Home Control Criminals and Crazies, Not Guns
Home Control Criminals and Crazies, Not Guns

Control Criminals and Crazies, Not Guns

Mass murder is not a gun control problem.

In 2003, Kim Dae-han, a middle-aged taxi driver, killed 192 people and left 151 others wounded, by setting a South Korean subway train on fire using paint cans filled with gasoline. In 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Muslim terrorist, killed 86 people and wounded 458 others by ramming a truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in France. In 2001, Muslim terrorists killed 2,977 people and injured 6,000 more, by using box cutters to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings.

Guns are a tool. There are a whole lot of other devastating ways to kill lots of people.

American mass killers often use guns because they’re convenient and available. There are plenty of alternatives like trucks, boxcutters, pressure cooker bombs and paint cans full of gasoline.

Mass murder isn’t caused by the tools you use. The Nazis were not inspired to kill Jews by the invention of Zyklon B. The Japanese did not decide to kill hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians because of the availability of airplanes. The Soviet Communists did not commit their acts of mass murder because their arms stockpiles didn’t need a waiting period to obtain machine guns for their mass shootings.

Murder is not a technical problem. It’s a moral problem. It happens because of internal decisions made in the mind, not external tools. The tools are used to implement the decisions of the mind.

A society with mass murder is experiencing a moral problem.

America’s moral problem is more complex than that of Nazi Germany or its Communist counterparts. We don’t have a government that is actively killing people. Instead we have a government that has made it easy for killers to operate by dismantling the criminal justice and immigration systems, making it very difficult to stop the three primary categories of killers, gang members, terrorists and the insane.

And media corporations have been allowed to glamorize killers who seek fame through massacres.

Gun controllers insist that the Founding Fathers never anticipated the problem of mass shooters. That’s probably true. But they would have also never tolerated the conditions that brought them into being, a permissive criminal justice system, a failure to institutionalize the mentally ill, and a media that promotes these acts of violence under the guise of condemning them and clamoring for gun control.

The America of the Bill of Rights could have had modern weapons without constant mass shootings.

The Founding Fathers understood that murder was not a technical problem, a matter of tools, but a moral problem. The Bill of Rights was meant for a moral society. It cannot function in an immoral one.

"Government would be defective in its principal purpose were it not to restrain such criminal acts, by inflicting due punishments on those who perpetrate them," Thomas Jefferson wrote in a Virginia criminal justice bill submitted a few years after authoring the Declaration of Independence.

It is not the purpose of government to control weapons, but to control criminals.

Western countries have instead focused on controlling guns, while failing to control criminals. This has led to absurdities such as ‘knife control’ in the UK and public bollards to control car rammings. Flying has become an experience once relegated to traveling to Communist dictatorships. Gun control measures encourage doctors to inform on their patients. Schools implement zero tolerance for pocket knives.

When criminals aren’t locked up, then everyone ends up in jail.

When we fail to lock up criminals, society becomes a prison. When we don’t institutionalize the insane, then society becomes the insane asylum. When we don’t stop foreign gangs and terrorists from entering our country, then we wake up to realize that we are living in El Salvador, Mexico, Pakistan or Iraq.

A moral society locks up dangerous people while a progressive society locks up everyone.

Gun control is a sensible measure in a society where criminals, madmen and terrorists freely roam the streets. This attempt to turn society into a prison won’t work because of the problem of scale. You can prevent guns from entering a prison of thousands of people, but not a country of millions.

“We should be more like Europe,” the gun controllers say.

But then why are French and Belgian soldiers deployed across major cities after Islamic terrorists carried out attacks with heavy firepower that killed over a hundred people? You can get a ‘military weapon’ in the capital of the European Union for $1,000 in under an hour. Gun control doesn’t work there. Or here.

There are two ways to cope with mass shootings and killings.

