I was watching the CBS news last night.
I know, not a good thing and certain to give you indigestion.
They caught my attention because they did this “shooting timeline“
Essentially, they plotted all the “Major” ie “Newsworthy” shootings in 2012 & 2013 and concluded that these shootings typically happened about 6 weeks apart.
They ended of course with the LAX and Westfield Mall shootings. And a grim total of 84 dead.
I should point out that the Westfield mall shooting resulted in no shootings except the self inflicted fatal wound of the shooter himself.
What struck me was that CBS didn’t include police shootings which I would argue are far more terrifying because the police are supposed to protect us, not shoot us.
The most recent of these was in New York where officers shot at and missed a perpetrator but managed to wound innocent bystanders on the street.
They also said nothing about the 13 year old who was shot and killed on the street near his home by a police officer in Northern California less than 10 seconds after the encounter began. The 13 year old was carrying a bb gun…
CBS also completely ignored the incessant shootings in Chicago and Washington DC. I would argue that the daily violence in Chicago rivals or exceeds the violence we saw in the Nigeria mall shooting, which CBS included in their mass shooting timeline.
How many people per day have to be shot in Chicago’s “Gun Free zone” before the magnitude of this national tragedy and fallacy of “Gun Free Zones” is newsworthy?
Don’t misunderstand,mass shootings are horrible. They’re the product of a deranged mind or minds. Shootings during the commission of a crime are horrific.
Often these shootings are used as circumstantial evidence in support of stricter gun control.
This was evident in the CBS report as one to the CBS reporters was shown asking Harry Reid if he would push additional gun control legislation given the recent LAX and Mall shootings.
I find myself on the other side of the argument.
I can’t help but think if one or two citizens had been carrying concealed weapons, or if an off-duty police officer (who could shoot straight) was carrying a weapon that the mall shooting, or the Colorado theater shooting, or the LAX shooting, or Sandy Hook, would have ended very differently.
By differently, I mean with the deranged individual bleeding out on the floor and the innocent citizens either physically unscathed or far fewer number among the injured.
I’m not suggesting a wild west scenario, I’m suggesting, putting down an obvious and dangerous threat to the society.
We’d have no problem, and in fact in the past we didn’t have a problem shooting rabid animals in the streets when they posed a threat to the community.
These deranged criminals, regardless of their mental health, their medications, or lack thereof are demonstrably more dangerous to the community than any rabid animal.
I find myself believing more and more that community safety is better preserved by having random people in the community carrying concealed weapons, and knowing how to use them.
If a criminal has no idea and no way to anticipate what kind of resistance they’re likely to encounter then only very stupid or very desperate criminals will commit heinous acts of mass violence.
When I say carrying concealed weapons, It’s implied that these folks are properly trained, and know how to use their weapons appropriately.
Some people go through the training, and simulated crime situations only to discover they don’t have the temperament to carry a concealed weapon.
Most, if not all of those folks take that knowledge and don’t go any further. They don’t carry weapons, because they’ve learned that their temperaments or beliefs won’t let them harm another person.
Other people may discover that they’re a little too quick to draw and that too is valuable knowledge which may prevent those individuals from obtaining a concealed carry permit.
Obviously the rules and permitting requirements vary from state to state, but training is almost always at the core of any concealed carry permit process.
Either case, desperate or stupid, I believe a criminal is more likely to be stopped before doing serious damage in a society where 
concealed carry (and appropriate training) is the norm.
The fearmongers would have you believe that guns are used only by criminals, or sick individuals, the deranged, or terrorists.
The fearmongers would present a case where we can only be safe if guns and gun ownership are reduced.
The fearmongers will sell you a belief that anyone who wants a gun is by definition; sick, twisted, insane, criminal, or a terrorist.
This is the worst kind of misrepresentation. It’s actually an example of conflation and to my mind it’s among the most despicable things of which the main stream media is guilty.
Last nights CBS broadcast was simply another in a long line of Anti “this” and Pro “that” rhetoric designed to manipulate our people, (For our own good, of course).
One need only compare and contrast the medias reporting styles from administration to administration to see manipulation time and again.
Recently I found myself finding this all too familiar.
It was as if I’d read it or seen it in an “reductio ad absurdum” form in a book or movie.
The propaganda of many governments and tyrannical regimes springs easily to mind. Those examples are paraded by all opponents of any government policy.
What was trying to surface from the dark recesses of my curdled brain was more extreme…
Then I was reminded of the movie Serenity.
In the movie, a Teacher is describing all the benefits of Alliance rule, and how it brought true civilization to many worlds.
One of the students asks why a rebel group would refuse all these benefits and fight against the Alliance.
Another student says, “People don’t like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don’t run, don’t walk. We’re in their homes and in their heads and we haven’t the right. We’re meddlesome.”
The teacher replies, We’re not telling them what to think, we’re telling them how.
Later, One of the heroes, after discovering that the Alliance has lied and carried out an experiment that was supposed to make people peaceful but which destroyed millions, an entire world and also created a group of very aggressive monsters says; “Sure as I know anything, I know this – they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better.”
I think my brain latched onto the movie because it was ironic coming from Hollywood. Hollywood has been a staunch supporter of public policies designed to make us better.
No plastic bags.
No smoking… not in bars, not in cars, not on the beach, and recently not even in your own apartment.
No guns, more government control, less individual responsibility…
Entertainment has reflected these messages.
But these reflections are from a dark and elitist mirror.
Hollywood celebrities who run afoul of the law receive only the lightest of punishments. The average person committing the same crime, finds themselves being gang raped in prison.
Congress imposes laws, punitive taxes, and creates draconian bureaucracies, yet exempts themselves as a function of the same law. The bureaucracies consider our lawmakers exempt from their tender mercies as well.
All of it of course is “in the public interest”, “for your own good”, “for the good of the children”.
Sometimes they’re even right. But even in being “right”…
They’re meddlesome.
Through it all, our media continues to repeat the accepted party line in a never ending sycophantic orgy, instead of asking questions, reporting facts and performing their duty.
Benjamin Franklins quote;
“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see“
Rings truer today than ever before.
Give it some thought when you listening to the evening news.
Just sayin…
A 14 year old in West Virginia was wearing a t-shirt at school like the one at the right. (I pulled this image from the