-Caveat Lector- Vol. 15, No. 12 June 7, 1999 Table of Contents More on Education More on Gun Control Lessons From Columbine High by William F. Jasper The response of the cultural, political, and media elite to the Columbine High School massacre has been as predictable as it has been sickening. Like vultures, the press and television talking heads descended on Littleton, Colorado before the blood of the victims had dried and began a non-stop exploitation of the gruesome crime. Their target: guns, the "gun culture," and access to guns, which they blame (of course) as the cause of the murderous mayhem. Their pontifications read, literally, like propaganda press releases from Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), the lead spear chucker for the militant anti-gun lobby. Consider, for example, this claim from an HCI news release for April 27th: "While some would say that the topic of violence and youth is a cultural one, this focus distracts from the real issue. Although it is true that the culture that our children have been exposed to has become increasingly violent, it is access to guns that are [sic] making these crimes possible." On the same day, at a White House press conference, Hillary Clinton acknowledged HCI President Bob Walker (who attended the event) and asserted that "limiting access to firearms can be, and should be, a bipartisan goal." Continued the First Lady: "We also know that we have to do everything possible to ensure that young people do not have easy access to weapons. It is criminal how easy it is for children in America to obtain guns.... Guns and children are two words that should never be put together in the same sentence." Presidential Response Hillary was followed by the President himself, who also took up the HCI mantra: "We have a huge hunting and sport shooting culture in America.... And everybody tells me I�ve got a constitutional right to keep and bear arms, so don�t fool with me; and every reasonable restriction is just the camel�s nose in the tent, and pretty soon they�ll come after my shotgun, and I�ll miss the next duck hunting season." A few days earlier, at a highly publicized discussion with high school students in Alexandria, Virginia, Mr. Clinton had hounded the same theme. The President told the students that "it is unquestionable that more people have more access to more weapons," and then offered this typical, liberal boilerplate: "There is no other country in the world where it is so easy for people to get and misuse weapons. And we have a culture of having a right to own weapons, and a right to use them, and a big hunting culture...." The White House is clearly "on message" with the rest of the establishment news and opinion cartel. Countless news broadcasts, editorials, and commentaries have relentlessly hammered the same idea: America is awash in violence because America is awash in guns. Clintonite comedienne Rosie O� Donnell went the limit with this line, turning her highly touted, daytime television talk show into a ranting soapbox for HCI and the anti-Second Amendment statists. In an emotionally charged rampage, Rosie asserted that it is the easy availability of firearms that is the cause of tragedies like the Columbine murder spree. Guns were not so accessible when she was growing up, she claimed. She did not have guns, nor did any of her friends. Indeed, said O�Donnell, in recent years it has been getting easier and easier for kids to acquire guns. Then, to thunderous applause, she vented her outrage at gun owners and the gun industry. "I know it�s an amendment," she said. "I know it�s in the Constitution. But you know what? Enough is enough." Yes, enough is enough. Enough of lies, fallacies, and manipulative clich�s. Enough of scapegoating and distractions. We cannot hope to put an end to the carnage wrought by the Dylan Klebolds and Eric Harrises in our communities by following the diversionary lead of Rosie, Bill and Hillary, and HCI propagandists. You do not need to be a "gun nut" to recognize the Big Lie that undergirds the foundational premise of their arguments: that it is the prevalence of guns in America and the ease of access to firearms that is responsible for the lethal violence afflicting our society. The Way It Was It is irrefragably true that for the past three decades access to all types of firearms has been getting not easier, but more and more difficult. That is an irrefutable fact that no amount of spin by Rosie, Hillary, or HCI can change. Allow me to illustrate this vitally important point from personal experience. Like tens of millions of American youngsters growing up in the 1950s and �60s, this writer (along with my five brothers and five sisters) had easy access to firearms. My father, a World War II veteran and avid hunter, had several rifles, shotguns, and pistols. This "arsenal," together with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, was stored in a closet without any trigger locks. The same was true in the homes of most of my neighborhood friends. This was normal not only in rural communities, but throughout much of urban and suburban America as well. As young children, we were taught not to touch these weapons except under adult supervision. When we did handle firearms, safety was a prime concern. Like most boys, my brothers and I had an interest in (not an "obsession" with) guns and looked forward to the times when we could go target shooting and hunting. While in our grade school years, we also had toy guns and, like millions of other boys, played army, cops and robbers, and cowboys and Indians. We were also heavily exposed to the John Wayne-Wyatt Earp-Wild West "gun culture" that today�s pop psychologists and gun haters love to cite as the roots of our current youth crime crisis. I do not know about Rosie�s family or neighborhood, but I suspect that firearms were far more prevalent than she recalls. Like my sisters, and most girls, she was probably not much interested in guns and would not be a reliable