Gun proliferation

Bloomberg Businessweek's Paul Barrett, who pretty much writes as a flack for the firearms industry, is pushing the suggestion that improving trends on violent crime should make advocates against gun proliferation shut the heck up, Good News on Gun Violence Could Shape Gun Control Debate 05/07/2013. These sorts of reports and advocacy need to be scrutinized carefully. The statistics he cites don't address the issues involved in mass-casualty killings or the increasing proliferation of semiautomatic assault rifles, or the bizarre manufacture and marketing of child-size guns for small children.

Check out this report from Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, 'My First Rifle' - Real Guns Marketed for Children 05/02/2013:

Barrett also treats us to Glenn Beck Rallies the NRA Faithful 05/05/2013:

Thus Glenn Beck sermonized: "Darkness does not understand the light."

Speaking of the encroaching darkness, he said, "They think this is just about guns, but it’s not." It is about family, he explained. Liberals "think we’re silly because we think gun rights are more important than our children," he said. "But we actually believe these things because of our children.” He added: "Guns save lives. Guns protect homes and businesses. Guns protect our wives and daughters.”

Beck has a darkness of his own. “God, forgive us,” he pleaded. “We are a sick society.”

“Have we gone insane?” he asked. “Have we gone insane?”

His answer: “Yes, we have. Yes, we have.”

Although that's presumably not an entirely flattering picture of Beck to most readers!

In Let's All Calm Down About 3D Plastic Guns 05/06/2013, Barrett gives this less-than-reassuring explanation of why we shouldn't worry about plastic guns built from 3-D printers:

If you’ve got the skills, you can already make a gun in your basement, and there are less complicated ways to do it than using a $10,000 3D printer and computer set-up. Why would bad guys bother making comic book firearms when they can go online and order anything from a Glock 9 mm pistol to a Bushmaster military-style semiautomatic rifle with 30-round ammunition magazines?

Well, if they get tired of him at Businessweek, he can probably get a gig at Guns and Ammo. Or just go directly on the NRA's payroll.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write about the need to restrain gun proliferation in Gun Madness v. Gun Sanity Consortium News 05/04/2013.

Tags: gun control, gun proliferation