Gun Control, Alex Jones and Piers Morgan

By Francois Polito (Appareil numérique OLYMPUS C700UZ) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Well, I'm guessing many people are already aware of the interview with Alex Jones on the Piers Morgan show on CNN. I'm not here to take sides on the debate, but to laugh out loud at the interview itself.

This is not a blast against Jones either, but even objectively, that interview is a classic case of absurdity, a sudden outburst out of nowhere that went nowhere and with talk that had no substance. Was Jones right in his criticism of Morgan's question? Yes. Was Morgan correct that Jones did not engage in any kind of fruitful dialogue? Yes. Was the interview hilarious? Yes.

What was Morgan's question that Jone's objected to so vehemently? He asked Jones how many gun murders there were in the UK last year. I believe the correct answer is 35. That's quite a low number. In America, it's in the thousands. Definitely seems to point to a problem. But I think Jones is correct, that little stats here and there do not cover the subject in any depth. Limiting the guns, for sure, doesn't get rid of violence. Of course, I know the counter-argument: Well, there won't be such a mass slaughter without the guns. Of course, that's true. And then I know the arguments about how the government is doing quite a fine job of murdering people with high-powered weapons, why limit the citizenry? Also true. Gun control is common in developed countries and taken for granted; many people think Americans are a little bit looney to be debating this issue at all. But, as an aside, I know plenty of people who own guns who are probably never going to murder dozens of people any time soon. I could be wrong.

Of course, I also know that that's not the point, on the side of the Second Amendment folks. The point is, gun control laws are gateway laws for further oppression; well, it has happened before: Just like drug laws made it possible to imprison a tragically huge number of people, disproportionately black, brown, and poor. I'm not much into restrictions myself.

Also, gun control advocates use an awful lot of scare tactics.

However, what do you do about someone who can collect a cache of high-powered guns and go slaughter people at schools and movie theaters. Here's where I cop out. I said this blog post wasn't going to be about the issue, but about the hilarity of the interview on Piers Morgan's show. So, let's just watch the interview.

Well, turns out Alex Jones had something to say about the whole incident.

Well, it's all a bit divisive: Afraid of New York, afraid of the Red Coats, using fantastical terms like New World Order. Not my thing, but I'm entertained.

Piers Morgan had his own response to what had happened at the interview. He feels Jones is good advertisement for gun control and feels it's scary that Jones has strong influence on the public. It's all free speech, folks. Still love it, even though it takes on almost any kind of form.

Piers Morgan can come off as an arrogant bully, but this discussion with Ron Paul shows his style; a bit gracious at the end, seems he just wanted Paul to give him the scoop. Of course, it might be Morgan's style that made Jones go after him so vehemently. 

Ron Paul seems like a nice guy, I almost had a protective instinct kick in when I saw Morgan assail him a bit. But it ended well.

Probably at the end of the debate, we will have gun control. I have a feeling about that. America is usually fifty to a hundred years behind every other developed country in terms of social justice and social reform; this is another one America's going to have to let go of, so we can move on. I don't think it's the beginning of tyranny and the end of freedom, just an adjustment and a reform. I mean, some weapons are capable of mass slaughter, and we don't have the minds to handle such power.