Keanon Lowe Can we have a reasonable conversation about the problem of mass murder in our society? If we're going to try, input from the mainstream media must be excluded from the discussion. The media solution is always "more gun control!" However, only a fool would believe that more laws would prevent future violence. Private gun ownership is basically illegal in Chicago, and yet an astonishing number of people are nevertheless murdered by criminals and gang members using illegal firearms. According to gun control advocates, the problem is that criminals still have access to illegal weapons because gun ownership remains legal in other areas nearby. Like Pavlov's dogs, the media's conditioned response to such tragedy is the inevitable call for more legislation to regulate the sale and ownership of guns. People don't kill people, only guns kill people. However, simple logic and raw statistics argue otherwise. The problem wasn't that these mass shooters had access to weapons, because everybody has access to something that can be used as a weapon. The problem was that his twenty victims were defenseless. If only one of the good guys had been carrying a gun as well, lives could have been saved. Frankly, if you don't understand what the Founding Fathers were thinking about when they wrote the 2nd Amendment, all you have to do is read current headlines about the growing crisis in Hong Kong. But what do these recent mass murderers who used guns and the Tsarnaev brothers (Boston Marathon terrorists) have in common? Not much, really-- except the desire to kill. Yet … [Read more...]