Quote of the day—Michael Beard

The pro-gun lobby is predictably using the recent school shootings as an opportunity to ask, “What if the teachers and students had been armed?” That is the wrong question.

The right question is, “What if the perpetrator had NOT been able to obtain those firearms? How many lives would have been saved?” Instead of asking what the U.S. would be like with more guns, shouldn’t we be asking what our country would be like with fewer guns? Guns do not solve problems, they create problems. A handgun is designed for the sole purpose of taking human life.

Michael Beard
April 21, 2008
The Wrong Question
[In answer to the question “What our country would be like with fewer guns?” The answer is that those with evil intent and willingness to break the law will always be able to acquire a firearm. And it will never be more difficult that it is to acquire illegal recreational drugs. Which, in case Mr. Beard doesn’t have the social awareness or intelligence to answer for himself, is so easy that any, and most, high school dropouts can acquire within a few minutes any hour of any day in any city in the country. And therefore if people with evil intent can easy get a gun then those not willing to break the law will be the ones without the skills and the tools to defend themselves from evil.

Gun do solve problems. I like R. A. Lafferty’s response to people who come with things like Beard’s asinine assertion.—Joe]

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13 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Michael Beard

  1. ::points:: This man is an idiot! Whether he accepts it or not, the fact is, his desideratum is the state of affairs as it exists. There are laws — unconstitutional laws — in force which forbid certain individuals from obtaining guns. And they work about as well as a sane person of moderate intelligence might expect. I.E., not well.

    M

  2. It would look like the tragedy of a student running through the school with two kitchen knifes and no one there to stop him.

  3. My typical response to a claim like Guns do not solve problems, they create problems is to state “I am behind you 100%. Please give me the name of your political movement of choice which is dedicated to disarming all police, and I will gladly donate to its efforts.”

    • Careful what you wish for; nothing is too insane for the Left. There may not yet be organizations in America dedicated to disarming police, but there are certainly those who dream of completely removing guns from society (you first, and your overlords last, of course).

    • Some on the left DO want to bad guns from the police departments and military, claiming that disarming everyone else is just the first step. They think this because they are so stupid they don’t realize that the moment the public is largely disarmed, the guns of the police and military will be turned on the civilians. These people are rightfully called useful idiots.

  4. If guns don’t cause problems, they can’t solve them either.

    Since when has the gun community taken this stance that guns can do magical things with no people involved?

    • Certainly guns can solve problems (though they are not a panacea, just as nothing else is, either). That is why cops and the military carry them, and why many others carry them (so they do not have to call someone to bring on to the scene). Guns cause shooting accidents like swimming pools cause accidental drownings – they are the coincidental tools of stupid or inexperienced people doing stupid or ignorant things, resulting in tragedy. Criminals have cause problems without firearms since Og bashed Grnt and took his antelope (or since Cain slew Able for the Biblical-minded), and banning firearms will not change this fact.

    • Ubu52,

      It is the brain-dead liberals who focus on the object or implement and think they can solve the human-action problem by restricting the inanimate object. The firearm does not on its own cause a problem.

      Pro-gun people realize that it is the evil person that uses the weapon (any weapon, pick one) that is the problem. However, the utility of firearms in stopping evil people is what we argue.

      Weapons have no moral component. It is only how they are used that determines if the action was for good or for evil.

      Let’s talk about nuclear weapons to drive the point home. Two of them ended WWII and saved countless lives by convincing the recalcitrant Japanese that further resistance was futile. They killed a lot of people, but their use was moral and just by ending the war without an invasion. Thereafter, they kept the USSR from attacking in Europe since they threat of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) was believable. They saved untold lives and preserved freedom for many. A gigantic net good even though they are horrible weapons.

      So, weapons do not innately cause problems and they are often used to solve problems. You statement is falsified.

      • Joe’s statement: “Gun do solve problems.”

        A gun (or a fire extinguisher) cannot work without a person operating the object. Guns may be useful in solving problems, but they can’t solve problems all on their own.

        Since there seems to be some sort of mental block whenever anyone uses the word “guns,” imagine the same sentence with other objects: “Shoes solve problems” or “screwdrivers solve problems.”

        This is pretty much basic English. You are reading too much into it.

    • If fire extinguishers don’t cause fires, they can’t put them out either.

      Oh, wait: let’s try that again. “Even though fire extinguishers don’t cause fires, they can be used to put them out.”

      So: “Even though guns don’t cause problems, they can be used to solve (some of) them.” FIFY

    • I guess if Hammers don’t cause problems they can’t solve problems, either, and if Money doesn’t cause problems it can’t solve problems, either. And if words don’t cause problems they can’t solve problems, either.
      It isn’t the tool, it is the depraved heart that wields it.

  5. But no one wants to take your guns.

    Note how easilly he equates “guns in the wrong hands” with “our country needs fewer guns”.

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