Quote of the day—Tom Diaz

We are singular in the world culture in our tolerance of guns.

The United States has become a kind of underdeveloped moral Third World, a place where the rest of the world can indulge its gun lust.

Tom Diaz
Senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center.
May 23, 1999
Florida — Gun Culture Makes The U.S. A Trigger Point For Foreign Tourists With Firearms Fantasies
[This is from the dark days of the late 1990s. There are still troglodytes who think this way and want us to return to the age of clubs, rocks, and primitive knives even though most of the rest of the country is far more enlightened these days. Just don’t forget this is what they think of us and what they will do to our culture if they get the chance.—Joe]

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14 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Tom Diaz

  1. Naturally you’re misrepresenting what Diaz says and wants.

    Rather than returning to the dark ages, what we’d like is to move into the 21st century. We don’t want the lawlessness that you keep preaching, and I think you’ve very mistaken to say that most do. Most gun owners even, want common sense gun laws. You know this. Yet you keep pretending it’s not true.

    Only extremist fanatics want what you preach, Joe. You are a tiny minority which is why your little victories in the gun-rights movement are so hard-won. If it was like you say, you’d be “winning” in a much more obvious way, don’t you think?

  2. No, Joe is correctly representing Diaz’s words. Gun owners have no more of a “lust” for guns than anti-gun people have a “lust” for hatred and lying.

    “Most gun owners even, want common sense gun laws. You know this. Yet you keep pretending it’s not true.”

    Where? Joe and the others are the only ones advocating true common sense here.

    Common Sense dictates that misuse must NEVER be considered before proper use. A truly sensible law to prevent criminals acquiring and misusing firearms will never in any way, impede or prohibit an honest gun owner from purchasing, transferring, owning or using the exact same firearm or accessory.

    You are the person against common sense laws, describing bans and restrictions on honest gun owners as common sense is a lie. What you want is more truthfully and honestly described as irresponsible.

  3. @mikeb302000, Diaz wants to return to a time before firearms existed. A time when the young, strong, and brutish ruled. The gun is civilization.

    I have no idea what “lawlessness” you are talking about but I do know about minorities and majorities. And I know that you apparently are unable to determine truth from falsity, freely admit it and say you don’t care. Hence no claim of yours can ever be taken seriously. But I will attempt a slight education on numbers even if I know you either cannot or will not grasp it.

    The Brady Campaign by the most optimistic of measures has about 50,000 members or, on the average, 1000 members per state. The NRA has nearly 4 million members or, on the average, nearly 80,000 members per state. An 80:1 ratio is considered “a majority”. If the U.S. were divided into two voting blocks with this ratio the good guys would win elections with numbers like 98.7% to 1.3%. We don’t have that type of winning record but we don’t need to either. We are smarter than you, we have more money than you, history is on our side, the facts are on our side, the population as a whole is on our side and the constitution is on our side. People like you are destined for the dustbin of history just like the KKK and it is happening in my lifetime.

  4. If it was like you say, you’d be “winning” in a much more obvious way, don’t you think?

    AWB? Gone, never to be seen again.

    Concealed carry? In the past 26 years, we went from nine shall-issue/unrestricted states to 40.

    Open carry? Damned near the same story.

    Restaurant carry? Almost universally acceptable.

    Constitutional carry? Soon to be four states.

    Normal-capacity magazine bans? Cannot even get traction amongst the notoriously anti-rights Democrats.

    DC vs. Heller? Yeah, we won that, and you can take your handgun bans and shove them.

    McDonald vs. Chicago? Yeah, we won that too, and you can still take your firearm bans and shove them.

    Public acceptance? While it was airing, “Sons of Guns” was the number one cable television show.

    Membership? More people attended the NRA Annual Meetings than there are “members” of the Brady Bunch.

    As they say around these parts, you just ain’t too bright, now are ya?

  5. @Linoge, He is incapable of and/or unwilling to determine truth from falsity. You (well, we) are talking about colors to someone that has been blind since birth.

  6. D’aww, the anti-rights wackos are so cute when they try to deny reality. It’s like that two faced cat that was born awhile ago, so grotesque you can’t help but pity them.

  7. Joe, You know very well what “lawlessness” I’m referring to. You keep talking about my inability to tell truth from falsity, but then you claim to not know what I mean? That’s worse. That’s a deliberate falsity. Even if you’re right about my “inability,” which I don’t think you are, you’re much worse for allowing yourself such leewayw with the truth.

    The laws you oppose, namely, background checks on personal sales, licensing of gun owners and registration of guns, to name the main ones, would take us out of a state of lawlessness, as far as gun control is concerned. But you know that’s what I mean by “lawlessness,” you just wanted to make me repeat it in that tedious way of yours. That’s petty and mendacious and a pathetic arguing style. The only question I have is did you learn that from Linoge or vice versa.

    You say you know about minorities and majorities, and then talk about the membership numbers of the NRA vs. The Bradys. That’s a laugh.

    I say again, your claim that “most of the rest of the country is far more enlightened these days” is just wishful thinking on your part, although it could be another deliberate lie. Maybe “most” of the people you surround yourself with like the fewest possible gun laws, but you need only open your eyes and look beyond your inner circle of zealots to see the big picture.

  8. The more that idiot babbles, the more pathetic he sounds, and he isn’t even smart enough to realize it. And he is a good example of hoplophobes; no wonder we’re winning.

  9. Oh, I know, Joe, and I have absolutely no hope (or even desire) of even so much as trying to crack that wall of willful, malicious ignorance that Mike surround himself with.

    But, as always, it is important to show everyone else just how unhinged he and his hateful buddies are, and how detached from reality he truly is. In this case, it was not hard, and it was fun to document what we have accomplished in just my lifetime :).

  10. mikeb writes: “The laws you oppose, namely, background checks on personal sales, licensing of gun owners and registration of guns, to name the main ones, would take us out of a state of lawlessness, as far as gun control is concerned.

    Since we’ve seen in Canada that the registration of all guns was an abject failure, we have concrete evidence that mikeb is full of crap. Moreover, since it is rather obvious that mikeb knows that registration is a failure at curbing the “lawlessness” he claims, the real puzzle is why he thinks his fraudulent claims have any credibility.

    Basically, mikeb can really only have as his goal the creation of a state whose main purpose is the convenience of the police. Which is the definition of a police state. Note that police states are far from crime free. They are just very comfortable for the police.

  11. It’s obvious that “Opposing laws” != “lawlessness”. Nancy Pelosi is -very- highly paid to oppose the laws proposed by her political opponents, she gets national news headlines for her action in this regard, but here we have our token control nut saying that opposing laws is lawlessness. It’s the ultimate argument for freedom of speech (and in this case Joe, thank you for paying for his medium). No one could make a finer mockery of MikeB’s arguments then he does himself.

    Working to change the law, to return us to the freedom that once helped make us -truly- “singular in the world culture” is a badge of honor. -Boyd Kneeland

  12. We are singular in the world culture in our tolerance of freedom.

    There. Fixed that for you.

  13. Oh, I wish I lived in California, which has a Brady Score of 80 because it does much of what MikeB really wants in terms of gun control! These laws keep California’s murder rate down to a measly 5.3 per 100,000.

    Instead, I’m stuck in Utah, with a Brady Score of 0–Zero!–and a whopping murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000. Oh, the pain! Oh, the humanity!

    Just think how much safer Utah would be, if Utah would just adopt stricter gun laws!

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