Mark Steyn: Let's be realistic about reality

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 22, 2007 | Mark Steyn

[Puzzleman]

Within hours of the Virginia Tech massacre, the New York Times had identified the problem: ''What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.''

--snip--

The "gun-free zone" fraud isn't just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia's distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality. Michelle Malkin wrote a column a few days ago connecting the prohibition against physical self-defense with "the erosion of intellectual self-defense," and the retreat of college campuses into a smothering security blanket of speech codes and "safe spaces" that's the very opposite of the principles of honest enquiry and vigorous debate on which university life was founded. And so we "fear guns," and "verbal violence," and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ''The Three Musketeers.'' What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

[johnny7]

“The "gun-free zone" fraud isn't just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia's distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality.”

Those reasons only apply for the suckers... the power behind the movement is drawn from Marxist socialists who hold positions of power throughout our society.

[Leisler]

IT IS DONE ON PURPOSE!

The left, the Communists, the government want and need for people to be infants. To not to be able to think, and more importantly, act by themselves. They want the mass of citizens, + or -, to be muddled headed, confused victims. They want, after twenty years of leftist indoctri-education for you to FEEL that there is an elite of warm, caring, loving people who will always be like gods on earth and are called liberals, and by and large, they work in Government. They don't need everybody to be patterned this way, just a significant amount to control. Everybody else can suck off and sit the f down, as far as they care.

Victimize, infantilize, debt, fear, fashion, guilt these are some of their tools on you.

[JacksonCalhoun]

Steyn’s unique ability can be found by word 7 of this piece. Everyone else calls the happenings in Blacksburg, VA this week a “tragedy”, just like they did on 9/11. He calls it what it is, a “massacre”.

[toddlintown]

He has asyndicated column in the MSM.

[Lord Basil]

This reminded me of the following that someone wrote (paraphrased):

Gun grabbers believe that a woman who has been raped and murdered is morally superior to a pistol-packing mama standing over the body of her attacker.

[Diogenesis]

Playing "nice" to those who are evil doesn't win your their respect - it only confirms their contempt of your own softness.

Exactly. The leaders of the West are blind, myopic, and stupid
as to the 'terror-train' chugging down the rails into America.

Either Americans remove and replace these stupid leaders, or our freedom will end with Sharia.

President Ronald Reagan:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same,
or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States
where men were free."

[GiovannaNicoletta]

bookmark

[Toskrin]

Instead, the administration has created a "Gun-Free School Zone." Or, to be more accurate, they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone."

[theBuckwheat]

When we ban all manner of self-defense, we are forced to look to collective defense. In reference to the book, Dial 911 and Die, such defense only works on its schedule, with the facilities it chooses to employ and on the timetable it chooses to employ them.

Sometimes this is helpful and protective. A lot of times it is not. Indeed it cannot be, for another part of government, the courts, have repeatedly ruled that the public security force we employ through government (and the reason that we forbid people from taking security measures into their own hands) *does not have any duty* to protect a specific person. This means that police cannot be sued if they fail to protect you. Clear thinking people know what this means. Dial 911 and die. Where I live, in a semi-rural area. I expect to be on my own for at least 15 long minutes if I ever have to dial 911.

Yet, we claim to be the “land of the free, and the home of the brave”. These increasingly hollow words are forbidden to ring true any longer by risk averse people whose ideology leads them to insist that it is better for innocents to die than for liberties they disagree with to be permitted.

One of those liberties was having the means to effect self defense.

As the bits and pieces that the entire mess with Cho falls squarely in the lap of the left and of fans of Big and Bigger government, from the university administration that refused to deal with him properly, to the court system that failed to report his mental status properly, the calls to “solve” his mass murder through more gun control laws are becoming fewer and far less shrill. By creating a “gun free” zone on campus, liberals also created a “victim rich zone”, their own “killing field”, up on the second floor of Norris Hall

With this news, it becomes almost impossible for the left to blame an inert piece of plastic and metal for this horrible crime, but that will not stop some from pressing on to create their utopia of peace. The only consolation has been that there appear to be fewer on the left still pounding those drums than there were a few days ago.

[Pokey78]

h2>Steyn ping!</h2>

[UltraKonservativen]

Excellent observation. Calling things by their true name, is the source of clarity (and power)in Steyn’s writing.
The power of conservative ideas can only be found in calling a spade a spade. The wishy washy deceptive talk of liberals cannot stand up to that confrontation...(i.e:Ronald Reagan)

[Fury]

I wanted to note an interesting exchange with Mr. Office Liberal this week.

When the subject of self-defense and carrying a concealed weapon came up, Mr. Lib stated that those who do so are “paranoid”. He believes that ALL handguns should be banned - period. His answer to home security - “lock your doors and you’ll be fine”.

I said “so what happens when someone breaks a window to get in? Then what?” He responded “Call 911”.

Of course, this is the same guy who has stated that the police have no obligation to offer ‘round-the-clock’ protection (a point I don’t disagree with).

what Mr. Lib stated is not far off the mark what I’ve heard some other lib-leaning folks state this week where I work.

[James W. Fannin]

Two depraved misfits of crushing stupidity (to judge from their diaries) had nevertheless identified precisely the easiest murder victims in the twin-state area. To promote vulnerability as a moral virtue is not merely foolish. Like the new Yale props department policy, it signals to everyone that you're not in the real world.

He's writing about teens James Parker and Robert Tulloch who stabbed Mr. and Mrs. Zantop, professors at Dartmouth after unsuccessfully targetting other homes in well-armed areas: timeline.

By the way, I am less than impressed by the the Dingell/NRA response to the VT shooting. Instead of attempting to "strenthen" the power of government to controll weapons purchases (what about theft?) they should be concentrating on erradicating "gun free" zones.

Now is not the time to retreat.

[Marauder]

What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.

I keep my handguns chained and padlocked to prevent their escaping and wreaking havoc upon unsuspecting victims./s

[nctexan]

"they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone."

Well... I Declare the World a Hate-Free Zone!

Wow, I feel so much better now!

[redgolum]

Great article.
I grew up in an area where late night intruders were met with a 12 gauge and a question. We had few gun crimes. Now in this “safe zone” of Davenport IA, where the local cops are very against gun owners, there are rolling gun fights and complaints that there isn’t enough midnight basketball to keep the kids occupied.

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks so much for the brilliant Steyn ping!

[TomSmedley]

And so we “fear guns,” and “verbal violence,” and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ‘’The Three Musketeers.’’ What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

[Timmy]

I believe they [Hillsdale] are one of only two institutions in America which refuse all forms of Federal aid.

My daughter goes to Patrick Henry College. They do not accept any federal or state aid. She wasn't even able to use her National Merit Scholarship (funded by a private party, but with some government connections) there.

[ml/nj]

You left out the part when Steyn says he lives in Northern New England. I have to go up there from time to time on business, and it seems to me that no place is so infested with do-gooders and daydream-believers as is northern VT. I'd love to buy Steyn dinner one night and talk to someone up there whose worldview is grounded in reality.

ML/NJ