No getting around it, a lot of bad news in today’s Morning Jolt — new explosions in Tripoli, Lebanon, today — but there’s at least one section that isn’t so grim:
‘If Gun Control Worked, Chicago Would Be Mayberry Right Now.’
My friend Cam Edwards spoke at the Independence Institute’s Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms event last weekend. His speech is supposedly going to air on C-SPAN sometime in the near future, but can be seen on YouTube here.
Two of the many good sections:
If gun control worked, Chicago would be Mayberry right now! And Weld County and El Paso County would be Thunderdome! You guys wouldn’t have [Weld County] Sheriff [John] Cooke, you would have Tina Turner and Mel Gibson running around! It would be horrible! But that’s not real life! Real life is gun control not working in Chicago. Real life is gun control failing in Camden, New Jersey, and Oakland, California, and a lot of other communities in this country . . .
We are pushing back with the lawsuits, with the phone calls to our legislators, by electing officials and supporting elected officials who listen to us. But we’re also pushing back by being grownups, and by being okay at it. By having hundreds of people show up at a range and fire thousands of shotgun shells . . . and everybody’s okay! And now we’re enjoying cigars and drinks and we’ll all get home safely tonight, right?
Because we can control our lives! We can manage our lives! It’s not too difficult. We’re not perfect. We may eat a little too much dessert every now and then. We may not be able to beat that one bad habit, like smoking cigarettes, whatever. But we’re a heck of a lot more capable than our government gives us credit for, aren’t we?