Author: Buckeye Firearms Association

By Larry S. Moore As firearms and self-defense activists, we see a lot of news stories that involve guns. Unfortunately much of it involves the misuse of firearms. Even more unfortunate is…

By Chad D. Baus

If ever there was a headline that made me do a double-take, it was a recent Associated Press article entitled “Mass shootings more common since 1960s”.

The thesis of the article, written in the days following Seung-Hui Cho’s sick massacre of his fellow college students, is to ask “What is it about modern-day America that provokes such random violence?” AP reporter Matt Crenson gets quickly to the point, inciting more than a few tragic memories by invoking the words “Luby’s. Jonesboro. Columbine. And now, Virginia Tech.”

From the story:

Since Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman climbed a 27-story tower on the University of Texas campus and started picking people off, at least 100 Americans have gone on shooting sprees.

And all through those years, the same questions have been asked: What is it about modern-day America that provokes such random violence? Is it the decline of traditional morals? The depiction of violence in entertainment? The ready availability of lethal firepower?

While it is certainly true that those who would prefer we have no firearms have attempted to (and in some cases succeeded in) exploit these mass murders to question the “ready availability” of firearms, one of the first things that comes to my mind when someone mentions the Sixties is the Gun Control Act of 1968. As Crenson looks back to that decade and compares it to modern America, it becomes clear there is another potential explanation for such instances of random violence – the drastic increase in gun control laws.

It wasn’t quite at the level of Toledo Blade editorial board member Dan Simpson’s got pretty close. I don’t want to take away your deer rifle, your shotgun or even your .357,…