In yet another sickening example of advocacy journalism, WBNG Action News 12 out of Binghamton, NY ran this story about one of the victims of the ACA mass shooting calling for a federal ban on full capacity magazines. The "federal" part is important for context here because NY already bans all magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds.
Let's get this straight. Firearms are a subset of weapons. Weapons are a subset of tools. What we're talking about here is limiting the effectiveness of a certain set of tools. Those tools can be used by good guys to save lives as well as by crazy people to commit atrocities. Any attempt to limit the effectiveness of the tools for the later purpose necessarily limits the former.
If an infinitesimally small subset of the population is misusing their tools, then the solution is not to limit the effectiveness of all of our tools. A maniac with a 10 round magazine can still ruin the lives of 10 too many families. The solution is to strengthen our criminal justice and mental health systems to keep as many of these people as possible off our streets and away from our families.
That being said, we all know that perfect and omniscient criminal justice and mental health systems are noble goals to strive for, but are unattainable in the real world. In lieu of those Utopian systems, we need to do everything we can to lift the multitude of restrictions being placed on the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. That way, when the government slips up in their efforts to detain criminals and the criminally insane, we the people will be able to use our tools to mount a swift and effective defense. Thereby minimizing the carnage...because when seconds count, the police are just minute's away.
-K.M.
Let's get this straight. Firearms are a subset of weapons. Weapons are a subset of tools. What we're talking about here is limiting the effectiveness of a certain set of tools. Those tools can be used by good guys to save lives as well as by crazy people to commit atrocities. Any attempt to limit the effectiveness of the tools for the later purpose necessarily limits the former.
If an infinitesimally small subset of the population is misusing their tools, then the solution is not to limit the effectiveness of all of our tools. A maniac with a 10 round magazine can still ruin the lives of 10 too many families. The solution is to strengthen our criminal justice and mental health systems to keep as many of these people as possible off our streets and away from our families.
That being said, we all know that perfect and omniscient criminal justice and mental health systems are noble goals to strive for, but are unattainable in the real world. In lieu of those Utopian systems, we need to do everything we can to lift the multitude of restrictions being placed on the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. That way, when the government slips up in their efforts to detain criminals and the criminally insane, we the people will be able to use our tools to mount a swift and effective defense. Thereby minimizing the carnage...because when seconds count, the police are just minute's away.
-K.M.
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