Anti-gun bigotry

Dan Savage says that a Spokane shopping mall doesn't have the right to express sympathy for the victims of the Northern Illinois shooting, because they are part of the gun culture. It's less asinine than Jerry Fallwell blaming 9/11 on American gays, but only slightly less. The anti-gun bigotry that runs rampant in places like Seattle and Chicago prevents people like Dan Savage from ever addressing the fact that Chicago and DC and most of the American cities where the gun culture is not tolerated have more murders, not less than places with legal concealed carry (like Seattle). I called him on that in the comments.

The other thing that's offensive about that post is the way it's a perfect mirror image reflection of this letter that Schmader responded to. Savage's post, and this retarded letter-writer's anti-city screed both come from the premise that we can blame all our problems on the immoral culture of those other people.

The letter-writer calls for a ban on naked statues and blames all of us drug-using sodomite Satan-worshipers in the city for complicity in child rape. Savage calls for every one in the gun culture to take a share of the blame for the murders committed by this nutjob.

Sorry Dan, most of us in the gun culture weren't raised Catholic. We don't go through life looking for shares of unearned guilt to flog ourselves for.

And you're more a part of the gun culture than I am. You went to a pistol range--in Texas of all places--much more recently than the last time I fired a weapon which was 97. You wrote a book about it. I know with your Catholic moral masochism you can't wait to say "yes I am partly to blame as part of the gun culture. Somebody assign me some penance and make it hurt! Check out my new hairshirt! It's extra abrasive!" That same kind of bullshit runs rampant in my own lapsed Catholic family. I won't be a bit surprised if that's in the comments somewhere if I go back to that post in a day or two.

Your book also said something about tolerating other people's preferred sins, but I guess that doesn't apply when there's evidence-free claims connecting other lifestyles to some sort of crime or social ill, or when those other people are on the wrong side of the mountains.

For intelligent and informed commentary on the shooting, coming from a "real city", Second City Cop responds to the anti-gun nuts and provides a bunch of the back story on the case, and more worthwhile comments , here, and here

Update: Oh man! Second City Cop has nailed this issue again.