Once again, there has been a mass shooting in the United States
and the usual script is in play. America’s ‘gun culture’ is to blame!
Before the blood was dry gun control advocates had trotted out their standard
list of remedial measures, none of which would have prevented what had just
taken place.
Since
the Las Vegas massacre we have been regaled about evil guns by
factually ignorant buffoons like Bill Maher, Colin Jost, Michael Che, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and John Oliver – the
last two not even Americans. Anyone who disagrees is just wrong and callous
about the loss of innocent life. We now import foreigners to insult us and our
institutions and pay them outrageous salaries to do it.
Las
Vegas was a bit different from previous mass shooting in at least two
glaring respects. First, the inability of law enforcement to discover a motive
remains the biggest mystery. Admittedly, these same authorities in the US – and
even worse in Europe – typically find themselves scratching their collective
head in puzzlement after a murderer shouting “Allahu Akbar” kills a bunch of
people. (What did he mean by
that? Maybe that’s Arabic for “Merry Christmas”! We’re still trying to figure
out why he did it, but we’re sure it had nothing to do with Islam. And anyone
who says it did is a racist.) At this point, the actions of the
person identified as the Las Vegas killer (whose name will not be mentioned
here to deny whatever immortality he may have sought) are attributed to mental
instability. That’s not good enough. Subjectively, even maniacs think they are doing
something. Even a total lunatic who believes he is, say, fighting Martians or
chopping potatoes, intends that
outcome. But here, supposedly, someone stockpiles weapons for months,
meticulously plans a murderous onslaught – and maybe had contingencies for
attacks elsewhere – and there’s not a hint of what he thought he was up to.
That’s simply not plausible. (Repeated claims by Daesh that the Las Vegas
killer was one of their “soldiers” have not yet been substantiated but
authorities were lightning-quick to dismiss the possibility. Meanwhile, despite
a total lack of evidence, multiple “RussiaGate” investigations of the Trump
Administration roll on and on. Let’s
not be hasty, some connection to the Kremlin might eventually turn up . .
. )
Second,
there’s the money. The individual in question, as confirmed by his girlfriend
as well as by his brother and other family members, was quite rich. Supposedly
his initial wealth was made via savvy real estate deals (possible) but later
was sustained by being really, really good at video poker at Las Vegas casinos,
where he was a welcome regular “comped” by the House with food, drinks, hotel
rooms, and other goodies. That’s not just implausible, it’s virtually
impossible. As Ann Coulter points out,
the fact that he was “was treated like royalty by the casinos . . . means he
was losing... Anyone who plays video poker over an extended period of time will
absolutely, 100 percent, by basic logic, end up a net loser.” If anyone
would know this, it’s police in Los Vegas, where casino operators are pillars
of the community and gambling is the major industry. It’s clear to anyone with
half a brain that the killer was laundering money – from somewhere yet to be
disclosed. In our age of digital financial surveillance, casinos
are among the last places someone can anonymously churn large amounts of
unsourced cash, no questions asked. Maybe the police and FBI haven’t figured
out where the money was coming from, or maybe they have and are protecting
someone.
In any case,
the inability to get a straight answer to the questions, or even to ascertain
simple facts like whether a hotel security guard was shot before or after the mass
killing began, or when the first call was made to police, feeds
public distrust and speculation as to what the hell is really is going on. That
is turn prompts establishment gatekeepers
like Snopes to denounce as “conspiracy theorists” (mainly
of the “far right” variety, because the existence of a far left is itself a
conspiracy theory) folks trying to make sense of the nonsense we’re being
force-fed.
At least Las
Vegas has shined a light on one deception that has long been standard in the
American media: the notion – no doubt believed by many outside the US – that
Americans routinely run around with machine guns shooting each other. This
impression is fed by false claims of gun-control advocates that “assault rifles” –
semiautomatic guns (where one trigger-pull equals one round fired) – are “weapons of war.” What
makes them not like contemporary weapons of war is
that they are not fully automatic (hold the trigger down for multiple, rapid
rounds), which is why gun control advocates abuse the trick designation
“military style”
– they look scarier than semiautomatic hunting rifles because of cosmetic
features like pistol grips and folding stocks. Fully automatic weapons (i.e.,
machine guns) have been virtually impossible acquire legally in the US for
decades. The evident use in Las Vegas of a so-called “bump stock” to allow a
semiautomatic to fire in a manner similar to a machine gun has forced even our
fake news outlets to note the distinction. It’s a rare breakout of actual
facts.
Ironically,
when the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects Americans’
fundamental right to keep and bear arms, was adopted, ordinary civilian guns
really were equal
to weapons of war. In fact, they were sometimes better. Think of how the
standard British “Brown Bess” smoothbore was outclassed by the far more
accurate Pennsylvania Rifle –
perfect for picking off Redcoat officers at long range.
Advocates in
gun control in America are always saying they just want “common-sense gun control”
laws, like “closing the gun show loophole,” having stricter background checks,
limiting the size of magazines, restricting the number of weapons or amount of
ammunition someone can buy, and other seemingly innocuous measures. Each is a
fraud. For example, closing the so-called gun show loophole would be basically
a ban on private transfers from one citizen to another – such as a man selling,
or giving, a pistol or rifle to his cousin – without all the reporting and
red tape federally licensed arms dealers must deal with. This is despite the
fact that none the notable killings that
supposedly justify more controls was carried out with a weapon from such a sale
or would have been prevented if the demanded reform had been in place.
Meanwhile,
the real American slaughter continues in cities where gun laws are as strict as
those in any country in Europe, and it is virtually impossible for an honest
citizen to acquire and carry a legal weapon. For example, last month Chicago reached its 500th homicide
so far this year, and by New Year’s Day 2018 is on track to
rack up a total exceeding ten
times that of the Las Vegas massacre. What’s the solution?
Evidently to infringe on the constitutional rights of honest, peaceful,
law-abiding citizens who are armed and increasingly distrustful of what they
are being told by their supposed betters.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/10/13/less-we-believe-them-about-las-vegas-more-they-want-our-guns.html