Why Terrorist Attacks
Changed American Gun Attitudes
By Michael S. Brown
Lew Rockwell.com
10-19-1

The way that Americans feel about guns has undergone a sudden and unexpected change since the attacks of 9-11. Regulatory agencies, gun retailers, and safety instructors all report a sharp increase in activity. Many purchasers are women, first-time buyers, and those who previously held anti-gun views.
 
Societal issues normally undergo gradual, pendulum-like swings, but this one is changing with astounding speed. It took roughly forty years for the gun control movement to convince a large portion of the population that guns caused violence and were too dangerous for ordinary citizens to possess. It has taken less than one year for the tide to change.
 
The most obvious reasons for this rapid transformation are directly related to the terrorist attacks. For example, the almost unanimous call for military action makes it seem hypocritical to label guns as evil instruments when we are asking our military to wield them on our behalf.
 
The fact that the attacks were carried out without a single gun was a wake-up call to even the most ardent anti-gun activists. While they were concentrating on the dangers of guns, they ignored the reality that people with evil intent are the real threat.
 
Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore, in the process of finishing an anti-gun documentary, made this dramatic statement that probably expresses the feelings of many at his end of the political spectrum:
 
"This started out as a documentary on gun violence in America, but the largest mass murder in our history was just committed ­ without the use of a single gun! Not a single bullet fired!... I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand gun control laws would not have prevented this massacre. What am I doing?"
 
I believe this widespread attitude adjustment would have been impossible if not for the results of the last presidential election. Political analysts declared that support for tougher gun control laws lost the election for Al Gore. Although this is probably an exaggeration, Democratic politicians fled from the issue as if it were the kiss of death.
 
Liberal voters were free to rethink their position on guns without feeling disloyal to their party. They began to notice the failure of gun control laws and "gun free zones" in other countries, as well as in various states and cities. They started reading articles by Prof. John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime. Doubts developed about the politically correct view of gun ownership. These doubts suddenly fit in with the new picture created on 9-11.
 
As soon as details of the boxcutter hijackings became public, millions of people shared a single thought. These attacks never would have succeeded if a single person with a handgun and a cool head had been in the right place at the right time.
 

The ease with which terrorists eluded our security measures made us all aware of how vulnerable we are. Terrorists have the luxury of striking at a time and place of their choosing, while we must defend all possible targets at all times.
 
The next attack could easily disable large sections of the electric power grid, resulting in extended blackouts and a breakdown in social order.
 
Today's neophyte gun buyers are probably less concerned with fighting terrorists than with a scenario similar to the last round of riots in Los Angeles during which police abandoned large areas of the city. In the resulting rush to local gun stores, many were dismayed at the long waiting period required before they could take delivery of a firearm that would allow them to protect their families.
 
The anti-gun lobby would like us to believe that new gun buyers are acting out of blind fear, but most are undergoing a sober and thoughtful re-evaluation that began prior to the attacks. Before 9-11, many people were still in denial about their own vulnerability to danger. It was easy to believe that we could always dial 911 and instantly summon armed officers to our rescue.
 
The lesson that many Americans have taken from this experience is that we should each take more responsibility for our own safety. Seeing so many innocent lives snuffed out without warning has injected a harsh dose of reality and relieved us of some of our idealistic innocence  

For once, I agree with something on that website.



Damn!  Michael Moore said that???????  It took 9/11 to wake him up to what most of us have understood for years.  Maybe there is hope.



Not sure if I agree with this.  I think that 9/11 would have jolted many into reality, regardless of who was president.

9/11 was just one more nail in the coffin of the Brady bill, I will cheer when it goes down in flames in 04'. Now we just need to get Ron Pauls second amendment restoration act passed so we can have imports......mmmmmmmm Sig 550 [:D]

Probably the most unusual thing I've seen since 9/11 is at the 2 Gun Show's I've attended.  There were more people there, which was not the surprising part.  But I noticed I could hardly move up/down the isles due to all the baby carriages!  You couldn't go 20' without bumping into a Mom w/1-3 kids.

Sure, there were a very few kids at shows with Dad before, but now it's like they might need to setup Daycare or something.  Wives are not only going to Gun Shows with thier neophite husbands, but taking them there with the whole family.

Wierd.  Who knows, maybe we can get ROTC back into state colleges & high schools again.  Wouldn't that be something!

God bless America and our evolution!

The Libs just needed something to slap them up the side of the head and show them the error of their ways. I am glad we are getting our rights back, but its still sad 5000 people had to loose their lives before it happened.

I pulled the story from Rense.com, just fyi.

OMG!  Logic and reason from Michael Moore!?!?!?  Maybe the world IS coming to an end!

Those folks at VPC & HCI etc are looking pretty silly & foolish advocating more gun control in the wake of the WTC attack.
=====================================================
From Neal Knox's Alerts
http://www.nealknox.com/alerts/msg00054.html

   Handgun Control Inc. -- the "Brady Campaign" -- was a little
slow to claim their pet gun control measures would affect
terrorists, but a month after the 9/11 disaster they chimed in with
the opportunistic chants of American for Gun Safety and Violence
Policy Center.

[b]"Any anti-terrorism proposal that fails to address easy access
to firearms or retention of (background) records is clearly
inadequate," an HCI spokesman said. "If we are going to require
background checks for airline security workers, it doesn't make
sense not to require them for people who buy guns."[/b]    

   That was just before Congress passed its anti-terrorism bill
without any gun provisions.  

   And it was right after HCI's California spokesman Luis Tolley
accused California Rifle & Pistol Association of "disgusting
opportunism" and "wrapping itself in the flag" for a long-planned
but just-started "six-figure" billboard advertising campaign built
around the slogan: "Society is safer when criminals don't know who
is armed."

   Clearly, only anti-gun groups are allowed to try to make
political hay out of terrorist attacks, school shootings or other
awful events -- as anti-gunners inevitably try to do.  

Michael Moore is Still a Punk.

Today he will have his doubts about gun-control.  Tomorrow, he will be right back to pushing gun control.

I say this from watching various liberal talking heads on Cable discussing Clinton's latest outrage.  

"O.K. NOW Clinton is an SOB and I want him jailed/fined/out of office, whatever."  The next day, or the next week, these same liberals were right back to defending him like cornered rats.

Armed Scientist,

Just for your own edification, the '94 AW Ban has nothing to do with the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act of 1993.  The "Brady Bill" has expired.  The provisions set forth in the bill were interim, meaning temporary.

Many states have chosen to adopt similar laws in its place.  My state, PA has chosen to let the bill expire and replace it with a NICS check (no waiting period.)

PS- States had until September 30, 1998 to replace the Brady provisions with their own.

Don't anybody think we have heard the last from Sara Brady!!!!

I agree the terrible events of 9/11 has caused a serious re-think for many people. I too went to a gun show a couple weeks back and it was packed!! I spoke to a dealer whom I know and he was shocked. People were buying.....normally he would get a sale from 1 person out of 100, maybe. At this show he had sold 15 handguns in the first hour.

Sara Brady and her crew will keep touting how easy it is to get a gun in this country and how the laws need to tighten all the loopholes especially now.
We have to remind people just how hard it is to get a gun. I live in MA. and firearm ownership here has many turns and twists. In fact, I'm not sure the Police fully understand the laws.