It’s a frequent complaint of mine when dealing with neurotypicals. Some people believe they know something about which they cannot possible know and most often they get it wrong. Garen Wintemute, director of the violence-prevention research program at the University of California, Davis is no different. In an August 12 article in the Star-Telegram, Gun control back as national issue it is claimed:

In 2005 and 2006, Wintemute attended 28 gun shows in Texas (in Dallas and Houston), Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California — areas where he said guns are acquired and later used in crimes in California. Afterward, he urged lawmakers nationwide to put more restrictions on gun shows.

“I would like to see a policy change that makes direct private-party transfers of guns illegal,” Wintemute said. “And I’d like much more vigorous law enforcement presence at gun shows. I noticed the illegal stuff was conducted right out in the open.

“Bad guys had no concern they might be caught.”

What “illegal stuff” did he observe? Whenever I’ve confronted people about this sort of thing it turns out they confuse what they would like the law to be with what the law really is. They frequently claim they saw “criminals” buying guns–but they can’t explain how they knew they were criminals. As near as I can tell they imagined they were criminals. They thought they just knew from looking at someone. Apparently they believe they have some sort of extra sensory perception I guess.

Wintemute should be asked to explain how he knew who the “bad guys” were. Did they have “FELON” tattooed on their foreheads? Or maybe it was their skin color–were they “bad guys” because their skin was black? Or was it because it was white? Did they have their baseball cap on backward? Or were they wearing camo pants?

I suspect Wintemute is just another anti-gun bigot. I sent the following email a few minutes ago. I’ll let you know if he responds.

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 7:22 AM
To: ‘gjwintemute@ucdavis.edu’
Subject: A question about your study.

 

In the article Gun control back as a national issue you are quoted as saying “I noticed the illegal stuff was conducted right out in the open. Bad guys had no concern they might be caught.”

 

Could you tell me what sort of “illegal stuff” was conducted? And how did you identify people as being “bad guys”.

 

Thank you.