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NYT: Americans With Assault Rifles Should 'Give Them Up For The Good Of Their Fellow Citizens'
Townhall.com ^ | December 6, 2015 | Matt Vespa

Posted on 12/06/2015 6:48:55 PM PST by Kaslin

Well, it seems the media's horrific campaign of inaccuracy hasn't stopped. According to Reuters, for the first time in nearly a century, The New York Times editorial board took their plea for gun bans to the front page on Saturday, calling our nation's inaction on gun control a "moral outrage and a national disgrace." No, we shouldn't be surprised that they decided to follow the likes of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times with their own inane call to arms for gun control. And we shouldn't be shocked that they want policies that employ confiscatory measures, while also banning an entire class of firearms, specifically assault rifles and certain types of ammunition [emphasis mine]:

It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America's elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let's be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.

It is not necessary to debate the peculiar wording of the Second Amendment. No right is unlimited and immune from reasonable regulation.

Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective way and, yes, it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens.

First, let's give it up for the New York Times, and their like-minded colleagues in the media and in politics for driving up gun sales. Undoubtedly, after all of this nonsensical discussion about gun control, gun and ammo sales will go up (that's a good thing). The irony never ceases to amaze me how the very faction of this country what wants to deploy unconstitutional gun control measures, only end up becoming better gun salespersons.

Moreover, every mass shooting is an act of terror? They're not. Mass shootings can be part of a terrorist's arsenal of carnage to push whatever agenda they have in mind, but not every mass shooting is terrorism. The same logic is applied to defining genocide. Genocide is mass killing, but not all mass killings are genocides. What happened in Paris was a horrific terrorist attack perpetrated by ISIS. They had an agenda. They deployed suicide bombers and shooters to target scores of innocent Parisians, which they thought could influence the nation's policy in the Middle East. The Islamic State attacked France for insulting the prophet Muhammad; they called Paris "the capital of abomination and perversion;" and perhaps the most important part–the French were attacked due to their intervention in Syria. There are multiple definitions of terrorism; almost every singe one includes some form of political goal. There was no such goal when Adam Lanza senselessly murdered 20 schoolchildren in Newtown in 2012, hence why it was called a mass shooting, and not an act of terrorism. Concerning the San Bernardino shooting, it's now a federal terrorism investigation. We'll know in due time the motives and aims behind this attack.

The Times says that it's easy to define "combat rifles," though they apparently didn't know the definition of terrorism and the left has tried to do this back in the early 1990s with the Assault Weapons Ban. It was a laughable piece of comedy that was attached to the overall Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, that was partially responsible for historic Democratic losses in the midterm elections. When it expired in 2004, the data showed that these weapons are a) rarely used in crimes, which remains so to this day and b) did next to nothing to reduce violent crime. Oddly enough, the New York Times ran a piece in September of 2014 highlighting that fact:

…[I]n the 10 years since the previous ban lapsed, even gun control advocates acknowledge a larger truth: The law that barred the sale of assault weapons from 1994 to 2004 made little difference.

It turns out that big, scary military rifles don't kill the vast majority of the 11,000 Americans murdered with guns each year. Little handguns do[*].

In 2012, only 322 people were murdered with any kind of rifle, F.B.I. data shows.

The policy proved costly. Mr. Clinton blamed the ban for Democratic losses in 1994. Crime fell, but when the ban expired, a detailed study found no proof that it had contributed to the decline.

The ban did reduce the number of assault weapons recovered by local police, to 1 percent from roughly 2 percent.

"Should it be renewed, the ban's effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement," a Department of Justice-funded evaluation concluded.

Lastly, the "it would require Americans who own those kinds of weapons to give them up for the good of their fellow citizens" part. Why? The vast majority of gun owners–99.9 percent according to Sen. Bernie Sanders are law-abiding. They have to turn them over because the liberal political class is egregiously ignorant on this issue? They have to turn them over because while they aren't used often in gun crimes, liberals are afraid of them? The Times has shown that the left is getting closer to outright saying having assault rifles in one's home warrants the National Guard, FBI, ATF, and local law enforcement busting down your door, terrifying your family, and confiscating constitutionally protected items.

Any rational person should balks at this proposal. Any Second Amendment supporter would, as in other counties, should (and probably would) completely ignore the call to hand over their firearms. But if you're a liberal in keeping with their principle that government power should be controlled by the few in order to be dictated to the rest of us you must believe this is a good policy. If ending gun violence enhances the public good, then by all means strip law-abiding Americans of their rights; the end result will pay off. It's a perverse notion.

This is where this debate is heading and it's getting messier with each horrific mass shooting. The left is now mixing terrorism and mass shootings to push a narrative to eviscerate the Second Amendment. We once again have rehashed stories about the AR-15 rifle, which isn't as powerful as a hunting rifle and rarely used in crimes. And we have the media endorsing gun control policies that would require gun bans and confiscation. They're insinuating parts of it, but the brash call to ban guns entirely is coming.

Yes, not every right is absolute. There are restrictions, but government and active citizenry should work to maximize these rights to their fullest extent. The pre-existing laws on guns are fine. We need to have a debate on how to revamp our mental health system, and integrate it into our background check system. The problem is that it doesn't accomplish the left's goal of destroying gun rights, so they'll do everything in their power to prevent that debate.

