08:58 – Predictably, the anti-gun folks are out in force over the Aurora shooting. They never seem to notice the irrationality of their exhortations for greater restrictions on guns. There is simply no way to make firearms unavailable. With minimal effort, anyone can find someone who’ll sell him a gun. With at least hundreds of millions of firearms in this country, many of them unregistered, there’s simply no way to cut off the supply, short of instituting a true police state that none of us, presumably including the anti-gun folks, would want to live in. Ultimately, like any law, gun laws are obeyed only by the law-abiding. Someone who decides to go out and slaughter a bunch of people in a theater won’t be concerned that he’s violating gun laws by doing so.
If this were a rational society, we’d focus on implementing solutions that would prevent or minimize the effects of such outrages. And there is one such solution that’s known to work: encourage private citizens to carry concealed weapons. Eliminate any permit requirements or other restrictions. Someone who wants to carry a pistol should be free to do so. Anywhere, any time. Predators like the Aurora shooter depend on having unarmed and defenseless victims. That bastard might have reconsidered his plans if he knew it was likely that even half a dozen of his prospective victims might be armed and willing and able to fight back. But instead we have 70-some people shot and a dozen dead, none of whom apparently were armed.
Sure, the idea of a shootout in a crowded theater is horrifying. It’s quite possible that some of the armed defenders might have been shot, and that innocent bystanders might have been caught in the cross fire. But the point is that the body count would almost certainly have been much lower. And the real point is that that bastard would probably have never done what he did if he was aware that he wouldn’t have a collection of sitting ducks to shoot at.