Fear Factory

If ifs and ans were pots and pans,
We'd have no use for tinkers. -- Old Irish proverb

What might have been, could have been, should have been
or would have been, if, if, if and if, wasn't. Deal with it.

   The National Rifle Association opened its argument against gun control with a fallacy basic to Logic 101: the appeal to fear.
   Whether a fear has merit and is rooted in reality doesn't matter to those who foist this fallacy onto their arguments. The goal is to promote fear as a way to persuade agreement.
   The sales pitch is that more guns in the hands of more people increases self defense and thereby reduces violence.
   But evidence from around the world puts the lie to that claim.
   Fact: More guns means more violence.
   Solution: Fewer guns.

   Wayne LaPierre, chief of the NRA, referred to the Second Amendment guarantee of "an individual's right" to keep and bear arms,
   Read the Constitution again: The entire sentence of the Second Amendment is rooted in the plural, "people," and begins with the premise of "A well organized militia, being essential to the security of a free state ..."
   A militia is, by definition, plural membership. What state militia was the school shooter in Florida last week a member of? Or the other school shooters, or those with assault weapons who mowed down people in public places in recent years?
   
   "Guns don't work in preventing these types of crimes," said Jay Fant, an elected state representative in Florida. And the president of the United States supports arming teachers as a way to strike at disturbed individuals who invade schools with AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles.
   Pistols against assault rifles?
   That would only result in more bullets flying around more crowded rooms and hallways, resulting in more people dead and injured.
   As for the NRA and their political lackeys who insist that more guns is the answer to everything, the students' response is this:
   B.S.