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David Hogg embarrassingly self-owns in Twitter spat

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David Hogg is set to graduate from Harvard soon.

Now, I’ve found the fact that a state college rejects got into Harvard rather hilarious from the get-go. After all, it just goes to show you that the Ivy League ain’t what it used to be.

But how do I know he’s going to graduate soon? Well, it starts on Twitter with a brag and, in time, a hilarious self-own.

The first tweet:

OK, so far, nothing much to see. Of course, I’m sure the NRA is just a-quaking in their boots.

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake fired back with this one:

And here was David’s response.

Oh, well…that’s…interesting.

You see, what Hogg thought was a mic drop is really a self-own.

That particular image isn’t the aftermath of a mass shooting, bodies piled in the grass because there’s nowhere else to put the dead.

It’s a protest.

Over 1100 black “body bags” fanned out over a section of grass on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on March 24 in a plea for sanity. Each represented roughly 150 individuals who have died from gun violence since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, 2018 which left 17 people dead and 17 more injured – most of the victims in their teens.

The body bags were placed to spell out the words “THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS” and were directed toward members of Congress of both parties for their reluctance to pass meaningful gun control measures. The phrase “thoughts and prayers” is often used by government officials as an expression of condolence following a mass shooting. Many Gun control activists have deemed it a meaningless gesture.

It was the 4-year anniversary of the original “March For Our Lives” protest march in D.C. —  the largest single day of protest against gun violence ever. The young organizers of the 2018 March led by Parkland survivor David Hogg were behind the current display.

So Hogg can’t even claim he didn’t know it was part of a protest.

Now, why is this a self-own?

Because protesting is protected by the Bill of Rights. David’s comment, “This is the ‘freedom’ you are fighting for” is absolutely correct, but not for the reason he’s trying to claim.

Most Second Amendment advocates also support the rest of the Bill of Rights. They kind of have to, really. That means that yes, we are also fighting for the freedom to pile body bags on the national mall to protest things we personally disagree with.

What was intended to be some mic drop is no such thing because, well, why wouldn’t someone support the right to protest?

Granted, Hogg has been attending Harvard and the Ivy League hasn’t been huge on free speech, but a lot of people still like it.

More than that, though, our defense of the Second Amendment is in part motivated by our desire to maintain all of our freedoms. Yes, the freedom to protest is included.

So yeah, David, that is the freedom I’m fighting for, and I’m damn proud of it.

My question is why isn’t that the freedom you are fighting for?

Alec Baldwin steps in it with gun control comment

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Actor Alec Baldwin has a lot going on right now. For example, he’s facing involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from the shooting on the set of the film Rust. That alone has to be incredibly stressful.

Yet it seems that he still finds time for all kinds of things, such as commenting on gun control.

And a lot of people weren’t really feeling it.

The actor, 64, shared a screenshot of a viral tweet from musician Peter Frampton following the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville this week, in which six victims and the shooter were killed.

“26 years ago, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, killing 16 kids and a teacher,” the tweet read. “The UK govt responded by enacting tight gun control legislation. In the 9400+ days since, there have been a total of 0 school shootings in the UK.”

Baldwin reposted the tweet on Instagram without a caption, seemingly in support of gun control measures, but it prompted blowback from some in light of the actor’s ongoing legal troubles.

“Read the room Alec. You are unbelievable,” someone wrote

“Kettle, pot,” snarked another, pointing out Baldwin’s seeming hypocrisy.

“Is the guy that killed someone with a gun, lecturing people on gun violence? Well I guess he has first hand knowledge,” commented one user.

First, let’s address the claim in the tweet itself.

Yes, there hasn’t been another school shooting in the UK since Dunblane. Prior to Dunblane, there hadn’t been a mass shooting as we generally define them (not using the Gun Violence Archive definition, that is). By GVA’s definition, there was only one other throughout all of history.

In other words, they weren’t exactly commonplace before Dunblane so it’s premature to say the gun control laws are what changed things.

Yet Baldwin is the last person who should play any part in the discussion.

Guns in his hands are responsible for more deaths than guns in most of our hands ever have. I know he claims he’s innocent, but I’m not buying that. As such, he’s the last person who has any business jumping into the gun debate here and now.

In fact, he’s the poster child for “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” at the moment since it seems pretty clear to me that it was his own negligence that killed Halyna Hutchins.

People are giving Baldwin flak because, frankly, he deserves it.

It takes a frighteningly low level of self-awareness to get into the gun debate when you’re facing involuntary manslaughter charges for shooting someone via your own negligence.

Sure, we can’t be trusted with guns when Baldwin is the one who showed he can’t be trusted with them.

