Another Pinhead Commentator Lives the Gun Control Dream

By Gerard Valentino

As it becomes clear to the anti-gun minority that the District of Columbia v. Heller case will ultimately be decided in the favor of the Second Amendment as an individual right to bear arms, they are becoming increasingly hysterical.

It is already clear their talking points are based on convincing people that “over 70 years of legal precedent” needs to be overturned to find in favor of an individual right. As if saying over and over again that the Second Amendment as long since been held to be a collective right will change the inevitable or cast doubt on what appears to be a perfect storm for the pro-gun movement.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Heather Martens recently wrote that it is “simply safer to regulate guns.” Martens, in typical elitist media fashion, falls for all of the old anti-gun arguments that have long been discredited.

Leftist commentators, from those who are unheard of (like Martens) to the much more famous, are already walking in lock-step by trying to convince the American public that the Supreme Court is about to get it wrong. Forcing the left to turn on their only current political ally, the judiciary, has been a source of pride for many pro-gun advocates. Over the years, the left goes to the court when they can’t get what they want at the ballot box or in the legislature, and now the hand that has fed them for so long instead is going to whack them on the nose with a newspaper.

The impending defeat has only increased the shrill ravings of commentators like Martens, leaving the American public to see how sure the left was that they were right. Although that confidence was misguided, it also speaks to their feeling of entitlement when it comes to telling everyone else how to live their life.

Martens’ commentary is also based on the old tired laundry list of mythical, but consistent grievances the left has with guns and the pro-gun movement.

First, she opines that guns should be “well regulated.”

To claim that guns, already one of the most regulated products in American history, can be purchased through a federal firearms license holder without proper identification, or without passing a background check is simply untrue. The thought that private sales should be severely regulated does not hold up to scrutiny either. Rarely are guns used in crimes traced back to a legally completed transfer between individuals. Just because people of Martens' political ideology say it’s a problem doesn’t make it true.

There is no proof that such guns are likely to be used in a crime. It is true that guns that are stolen from cars and houses often turn up after being used in crimes. What Martens fails to point out is that it is often the “well regulated” provisions in the law that forces gun owners to leave guns unattended in cars or at home instead of being holstered on their person, and therefore under positive control.

Second, Martens puts forth the false belief that more guns equal more crimes or gun accidents.

The number of guns in the United States continues to grow as more people realize it is their best chance for defending their life if attacked. During the increase in gun ownership every single category of death blamed on guns by the left has declined. It is vey telling that Martens doesn’t lay out any true statistical evidence for her theory that as gun ownership increases gun accidents and deaths do so as well.

She doesn’t because statistics from the FBI, DOJ, Centers for Disease Control and a host of other well respected organizations prove there is no link between gun ownership and being the victim of gun crime.

One anti-gun schemer in Ohio famously pointed out that “if more cars are on the road it makes sense the there will be more accidents” as an analogy to make this point. What she failed to realize is that just the opposite is taking place across America.
The gaffe furthered the belief that gun-control advocates aren’t exactly known for putting a lot of thought into their ravings.

Martens, however, tries to prove the point about gun crime increasing by using another leftist anti-gun tactic: equating law-abiding gun owners with criminals. She puts forth the hypothesis that gun-control has choked off the illegal supply of guns in some cases. But, it wasn’t more gun control that allowed that to happen, it was the enforcement of laws that already exist, and deal only with criminals who misuse guns.

The pro-gun movement has long held the best way to deal with gun crime is to clamp down on criminals who use guns and Martens unwittingly proves our point. There is nothing better than when a misinformed, misguided and unprofessional commentator gets things so horribly wrong that it proves our point for us.

Martens, being more concerned with convincing others of her righteousness than being concerned with making solid arguments does just that.

The rest of Martens’ article plays out like the anti-gun propaganda piece that it is. Watching people like her squirm now that it appears the anti-gun experiment in America is going to be damaged by the SCOTUS ruling has been a joy.

As usual, the challenge is out there to Martens, and others that run in her silly circle, to debate the gun-control bogeyman anywhere and at anytime. Pro-gun advocates can make that offer because of the mountains of evidence that prove gun-control doesn’t work. In every objective forum the anti-gun movement has been resoundingly defeated because they use hysterical, emotion based arguments while ignoring the truth.

If ever a commentary showed just how far the anti-gun movement has fallen, it is Martens’. She pulls from every possible anti-gun cliché in her attempt to saturate the debate with poor science and even poorer logic.

We can only hope people like her continue to remind all Americans how desperate the anti-gun left has become in trying to hang onto their ridiculous ideology. Sometimes, the best offense when dealing with such people is no offense at all.

Instead it’s better to just let them make their illogical noise.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair, writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com and teaches the Ohio Concealed Carry class through Center Mass LTD.