The Politics of Terror and Guns
One of the unfortunate truths of our society is that at any time someone orchestrates and conducts a violent act, it immediately becomes politicized. As an example, a few days ago a massacre transpired at a San Bernardino holiday Christmas party.
In no time at all, every left-leaning politician from sea to shining sea weighed in on the topic with renewed interest and fervor in reviving gun control measures before we even knew the back story on the event. The bodies weren't even cold and the blood was still warm before America's favorite scapegoat - the NRA - was again blamed for this latest atrocity.
From the very beginning as the events were unfolding with moment by moment updates in the media about this incident which, in my opinion, reeked of a terrorist attack. Initial reports stated that as many as three actors invaded a building with firearms and explosive devices and summarily started shooting, maiming, and killing people who were present.
Further, these terrorists were clad in what was described as "Assault Clothing" while possessing "Assault Weapons." As the body count steadily rose, it was clear - to me - that this not just a disgruntled employee exacting retribution for a perceived trespass or transgression as our nation's gun-hating politicians would have us to believe.
Over the next couple of days, as we learned about the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) factory in the home of the actors along with several active bombs, the violent shoot-out with as many as 21 law enforcement officers, the contact by at least one the actors with suspected terrorists overseas, and evidence suggesting that this attack needed sufficient planning and time to effect our government refused label this event as a terror attack.
So, why was our government so stubbornly reluctant to admit what was becoming so increasingly apparent to the rest of us? It was nothing more than politics. Specifically, it was gun politics and a misdirection effort to avoid looking like they failed to predict and stop a terror attack on our homeland. The gambit failed.
The elephant in the room that few in the media wanted to address was that on its face blaming the lack of more gun control on the terror attack was absurd. The state of California is perhaps our nation's best shining example of what a gun controlled society looks like. I won't waste time enumerating those measures here but every single restriction that you can ever recall hearing - short of an outright ban on arms - from a gun control advocate was in place in California.
When faced with the fact of gun control's failure in California, the anti-gun control crowd predictably "doubled down" and stated that we needed the same style, type, and number of gun control measures all across the nation. After all, the state border was only about 200 or so miles away. Other states in our country were enabling source of the massacre. Can you imagine being the the fly on the wall when these folks found out from the ATF's investigation that all firearms used in the attack were legally transferred within California?
The hard and unfortunate truth for people who hate the idea of private gun ownership and the right to self-defense is that gun control is a failed policy for keeping safe.
So now that this little political dust-up over guns has been revealed to be the sham that it is let us now devote spending some time on the subject of terrorism. Our government failed to predict, discover, and prevent this terror attack. It happened on President Obama's watch on our soil. He owns it.
Politically, this fact has obvious ramifications both for the upcoming election and will cause increased scrutiny from political opponents on his foreign policy. Let us have the appropriate debate - terrorism and foreign policy - in the aftermath of the massacre in California. Dancing in the blood of victims for gun control is non productive to the bigger issues at hand.
Rick Ector is a National Rifle Association credentialed Firearms Trainer, who provides Michigan CCW Class training in Detroit for students at his firearms school - Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit. Ector is a recognized expert in firearm safety and has been featured extensively in the national and local media: Associated Press, UPI, Fox news, New York Times, USA Today, Bearing Arms, NRAnews, Guns Digest, Tactical-Life, The Truth About Guns, The Politics Daily, Fox News Detroit, The Detroit News, The Detroit Examiner, WJLB, WGPR, and the UrbanShooterPodcast.
For more info about free shooting lessons for women and Michigan CCW Classes, please contact:
Rick's Firearm Academy of Detroit
Web: http://www.detroitccw.com.
Email: info@detroitccw.com
Phone: 313.733.7404
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I do most of my blogging and article writing in coffee shops because there are too many distractions at home.
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