun homicide rates are in the South and mountain West, where, until proof to the contrary, guns have long been allowed rather freely. As for the gun homicide rate by country, the table in Charles Blow’s NYT column yesterday of OECD member states—i.e. the world’s rich countries—speaks for itself.
One thing Pratt said on Morgan’s show was that “Americans with firearms at home typically have them locked in a safe, as I do and as most gun owners certainly do.” Really? I wouldn’t know myself, except that I thought one reason people keep a gun at home is for protection against burglars or robbers who break into the house. But if the gun is in a safe, it will take a minute or so to get it out, and assuming the homeowner is in the same room as the safe. Normally time and presence of mind are of the essence in such situations, no? So if the gun is not literally on the person at the time of the break-in or within reach, what use is it protection-wise? Just asking.
But in the view of Larry Pratt, the Second Amendment is, in fact, not primarily about giving Americans the ability to protect themselves in their homes but, rather, as he explained to Chris Matthews here, “to control the government,” to potentially use against the US government if it goes “overboard”… All one can to say to this is to invite the members of GOA to do just that, and right now, against the government of that socialist Nazi Muslim Kenyan who sits in the White House: to collectively use their guns against the authority of the US government. And so the US government can then arrest all of them. And if they resist arrest, kill them. With guns and legitimately.
A couple of good articles read over the past couple of days:
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker, always excellent on this issue, on “The Simple Truth About Gun Control.” Note, in particular, the report he links to from the Harvard School of Public Health, on more guns = more homicides.
On the NYT Opinion page, Notre Dame philosophy professor Gary Cutting on “The N.R.A.’s Blockade on Science,” on the successful efforts of the NRA to block federal funding of research on the link between guns and violent death. One is left incredulous at this. These people—the NRA, GOA, the whole wretched lot of the pro-gun lobby—really are evil people.
“Americans with firearms at home typically have them locked in a safe, as I do and as most gun owners certainly do.”
Not sure what planet this fellow is on. I don’t think one member of my family (US West) has EVER kept a gun in a safe or a locked cabinet. Favored places for firearms: bedroom closet, nightstand (because if an intruder comes by you sure as hell aren’t going to go to the damn safe to get it) and on the road in the truck in the glove compartment and on a rack in the cab (this is so if you see dinner as you are tootling down the road you can bring it down).
I am not kidding about this. I grew up with guns – all the men in my family had them. As a young woman my job seems to have been to clean and cook what they brought down. My father did take me to the gun club often however and I was taught basic gun safety and I could fire both my dad’s shotgun and his deer rifle. (Skills I have never needed here in France. Go figure. 🙂
Now that is the culture I grew up in and that is why I tend to fall on the side of those who support Americans’ right to bear arms. But in my family “arms” never meant automatic weapons. As for the idea of arming schoolteachers, I can;t imagine any member of my family living or dead thinking this is a good idea. As sexist as it may sound (and I grew up with some pretty sexist men around me) the job of the guys is to keep the community safe so that the women and children are safe and don’t ever EVER have to carry weapons.
Victoria, thanks for the comment. I can understand why people in rural areas have guns, and also that, for cultural and historic reasons, America will never have the same gun laws as Canada or other countries in the Western world. But this does not mean that legislators cannot enact laws regulating the sale, possession, and use of guns (registration, background checks, ending gun show and Internet sales, etc), and banning outright the sale and possession of certain types of guns (semi-automatic weapons, etc), which in no way contradicts anything in the constitution. I also think it is crazy for urban dwellers to own handguns (jewelry store owners and the like excepted). It is hardly a coincidence that the bigger a city, the stricter the gun laws (outside the South and prior to recent court rulings – of courts packed with right-wing judges).
” is not only a despicable SOB and with a sick, deranged mind but is also evil”. Ho Ho Ha ha ha. Sorry. Know its not funny. But could not help.
“Pratt is also a raving idiot and a brazen liar”! ok. Fun time over. I was a bit surpirsed by Mr. Morgan’s “emotional” response on TV. He has clearly been very emotionally distressed by the situation (which most of us have). I wonder though, where the NRA, GoA derive there strength from? I am not American so educate me, but it looks to me like there has to be a “substantial” population which believes in the philosophy which the NRA espouses, for it to be the prevalent law of the land.
Excellent piece by Sullivan (the Dish) http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/12/enough.html
Thanks, Victoria. Yes, it is an excellent piece indeed. It merits the widest possible circulation.