The Atlantic, a magazine that prides itself on being an opinion leader but is actually more of an opinion follower, specifically of the opinions of the Acela Corridor highly-verbal, nigh-innumerate Credentialed Class, found the perfect vessel for its latest progressive gun-control argument: a convicted murderer, in the early stages of 28 years to life in Attica, which was the predictable culmination to his life in crime.
They even found a white murderer in Attica, which is a small minority within a minority, perhaps 20% of all Attica-dwellers are white (.pdf), and some of them are nonviolent felons — white collar criminals and such. (But this fits with Atlantic sensibilities: they seldom have more than their one token black writer).
Of course John Lennon (his real name!) is looking to get out closer to his minimum parole eligibility date, which is January 4, 2030, and not his max date, which is never, so he expresses remorse for his life of crime in the leaden, learned tones of the inmate, something the Atlantic’s editors, having never been closer to a criminal than the Senate gallery, completely failed to detect. He cries crocodile tears for his victim, a friend whom he blew away in the routine course of conducting his drug business. (Stray thought: was he somebody at The Atlantic’s dealer, and that’s how they know him?)
He goes on to express his desire for — in a most remarkable coincidence — the exact gun control measures desired as a first step by The Atlantic and the Democrat Party’s leadership.
But the shootings and killings in the world I know have continued and will continue unless we refocus on the root of the problem: our gun culture, and the easy access it affords criminals.
Where the Atlantic turns for public policy perspicacity: Attica.
Wrong answer, Yardbird. The root of the problem is not the existence of these tools, and it’s not even the use people like you make of these tools; it’s the existence of people like you.
He committed his murder, of course, with a weapon that was not legally accessible to him. He says he used an M16, which is subjected to strict Federal regulations and a complete ban in New York. And of course as a many-times-convicted felon, he couldn’t buy a gun anywhere, let alone in extreme anti-gun New York, where only the criminals need not fear the police. And he makes the laughable argument that he and his fellow criminals are primary drivers of drug demand.
Bottom line, criminals create an indirect demand for gun manufacturers and merchandisers. Like most criminals, I created an extraordinary demand for the gun sector.
Don’t flatter yourself, dirtbag. Every gun used by every criminal in every crime doesn’t add up to a half-percent of gun sales a year. Your whole, worthless, life is a rounding error, in economic terms.
He blames the guns, not himself, for his current plight, even as he acknowledges, in the formulaic phrases of a well-coached parole-seeker, formal responsibility.
Engulfed in an orgy of violence, my last month of freedom was chaos. Home invasions, robberies, murder — at the center of it all were guns…. [W]ithout a gun I would not have killed….[O]ur free-market gun culture is out of control.
Remember, this guy operated his entire criminal life in the state with the strictest gun laws of all, and by his own admission, he never lacked for a gun even as he never acquired one legally.
The murderer’s stablemates, The Atlantic’s other writers, are making the sort of points you’d expect from a white, urban, bookish and entirely unworldly coterie of wonks: ex-Journolist-member, the ever-shallow Connor Friedersdorf, has a child’s magical belief in spending more money, and thinks a Stasi-style snitch-and-reward system hotline would help (from his desk he hasn’t discovered that the police actually do this already. In fact, they’d seldom solve murders without some insider spilling his guts). The close-to-the-Administration Steve Clemons finds, mirabile dictu, that the answer to violence is exactly what the Administration wants (a universality in his writing). Clemons fails to note the racial or gang-initiation aspects of the crime in question, because in his narrow, uncurious mind it’s all about the gun. We could do this with each of their writers, but more than a sample is boring. Basically, with The Atlantic you know you’re getting the Press Briefing With Jay Carney, only delivered by people who can write with skill.
Well, apart from their jailbird here. It was predictable, but revolting to see him descend to the manipulative convict’s perennial self-serving whine: it’s your fault I’m like this!
It’s unethical, however, for stakeholders of Sturm, Ruger and Smith & Wesson to contest oversight that would prevent arming individuals like me.
See, it’s our fault: we shoulda known he was “depraved on account of he’s deprived.” And we should treat everyone like murderous scumbag John Lennon because, well, John Lennon is a murderous scumbag. That is one approach, and it’s the approach that gun-bansters like The Atlantic’s editors favor. Unfortunately it’s not the approach enshrined in our Constitution, which with its Bill of Rights at least strongly implies you should only punish the guilty.
That one of the guilty thinks his punishment should be extended to the innocent as well is, well, an interesting data point, but it falls rather short of being compelling.
The sometime stockholders and all-time stakeholders at this address suggest a perfect means to “prevent arming individuals like him.” Execute him. Sure, New York missed their chance, but maybe one of his fellow lost souls in Attica will take out the trash, and that would be a good thing.