Yesterday in this space, I pointed out that Adam Lanza’s Bushmaster .223 is banned for deer hunting in many states on the grounds that it’s too weak. I thought the relevance of this fact was pretty clear: It wouldn’t make sense from an anti-crime standpoint to ban this gun without also banning guns that are more powerful, and thus more dangerous to humans — but you can’t ban more powerful guns without banning many deer rifles, something most in the anti-gun crowd swear they don’t want to do.
Slate’s Amanda Marcotte took my point to be . . . well, I’m not quite sure what she thought I was arguing, but whatever it was, this is the rejoinder she came up with:
Ah yes, the ammo is too weak. (Never mind that an adult deer weighs around 250 pounds and a child around 40.) Given the strength of Obama’s speech at last night’s memorial service, we can expect more of these airtight arguments from our nation’s finest gun loving commentators. As your brain reels, just keep in mind the Bushmaster motto: “If it’s good enough for the professional, it’s good enough for you.”
Make of that what you will, I guess.