It’s (not) the guns, Stupid.
Introduction: Influential leftist congresswoman Cori Bush loudly proclaimed she wants to “defund” the police. And she is not alone – not by a longshot. Just a short time ago, law enforcement told everyone if we restrict enforcement of the law in any form, surges in crime will follow. Hell, I wrote a book about it. The curtailing of enforcement through criminal justice reform and attacks on the police led to rises in violent crime so dramatic that the media complex and politicians on the left could no longer ignore the reality. In fact, crime is polling above COVID and the economy as a concern among voters. So, I was encouraged when President Biden announced he was starting an initiative to combat skyrocketing violent crime … until he did.
Biden’s Crime Fighting
The Same Playbook: My book outlines how methods used to promote economic collectivist thought (expanded government, the welfare state, socialism) have a playbook that was used to promote criminal justice reform. This latest effort to address crime on the left utilized it once again:
The Myth & Media: There is a myth that is promoted in the apparatus of the media, entertainment industry, and intellectual class. Here, the recent explosion in crime has been attributed to lax gun laws, unscrupulous federal firearms dealers, and the “assault weapon.” And no politician has atoned for the dangerous rhetoric and ideas while the traditional media has no made effort to hold them accountable.
Propaganda: In the promotion of the myth, propaganda is used – by creating a word or giving a new meaning to an old word. Gun control advocates created the word “assault weapon,” a word that has a morphing definition, sometimes encompassing deer rifles, sometimes based on the appearance of the rifle. The closest actual definition is an “assault rifle,” a military term for a rifle which has a full auto selector switch – already illegal to purchase or possess.
CDC & Gun “Science”
Pseudoscience: Reform movements take concepts used in the actual sciences like chemistry and physics, and use them believing social scientists can control and explain an economy or a deviant criminal like a scientist controls an experiment in a lab. Here, the CDC declared firearm violence a public health issue and has programs to apply “science to identify effective solutions.” One of the main tenets of Biden’s crime program promises to invest in evidence-based community violence intervention.
The Reality: Laws exist, police enforce them, district attorneys prosecute the violators … TO PREVENT CRIME. When any of the foregoing are restricted, crime surges … Period. Gun laws are the same today as they were a decade prior. Crime is surging the most in locations with the strictest gun laws. Studies in England and the U.S. have shown laws restricting gun ownership have no detectable effect on criminals committing crimes with guns (Intellectuals and Society, enlarged edition, Thomas Sowell, p. 284). The overwhelming majority of firearm violence involves handguns. And criminals are not obtaining guns from crooked gun dealers. Ask any police officer and prosecutor about what is needed to protect their communities and they will not say they need “evidence-based community violence intervention.” In part, these people are following Rahm Emanuel’s edict of not letting a crisis go to waste. Most infuriating, this is a crisis of their making.
