In the spirit of this conservative movement that is thankfully careening towards a period of hibernation, we have another state-level temper tantrum or I suppose you could call it a “freedom fries moment” in the south, only this time it’s Virginia. ‘The Richmond Democrat‘ pulls a story off of the internets that is titled “Virginia gun giveaway to go ahead despite massacre”. A taste:
They are calling it the “Bloomberg Gun GiveAway”…The draw has been devised as an act of defiance against the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who is suing two Virginia gun shops, including Bob Moates, as well as 25 stores in other states, for allegedly selling guns too freely and thus fueling violent crime. In a sting operation last year, Mr Bloomberg sent a team of undercover investigators into Bob Moates and other stores to expose how regulations on sales were being openly flouted.
I’ve used my last essay on straw purchases as the weekly post on two other blogs I contribute to, and a few others, with a first impression of the fact that there’s an extreme level of incoherence on the left and the right in terms of what “gun control” is actually about in the first place. I’ll elaborate on this in the future when I have some more time to dedicate to it in a proper way, but the one fact I find myself typing out repeatedly is that 3/4 of the states would have to approve the overturning of the 2nd amendment. So there’s more of a chance that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays win the championship this year than that EVER happening, and yet that seems to be the launching point for the debate most times.
It is the equivalent of someone who believes in evolution, starting out every debate on the topic by pointing out that some fundamentalist Christians “want to” have it taken out of science books entirely. Maybe from there it can break down into something about the personality of someone who would advocate such a thing, which is precisely what the NRA wants to have happen. It takes the debate out of the realm of political science and into the daytime television talk show zone, where nothing comes out alive.