Arizona congressman (and ex-vice president's son) Ben Quayle explains to the Daily Caller why gun laws are futile: because evil happens, no matter what you do about it.
"No, look, I mean, the problem is you can't regulate evil. Evil happens. This individual, the guy who was in Aurora, Colorado, he is an evil person and was going to find a way to inflict as much damage as possible... those that want to actually have evil actions, they’re going to find a way to do that regardless of what restrictions Congress or the state puts on them,” Quayle told TheDC on Capitol Hill Tuesday.So I guess we should just disband the military and welcome Al Qaeda to our shores, saying, "We can't stop you, so you may as well just do what you intend to do, because we know you'll find a way."
"See, that's the problem with thinking that you can regulate people's minds and people's actual actions. You can't do it. When somebody wants to do something as atrocious as that person did in Colorado, they're going to find one way to do it...."
We may as well disband the FBI and all state and local police forces. We should remove the locks from our homes and just welcome criminals in, because when somebody wants to do something atrocious like take all your possessions, and maybe sexually assault and/or kill you and every member of your family, they're going to find one way to do it.
We may as well stop trying to prevent perverts from raping children, and we may as well just make it legal to sell heroin in playgrounds -- evil people are going to find a way to inflict as much damage as possible.
We may as well just make it legal for hackers to steal our credit card numbers and other identifying information so they can bleed our bank accounts dry -- those that want to, they're going to find a way.
Really, there's nothing we can do to stop any evil act of any kind -- slavery, torture, human sacrifice, it doesn't matter, because you can't regulate people's minds and people's actual actions.
So there you have it. Ben Quayle speaks the truth. Humanity has been futilely legislating against evil acts for millennia, and not a single one has ever been prevented. So we should give up already and just accepted the world as it actually is.
****
And I probably shouldn't single Ben Quayle out, because gun absolutists say You can't regulate evil and You can't regulate human behavior and People will find a way to do what they want all the time, and their co-religionists always nod vigorously in agreement, convinced that they've trumped every pro-gun-control argument ever. So why not apply the same logic to every other antisocial or sociopathic behavior in life?
This seems to be the go-to argument...
ReplyDeleteThere's no reason to (further) regulate any aspect of guns, ammunition, protective gear, etc... because he could've used bombs... or run people over with his car... or hit them with rocks... If you can't stop people from killing others in EVERY way, there's no reason to bother trying to slow the murder rate in ANY way. As long as killers have access to rocks and stones, why do we bother regulating the sale and ownership of rocket launchers or bomb-making materials? It's futile... Might as werll just give up and admit they've won... (And folks call ME a nihilist...)
It has to be one of the stupidest arguments I've seen, but damn, is it rampant...
Another dopey argument from the dopie kid of a dopie father who should never have been within electric shock distance of a microphone.
ReplyDeleteBrains run in the family. Or as the old saying goes,
ReplyDeleteYou say tomato
And I say potatoe
Yours very crankily,
The New York Crank
Well, we're ALL going to die, so why do anything at all?
ReplyDeleteDeath is going to happen - you can't stop it. So let's just sit and wait for it.
Have Republicans instituted a "Mid-double-digit IQ Requirement" to hold elective office?
Let' try this with 'Son of Simpleton:
'You're SOOOO right, Ben. There's no point in laws, or making them. Congress makes the laws, which you know is not just an exercise in futility, but completely pointless. So, why don't retire from Congress and go and do something useful?'
This will never happen of course, because, like his long lost brother, Rand Paul, where else but the halls of Congress can a man with the intellectual heft of a feather, and the morals of a scorpion, find a national audience?
Ok, shooting-up a movie theater, but how else?
With far too high a percentage of the populace/electorate, guns are a fetish object; they have a semi-sacred aura for these people. The details are a matter for psychohistorians, I imagine, although I think sexual anxiety, racial fears, a singularly ill-informed and atavistic nationalism (I eschew the term "patriotism"), and even economic angst are mixed up down in its roots. Whatever may be the case as to the cause(s) for it, though, American gun ownership is clearly a subject that is simply not susceptible to rational discussion among wide swathes of people - many of them, unfortunately, politically active and willing to part with money when charlatans like LaPierre push their buttons.
ReplyDeleteMy analogy has always been: Just because people are going to run red lights doesn't mean we shouldn't have them at intersections.
ReplyDelete