Violent impulses will still exist without guns: Kennedy
A Dick's Sporting Goods store is seen in Arlington Heights, Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban
The mob is gathering and gaining steam as fearful corporations nervously react to the Florida shooting by taking a stand and making changes. Ever terrified of consumer backlash, big companies know they must get on top of stories or get crushed by bad publicity and relentless social media hysteria.
Dick’s Sporting Goods sold the Florida psycho a shotgun, so now the sporting behemoth is imposing its own gun control, changing policy to no longer sell "assault-style weapons" at all, or any firearms to those who can't buy booze. That's all fine. I’m a much bigger fan of free-market solutions and self-imposed sanctions than centralized, blanket policy that allows the feds to snuff basic rights. But Dick's didn't stop there. They're using their own bully pulpit to shame gun owners and encourage legislators to act by spitting out anti-gun talking points so they can seem conscious and relevant. Oh save the convenient moralism, sister.
Now that the mob is involved and corporations have been bullied into making sweeping edicts and severing ties with the NRA, we have officially lost sight of what's most important and what needs to change.
Take away guns, there are still violent impulses. Put new rules in place, there are still inept law enforcement organizations who drop balls as murderers flourish. A conversation is fine, but when groupthink squashes free speech and the rights of individuals, that's when the exercise has failed.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but this phony corporate contrition does nothing to answer how we got here in the first place, and it ensures we are headed toward the wrong conclusion.