See all the latest videos and articles patriots need to watch and read at Discern.tv.
In recent modern history, we’ve seen pressure cookers, fertilizer, trucks, knives, guns, and hijacked airplanes used by depraved individuals to kill people. It should appear beyond dispute that these crimes are not merely a consequence of access to weapons or would-be weapons.
Mass killings are some of the most premeditated crimes. Those who plan and perpetrate such crimes are acting upon far deeper and concerning realities than just ease of access to the means to carry out their designs.
The fact is when someone gets it in their heart that they want to kill, they are going to find a way to do it. As we can, unfortunately, see in the many stabbings that have occurred in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, an inability to obtain a firearm doesn’t magically turn a would-be murderer back into a peaceful, law-abiding citizen. Nor does an inability to obtain a firearm necessarily mitigate the death that can ensue.
The two worst mass shootings in modern American history are the Las Vegas Shooting (58 dead, 413 wounded) and the Orlando Nightclub Shooting (49 dead, 53 wounded). In terms of police officer deaths, the worst instances were the Dallas Shooting (5 officers killed) and the Seattle Ambush (4 officers killed).
The Nice Truck Attack, in France, rivals both of the mass shootings above (86 dead, 458 wounded), as do the Madrid Train Bombings (193 dead, 2,000 wounded), and the 2015 Paris Attacks (131 dead, 413 wounded). As for officers killed, just this last October, a Paris police station came under attack, and four officers were killed, with a knife.
All of these are rivaled by 9/11, which resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and over 25,000 wounded (many of them first responders). This was accomplished by terrorists who hijacked airplanes armed only with box cutters.
Beyond the above high-profile attacks, those of us in the West rarely connect the circumstances of mass shootings in our countries with the continued violence and mass killings perpetrated continuously in developing countries. The reality is, mass killings are something we see throughout history, in every generation, and in every corner of the world.
As I recently tweeted, “The psychological conditions that lead to mass murder are uniquely HUMAN realities. History documents them in the earliest written records, they’ve existed in every century, and they presently exist in every country of the world. This is not uniquely American.”
And, if we can be frank for a moment, despite these heart-rending attacks, things are largely much better today than they have ever been throughout history. It was only a few centuries ago when government had a monopoly on violence and the tools to commit violence. Before human rights, including the right of self-defense and the right to bear arms, became enshrined ideas of liberal government, mass killings were not only shockingly prevalent but were often state policy.
Even in American history, where such rights were ostensibly valued, there has been mass murder and campaigns of violence perpetrated as a direct result of disarmament.
Massive Sale on beef. Freeze dried Ribeye, NY Strip, and Premium beef cubes. Promo code “jdr” at checkout for 15% off! WholeCows.com
Wounded Knee remains the largest mass shooting in American history with over 250 killed and 51 wounded, and began as an order to disarm the Lakota Indians camped there.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, southern states enacted Black Codes that effectively made carrying firearms illegal for African Americans. This enabled a literal reign of terror as the Ku Klux Klan killed and assaulted thousands of African Americans disallowed from owning the means to protect themselves. (Even today, the 2nd Amendment rights of African Americans are mostly non-existent, which likely plays a role in African Americans facing the most government-directed and criminal violence of any other segment of the American population)
Again, I can’t state it more clearly: this is typical government behavior for most of human history. Most wars and conquests concluded with pillaging, raping, and murder. Most regimes kept their populations in check with brutal and indiscriminate violence. For most of human history, the ownership of weapons was a unique privilege of the ruling classes.
As I mentioned earlier, this constitutes a government monopoly on violence. History is rife with examples of such a monopoly utilized to perpetrate crimes far more devastating than what we generally see today committed by individuals.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not one of those “this is the cost of liberty” types. I don’t throw up my hands and assert that “nothing can be done.” I am only pointing out that far too many people are looking at the issue of mass shootings from an extremely narrow understanding of history and of the crimes themselves.
If we want to craft ways to truly combat the occurrence of mass shootings, we have to recognize and understand certain realities. First, mass shootings are only a narrow subsection of the broader category of mass murder, and such crimes occur everywhere. Second, this isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon that only exists as a pernicious consequence of toxic gun culture. Third, the idea that re-establishing the government’s monopoly on violence and the control of weaponry will end mass murder is verifiably false, given the examples of history.
I am willing to concede that we can enact some modest measures to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and would-be criminals. But such measures should only be a very small part of a broader vision to ensure adequate security of likely targets, better proactive enforcement of existing laws, and swift responses to actual attacks.
The constant and consistent focus on legal gun ownership is the most significant thing standing in the way of real solutions capable of mitigating what is, unfortunately, a constant reality of the human condition.
This article is adapted from a segment of The Liberty Letter, a recurring newsletter written by Justin Stapley.
American Conservative Movement
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
[yikes-mailchimp form=”1″]
Covid variant BA.5 is spreading. It appears milder but much more contagious and evades natural immunity. Best to boost your immune system with new Z-Dtox and Z-Stack nutraceuticals from our dear friend, the late Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.