Gun Control Zealotry from Cenk Uygur

Though we often disagree, I am a fan of The Young Turks and Cenk Uygur. The problem with both the conventional Left and Right is that they are unwilling to criticize their own side and instead indulge in pure partisan mindlessness. This accomplishes little to nothing. Uyger has been as harsh a critic of President Obama from a Left perspective as anyone. I admire that.

That said, in the many liberal columns I’ve read over the past few days, I always fast forward to the section where the liberal writer is going to explain to me why the absence of another armed person in that movie theater tragedy in Aurora, Colorado last Friday was somehow a good thing. This seems so patently stupid that I’m fascinated by those who dare make the argument.

Most liberals don’t make this argument. They just cite some statistics about how many incidents of gun violence occur each year (with no mention of how many of these instances involved unregistered guns, convicted felons or were part of a crime) and other abstractions that have little to do with the main point–how could have anyone, other than another armed citizen, stopped the Aurora Colorado shooter?

To his credit, Cenk Uygur actually goes there. To the dismay of logical people, this is what he said in his Huffington Post column Saturday:

They send out their Republican minions to say that the answer is more guns. If only other people in the crowd had guns, then everything would have been alright. Yes, because in that dark, smoke filled theater if there were more than two or three shooters everyone would have known who was the original shooter and less people would have been shot, right?

How would the third gunmen know if the second gunmen were part of the team that was shooting the place up (like Klebold and Harris at Columbine) or one of the guys trying to prevent it? Let alone the fourth or the fifth gunmen, let alone the cops who show up.

Umm, Cenk, you see that guy who is walking around and firing upon unarmed people who are screaming in terror? You shoot him. He’s bad. What if there are two, three or eight people doing the same thing? You shoot them too. They are also bad.

Is there the potential that such a scenario could become confusing and messy? Perhaps. But the subtext to what Uygur is saying is that gun owners are complete morons who can’t make basic right and wrong decisions because they are in a dark theater. This is absurd.

Worse, it’s insane. And it’s hard to imagine a single soul inside that theater who would’ve agreed in that terrifying moment with Cenk Uygur.