It never stops surprising me how many politicians or members of the media seem to have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to guns. All they know is their opinion, which is frequently based on stunning ignorance.
We saw such a post from former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson about her AR-15 hatred, where she had no idea what she was saying, and then made it worse with a video that revealed she knew nothing about math as well.
What’s worse is the incredible preachiness from someone who is ignorant about the subject.
But it looks like author James Patterson wants to join Carlson in horrible takes. Every sentence of his post below is awash in ignorance.
I write about assault weapons more than I’d like to. I believe their place is in the hands of law officers and our military. I honestly don’t see why anyone else needs to have a machine gun. I’m 99.999% sure that Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Washington, and the Adams boys did not foresee assault rifles in the hands of farm boys back in the 18th century, when they were writing the Second Amendment. Muskets and flintlock pistols fired a single shot in about 20 seconds.
I wonder if Patterson can even define what an assault weapon is. Most liberals can’t, because there is no real definition; it’s just whatever is on the hate list that looks evil to them, like the AR-15. Putting them only in the hands of “law officers” and “our military” is exactly counter to what the Founders envisioned, since they were speaking out about the rights of the people to respond to a tyrannical government. If only the government has the power, what would the people’s right mean? The Founders wanted the “farm boys” to be able to respond to any threat in the future.
Perhaps the most ignorant part of the comment was how he didn’t see how “anyone else needs to have a machine gun.” Machine guns are not allowed in general use, and can only be obtained through a special process. AR-15s aren’t machine guns; they are only semi-automatic. No fully automatic weapons are in general use.
Patterson got schooled by a high ratio of people. Many also pointed out how he was wrong about what the Founders envisioned in terms of guns — that they weren’t limited to muskets and flintlocks, and that there were repeating weapons at the time. Unfortunately, ignorance doesn’t seem to stop liberals from acting like they know everything when the opposite is true.
How much is Patterson’s opinion worth? Not a whole heck of a lot. Skip about two-thirds into this video for his comment defending Bill Clinton.
