Sunday, July 8, 2007

Maybe Rudy Really Doesn't Get It.

Armed and Safe comes through again. Now, I will say up front that I was probably never going to vote for Rudy Giuliani, and that’s probably OK with him, because to a guy from New York City, what I think is not important. I’m just a guy in flyover country. I have a pickup truck. I shoot guns for fun. I mow my own lawn. I’ve never been to a cocktail party in my life. I’m not the Giuliani target audience. I get that.

But I’ve been telling people for awhile that I prefer Giuliani over Mitt Romney for just one very important reason: at least Giuliani wasn’t lying about his positions. Giuliani didn’t say:

“Coincidentally enough, I have discovered on the eve of the national election that I’m pro-gun, anti-abortion, and whatever else you hicksticks in polyester pants are for . . . or against, or whatever you people do when you’re not pickin’ banjos at cockfights.”

But Rudy G. had to go and talk about guns and show me that he just doesn’t get it. Some kid asked him about gun control, and Rudy says “Well, your friends are probably worried about me because I enforced the laws in New York . . . . . . your friends don’t have to worry about me unless they're felons.”

That sounds nice at first. I’m not a felon, so I’m home free, right? But this morning I heard the audio of that statement played on NPR (that’s right, I listen and I pledge, deal with it.) Hearing it, I was struck at what Giuliani was ignoring. “You don’t have to worry about me unless you’re a criminal” is a statement of exactly null value in a discussion of gun control laws, because the very thing that makes gun control so heinous and nasty is that it tends to make criminals out of otherwise law-abiding people. The gun laws in New York City are no exception. You probably don’t know anyone with a NYC carry permit, even if you were born and raised there. But you know OF people with carry permits, because the rich and famous can get them under New York’s discretionary system. So Steven Tyler and the boys from Aerosmith have carry permits, even after the musical felonies they’ve been committing in the long, windswept, barren years since Living On the Edge Don Imus has a carry permit, as does Howard Stern. I’m not saying Howard Stern shouldn’t have a carry permit, but I have to ask myself why he’s considered more responsible and more important than, for instance, me. The end result of these kinds of laws is that people are left with a choice between what they know is moral and ethical on the one hand, and what they’re told is legal on the other. It’s wrong to paint people into that corner, Rudy, period.

8 comments:

GeorgeH said...

Anyone can get a carry permit in NYC. It's just a matter of hiring the right lawyer to fill out the papers for you.
some years back that took a $20,000.00 retainer.
I don't know what it runs today, but it's just a matter of priorities. How important is having the money to send the kid to college, really?

Don said...

I stand corrected! :)

BobG said...

I don't know why Romney is even running; he doesn't have even a chance of winning.
Giuliani is a left-wing nanny stater pretending to be a Republican.

SpeakerTweaker said...

Here, here, Don. One thing I'd like to add, if I may, sir.

Two things make gun "control" laws heinous:

1. You pointed out that it makes criminals out of law-abiding citizens (you can make laws against having long hair and I'd be a crook quick).

and

2. The already law-breakers out there could give two $#!*s about the laws; THEY ARE CRIMINALS. THEY DON'T CARE. You ever heard a bank robber say, "Holy ___! This is illegal!" It'd be like a smoker saying, "Holy ____, these things are bad for you!"

Great post, though. Won't Romney or Giuliani one get my vote. I figger Thompson'll get the Republican nod, and consequently my vote. THAT man clanks when he walks.



tweaker

Tom said...

Don,
I'm in New Jersey now, but during the entire Giuliani administration I was living in Manhattan near Times Square. I've met Rudy a few times at fundraisers and the like, and know quite a bit about him.

The thing about Rudy, and the rest of the people in NYC is that they just don't have any appreciation for the idea that protecting yourself is something you have a right to do. It's simply beyond their experience. Personal firearms have been illegal here for the peasants for decades, and since that's so, New Yorkers are literally trained from birth to believe that anyone who has a gun must be a criminal. I take people from Manhattan shooting all the time just to try to counteract some of it and you should see the reactions I get. Do you remember how excited you were the first time you fired that .22 when you were a kid? I think I was about 11 at the time. Well just imagine that the first time you even see a gun up close let alone fire it, you're a full grown man in your 30s. I've seen a dozen men in that situation.

I wouldn't get too worked up about Rudy though. The thing about Rudy is that the media despises him (and he hates them right back). They spent 8 years attacking him in New York, where they often described him as "the worst, most racist Mayor in the city's history." And now he has an angry and hostile ex wife, Donna Hanover, who was a local news anchor woman, and is a mainstay with the major media here. She has her own radio show and is a frequent guest of national shows like "Today" and "Good Morning America". Their highly public and bitter divorce forced Giuliani out of the Mayor's mansion during his last term, and he ended up borrowing a spare bedroom from a gay couple in Manhattan who were friends of his.

I've know about his antipathy for the second amendment a long time, and used to get quite worked up about it. But now I know that he'll never make it past the primary. Right now, I'm hanging my hopes on Fred Thompson, but even if (gulp) a Democrat were to win the presidency, gun control is looking like a loser at the national level. No one will push it because it will lose them national elections, and Giuliani's softening reflects that.

I firmly believe that all we really have to do now is win the local arguments, and I think the way to do that is to remind the minority community that THEY are the ones who people really want to disarm. Responsible married suburban white guys (cunning hat or no) are just not the target for gun control, it's black people that they REALLY want to disarm. And I think that if the minority community in Chicago and New York are reminded of that vividly enough, we'd win the argument in two or three election cycles.

Don said...

Tom, that should be a front-page post somewhere. Put it up; I'll link to it. I'd put it on my front page if I'd written it.

Tom said...

Don,
I'm working on a slightly longer piece on that last theme for tomorrow.

Tom said...

The new piece is up on my page Don.