Op-Ed Calls Out Double Standard on Mass Attacks without Firearms

I’ve talked a fair bit lately about mass casualty attacks that didn’t involve a firearm and one that did, but wouldn’t have been stopped by any proposed legislation we’re seeing these days.

This was, in part, prompted by the mass stabbing at a Michigan Walmart that was stopped by an armed citizen. A good guy with a gun saved the day, but it was largely ignored. Then an attack in a Manhattan office building had everyone screaming for gun control.

I figured it was a good idea to highlight all the ways people have found to murder a lot of people without a firearm.

But an op-ed in Michigan is fired up for a slightly different, but perfectly valid reason. The author, Marcy Jankovich, is upset over the double standard in place, among other things.

Jankovich, the Michigan State Director for Women for Gun Rights, is absolutely correct on this fact. We’ve pointed it out, of course, but it’s good to see someone else saying the same kinds of things.

The overall point of what I’ve quoted above, though, is something we really need to hammer. We saw a mass casualty attack in New Orleans on New Year’s. No one called for background checks for motor vehicles, and this is despite the fact that they’re involved in more fatalities in the United States than guns, if you exclude suicides, by a significant degree. The only reason “gun deaths” as a total is higher is likely because car crashes aren’t a very good way to take your own life, and everyone knows it.

No one has looked at these attacks, though, and thought anything except that a bad person did a bad thing. They didn’t call for legislation to restrict the vehicles or anything of the sort.

In fact, arson is actually an extremely common method for mass murder. Where are the calls for restricting lighters and gasoline?

The truth is that with pretty much any mass attack that doesn’t involve firearms, rationality tends to be a lot more common. People don’t freak out quite the same way. They can see it, even with a terrible body count, and recognize that the problem was the person.

If a gun is used, even if no one is actually killed, it’s the worst thing ever and proof we need to restrict firearms and damn the Second Amendment.

Jackovich is absolutely right.