*Support for a handgun ban is insanely low



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Syria; US: California; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; abrogation; banglist; brainiacdictatorship; california; demagogicparty; derogationofrights; diktat; doasisay; fartfaces; guncontrol; guncontroldebate; gunrights; helotization; iamwearingadiaper; intellectualarraunt; leftabsolutism; leftism; leftwingmedia; leftwingmediabias; memebuilding; nakedtotalitarians; newyork; newyorkarrogance; newyorkcity; newyorkism; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; oopsicrappedmypants; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rawsocialism; resistanceisfutile; sanbernadino; sanbernardino; screwtheconstitution; secondamendment; socialstratification; spandexpantload; thelawsareinmymouth; totaitarianism; totalitarianism; treasonoftherich; waronterror; willtopower
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To: All

Were the AR15s the muslims used modified in any way?


41 posted on 12/06/2015 7:04:09 PM PST by VerySadAmerican
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To: CivilWarBrewing; muir_redwoods

Matt is on our side.


42 posted on 12/06/2015 7:04:36 PM PST by Lazamataz ( If they try firearm confiscation or gun registration, I go ballistic.)
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To: Kaslin

Oh, so only criminals and terrorists will have them? How about everyone that can legally carry (open or concealed), does? Think about it, you’d see a firearm anywhere you looked. You would know there were probably as many around that you couldn’t see. Crime rates would plummet. I think someone should seriously try to organize a national carry week.


43 posted on 12/06/2015 7:04:53 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: Kaslin

When the pig becomes the national mascot of Somalia. When Hillary Clinton starts finding men attractive. When BHO gives away his prayer rug.


44 posted on 12/06/2015 7:05:44 PM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country t)
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To: Kaslin

And for the benefit of other nations, our military should do away with our troops being armed. /s

Makes just as much sense. NONE AT ALL


45 posted on 12/06/2015 7:06:01 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Come on Obama, just fess up and put the Burka on. Be honest with everyone.)
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To: dsc

I find it much easier to give up the NYT.

The term assault rifle now is bastardized to mean semi-auto AR-15’s.

By B@stards


46 posted on 12/06/2015 7:06:06 PM PST by alpo
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To: muir_redwoods

Yep. Hey NYT, FU. Never going to happen. My cold dead hands. Literally.


47 posted on 12/06/2015 7:06:08 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: Kaslin

The editorial board of the New York Times should commit seppuku at once for the good of this nation.


48 posted on 12/06/2015 7:06:39 PM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: JMS

“Muslims should give up their religion for the sake of their fellow Americans and the ones who are not Americans can either give it up or go back to the hellholes they’ve come from.”

The only thing I’d quibble with is that I believe that US citizens who refuse to give up Mohammedanism should be stripped of their citizenship and expelled as well.


49 posted on 12/06/2015 7:07:20 PM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: VerySadAmerican

Yep!


50 posted on 12/06/2015 7:08:11 PM PST by meatloaf
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To: theBuckwheat

It takes a special kind of stupid to hold those views. That’s why the MSM prefers to hire malleable, indoctrinated ivy leaguers.


51 posted on 12/06/2015 7:10:19 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (If a border fence isn't effective, why is there a border fence around the White House?)
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To: All
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52 posted on 12/06/2015 7:11:05 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: Kaslin
What a crock'o'crap. Total insanity.

FMCDH(BITS)

53 posted on 12/06/2015 7:12:22 PM PST by nothingnew (Hemmer and MacCullum are the worst on FNC)
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To: VerySadAmerican
Obama said the answer is to stop those who commit these atrocities by taking away their guns.

You have to identify them first... and he's proven we can't do that.

54 posted on 12/06/2015 7:12:23 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (Win or Lose, Still a "12"!)
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To: CivilWarBrewing

It’s obvious you didn’t get it.


55 posted on 12/06/2015 7:13:54 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

*** ‘Give Them Up For The Good Of Their Fellow Citizens’***

Now where have I heard something like that before?
OH YEAH! The day after Reagan was shot with a handgun, actress LEE GRANT was on GOOD MORNING AMERICA and proclaimed for all to hear....”THE NRA is a RIFLE ORGANIZATION! They should give up their handguns, and THEY CAN KEEP THEIR RIFLES!”


56 posted on 12/06/2015 7:14:08 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: alpo

“The term assault rifle now is bastardized to mean semi-auto AR-15s.”

During the Cold War it was accepted that Pravda would lie consistently.

We must never forget that leftards will tell any lie, distort any truth, stab any back, and betray anyone and everyone who is naive enough to give them the chance, in their march to what they see as the abolition of the US Constitution.

Substitute “mooselimbs” for “leftards” above, and you have another true statement.

How Satan must hate the Constitution.


57 posted on 12/06/2015 7:16:13 PM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: NoLibZone
(We Are The) 53% by 10 Pound Test

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

58 posted on 12/06/2015 7:20:44 PM PST by wku man ("Weenie in a Hybrid" by 10 Pound Test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWdLDSB_6gY)
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To: BitWielder1

It is NEVER the time to disarm the American people.
Molon Labe.


59 posted on 12/06/2015 7:21:04 PM PST by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Kaslin

NYC and the NYT should be excised from the union as foreign entities.


60 posted on 12/06/2015 7:21:43 PM PST by doorgunner69
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