authority on the availability of firearms, even in her own immediate evirons. Nevertheless, the fact is that when she was growing up guns were generally far more accessible in this country than they are currently. Buying firearms and ammunition was relatively easy in most states, and certainly far more lenient than today. Prior to passage of the 1968 federal Gun Control Act, just about anyone could purchase just about any kind of firearm anonymously through the mail. New and used guns could be bought over the counter at tens of thousands of department stores, hardware stores, sporting goods stores, and pawn shops � without any registration, background check, or waiting period. Firearms dealers were not required to have a federal license or keep records of their sales. Yet, in this wide open, Wild West "hunting and shooting culture" we did not suffer the plague of mass murdering adolescents who now stalk our streets and school hallways. In the "gun saturated" communities in which we grew up, "teen violence" rarely escalated beyond the level of fisticuffs. Youngsters did not take firearms and murder their parents, parents did not slaughter their children, and spouses did not slay one another. And though bullying, cliques, and social ostricism were probably as prevalent in high schools of yore as those of today, students did not massacre their classmates and teachers. Such things were unthinkable. Why were they unthinkable? Because they were so absolutely evil and morally repugnant. They were unthinkable and repugnant because Christian morality and "middle-class family values" � so hated and viciously derided by the �60s radicals who now dominate our culture � were still affording protection to society. But that protection, which had already been weakened by decades of sustained erosion, has now been almost completely decimated by the counter-culture revolutionists in their all-out, 30-year war against God, family, and country. Culture Shock Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not products of the "gun culture"; they were the twisted products of the nihilist-hedonist-narcissist death culture that has been foisted on our society by the liberal soul mates of Rosie O� Donnell and the Clintons. It was not the John Wayne-Elliot Ness-Roy Rogers gun culture or "right-wing, religious bigotry" that produced the cold-blooded killers who calmly strolled through the halls of Columbine High joking, laughing, and cackling as they methodically slaughtered their fellow students, indifferent to their pleas and screams. Like teen murderers Luke Woodham of Pearl, Mississippi; Michael Carneal of Paduka, Kentucky; Kip Kinkle of Springfield, Oregon; Andrew Wurst of Edinboro, Pennsylvania; and Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Harris and Klebold also were not "natural born killers." These boys were transformed into homicidal sociopaths by a combination of deadly factors whose causative contributions may be difficult precisely to quantify, but which are easily recognized as common denominators in these cases. The young killers were immersed in a grotesque youth subculture that has been promoted, nurtured, praised, and defended by the self-anointed arbiters of today�s decadent fashion and culture. They are the products of the self-indulgent, pagan gospel of "sex, drugs, and rock �n� roll." Harris and Klebold were devotees of the hideous, Satanic, "Goth rocker" Marilyn Manson and the gruesome German bands Rammstein and KMFDM. Marilyn Manson (a stage pseudonym meant to pay homage to Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson), an androgynous creature who works at being as repulsive as possible (and succeeds wildly!), is a self-proclaimed, ordained "minister" in the Church of Satan. His "music" revels in nihilistic rebellion, rage, alienation, death, and despair. His "Anti-Christ Superstar" rock tour was banned in some cities. According to this "star" entertainer, "America needs that anti-Christ figure, that anti-hero to save these kids from the oppression of right wing morality." Tell that to the kids who watched their classmates murdered by Manson�s anti-hero acolytes Harris and Klebold. According to Satanic minister Marilyn Manson, "Satanism was never about worshiping the devil. It�s about man being his own god on earth. You do not worship anything except yourself." Eric Harris apparently took that message to heart, as reflected in this "philosophy" statement he wrote for his web site: "My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law. If you don�t like it, you die. If I don�t like you or I don�t like what you want me to do, you die." Harris also posted the ultra-violent, obscene lyrics of KMFDM on his web site. Like Marilyn Manson, the group�s lead vocalist, En Esch, a seven-foot-tall transvestite, specializes in the extreme and the bizarre. One of the group�s songs, "Piggybank," features these lyrics: "If I had a shotgun, I�d blow myself to hell." In addition to these toxic influences, friends of Klebold and Harris have reported that the young men were obsessed with the ultra-violent video games Doom and Quake. According to some reports, they also played Postal, a video game in which the "winner" caps the fun by committing suicide. On top of which, the demented duo also are reported to have been heavily influenced by the murderous mayhem glorified in such slick Hollywood offerings as The Basketball Diaries, Natural Born Killers, and The Matrix. Adding to this lethal mix was the drug Luvox, an antidepressant similar to Prozac, which was used by Eric Harris. We do not have any information on other drugs that may have been used by Harris and/or Klebold, but they have played a role in some of the other school murder sprees mentioned above. http://thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/06-07-99/vo15no12_lessons.htm Continued in Part 2/2 Bard http://www.patriot.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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