The Things That Work to Curb Gun Violence – Response to Gov. Dumbpaddy

The Things That Work to Curb Gun Violence

While different states and cities might look to different strategies for protecting public safety, we all can agree on this: we lose too many American lives to gun violence.

No, you Irish jackass, we don’t all agree. I find the phrase “gun violence” stupid and offensive. It insults my intelligence. Because it actually manages to insult criminals’ intelligence; it tacitly asserts that criminals are too stupid to pick up a knife or a bat, or even just use their hands, if they don’t have guns.

It suggests that violence is okay, but “gun violence” is not. Or at least, that the latter is worse than the former. It’s a feeble attempt to conflate violence and guns that I find stupid, partisan, and cheap.

As a City Councilman, Mayor and now a Governor, I’ve attended too many line of duty funerals. I’ve looked into the eyes of too many moms and dads whose children were gunned down in their own neighborhoods. I’ve heard the cries of too many young boys and girls who’ve lost an older brother or a cousin to gun violence.

As a taxpayer and law-abiding citizen, I’ve seen too many hate-ins for guns and gun-owners. I’ve looked into the eyes of too many bitter gun-grabbers who hate America. I’ve heard the wails of too many statists who want to infringe on the rights of millions of law-abiding citizens.

Who can watch the sad pictures of Tucson, Auora, and Newtown, and honestly say that we’re doing enough? Who can sit back as our towns and cities are torn apart by violence, and be content with the status quo?

Who can watch the sad display on CBS, NBC, and ABC, and honestly say these people care about core America? Who can sit back and watch the bitter grabbers dismantle the America left to us by the Founders, and be content with the status quo?

The children that were lost in Newtown were our children. The children that are lost to gun violence in neighborhoods throughout America are our children. And the lives that we can save tomorrow are our children’s lives.

The children that the bitter grabbers are trying to disarm and leave defenseless are our children. The children who will grow up without an intact 2nd Amendment are our children. And the lives that we can save tomorrow are our children’s lives.

In the City of Baltimore and throughout the State of Maryland we’ve been able to drive down violent crime and homicide not with ideology, but basic strategies that are proven to work: effective policing, DNA, monitoring repeat violent offenders, digital fingerprinting, license plate readers, preventing the perpetrators of domestic violence from obtaining guns.

You forgot book-cooking, stat-massaging, and de-policing, your honor.

Between 1999 and 2009, the people of Baltimore achieved the greatest reduction in crime of America’s largest cities. Statewide in Maryland, we have driven violent crime and homicide down to three decade lows. There are 426 more people alive today in our state, because of the actions we have chosen to take together.

This is important, life-saving progress, but there is more that we can and must do. Lives are at stake.

Something tells me that if “gun control” legislation had been enacted during that period, his honor would have put his cards on the table and said so. In fact, that he has not said so strongly suggests that there was no new “gun control” in MD during that time; whether it had anything to do with the drop in crime or not, I think we can rest assured that, had MD actually enacted any “gun control” legislation during that time, his honor would be telling us it was the key to said drop in crime (stats). If I’m wrong and MD did enact “gun control” legislation during that period, then I feel it’s safe to conclude that his honor is the thickest-skulled mick to ever sit as chief executive of an American state.

Yesterday, our State Legislature passed common sense gun safety reforms. Strategies that work. Strategies which have been endorsed by Chiefs of Police, hunters, clergy, parents, advocates for public health, advocates for victims of domestic violence, citizens from all walks of life.

I think it’s safe to say that his honor doesn’t have a clue that his strategies are ones “that work.” I don’t care what liberal politicians, groups, or advocates endorse. I happen to have been paying fairly close attention to the kinds of things liberals endorse for more than ten years now, and have come to the conclusion that an endorsement from a liberal is like the Sicilian Kiss of Death as far as sanity is concerned.

