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44


L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 44, April 21, 1999

Better Start Digging

by Don L. Tiggre
[email protected]

         Here we go again... The details are confused at this early stage, but apparently two or three students of a Denver high school opened fire with a variety of weapons, possibly killing 25 people and wounding a similar number. And, as inevitably as crickets starting up when the sun goes down, the gun grabbers are already starting to screech about how evil guns are and how they must be eliminated.
         The draft-dodger and war-monger in chief's first remarks already hold the seeds of bad things to come:
         "We do know that we must do more.... You know there are a lot of kids out there who have access to weapons -- and apparently more than guns, here..."
         Now Clinton did say that in the context of "teach[ing] them to express their anger and to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons," but we all know what the "do more" is going to mean: more victim disarmament (so-called gun control). Blame inanimate objects and punish the law abiding citizens who own them--that's the instant response of the statists and their uneducated dupes in the public to such events.
         Never mind that "gun free school zones" are actually "amassed unarmed victim zones" to any thug or insane person with a desire to hurt people.
         Never mind that a place where criminals can know that there will be no one armed is also a place where a criminal can know that they will be unstoppable for the 15 to 30 minutes it will take the police to show up.
         Never mind that proper gun training can save lives, as in Oregon, when the two sons of a Navy officer (one of them wounded) knew what it meant when the shooter stopped to reload and tackled him before he could continue killing.
         Never mind the studies that show that there is less delinquency in homes with "gun culture" than in homes where there are no guns at all.
         Never mind the statistics that show that, even with shooting sprees like the one in Denver today, the number of lives saved by guns every year in the United States is vastly greater than the number taken.
         Never mind that there were just as many guns in America earlier this century--and more kids owned their own guns--and that did not lead to shooting sprees in schools.
         Never mind that the politically correct movement has been teaching kids that there is no such thing as right and wrong for the past decade and longer.
         No, never mind any of the inconvenient facts--this shooting is a "wake up call" to America that guns are evil and no one but the police and military should have any. This is what we'll hear repeated mindlessly by the talking heads over and over again in the next few days and weeks.
         I don't know about you, but I'm going to start scoping out some good places to dig hiding holes for my guns, so there won't be anything to confiscate when the gun-grabbers come a knockin'.


---
Two notes:

1] The death toll has been revised down to 15 since I wrote that piece, but may rise again.

2] There's a CNN poll on who's to blame (including "access to guns", even though that's not a person) that people can access at: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/schools/poll/


Prometheus Award finalist Y2K: The Millennium Bug, a suspenseful thriller by Don L. Tiggre does "a superb job of conveying the impact of Y2K to the average non-technical reader," says Ed Yourdon, author of Time Bomb 2000. Bob Boardman, author of Savior of Fire says: "I was up all night, tossing and turning, trying to think of the right words to tell you how great I think your book is." Details at: http://www.allwest.net/ralston/

And if you really want to DO FREEDOM check out: http://www.lrt.org/
Home of The Freedom Channel -- 28 guest speakers signed up already! http://www.evanstonwy.com/freedom/


From an AP article:

"The shooting has brought to light once again the warped strains of 'an advanced society'," said an article in the [Japanese -- Ed.] national Asahi newspaper.

Unlike, I suppose, the Rape of Nanking, my collectivist ant-swarm Nipponese friends? -- Ed.


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