Dear America,
So there’s this crazy guy in Texas, Cody Wilson, who’s a Second Amendment gun maniac, and he’s threatened to publish schematics on the Internet for how to print plastic guns at home using a 3D printer.
WTF?
I mean I know this is a gun-crazy country, but do we really need every cowboy Joe and Jane and every dude who thinks he’s a badass to be able to print untraceable, undetectable-by-metal-detectors guns in their home? What possible purpose could this serve?
Because we’ve had Columbine, we’ve had Sandy Hook, we’ve had Aurora, we’ve had Las Vegas, we’ve had Orlando, and we’ve had hundreds of other mass shootings over the past twenty years. They’ve left broken families in their wake, tattered dreams, and sorrow I can’t even imagine for the victims and their families.
We’ve also had “thoughts and prayers” issued by about a million politicians, but no concrete action taken on gun control. The rest of the world laughs at us as we kill each other with AR-15’s bought at local sporting goods stores or gun shows.
But this new development, the ability to print a gun at home, in the comfort of one’s living room, seems particularly insidious.
It’s like:
“Hey Craig, wanna come over tonight and watch the game on TV?”
“No thanks Dan, I’m gonna’ stay home and print a gun.” Really? Is that how we want our citizens spending their time?
Law enforcement officials and police groups have long railed against plastic guns, because they are untraceable, thus easy to evade the police when used. They’re also undetectable at airports and other security checkpoints. They are guns for people with bad intentions, people who want to inflict a lot of damage and not get stopped or caught in the process.
I don’t know about you, but this seems absolutely insane to me. We already have over 300 million firearms floating around America in civilian hands. Do we really need to make it even easier than it already is for Americans to get guns?
This dude, this Cody Wilson, claims it’s both a First Amendment (free speech and free press) and Second Amendment (right to bear arms) issue. But is it? I’ve only read a little bit about him, but he seems like an absolute psycho. Would someone please explain to me how his plan to enable people to print guns at home will benefit society? Because I just don’t see it.
Law enforcement groups have issued the caveat that most Americans probably won’t spend the money to get the kinds of expensive, sophisticated 3D printers necessary to print a functional plastic gun. But some will. Some definitely will. And that should be enough to stop Cody Wilson and anyone who supports him dead — excuse the pun — in their tracks.
Thankfully, a federal court judge in Seattle saw the light. He was joined by eight other attorneys general who issued a temporary injunction preventing Wilson from publishing the gun schematics on the Internet. But the legal battle grinds on.
President Trump has also weighed in on the issue on, where else, Twitter.
The President tweeted: “I am looking into 3D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”
So our fearless leader is “looking into it.” I have no idea what that means, but it probably involves several diet Cokes, a good deal of Fox News, and maybe playing a little grabass with one of his female staff members.
Researching the issue in-depth though? I highly doubt it.
Even if Trump does do his due diligence, he’ll face enormous pressure from conservative Republicans who have been pushing to make the 3-D printed guns legal for several years now.
Will he withstand the pressure? Does he even care about the issue? Who knows? I mean who really knows what lurks in the mind and heart of this perpetual 12-year old President with the brain of a flea and the heart of a bloody dictator.
The thing is, only in America could this happen. We’re so freaking gun crazy that despite all the gun tragedies we’ve had, and despite all the evidence that countries that legally restrict guns suffer exponentially fewer mass shootings than we do, we still continue to plow ahead and try to figure out new ways to get guns into the hands of Americans.
It’s madness, pure and simple.
The front page of the The New York Times today has a story that’s headlined: “Don’t Get Shot In America. Live In Australia!”
There’s a picture of a nice looking, clean-cut dude standing under a tree with a cute and cuddly koala bear hanging over him. I didn’t even read the article, because I already know what it’s about. Like I said, the rest of the world is laughing at us.
So I will pray to my spiritual god, not Jesus or Moses or anyone like that, but I’ll pray to my higher power that Cody Wilson and his maniac supporters are prevented from unleashing this new chaos on my country.
Because if they succeed, it really will be the apocalypse, the end of days, over, finito.
And who wants to live in a country that’s had an apocalypse? Because I need my iced cold brew from Dunkin Donuts every morning, and maybe an egg and cheese sandwich too. And I just don’t think an apocalypse-afflicted country can provide that on a regular, daily basis.
So if the President and the courts are listening to me, or reading this essay, please stop Cody Wilson and his allies. Don’t add to the gun misery we already face.
Thanks.
Signed,
Charles Tanzer
