Now that the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has declared “gun violence” a public health crisis, life has immediately improved. The heavens have opened, the angels are singing, and darned if a cute little cherub didn’t come flying down to anoint us all — at least in this part of Texas — with glitter and unicorns.
No more violence? Awesome! Or wait…does it not work that way?
There’s a deeply held belief among ignorant politicians—and yes, the surgeon general is nothing but a politician—that broad proclamations make everything better. It’s not just violence, it’s gun violence, and of course it can be curbed by implementing the right laws. You know, those things that are adhered to only by law-abiding people. Shockingly, criminals tend to behave criminally.
In the SG’s 32-page advisory, Murthy lays out what he apparently believes is The Answer to the Gun Violence Problem. Unsurprisingly, it echoes all of the Biden administration’s anti-gun objectives includes banning so-called assault weapons, getting red flag laws going nationwide, enacting universal background checks, and putting safe storage mandates in place.
Oh, you’ll also be pleased to know Murphy considers COVID as a contributing factor to “gun violence.” You can read the product of his ponderings here.
So why are we even bothering to mention this grandstanding stunt? Does it really matter? It’s worth talking about because it speaks to the real problem here. And no, that problem isn’t “gun violence,” it’s about guns in general and violence as its own separate issue (because that’s what it is—separate).
During an interview with administration stenographers at CBS News, Murthy made it clear he feels guns in general are the problem:
People are scared in many communities I visit around the country to do normal things like go to school or the grocery store or work and they’re worried about the risk to their life.
Sure…because people in those communities have much to fear from legally owned firearms. This apparently has nothing to do with criminality.
People in other countries with restrictive gun laws have consistently proven that when they want to do violence, they can. Knives, machetes, bombs, acid attacks…there’s no end to the ways people will gleefully harm to their fellow humans. The reality is that violence isn’t about the tools used to do damage, it’s about the mindset of the person who wields them. Guns don’t cause violence anymore than forks cause obesity.
Murphy is just one in a long line of politicians paying obedient lip service to his party’s anti-gun faction. He might or might not truly believe any of his suggestions will reduce violence. I have to say here that I hope he doesn’t, because if he thinks imposing gun control stops criminals and lunatics, he’s even more ignorant than he seems.
If you’re lucky, you’re one of the people who was able to learn about the criminal mind from the late Dr. William Aprill. His lectures were fantastic and his detailed social media posts on criminal behavior were fascinating.
Aprill made a point of the fact that criminals aren’t like the rest of us. They don’t have the same thought processes, and the delta is often extreme. We’re not talking about the difference between liking or not liking chocolate, we’re talking about deciding you’ve been disrespected due to the look on someone’s face…and thinking the solution is maiming or killing the other person. We’re talking the guy who sees a pair of shoes or a watch he wants and doesn’t just try to steal it, but takes it with extreme, violent prejudice. And he has no regrets.
Violent criminals aren’t like the rest of us, and it’s long past time for politicians to figure that out. It’s like none of them took any form of psychology or sociology in college, or maybe they slept through lectures about abnormal behavior. More likely they willfully ignored it and believe that if only Johnny had been coddled a little more as a child, he wouldn’t be out there butchering neighborhood pets…and, one day, graduating to humans. We can save the violent criminals, they reason, if only we try to understand them. If only we show some compassion.
No. Full stop.
Violence and firearms have nothing to do with one another. A gun is an inanimate tool that’s no more capable of committing violence than a flower is of turning into a unicorn. Violence is something carried out by men or women with evil in their hearts. I’m not talking about self-defense and unavoidable circumstances here, I’m talking about violence simply for the sake of it.
Why this should concern you as a gun owner is because doing things like declaring gun violence a “public health crisis” gives anti-gun politicians yet another platform for pushing gun control. ‘Look,’ they say, ‘he’s the surgeon general and clearly educated and brilliant. Are you rejecting the science?’
It’s an election year and you can’t deny it’s been mostly clown shoes from the start. Both sides of the aisle are ridiculous, and there’s so much corruption and deception it’s almost impossible to tell which side is up.
It’s not surprising that the surgeon general timed his proclamation this way. Now the anti-gun side has yet another high-ranking official backing them up in their never-ending push to restrict gun rights and limit gun ownership. The pro-gun side now has another heavy to point at and in case you missed it, they really are coming for your guns.
We’re likely to see an increase in proposed gun control legislation as 2024 rolls along. It gives the anti-gunners a campaign issue in a year they don’t have much to run on.
That isn’t really news, but here’s the thing. If you want to bitch about gun rights and the Second Amendment, you should probably be voting. Don’t give me that line about how it doesn’t matter because the corruption is so deep, votes won’t be correctly counted no matter what. Remember, change starts at the local level, meaning it’s your local and state elections you really need to hit hard.
Sure, national elections matter too, but for heaven’s sake start paying more attention to your local races. If your sheriff is voted into office, you might want to do your part to ensure the guy who gets in is one who will do his best to oppose unconstitutional gun laws rather than one who’s hell-bent on disarming citizens.
I know, this isn’t as fun a topic to debate or argue over, but it’s important. It also relates to the issue of not being a Fudd. Just because you don’t like AR-15s or bump stocks or pistol braces doesn’t mean it’s smart to let them be restricted or banned. These things gain momentum, and while you’re feeling smug because your revolver is currently safe from anti-gun legislation, there’s a politician out there working to get rid of that, too. After all, they can’t take away your guns all in one fell swoop. It takes time. These things must be done in stages.
The Surgeon General is notoriously anti-gun. Trump got rid of him back in 2017, then Biden brought him back in 2021, so this whole debacle isn’t a shock. But it’s being used as an excuse by many of the usual suspects. Consider this one of likely many reminders to bite the bullet and vote this fall whether or not you believe it’ll count. It’s the least you can do.