Jayne Lynn Stahl – Part II

Jayne is posting another screed over at the HuffPo.  We will do this one in the style of a fisking.

It was never my intention to rant against the National Rifle Association, or law enforcement, but instead call for a closer look at a national ethos which enables, and legitimizes, the use of weapons, and deadly force in lieu of dedicated problem solving.

Have you ever tried dedicated problem solving with someone who has a gun or a kinfe pointed at you?  Would it be shocking that the criminals out on the streets, many who would kill you for a quarter, or just for the thrill, aren’t really that interested in working through their problems?   Are you really this delusional?  If you’d rather be a victim, I have no problem.  That’s your choice.  But don’t berate those who choose not to be.

Why this egregious absence of legislation attempting to stem the proliferation of assault rifles, hand guns, and illegal firearms in the past several years? A virile, righteous, and omnipresent gun lobby has successfully managed to silence their opposition, as has a vice president who, while he may not have the best aim, is himself a devout hunter, and a foreign policy which caters to the hunter ethos. Silencers aren’t only being used for firearms; they’re now handy ways to stifle dissent, too.

What outrageous ignorance and arrogance.  Do you know anything about the “hunter ethos”?  Do you know what an assault rifle is?  Do you know they have been illegal for several decades already?  Have you ever spent any time talking to hunters and other outdoor sportsmen?  No one is stifling your dissent.  You have a right to speak your mind, and we have a right to speak ours.  Any anti-gun person is perfectly free to come on here and comment.  We’d be happy to have a dialog.  Interested Jayne?

From the beginning of time, the forces of darkness have somehow managed to overpower, and silence, the forces of light. This explains the phenomenon of extinction. And, if things continue at this rate, we, too, will be staring down the barrel of an existential shotgun. One can only hope that it isn’t loaded.

Jayne, we’ve had firearms as a technology for at least half a millennium.  Why is it only now that we are suddenly so depraved as a society that we can no longer deal with them?  What a dour world view you have to believe darkness will always win in the end.  How can you look at the technological wonders we’ve created as a civilization, how the values embodied in The Enlightenment have been spreading all over the world, and conclude that the forces of darkness are winning and will win out in the end?  I would hope people of your persuasion would have a little more optimism than that.

8 thoughts on “Jayne Lynn Stahl – Part II”

  1. *Sigh*

    Lubricated bullets? I love to understand how a .25 micron coating of lubrication on the SIDE of the bullet manages to not only stay intact on the bullet after firing but also travels up into the hollow point and helps penetrate soft body armor during flight.

    I’m assuming he means Teflon coated which only makes the bullet not wear on the barrel as badly but that doesn’t fit into his PSH.

    And I’m so tired of the “We have no crime in England” shtick. Their crime is skyrocketing and all they can say is “We have less guns!”.

    Less guns, but more violence. It’s almost like the guns have no mind control rays.

  2. Assault rifles haven’t been illegal for decades – they’re just Very Very Expensive and Staggeringly Regulated in terms of access.

  3. Yeah, but it’s the same kind of illegal that the assault weapons ban foisted upon us, only with the staggeringly regulated part.

  4. When one’s soul is steeped in dark murderous shadows, one naturally assumes so it is for everyone.

    Because these people refuse to believe anyone could possibly be their moral superior, they must assume that everyone is steeped in the same darkness.

    It’s called projection and something the psychologists won’t tell you, because basically they are too limited to figure it out, is that projection is always the result of personal arrogance. The arrogance that says “I am as good or better than everyone else, therefore, if I have unacceptable thoughts, emotions, and proclivities, everyone else does.”

    That is when they start hollering for protection from all those that would do as they would. Fear of self masquerading as morality is why we cannot win them to our side and therefore must, absolutely must force them to honor our rights. Not ask them, not persuade them, because they can never escape what is inside their own heads, we have no option but force them not to violate our rights.

    That’s correct. Force them. That does not mean violate their rights, it does mean that if force is necessary to keep them from violating ours, then it is incumbent upon us to do it. Politically or societally if possible, but physically if it is not.

  5. I think the voices in their heads and their sheer egotistical vanity have convinced them that they CAN communicate effectively with a person shouting at a lamp-post or one holding a knife to their throat…To what effect remains to be seen however.

  6. Ah, NRA Derangement Syndrome – the disease in which the NRA is responsible for all the gun crime in not only America, but the world at large.

  7. From the beginning of time, the forces of darkness have somehow managed to overpower, and silence, the forces of light.

    The forces of light, however, gained steam with the 15th century yeoman and prevailed over the dark in the late 18th century because of firearms. The more the armed people become as powerful as the elite, the more the darkness recedes.

    People like her feel safer in the dark, with a comforting blanket over her head.

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