We can work to turn our societies into giant prisons in the hopes of impeding that 0.1% of the population which is inclined to violence over drugs, deranged fantasies or the Koran from shooting up malls, ramming cars into crowds, setting off pressure cooker bombs or flying planes into skyscrapers.

Or we can get rid of that 0.1% and actually have a free and safe society.

We’ve tried turning our country into a giant prison while failing to protect our borders, crack down on gangs or stop the psychos. And the experiment has devastated virtually every major city, cost tens of thousands of lives, made flying miserable, and brought our country to the brink of destruction.

Maybe we ought to try common sense instead.

Either that or we can pass the latest raft of “common sense” gun control laws that haven’t worked before while letting every Islamic terrorist and Latin American gang member enter the country, while letting every Chicago gang continue fighting its feuds, and while letting every deranged monster plot an attack while ignoring the warning signs until it’s too late. Surely gun control will stop all of them.

Every single one.

Constitutional conservatives often echo, “Guns don’t kill people, people do.” But they neglect the obvious corollary. “Don’t lock up the guns, lock up the killers.”

Murder is a moral problem.

When societies such as Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan kill, it’s everyone’s moral problem. But when societies such as ours enable killers by failing to restrain them, that’s also true. A society engaging in mass murder has to remove its leaders. But a society where mass killers operate has to restore its morality by removing those, as Jefferson put it, “whose existence is become inconsistent with the safety of their fellow citizens.” Their existence is physically inconsistent because it’s morally inconsistent.

What unites mass killers, the terrorists and the psychos, the Neo-Nazis and the Antifas, the gang members and the drug dealers, is that their moral outlook is completely incompatible with ours.

Some criminals don’t have a moral outlook at all. Mentally ill killers may be so out of contact with reality that they are incapable of having a moral outlook. And terrorists have their own moral outlook, but one which would turn our society into a killing field and prison overseen by Islamists, Nazis or Communists.

The Left insists that we ought to take away guns and other freedoms equally from everyone.

We all ought to live in prison. Or none of us should live in a prison.

And we’ve tried it their way for three generations. We’ve built walls everywhere except around our borders. We share our communities with criminals and the insane. Every house has an alarm system. There may be as many as a million law enforcement officers in the United States. Are we better off?

The first prerequisite to any morality is understanding that actions originate within individuals. The Left is hopelessly immoral because it believes that actions originate within external social conditions. It insists that murder is caused by the social conditions of capitalism, the gun industry or poverty. It justifies its own massacres as attempts to remedy the social conditions of capitalism by force.

That’s why murder thrives under leftist governments, whether in Venezuela or Chicago.

If we want to stop mass killings, we have to restore a moral society based on individual responsibility. The alternative is living in one giant progressive prison with the killers, the psychos and the terrorists.

Either we control the criminals or we lose all control over our own lives.

The moral equation of murder wasn’t altered by the technology of the automatic weapon. The most ancient societies in the world have known how to deal with it. We chose to forget.

When Cain slew his brother with a rock, G-d drove him out of the civilized lands.

G-d did not ban rocks. He banned murderers.

If we want to stop killings, mass or singular, we have to drive our own Cains out of our civilization. Or reconcile ourselves to living in a society where Cain has a gun and Abel is always on the run.







Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

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Comments

  1. Mohammed’s last words before he died:

    “O Lord, kill the Jews and Christians!”

    SOURCE: Hadith Malik, 511:1588

    VOCABULARY NOTE:
    Hadith is a major Islamic holy book, like the Koran.

    EXPLANATION: Islam teaches that Mohammed’s
    later teachings take priority over his older teachings.
    Therefore, the later the teaching, the greater it is.
    Therefore, Muslims must believe that Mohammed’s
    last words were his most important words.