Then again, it’s not like Baldwin or most other anti-gunners have ever had an issue with their own sins. They think they know better than the rest of us and they’re bound and determined to push an anti-gun narrative that would never apply to them.

They’re the elite, after all, and they deserve special consideration.

Baldwin, for example, would likely celebrate the arrest and prosecution of someone like Adam Baldwin (my favorite Baldwin, for the record) if he had a negligent discharge that killed a member of the crew.

Of course, Adam Baldwin wouldn’t have had such a thing, so it doesn’t really matter.

But Alec? He did and he’s convinced he did nothing wrong, so his popping off on gun control just feels like another day for him.

It ain’t and I’m glad people called him on it.

Op-ed calls out Democrats poor understanding of human nature

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In the wake of any awful tragedy, it’s human nature to look for answers and, at times, for people to blame. We want someone to be responsible and we want to punish them. That’s why conspiracy theories can be so popular and powerful. We want there to be more.

Democrats are no different, obviously. They, too, want to blame. In the wake of something like Nashville, they tend to blame guns.

Yet as Donald Trump, Jr. and Cliff Sims note over at The Federalist, much of that effort ignores a different aspect of human nature.

The elementary school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, is a tragedy no community should ever have to endure. As fathers, our hearts break for those innocent children and their parents, as well as the brave and selfless teachers. The heroic police officers, who sprang into action with total disregard for their own safety, saved countless lives. The shooter, whose name should not be made famous by the media, reminds us there is evil in this world, that every moment with our families is precious, and that something in our country must change.

Unfortunately, the radical left has once again rushed to demand new laws and policy changes that would have done nothing to stop this tragedy — or any tragedy.

…

As with so many similar tragedies, the cowardly Covenant School shooter chose a soft target, shooting through the school’s locked doors and counting on it taking time for armed law enforcement to respond. In fact, police said the shooter had mentioned another potential target, “but because of threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to” attack it.

There is no quick, easy solution, and any politician claiming to offer one is a liar because there is no legislation to reverse the erosion of American culture that has brought us to this point.

A new Wall Street Journal survey shows a stunning abandonment of the values that once defined the United States and made our country great. Between 1998 and 2023, the percentage of Americans identifying religion as “very important” to them dropped from 62 percent to 39 percent, and patriotism plummeted from 70 percent to 38 percent. Value on community involvement has dropped by half since just a few years ago. Depression and anxiety have skyrocketed. And the widespread push to impose radical transgender ideology on our society has caused a spike in Americans — including our innocent children — questioning the very fabric of their humanity and whether there is beauty in being made in the image of God.

Until we reverse these trends and fix America’s corroding values and culture, we will remain a broken society that produces broken people.

I want to argue with this.

I really and truly do.

The unfortunate thing is that while I might find myself disagreeing on specifics, the truth is that we are broken. What else would be the reason that our non-gun homicide rate is more than six times greater than Japan’s total homicide rate? It’s not just Japan, either. We’ve seen our non-gun homicide rate outstrips many other developed nations’ total murder rate.

The idea of focusing exclusively on the guns fundamentally ignores the fact that something else is terribly and deeply wrong here in the United States.

Now, understand that this kind of thing does happen in other countries. We’ve seen mass shootings all over the world over the last year or two, from Thailand to the one earlier this year in Hamburg, the truth is that it’s not uniquely American. However, intellectual honesty should note that these kinds of mass shootings are more common here than elsewhere.

Trying to blame guns for this, though, is too simplistic and it further ignores all the other areas we seem to be more violent as a nation. Making guns go away–something many want but isn’t remotely possible–doesn’t solve the problem with human nature, at least here in the US.

We really need to look beyond that and try to solve the underlying issues first and foremost.

Massie, Bowman shout it out over gun control

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We all know that guns are a contentious issue here in the United States. It’s more so after a mass shooting takes place. If kids are the victims, that gets turned up to 11.

So it’s not surprising that people are getting into shouting matches over gun control.

What’s a little surprising is when members of Congress do it in public.

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman got into a shouting match outside the House floor on Wednesday over gun control.

…

Massie stopped to speak to him, asserting that schools with permissive gun regulations have not faced school shootings. Bowman then grew visibly angry and moved closer to the Republican, gesticulating emphatically.

“Carry guns? More guns lead to more deaths!” Bowman yelled, prompting Massie to retort that every school that has permitted teachers to carry has never suffered a mass shooting nor an accidental discharge.

Massie wisely disengaged and then had Bowman follow trying to keep the argument going.

Kind of juvenile, if you ask me.

