By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- In Virginia, one of the Bloomberg disarmist groups is attempting to shut down one of the few gun shops near the nations capitol.
One of the more destructive and sadly, successful, disarmist memes has been the alienation of the gun culture from education and the schools. In my recollection, it started with the destruction of rifle, shotgun, and pistol teams in the Universities, with many ranges being closed and never reopened as ROTC was chased off of Campus during the Vietnam war and after.
It spread to high schools and grammar schools, and reached a legislative high with the Federal gun free school zones act passed during the first George Bush administration. That law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; but Bill Clinton, with enormous help from the old media, was able to have it passed into law again, with minor changes, in 1996. It has never been re-challenged in the courts.
The high water mark of the effect of banning guns from the schools was the Sandy Hook mass killing that took place in 2012. Schools shootings took off after the passage of the 1996 law, the increase most likely caused by a combination of the new gun free zones and the copycat effect promoted by the media.
The purpose of banning guns from the schools has never been safety. It has always been the long term destruction of the gun culture. They theory is that if you prevent children from having contact with guns, especially in school, they absorb the idea that guns are bad, and you gradually reduce the number of gun owners, over time, to insignificance.
A clear example of that meme happens when disarmist organizations work to prevent gun stores from opening up near schools. Children are not allowed to buy guns by law. But exposing them to the idea of legitimate guns destroys the meme that guns are evil and must be separated from civil society.
That is why the disarmist Bloomberg group, Moms Demand Action, is trying to close down the Nova Firearms Gun shop in McLean, Virgina, which claims to be the closest gun shop to Washington, D. C.
They simply state, without any evidence, that having a gunshop in a community, makes the community less safe. I have not seen any study, but the evidence clearly points to the opposite. Having a gun shop in a community is almost certainly correlated with low crime rates.
The group held a small protest to attempt to have the completely legal gun shop closed. They have taken out a Change.org petition to close the keep Nova Firearms out of McLean that has over 1400 signatures. There is also a Change.org petition to Support the Gun Shop. It has over 400 signatures.
It is rare for the disarmists to outnumber second amendment supporters on online petitions such as this. Usually, Second Amendment Supporters outnumber disarmists by 3-10 to 1.
The disarmist attempt to delegitimize guns in the eyes of children does not seem to be working. The number of guns in the United States is at record levels; the number of new gun owners is rapidly growing among young adults, women, and minorities.
After Sandy Hook, a nation wide movement has been sparked to train and arm teachers to provide real defenses against mass shooting in schools, even though it is a rare phenomena.
The latest number on the petition to defend the Nova Firearms Gun Shop was 484.
Here is the Link to the petition
It often takes a little while for word of a petition or online poll to spread in the new media. The disarmists are widely supported in the old media.
Definition of disarmist
c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.