One of these strategies is requiring a license and gun safety training to purchase a handgun. States that have similar licensing provisions have substantially lower gun death rates than states that do not.

Suddenly, a liberal knows what a “rate” is, again? A bona fide miracle. Usually, when I bring up black crime rates, liberals say “all races commit crime, not just blacks,” like they’re uneducated boobs incapable of 5th grade math.

But correlation is not causation, your honor. E.g: people who have black skin have substantially lower IQs, rates of education, taxpaying, and scientific or economic achievement, than people with non-black skin. And people who have black skin have dramatically higher rates of crime (including a rape rate 6.5 times the white rate) and welfare use than people with non-black skin.

See how tricky “correlation is causation” can be?

I should also take a moment to belabor my initial point about “gun death rates” and “gun violence” and other such nonsense. Nobody in the grave gives a shit if he died by the gun or the sword. People who talk in earnest about “gun death rates” are morons. They are effectively taking a dump in the public square, ruining the discussion for everyone else.

Practical experience has taught us that in places across our country where licensing is required, fewer guns make it into the hands criminals through “straw-purchases”–whereby, people buy guns only to hand them over to criminals, who then use these guns to kill or commit other crimes.

Practical experience here is code for “I have no scientific or empirical evidence for my claim whatsoever.” Here’s how to use phrases like “practical experience” in a way that doesn’t make one look like an ass: practical experience tells me that the sort of people putting guns into the hands of America’s (overwhelmingly black) murdering class through “straw purchases” will take about 2 seconds to move into “straw theft” mode, where they turn their backs and just happen to miss seeing their thug buddies “steal” the guns in question, the same thugs who coincidentally “give” them sizable wads of cash right around the same time.

Practical experience tells me that the likelihood that the deliberately-obtuse mick governors of the world actually enacting and enforcing a law criminalizing the failure to report a crime (in this case, a “stolen” gun) is roughly nil.

The bill we passed bans military-style assault weapons. These military-style weapons are designed for the battlefield. They do not have a place on the streets or neighborhoods of Maryland or for that matter any other state in our country. Since the federal ban expired, at least 461 Americans have been killed by military-style assault rifles. At least 35 of these fallen neighbors were police officers.

The bill thick-skull mick passed bans the kind of weapons that are used in none of the crime he’s referred to. The kind of weapons that kill fewer Americans every year than bee stings and lightning strikes. The kind of weapon that are much beloved of law-abiding, rural white Americans in their millions, but used in less than 1% of all murders.

The evidence suggests that banning high capacity ammunition magazines also works to save lives. It is another part of our legislative package. Today four states ban these high capacity magazines. These four states also have some of the lowest rates of gun deaths in America.

Suddenly, a liberal knows what a “rate” is, again? A bona fide miracle. Usually, when I bring up black crime rates, liberals say “all races commit crime, not just blacks,” like they’re uneducated boobs incapable of 5th grade math.

But correlation is not causation, your honor. E.g: people who have black skin have substantially lower IQs, rates of education, taxpaying, and scientific or economic achievement, than people with non-black skin. And people who have black skin have dramatically higher rates of crime (including a rape rate 6.5 times the white rate) and welfare use than people with non-black skin.

See how tricky “correlation is causation” can be?

I should also take a moment to belabor my initial point about “gun death rates” and “gun violence” and other such nonsense. Nobody in the grave gives a shit if he died by the gun or the sword. People who talk in earnest about “gun death rates” are morons. They are effectively taking a dump in the public square, ruining the discussion for everyone else.

The mental health component of our legislative package does more to keep guns away from people who have been determined to be dangerous to themselves or others as a result of mental illness. Nearly half of all mass shootings are perpetrated by individuals who are mentally ill.

Governor, after witnessing your thought processes and those of people like you, I have no faith at all in your collective ability to judge who is and is not mentally ill or fit for gun ownership.

I think his honor managed to pen a single paragraph that I didn’t feel obliged to object to. That might be a record.