Massie, however, was completely correct. We’ve never had a mass shooting in a school where the staff was able to carry firearms.

Now, is that because of the guns themself or that despite the gun control rhetoric, mass school shootings are actually pretty rare and schools that permit armed staff are also rare? I’ll acknowledge that might play a factor.

However, Bowman didn’t ask that question. He didn’t want a debate on the subject. What he wanted was to try and embarrass and shame his colleagues into supporting gun control. The problem, as Massie pretty much pointed out, is that there’s ample reason to oppose gun control as a mass shooting strategy.

The situation isn’t as simple as people like Bowman want us to believe.

But what Bowman wanted to do wasn’t to learn or even educate. He is part of that stream of gun control Democrats who somehow think they can shame Republican lawmakers into passing anti-Second Amendment regulations.

That’s not nearly as likely as he and his fellow travelers might like to believe.

Moreover, the fact that Massie opted to engage is important because it made it clear that pro-gun lawmakers weren’t ashamed or lacking in facts. Massie repeated this on Twitter.

Sure, there are grounds for debate over Massie’s data (which I happen to think is accurate and relevant, by the way), but Bowman didn’t want debate. He wanted capitulation. He wanted Republicans to tuck their tails between their legs and vote as he was instructing them to vote.

That’s not how it works.

The first thing people like Bowman need to understand is that there’s a reason many pro-gun lawmakers are pro-gun and it’s not because the NRA pays the bills, as so many gun control advocates like to claim. It’s because gun control doesn’t make a lick of sense when you look at it critically for more than half a second.

Frankly, I’m glad Massie engaged with him. This way, the story isn’t that pro-gun legislators were somehow afraid to debate or discuss the issue with Bowman. Instead, it’s an anti-gun lawmaker throwing a temper tantrum and trying to potentially start a fight.

My money would have been on Massie.

It’s clear Biden doesn’t know what’s legal and what isn’t

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President Joe Biden doesn’t like guns.

Shocking information, I’m sure. I mean, he’s done everything short of hiring a skywriter to scribe it in the skies across America to make sure we knew where he stood, so if you didn’t know, you had to put effort into maintaining that ignorance.

But while Biden doesn’t like guns, he sure doesn’t seem to understand what’s actually permissible and what isn’t.

A prime example is his claim that you couldn’t own a cannon in the time of the Founders, which not only wasn’t true then, you can still own those exact same kinds of cannons without a permit or background check.

Yet the president hasn’t held it there. He’s done it yet again.

As reported by Fox News, the president once again remarked on the Second Amendment, claiming he is a “Second Amendment guy,” before explaining that he does not believe it to be absolute. The president then explained what he believed were types of weapons civilians are not allowed to own.

“We need to act. These are weapons of war,” Biden said while giving comments in Durham, North Carolina.

“I’m a Second Amendment guy – I have two shotguns. … You know, but our states – everybody thinks somehow the Second Amendment is absolute,” he continued.

Interrupting to add that yeah, we figure it’s absolute because of that whole “shall not be infringed” thing there at the end of it.

I know, I know, it just messes up your whole schtick, but none of us give a flying monkey’s butt.

Moving on to the particular bit of stupid I want to highlight:

“You’re not allowed to go out and own an automatic weapon. … You’re not allowed to own a machine gun. You’re not allowed to own a flamethrower. You’re not allowed to own so many other things,” the president claimed.

Except, you’re allowed to own all of those things, but especially the flamethrower.

For automatic weapons, you have to jump through a lot of hoops and you need to have deep pockets, which can make the restrictions effectively into a ban, but technically, you can own all of that.

But a flamethrower only really requires you to know where to buy one.

In fact, as TheBlaze notes, Elon Musk actually created a flamethrower for consumer purchases. I hate it I couldn’t get one, actually.

See, flamethrowers aren’t treated as firearms under federal law. That’s right, the actual firearm isn’t treated like a firearm. As a result, anyone with the money can go out and buy one. There’s no background check, even.

You see, while Biden’s talking about all the stuff we should ban or heavily restrict, he doesn’t even understand what’s actually legal.

That’s probably for the best, though, because we know he and his fellow anti-gunners would lose their crap at the idea that a convicted felon may have flamethrowers and artillery pieces on their homestead. If he knew, he’d try to ban it.

But this is the man who is spearheading anti-gun efforts in this country and he keeps talking about stuff being banned already that quite simply isn’t. Remember this when someone tries to pretend concerns over restrictions leading to more restrictions.

Just because he’s wrong about what’s banned and what isn’t doesn’t mean all that much when it’s clear he’s trying to use those bans to justify the next one, just as this potential one would be used for future bans.