Rahm Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff and current Chicago mayor once said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” What’s another way of saying this? As stated in last week’s column, it’s political capital.
On its own, political capital is not good or bad. Like most things – e.g. a hammer can build a house or bash a skull — it’s what you do with it that matters. Emanuel is no different than any other Democrat so we know he meant pushing more tyranny. Unfortunately, political capital is often spent on really stupid and harmful things (emphasis mine).
[New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] said her goal was to eliminate from New Zealand the weapons that the killer used in Christchurch. She emphasized that it would require a buyback of banned weapons in circulation now, plus regulation around firearms and ammunition.“The guns used in these terrorist attacks had important distinguishing features,” she said at a news conference at Parliament in Wellington, the capital. “First, big capacity, and also their delivery. They had the power to shoot continuously, but they also had large capacity magazines.”
“Today, I’m announcing New Zealand will ban all military-style semiautomatic weapons,” Ms. Ardern said in outlining the changes. “We will also ban all assault rifles. We will ban all high-capacity magazines. We will ban all parts with the ability to convert semiautomatic or any other type of firearm into a military-style semiautomatic weapon.”
“We will ban parts that cause a firearm to generate semiautomatic, automatic or close-to-automatic gunfire,” she added. “In short, every semiautomatic weapon used in the terror attack on Friday will be banned in this country.”
So many questions…
What does “military style” and “assault rifle” mean? Are they simply guns that look scary? If so, how do you quantify or codify scary guns into law? By the way, if our family, friends, or countrymen were being physically threatened, wouldn’t we all want weapons designed to assault their attackers? This topic is too subjective to make into law since “furniture” as it’s often called — flashlights, lasers, scopes, bipods, thumb rests, etc. — makes these cowards wet their pants while simultaneously producing drool in most gun-loving Americans.
How do you define “high capacity”? A 30-round magazine is standard on chambers like .223/556MM and 300 AAC Blackout but magazines and drums for these and other calibers come in a variety of capacities from five to over 100. Again, subjectivity in this instance means what one calls high others call “a good start.” In Colorado, where magazines are limited to 15 rounds, most gun merchants and gun owners ignore the law. Naturally, our friends at Al Jazeera were on “waste not” opportunity mode, along with the help of a clearly confused firearm advocacy group representative:
In stark contrast to the United States, where even the most minor curbs on gun ownership meet ferocious opposition led by the National Rifle Association, New Zealand gun owners agree action is needed.
“We want to support our government in any changes to prevent a terrorist attack from happening in New Zealand again,” said Nicole McKee, secretary of the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners.
Opportunities! Opportunities for all! Let’s all gather ‘round the smoldering embers of catastrophe and base large, enduring political decisions when we’re most emotional!
What could go wrong?
