Author: Michael A. Ventrella

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Guns and Fiction

After a recent debate on Facebook about guns, I told everyone I had enough and was signing off in order to play Fallout 4, a computer game where I could run around a post-apocalyptic Boston shooting mutated zombies with a variety of firearms.

“Aha!” you say. “You’re a hypocrite!”Fallout4_Preston

Well, no. You see, Fallout 4 is fiction. It’s not real.

Weapons in fiction serve a purpose of providing drama, action, adventure. Weapons have featured prominently in my novels, too. They help make a great story. A great fictional story.

That doesn’t mean I think everyone should be running around with one in real life. I know the difference between fiction and reality, you see.

(I’m also against dropping anvils on people’s heads in real life.)

And that’s one of the biggest problems I have when dealing with some of the gun enthusiasts out there: They don’t seem to be able to differentiate between fiction and reality.

In their world, more guns means less violence; people with guns stop mass shootings even when trained police can’t; and gun control doesn’t reduce gun violence.

And that’s all fiction. There’s not the slightest bit of evidence to support any of those beliefs, and plenty to prove otherwise.

So I guess I’m not surprised when some people think I am a hypocrite for hating guns in real life while liking them in fiction — because they can’t tell the difference.

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Editorial cartoon: It’s a mystery…

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Pat Bagley

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How Many Innocent Deaths Does it Take?

Some of my conservative friends have been complaining about the number of mass shootings we’ve had so far this year, rightly pointing out that it all depends on how you define “mass shooting.”  Should you include shootings where people were only maimed and didn’t die? How many deaths are needed before it counts as a mass shooting? And so on.

So let’s be generous and assume that the numbers showing an average of about one a day is unrealistic.  kaiser-foundation-gun-deaths-state-mapSure, let’s cut that in half, and we’ll say it’s only one every other day. Or even one a week.

Just let me know: How many innocent deaths do we need before you will say, “Maybe we should do something about this”?

Fill in the blank for me: “My right to own any deadly weapon free from restriction is worth the lives of _____ people.”

Is there a number? If so, remember:  If you haven’t already agreed that maybe we should do something, the number in that blank has to be at least 30,000 a year.  If you’ve been an adult for, say, twenty years and have done done nothing to try to prevent all these deaths, then the number in that blank needs to be at least 600,000, or roughly every single person in Seattle, Washington.

No, I don’t want to read another rant about guns. Don’t change the subject, answer the question. If you want to debate guns, search this blog for that topic and you’ll find plenty of threads where your comments will be appropriate and welcome.

So please:  Give me a number. Let me know how many innocent dead people it will take before we can sit down and talk reasonably about what we should do about it.

 

Editorial cartoon: Common ground

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Nick Anderson

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Making assumptions about “open carry” gun owners

by Guest Blogger M. David Blake

Many years ago in this country, it was possible for anyone with an automobile to visit the filling station, fill their vehicle’s tank with gasoline, and then pay for it.BN-EF674_0822op_G_20140822143314

Weird concept, isn’t it? Nowadays, motorists are almost always required to either authorize a transaction at the pump, or pre-pay the cashier. And the reason for this change in expectation is simple: some motorists—statistically a very small number, but enough to be noteworthy and to ultimately affect the bottom line—figured out how easy it was to drive away without paying for their fuel.

Wait though! Why should you be forced to follow such stuffy rules? You are a responsible motorist, and you might prefer to pump first, and then pay afterward. Anyone should be able to see that you’re good for it. After all, you were able to afford a really nice car, and by golly, you’ve taken care of that sucker too!

Want to try? Good luck, because the cashier is unlikely to turn on the pump based on little more than your appearance as a “responsible motorist,” and you probably won’t be able to argue your case. Whether you are responsible or not, cashiers know, barring that restriction, someone would stiff them for a hefty dose of guzzeline.

Now, some of the open carry advocates out there are responsible gun owners. Statistically, most of them are responsible. If you are a gun owner, you are probably responsible too. I am not questioning your credentials as a responsible gun owner. We’ll take it as a given that you are safe, sane, and trustworthy.

All the same, a few of the people carrying guns around in this country are breaking the social contract. They’ve figured out how easy it is to fire off rounds at whoever the hell irritated them last, or whatever group offended their sensibilities, or anyone/anything they decided didn’t deserve to exist unmolested.

But you’ve been asking us to assume they are all responsible gun owners, because doing otherwise jeopardizes our collective trust in your own personal display of firepower.

Those mass shooters are statistically a very small number of gun owners… but they are enough to be noteworthy, and to ultimately affect the bottom line.

Here’s the bottom line:

After today, if I see weapons, my assumption is not that you are responsible gun owners. It’s that you are about to become active shooters, and that everyone should get as far away from you as possible.

M. David Blake is a science fiction writer, and the editor of STRAEON. This article first appeared on his personal Facebook page, and is reprinted with permission.

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Editorial cartoon: Sure to work this time!

Mike Lukovich

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Right on time

What time is it?  3:00?  Geez, the daily mass shooting is running late.

Ah, there it is.

gun

 

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Editorial cartoon: That’ll be the day

Jen Sorensen

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Lying Liars respond to Planned Parenthood attack with lying lies

Carly Fiorino has made a name for herself by repeating a lie about Planned Parenthood selling baby parts, based on a false video that even its creator has admitted was a lie.  The rest of the GOP candidates haven’t called her out for this, and in fact have repeated other lies about PP while spending much of their time talking about how evil PP is for doing a perfectly legal medical procedure.

cartoon by Darren Bell

cartoon by Darren Bell

And people listen. They do. Of course they do — that’s the whole point. That’s why Planned Parenthood facilities all over the United States have been the subject of vandalism, arson, and shootings.

So when another one of those crazed loners who listens to them kills those “evil people” it’s hard to deny that it is because of the things that crazed loner heard those people say.

Unless, of course, you’re a liar to begin with. Then it’s easy to deny facts. After all, what’s one more lie?

These liars are now throwing up all sorts of lies to distance themselves from this guy.

“He was a trangendered leftist activist,” said Ted Cruz — because, you know, when you think of those transgendered leftist activists, what comes to mind are crazed loners who have crosses all over their walls living in a trailer surrounded by guns in the middle of nowhere. It’s practically a cliche.  In the real world, rational people can’t deny that the shooter was a right-wing conservative Christian, based on stuff found in his home and reports from his ex-wife.

“This was a bank robbery gone bad,” goes another lie, repeated often by Fox News, only because this happened next door to a bank. They can’t quite explain why the shooter was saying “No more baby parts” during the botched bank robbery though. (The local police, by the way, have called this a “politically motivated shooting” and deny that there was a bank robbery at all.)

And then they continue to lie about the baby parts.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re addicted to being a liar. Once you start, it’s hard to stop.

 

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Editorial cartoon: Priorities

Clay Jones