    *** QUOTES FROM THE KORAN
    ABOUT FIGHTING AGAINST INFIDELS ***


    Koran, chapter 4, paragraph 95:
    “Not equal are those believers who sit at home and receive no injurious hurt, and those who strive hard fighting jihad in Allah’s cause with their wealth and lives.
    Allah has granted a higher rank to those who strive hard fighting jihad with their wealth and bodies, above those who sit [at home]. Unto each Allah has promised good, but He prefers the jihadists who strive hard and fight above those who sit home.
    He has distinguished His fighters with a huge reward.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 12:
    “Your Lord inspired the angels with the message:
    I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 39:
    “So fight them [the infidels] until there is no more fitnah [disbelief of non-Muslims] and all [people in the world] submit to the religion of Allah alone.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 59:
    “The infidels [non-Muslims] should not think that they can get away from us.
    Prepare against them whatever weapons you can muster, so that you may terrorize them.
    They are your enemy and Allah’s enemy.”

    Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 65:
    “O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are 20 among you with determination they will vanquish 200. If there are 100 then they will slaughter 1,000 unbelievers, because the infidels are a people devoid of understanding.”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 5:
    “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”

    A different translation:
    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 5:
    “Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is forgiving, merciful”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 14:
    “Fight them and Allah will punish them by your hands, lay them low, and cover them with shame. He will help you over them.”


    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 29:
    “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax [jizya] in submission.”

    Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 123:
    “Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you.”

    Koran, chapter 47, paragraph 4:
    “When you clash with the unbelieving infidels in battle, smite their necks until you overpower them, killing and wounding many of them. At length, when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind them firmly, making [them] captives. Thereafter either generosity or ransom (whichever benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burdens. Thus you are commanded by Allah to continue carrying out Jihad against the unbelieving infidels until they submit to Islam.”

    Koran, chapter 61, paragraph 9:
    "He it is who has sent His Messenger (Mohammed) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam) to make it victorious over all religions even though the infidels may resist."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous15/8/19

    Good analysis. I’d break it down like this:
    - Gangs: Police, immigration know who they are
    and what to do, but aren’t allowed. Check
    bribery. Need speedy convictions, harsh
    sentencing, deportation.
    - Terrorists: Mostly Islamic. State, Justice,
    Treasury, Intel Depts. Spread the truth of
    Islamic horror. Stop high level corruption.
    - The Insane: Public Health. Sanity/safety
    standards must not fall victim to P.C.
    thought. Good technology today to evaluate.

    There should be no big change for an American
    to endorse the above approach. Opposition to
    those who harm us is moral and needed. Disgust
    to false media is good. Cries by wolves in
    sheepskins can/should be ignored.

    A grand victory needn’t occur before results
    come. Less gangs, terrorists, crazies
    lower our danger, anxiety, and we live
    better lives incrementally.

    Finally, while not a gun issue, the horrible
    inattention to invasion of disease is killing
    us. It matters not that it rides in on a cute
    baby. That bug will kill many babies here.

    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous15/8/19

    When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. It's interesting to note that France has strict gun control yet that didn't stop Moslems from slaughtering dozens of people at the Bataclan theater (although it made their job easier because they could guarantee their victims were unarmed). It's ridiculous to assume that people who are already criminals will be turning in their guns just because guns are outlawed. The only people affected by gun control laws are honest citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Conservative Curmudgeon15/8/19

    "Government would be defective in it's principle purpose were it not to restrain such criminal acts, by inflicting due punishment on those who perpetrate them.".....Thomas Jefferson


    Whether it be a "Red Flag" law or extensive background checks I fail to see how any new law would stop these shootings without infringing on the Second Amendment. I can see how our "Cain" can be driven out of the civilized lands however and that is the Republican party to stop ignoring the bigoted rhetoric of people like Rep. Steve King and President Donald Trump that instigates these acts of violence. By turning a blind eye to their divisive hatred you have no case to accuse the left of being "hopelessly immoral". Start at home and inflict punishment where it is due instead of glamorizing these accomplices to the crime.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous17/8/19

    Criminalize mental illness (however and by whomever defined), and institute pre-crime.

