Anti-Gunner Chimes in From La-La Land

Is it our imagination, or are gun control supporters really getting “out there” lately? Take Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Dan Simpson, for example. On Tuesday, Simpson didn’t just exaggerate or engage in hyperbole. If he had, we might not have noticed, because those things are a dime a dozen when you’re talking about gun control supporters.

Simpson instead went off the deep end and then some, as he tried to vilify the NRA, NRA members, and American firearm manufacturers for disagreeing with expanded background checks and an expanded ban on semi-automatic firearms and their magazines.

NRA members, Simpson said, subscribe to conspiracy theories involving black helicopters and the like. But Simpson expressed faith in a few conspiracies of his own, to say the least. For example, Simpson said that he suspects that the recent PBS Frontline hatchet-job on the NRA--which, judging by the piddly number of views its related videos are getting on YouTube, has made little impression on America--was actually a “whitewash” of the NRA, paid for by--who else?--“the gun industry.”

Here’s another. According to Simpson, the reason that American firearm manufacturers have facilities in various states around the country is “to help maximize the impact of their lobbying of members of Congress.” Never mind that Springfield Armory, Beretta, Sturm/Ruger, and Smith & Wesson have facilities in Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, respectively, most of the U.S. senators and representatives of which support gun control.

Simpson even said that he thinks the Secret Service might allow President Obama to be endangered “if he takes on the NRA.” Perhaps Simpson can ask the Secret Service about that, if they pay him a visit to make sure he’s just an anti-gun crank suffering from a poor choice of words, and nothing more.

Either way, we support the right of anti-gun pot stirrers like Simpson to let Americans know exactly how they view the world. It can only contribute to the continued erosion of support for the freedom-throttling gun control laws they demand.