Vince Avedon – 4/22/07

This page was last updated on April 23, 2007.

Silence is acceptance; Vince Avedon; Beaver County Times; April 22, 2007.

As you read this, remember Mr. Avedon once wrote that a high school student who showed interest in enlisting in the Marines as a “was probably brought up to be a two-faced traitor to his country.”

When I wrote this critique, the subject letter was not posted on the Times website. As a result, rather than do a point-by-point critique (requiring me to transcribe the entire letter), I’ll stick to a couple of points.

His letter is mostly a liberal rant consistent with Mr. Avedon’s previous letters.

Mr. Avedon alleges a bunch of groups – including “the NRA, the evangelicals, and the Focus on the Family Group, the Catholic Church, the religious right or the anti-abortion people” – were silent about the Virginia Tech murders. In typical liberal fashion, Mr. Avedon suspects a conspiracy when he wrote, “I suspect the gun lobby got to all of them, and I also suspect gun control is not on Santorum’s think tank agenda.” Yes, Mr. Avedon still has a fixation on Rick Santorum.

As you guessed, Mr. Avedon apparently believes in gun control. As a result, Mr. Avedon believes law-abiding citizens should be defenseless against armed criminals. The idea gun laws would have prevented the Virginia Tech murders is iffy at best. Remember, the killer planned this attack months in advance. A determined killer wouldn’t let gun laws get in the way of his plans.

Evidence also shows gun bans don’t work. ABC’s World News Sunday carried a story yesterday describing how Great Britain banned handguns after the 1996 elementary school shooting (16 dead) in Scotland. Though the point of the story was to lobby for gun control, the reporter had to concede, “Gun crime has risen here [Great Britain] during the past decade.”