    Good plan.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous18/8/19

    what do you think about this:

    https://beta.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/07/you-cant-stop-mass-shootings-by-punishing-people-with-mental-illnesses/?fbclid=IwAR1DXBWMU6D0y2JqyvWLEp8r2uuZD2I1VpK_eUX4M4jDUu5lekZHW1ioIIg&noredirect=on

    ReplyDelete
  7. I disagree about guns. Why do private people need assault rifles that cab be used to kill many very quickly? Yes, allow private pistols and hunting rifles, but ban automatic and semi-automatic weapons. If they are not available, a crazy will not jump up, grab his AK47 and kill scores of people. He might grab his pistol, but then he would only get a few before someone else with a pistol gets him.

    That together with getting the crazies off the streets is the way to go, because you can't get them all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, yes, another knives kill people and cars kill people too argument.

    And of course, it's the dumbest argument of all time, perpetuated by the poor white trash and uneducated class of American society, who just happen to love their guns.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh for ffs Daniel talk about repetition, same old same old, the tired Chicago bull, and now we have Venesuala as some sort of justification for America's mass murdering.

    Remove the Islamic attacks from Europe they have zero shooting incidents, not that America hasn't have Islamic attacks. Fort Hood, San Bernadino, and the Daddy of all Islamic attsacks 9/11

    ReplyDelete
  10. So December 1791 and the 2nd amendment somehow has "clout" how many hundred years later?

    At least European children can go to school with no fear of been slaughtered!

    ReplyDelete
  11. 2nd amendment says the right to bare arms should not be infringed upon or something like that even if the 2nd amedment is a zillion years out of date, but surely on that wording your precious 2nd amendment entitles you to drive a tank and blow the shit out of America?, fly a fighter jet and shoot rockets for sport and blow the shit out of America, Bazooka, 84 mortar, basically your 2nd amendment allows all this yeah?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous20/8/19

    If we filter out the false flags and staged events, just how many false flag shootings are there?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous20/8/19

    Peter if you don't like the Second Amendment to the US Constitution then leave the US or change it. Otherwise it's clause "shall not be infringed" should mean exactly what it says. Just because you're a child who can't handle guns safely doesn't mean the rest of the USA isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous21/8/19

    I live in a country with no guns, so this is not a comment on guns in the USA. It is a comment about my longing for a 2nd French Revolution that will guillotine 21st century left-wing Aristocrats like commenter Peter Harris, aka the Marquis de Snoot-Snout.

    Flouncing his snuff-encrusted golden fan to virtue signal to his Sorosian-UN pedophile-morally supercilious Aristo confreres, the Count and Countess Hillary-Obama-Trudeau-Macron von Merkel, to sneer at the "poor white trash and uneducated class of American society".

    Zounds, Percy, such filth must be exterminated toot sweet lest their foulness infest our magnificent superiority and befoul our new cravat/persona. Such "filth", such "deporables" -- "trash, sewer rats, human garbage, untouchables, white bitter clingers, old stock lowlifes" -- such poorness, such whiteness, such uneducatedness -- oh the audacity to want to actually live! Let them eat cake or offer themselves as human sacrifice at the upcoming performance art cannibalism cocktail party at MOMA for Marina von Chomsky-Cher-Streisand's execution-hommage to Susan Sontag ("whites are the cancer of the human race"). O, Let us drink their blood and laugh! Gadzooks, we are so high-born and destined to rule!

    The reason this "white filth" arm themselves is because they know their enemy and their enemy is YOU! They are afraid of YOU, Peter Harris-Clinton-Trudeau-Soros-Diocletian and rightfully so. Your obscene arrogance is the problem.

    Take one of your many gilded mirrors, Sir Percy, and actually look at yourself -- not who you are trying to be to impress and lick backside to ingratiate yourself with. You will see a very very ugly person staring back at you.

    Off with his smug smirking head!

    ReplyDelete

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