What the hell is wrong with you?
— mediapostate (@mediapostate) June 21, 2017
Earlier today, National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke posted a piece debunking the notion that stricter gun control laws would have prevented last week’s shooting at a practice congressional baseball game in Alexandria, an attack in which several people were wounded, including GOP Rep. Steve Scalise:
FBI Report on Alexandria Quietly Debunks the Gun-Controllers’ Talking Points https://t.co/008JeELn0s
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 21, 2017
Cooke also called out ghoulish gun grabber David Frum for his idiocy following the attack:
Why does [the fact that shooter James Hodgkinson bought his gun in Illinois] matter? Well, because before they knew anything about the case, many in the press had reflexively tried to use the incident as an argument for stricter gun control. The Atlantic’s David Frum, for example, immediately went on an error-laden tear about Virginia’s laws, which he considers to be too lax, and then took to proposing the sort of “common sense” reforms that the Democratic party has been so impotently trying to sell. But, as the FBI confirms, this reaction was an ignorant one. For a start, the guns weren’t bought in Virginia; they were bought in Illinois, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. And they weren’t purchased privately, illegally, or without attendant background checks, but “legally through federal firearms licensees” that are obliged under federal law to run checks. Moreover, Hodgkinson only got the weapons after he obtained an additional possession-and-purchase license (FOID) of the sort that more extreme gun-control advocates want to see made mandatory in all states.
Or, put another way: Illinois has stricter rules than even Barack Obama endorsed — it quite literally licenses all gun-owners in the state — and those rules made no difference to this case.
Alas, the errors don’t end there. Frum and co. also berated Virginia for being among the 40+ states to permit open carry. But Alexandria, where the shooting took place, doesn’t permit open carry, a fact that prompted one of the most hilariously convoluted arguments I have seen in my life. Others talked about both “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines. But as the FBI notes, the firearm used was an SKS in 7.62mm, which has never been classed as an “assault weapon,” and which wasn’t included in the ban that obtained from 1994-2004. Further, when he bought it, Hodgkinson’s SKS was unable to take “high-capacity” magazines at all; rather, it came with an internal 10-round box magazine. Per the report, Hodgkinson seems to have modified it to take external magazines after the purchase, a change that raises the fair question of how effective any at-sale restrictions can really be in stopping the determined. Either way, even after he modified it there is no evidence that Hodgkinson introduced a larger than 10-round external magazine (that’s the standard for the modified SKS), or that, if he did, it had any effect on the outcome.
Frum didn’t much care for being called out (the truth hurts, after all):
This piece mentions me in some disobliging ways, so I suppose I should reply, but seriously … https://t.co/KeHz8Z74ea
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2017
… wouldn’t it be less convoluted & more intelligent just to say, “My Charles Bronson fantasies are fully worth periodic gun massacres”?
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2017
The chop-logic denial of the connection between the developed world’s laxest gun laws-and worst gun violence-just seems such a waste of time
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2017
Just go for the gusto! The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of Newtown schoolchildren!
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2017
Pardon our French, but what the hell is wrong with this man?
yikes https://t.co/I03MYZAvq7
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/iptuttle/status/877609641064120320
This is not a thing you say during an argument you are winning on the merits https://t.co/Nq6PIdwQTb
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) June 21, 2017
And with that statement, you've made it very clear you can't win your arguments with facts.
— Back off, War Child (@silver_shots) June 21, 2017
You cannot have an honest debate with people like this. pic.twitter.com/g8p4rqCb2Y
— BT (@back_ttys) June 21, 2017
No, you can’t.
This is what a fool who has lost an argument screams at the top of his lungs. For shame.
— McCook Guy- Gruntled Sometimes (@mccook2002) June 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/SC2Darwin/status/877601333510930432
https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/877600356976414721
https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/877600097890172928
https://twitter.com/YuiMetal3/status/877600693162450944
https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/877600951208734721
Trying to make a point with such a horrendous tweet is vomit-inducing. If you can't come up with something better, just shut up!
— NDGirl (@NDisGreat) June 21, 2017
You were wrong, pushed a false narrative and now you mad. Now standing on the graves of children to act morally superior.
— dubs (@dubs498) June 21, 2017
So, after @charlescwcooke showed that you were wrong, you go straight to talking about dead kids? That'll teach us. https://t.co/xvRNtQLvAa
— David French (@DavidAFrench) June 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/hboulware/status/877604946400526336
You really are a scumbag Frum.
— JAS (@JohnSmolenski3) June 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/CharlemagSteak/status/877608872923373568
For what it’s worth, Cooke has opted to take the high road:
I see @davidfrum’s tweets. Not much to add. For the nth time this week, he was wrong. He can’t admit it, so he’s playing games. So be it.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 21, 2017
Too bad Frum is too far down in the gutter to care.
***
Update:
Guess all the well deserved heat thrown his way got to be too much for Frum:
This was too hot, I shouldn’t have said it, and I apologize for it both personally to @charlescwcooke & to those who reasonably took offense https://t.co/dqEdkVumUb
— David Frum (@davidfrum) June 21, 2017
Awww, he apologizes to those he offended. That’s nice. Unfortunately, given his track record on this stuff, his apology is worthless.
***
Related:
‘Seek help’: David Frum HAMMERED for ‘fallacious and ghoulish’ response to Alexandria shooting
Ouch! Jenna Jameson DESTROYS David Frum’s Alexandria shooting idiocy
Execrable ghoul David Frum: Gun lobby has put ‘children in their graves’
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