Patrick Hope on Background Checks

Pheeewww. How to handle this one? Another probably-Prozac-demented fool committed another murder earlier today. You knew the left-wingers would have to exploit this, digging up their tired old mantra of "more gun control, more gun control."

Regular readers also knew that I don't believe "more gun control" equals less crime. "More gun control" was an emotional reaction I shared in middle school, then outgrew after seeing the facts in Washington. Washington, D.C., had gun control in the 1990s, so we had murders with illegal guns. Ireland had gun control in the 1970s and 1980s, so they had murders with bombs. I think we're safest when everybody knows that anybody is likely to have a gun, and that gun control means hitting the target.

Not all of our regular readers agree with me about, so far as I know, anything. They have, however, noticed that this web site nearly always publishes correspondence from elected officials, whether we agree with their opinions (or support their political careers) or not, because what elected officials publicly say about news and issues is part of the public record.

So I'm online later than usual tonight, spending the night in Kingsport again, and in comes an e-mail from Delegate Patrick Hope, of Arlington, chanting the mantra, "more gun control, more gun control."

I considered just hitting "delete." He's not my Delegate. But regular readers may remember that this web site likes some things most of our Delegates (and State Senators) have done. We've liked some of Delegate Hope's ideas. This is not really even an idea, this document that went out under his name. This is a hasty emotional reaction to (a) having witnessed a horrific murder live on television, an experience that should never happen to anybody, and (b) being a Democrat, a condition that I believe has redeeming value but also has to be awfully confusing at this point in history.

We must be kind. One of the nicest things anybody has ever said about this web site was the result of a Google search I did for a hack writing job this morning. Although the computer shows that most first-time visitors to this site are looking for posts about seldom-discussed plants and animals, Google is doing its bit; this web site should come up if you search for "kindness."

Believe it or not, Delegate Hope, limiting the number of innocent bystanders a Prozac-demented maniac can kill (by allowing him to use a gun rather than a bomb) is an act of kindness.

I want to be kind about this e-mail document. This web site doesn't need to display the words themselves. They're online at Change.org. Here is the link. It probably won't work forever. That's another bit of kindness, because this document contains at least one glaring typographical error.

https://www.change.org/p/terry-mcauliffe-virginia-state-house-institute-a-comprehensive-background-check-for-all-gun-purchases-in-virginia?

No matter how many immigrants have been packed into Arlington in recent years, there's no way "92%" of Virginians support any gun control measure. I'm dyslexic too, Delegate Hope, so I understand...depending on how the poll was worded, it's possible that a poll yielded something like 29%. Though even then I'd bet they weren't natural-born Virginians, who are close to our nation's capital and regret the murders committed there too.

Somebody out there might want to start a petition to the Governor of Virginia to require that anybody who starts chanting "more gun control, more gun control" receive a study of the history of gun control in Washington, D.C., and the right to remain silent (or at least be ignored) until s/he has absorbed the facts therein. I'd sign that one.