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Instead of a Column

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While there have been a couple of scheduling changes (e.g. experimenting with Monday-Wednesday-Friday versus Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday columns to see how newpspaper pickup numbers are affected), we’ve been pretty regular with posting three columns per week.

This week, there are two columns. Why?

A number of columnists, organizations and sites gave in to the temptation to “strike while the iron is hot” and opine on the Paris terror attacks.

I think the topic requires a longer wait to get right. At the same time, I don’t see any point in writing about anything else, as no other signal would penetrate the noise around this topic.

So, the next Garrison Center op-ed will appear on Tuesday.

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Director and Senior News Analyst
William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism

Op-Eds

PSA: There’s no Such Thing as an “Accidental” Shooting

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Gun photo from RGBStock

At least once a week or so, I read stories about allegedly accidental shootings. These stories always puzzle me, because assuming a competent adult and a non-defective gun, there’s no such thing as an accidental shooting. The two kinds of shootings are “intentional” and “negligent.”

What’s worse is that all too often, these supposed “accidents” involve people who carry guns professionally and have received extensive training in their use. They don’t have recourse to the excuse that they didn’t know what they were doing.

For example, Clayton County, Georgia sheriff Victor Hill was indicted on November 12 for “accidentally” shooting a woman with whom he claimed to be “practicing police tactics.”

In late October, former Austin, Texas police officer Charles Kleinert was granted federal immunity from manslaughter charges for “accidentally” killing a man (he claimed to “only” intended to pistol-whip the guy).

For that matter, a decade or so ago, a DEA agent announced to a room full of students “I’m the only one in this room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock 40” before “accidentally” shooting himself in the leg. Some professional, huh?

Let’s clear all this “accidental” nonsense up right now. There’s no such thing as an “accidental” shooting. There are only two kinds of shootings: Intentional and negligent.

Look, people: Neither guns nor gun safety are complicated.

The gun is either loaded or it isn’t — and you should always assume that it is. If you don’t, you’re negligent. Period.

If you point the gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot, you’re negligent. Period.

If you leave a loaded gun around where a four-year-old can pick it up and shoot a sibling while playing, you’re negligent. Period.

If you use a gun for some purpose other than the one it was intended for — as a bludgeon, for example — you’re negligent. Period.

Especially, not just “even,” if you are a police officer or a member of the armed forces.

Gun rights activists (yes, I am one) are fond of pointing out that guns don’t kill people, people do. That’s true. It’s true whether the killing is justified or unjustified, and it’s true whether the killing is intentional or negligent.

Negligent shooters  and their supporters need to stop making excuses for negligent shootings. And the 99.9x% of responsible gun owners who take gun safety seriously shouldn’t be tarred with their “accidents.”

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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Op-Eds

Mizzou Protest: Brownshirts on Parade

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Mizzou Stormtrooper

Yes, I understand that invoking the Sturmabteilung, aka the SA, aka the stormtroopers, in relation to protests at the University of Missouri falls squarely into the discourse domain covered by Godwin’s Law (“as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”). But the brown shirt fits, and we should hang it on those comporting themselves in its spirit.

Weeks of anger over administration handling of racial incidents at the university’s Columbia campus culminated on November 9 in the resignations of UM president Tim Wolfe and campus chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. Various opinions on those events and issues aside, most of us should be able to agree on two things:

Yes, students and faculty are well within their rights to protest and to call for resignations or other redress of their grievances. They may be right or wrong on any given subject, but their rights of free speech and peaceable assembly are sacred.

No, those rights do not trump everyone else’s rights to free speech and a free press.

Having solicited attention to their outcry, the protesters are hypocrites when they invoke a “safe space — no media” claim against journalists attempting to report on their actions. They’re well beyond the scope of their own rights and in violation of the rights of others when they mob and physically assault those journalists.

Yes, that’s exactly what happened. If you don’t believe it, hit your favorite search engine with the phrase “#ConcernedStudent1950 vs the media.”

Among other outrages, you’ll witness the spectacle of UM assistant professor of mass media (!) Melissa Click getting in a journalist’s face, swatting at his camera and demanding that he “get out” of a public area, before yelling for “some muscle over here” to remove him.

Is a comparison to the Nazi Party’s street brawlers over the top? I don’t think so. The supposed purpose of the Sturmabteilung was to provide “security” for Nazi meetings and rallies. Its actual function was to physically disrupt the activities of opponents, including journalists whose reporting didn’t toe the Nazi line.

The only substantive difference between the madness of 1930s Berlin and this week’s analog in Columbia is the symbolism. Such tactics serve neither justice nor freedom — the means inevitably sullies the end.

America’s college protest movement dishonors itself to the extent that it continues to harbor and justify intolerance and evil.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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