Liberals Shockingly Ignorant on Gun Control Issues

Perhaps we are being too kind. After expressing sympathy to the children and families of Sandy Hook Elementary, liberals and progressives are quickly shift gears towards gun control.

Those squawking about the need for more gun control are showing their ignorance. They are also proving this isn't about a genuine concern for safety, or a desire to have a dialogue about gun issues. The reason we know this is these people are asking to ban guns that were used in Connecticut, or other shootings that have occurred.

NO ONE is minimizing the terror of what happened at Sandy Hook. But you have to be able to disconnect from the emotional side of things if you're going to have a truly intelligent discussion about what's really going on here. It's another attempt to eventually ban guns from the American landscape. As the esteemed mayor of the city with the fastest-growing murder rate, Rahm Emmanuel said, "No crisis should go to waste."

CNN's Don Lemon said after Connecticut: "We need to get guns and bullets and automatic weapons off the streets." One problem: none of the guns used at Sandy Hook Elementary, or Oregon's Clackamas Mall, or Colorado's Aurora Movie Theater were automatic; they were semi-automatic. This is an important distinction. An automatic weapon fires repeated rounds by holding the trigger. A semi-automatic requires one trigger pull per shot. There is a difference.

MSNBC talking head Ed Shultz claims a Glock qualifies as an "assault weapon." Hmmm. Numerous other talking heads and politicos, including NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, deliberately distorted deaths from guns in the U.S. and tout lower crime rates and deaths from guns overseas. Perhaps a check of the records will restore Mr. Bloomberg's memory:

2011 – Oslo, Norway: Armed gunman kills 80 people at a summer camp. According to The Guardian, Norway has some of the strictest gun control laws of any nation in the entire world.

2009 – Winnenden, Germany: Armed gunman kills 16 people, nine of whom were children - including seven schoolgirls and three female teachers - at a school in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.  Germany has extremely strict gun control laws that were further tightened after a similar event in Erfurt only seven years prior to the Winnenden tragedy.

2008 – Kauhajoki, Finland: A hooded gunman killed nine of his fellow students and himself at a vocational school in western Finland. According to Die Welt, the killer was an 18-year old victim of bullying in the school who was seeking revenge on classmates.

2004 – Beslan, Russia: Armed gunmen killed 334 children and adults in a three-day massacre at a school in the small Russian town. The hostage stand-off eventually had to be ended with a military assault by Russian security forces.

2002 – Monash University, Australia: Armed gunman kills two and injures five more in a shooting rampage at a college outside of Melbourne. Australia has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the world, many of which University of Melbourne researchers have concluded are largely ineffectual to the elimination of gun violence.

1996 – Dunblane, Scotland: A lone gunman killed 16 students and a teacher at a school gym. Most of the children were in the 5-to-6-year old age group, and the shooter was a former Scout Master who had been removed from his position because of accusations of improper conduct with young boys, according to The Independent.