News: The Terrorist Watch List, Mexico's Drug Cartels, and the American Gun Owner

Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws— always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up.

- Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

There's a pretty fundamental problem with selling the public on gun control here in America - there's a whole lot of folks who own guns.

The most logical way to get around that barrier is by convincing people that a gun control measure won't affect them, but some nefarious group that warrants action on behalf of "the common good."

You can see this trend everywhere, from the endless media coverage of what percentage of guns used by the Mexican cartels are bought in the U.S. (hint - it's not 90%) to the latest GAO report showing that some 963 background checks matched individuals on the terrorist watch list over the past five years.

It's only at the very end of the CNN article that the GAO sheepishly admits that "being on a terrorist watch list does not mean that someone is involved in any terrorist activity." Predictably, Senator Lautenberg, one of the most die-hard gun controllers in Washington, wants to stop these sales, even with all the well-publicized problems with blacklists like this.

I'm not sure of a way to combat this kind of misinformation and misdirection. The thoroughly debunked "90% come from the U.S." trope was repeated Sunday during "60 Minutes," even when ten seconds worth of searching on the Internet would show that the "fact" was false. And people on "terrorist watch lists" must be bad, right?

At the moment, it looks like any gun control measure would be unlikely to pass, of course. But political winds are fickle, and it's clear that Attorney General Eric Holder thinks the federal government has the authority:



Three gun control myths in one sentence - "the gun show loophole," "cop-killer bullets," and "assault weapons." Is it any wonder gun owners are stocking up now, while they still can?