It’s only Tuesday and the irony scale has already been pegged. Gun control advocates have a list about a mile long of places that they don’t believe guns should be allowed. While the list ultimately encompasses everywhere the most forbidden of all places are schools. Needless to say it was only a matter of time until a gun control advocate decided to carry a gun into a school:
BUFFALO, N.Y.(WIVB)- More than a dozen cop cars, the SWAT team, K9 units and the Erie County Sheriff’s Air One helicopter swarmed Harvey Austin Elementary School in Buffalo on Thursday after reports of a man with a gun near the school or on the grounds. Dwayne Ferguson, head of the Buffalo chapter of MAD DADS, was taken into custody. He will be arraigned Friday.
[…]
Police believe the 52-year-old may have been the person that prompted the 911 call. Police say they do not believe he had any ill intent and Ferguson has a valid permit for the weapon.
[…]
News 4 interviewed Ferguson in March of 2013 at a rally in support of the NY SAFE Act. At the time, Ferguson stated the law did not go far enough.
“Our kids are not buying assault weapons, they’re buying pistols and they’re buying them right out of community stores and back here in the school. So this is serious. It needs to go further than what it is,” he said.
There’s really not much else that needs to be said here. But need has never been my driving factor and there are a few things I want to say about this.
First, the amount of hypocrisy displayed by Mr. Ferguson is so thick that it’s palpable. It was only last year that Mr. Ferguson was upset that the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act didn’t go far enough. His primary hangup regarding the SAFE Act seems to be that it didn’t restrict handguns enough. Specifically he didn’t believe the law went far enough to prevent children from acquiring handguns. As it turns out Mr. Ferguson possesses a permit that allows him to carry a firearm that he feels isn’t restricted heavily enough. Then, to peg the irony scale, he brings that handgun into a school. If he is concerned about children obtaining handguns illegally (because it was still illegal to transfer a handgun to a child before the SAFE Act) wouldn’t you think he would try to prevent children from coming into close proximity to handguns?
Second, stories like this lead me to believe that many gun control advocates aren’t sincere. They spend a lot of time talking about the need to restrict access to firearms but what they really want is to restrict people they don’t like from accessing firearms. I haven’t met a gun control advocate yet that believed police officers and military personnel shouldn’t possess firearms (after all, those groups will need firearms to enforce gun control laws). There are also a large number of gun control advocates that believe “important” people (as defined by them) should be allowed to carry firearms because they’re better than you and me. In the case of Mr. Ferguson it seems he believes he is one of these “important” people, which isn’t surprising considering how egotistical many gun control advocates are (after all they do know what’s best for you).
Third, the reaction by the police was absurd. A dozen police cars, SWAT team, K9 unit, and helicopter aren’t necessary for a report of an individual carrying a firearm. If the initial report involved an actual shooting then I could see such a militaristic response but the act of carrying a firearm isn’t in of itself dangerous. But our society has become so incredibly fearful that we believe any report of a man carrying a gun, especially in a school, warrants the deployment of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of firepower before even a cursory investigation is performed. The first response to the initial call should have involved the 911 operator asking whether or not the individual in question was acting in a violent manner. If he wasn’t then I could see sending an officer or two to the school to inform the individual that carrying a gun on school grounds is illegal and that he should exit the building and place the firearm in his vehicle before returning.
This story demonstrates so many issues I have with gun control advocates and the state in general. Between the irony, hypocrisy, and overreaction I can’t help but sit in here and shake my head.