Sunday, April 22, 2007

Title

Mark Steyn, in his column today, weighs in on the very predictable liberal hooting and hollering for more gun control following the Virginia Tech massacre. Naturally, being Mark Steyn, he does so in fine style. Here’s a story — a true story, by the way — that forms part of his argument:

A few years back, a couple of alienated loser teens from a small Vermont town decided they were going to kill somebody, steal his ATM cards, and go to Australia. So they went to a remote house in the woods a couple of towns away, knocked on the door, and said their car had broken down. The guy thought their story smelled funny so he picked up his Glock and told 'em to get lost. So they concocted a better story, and pretended to be students doing an environmental survey. Unfortunately, the next old coot in the woods was sick of environmentalists and chased 'em away. Eventually they figured they could spend months knocking on doors in rural Vermont and New Hampshire and seeing nothing for their pains but cranky guys in plaid leveling both barrels through the screen door. So even these idiots worked it out: Where’s the nearest place around here where you’re most likely to encounter gullible defenseless types who have foresworn all means of resistance? Answer: Dartmouth College. So they drove over the Connecticut River, rang the doorbell, and brutally murdered a couple of well-meaning liberal professors. Two depraved misfits of crushing stupidity (to judge from their diaries) had nevertheless identified precisely the easiest murder victims in the twin-state area.

Then Mr. Steyn articulates perfectly an observation I’ve never been able to say quite so clearly:

To promote vulnerability as a moral virtue is not merely foolish. Like the new Yale props department policy, it signals to everyone that you’re not in the real world.

Exactly. “Not in the real world” pretty much sums up the liberal perspective (if that’s actually a good characterization of their bleating) on gun control.

"Promoting vulnerability” is a very nice turn of phrase to describe the lunacy of disarming the law-abiding citizenry, don’t you think?