How Parkland Shooting Made Me Into A Gun Rights Absolutist

As you know, a mass shooting occurred at a Parkland, Florida high school on February 14, 2018, in which 17 people were killed.

What followed was a protracted, well organized, and well funded assault on gun rights both at national and state level.

George and Amal Clooney, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, and Oprah Winfrey will donate to the March for Our Lives, a demonstration to advocate for gun control in the wake of Wednesday’s tragic shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. The Clooneys, Spielbergs, Katzenbergs, and Winfrey each vowed $500,000. The Clooneys and Katzenbergs will also participate in the march on Washington, D.C. http://variety.com/2018/biz/news/george-amal-clooney-donate-parkland-shooting-1202704831/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety said on Friday it will donate up to $2.5 million to support marches around the United States on March 24, the date of a planned March For Our Lives in Washington to demand an end to school shootings. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-marches/u-s-gun-control-group-pledges-2-5-million-for-marches-to-end-school-shootings-idUSKCN1GE2Y1

I can see the total amount of money easily reaching 10 million dollars in just a couple of months, and the money's impact is multiplied by skillful use of news media and social platforms.

And they are not afraid to lie as they employ exactly the same methods that Bush Administration used to advance the Iraq War and the same tactics for which they blame Russians leading to Trump's election - quickly advancing the distorted information through the friendly media and social channels.

The only difference that I can see - they are ten times more effective at generating the outrage.

No, There Has Not Been a Mass Shooting Every Day This Year. This inflated stat all over the media isn’t just misleading—it’s stirring undue fear. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/no-there-were-not-355-mass-shootings-this-year/

No, there haven’t been 18 school shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-there-havent-been-18-school-shooting-in-2018-that-number-is-flat-wrong/2018/02/15/65b6cf72-1264-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html?utm_term=.0f4902be8bca

And it's working. The fear of mass shootings, in particularly the school shootings, seems to be on a level with the fear of terrorist attacks after 9/11.

The reality is, these fears are completely unfounded. School shootings are extremely rare.

Since Columbine, approximately 200 public school students have been shot to death while school was in session, including the recent slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/school-shootings-are-extraordinarily-rare-why-is-fear-of-them-driving-policy/2018/03/08/f4ead9f2-2247-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.d85bcf6d7b89

This averages out to approximately 10 children per year. Just for comparison, your child is five times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a school shooter. Further more, he or she is 20 times more likely to be killed enroute to school by a drunk driver than at school by a mass murderer. Sports activities, pools, and almost every disease is more dangerous than guns at school.

So the mass hysteria over the school shootings is just that - mass hysteria engineered by a well-funded media effort and a successful public relations campaign. The children are NOT in danger.

Which brings me to my point. While there are guns, there will be gun fatalities.

No proposed legislation would have impacted mass shootings in the past, so it is unreasonable to expect that they will be dramatically reduced in the future.

There have been 16 multiple victim shootings in schools since 1996. Perhaps by increasing the age for purchasing "assault weapons" we can take it down to 14. But the moment the next one hits, there will be a demand for more. And more. And more.

This is not theoretical. This scenario has been played over and over in both our domestic history as well as internationally.

Take the "gun show loophole". In 1994 Brady Law created the system of background checks as we know it today. It was one of the seminal pieces of American gun legislation, after "Firearm Owners Protection Act" of 1986 (which "protected" firearms owners by banning assault rifles and other fully automatic firearms from civilian ownership), Gun Control Act of 1968 and National Firearms Act of 1934 - tens of thousands of pages of gun legislation that gun control people now call "grossly inadequate".

Brady Act contained an exemption from the background check rules whereby residents of the same state can buy and sell firearms without a background check. This exemption was protecting collectors, who exchange guns frequently, from spending a lot of money on the aforementioned background checks. It makes sense: members of firearms communities where this trading going on already have guns; one more transaction will not make them more dangerous. And in fact this exemption is not known to be abused today.

Back then, it was a compromise that allowed the bill to pass. It was accepted by the gun control crowd as a compromise. Now they call it a "loophole".

Or take Norway, as an international example. Norway had strong gun laws to begin with. In fact, every wet dream of our gun control crowd - licensing, training requirements, strong restrictions on ownership - all are par course in Norway today.

Unfortunately, a deranged madman murdered 77 people 2011. This was ONE mass shooting Norway had since the end of WWII. The ourcome? Guardian reports: "Norway set to ban semi-automatic guns from 2021, 10 years after Utoya shooting".

I know that there are some in the gun industry that counsel compromise. Some gun stores stopped selling firearms to people younger than 21. Some even expect to earn compromises back grom the gun control crowd in exchange for these measures.

This is foolishness. Gun control crowd is not going to give their inch of territory in exchange for your inchs. How do i know? Because they say it.

So - let's NOT give them inches. This is not the time to negotiate. This is the time to stand for your rights. Let's do this instead.