OPINION:
Four were killed and two injured in a series of horrific knife attacks in Southern California.
And all the Democrats go: Ban the knives!
Not really.
That’d be stupid. Right?
And yet, this is the same logic the left uses when it calls for restrictions on the Second Amendment every time there’s a fatal shooting.
Strange but true.
On the knifings: Garden Grove Police said they have arrested a 33-year-old male suspect on charges related to a series of fatal stabbings and robberies in Orange County. Four innocents are dead; two, seriously injured. The suspect, police said, is believed to have committed three armed robberies as well — at a bakery and two other local businesses.
“These are all random acts of violence,” said Garden Grove Lt. Carl Whitney, of the stabbings, ABC reported. “Our suspect was not associated with any of our victims.”
As for the motive?
“We don’t know,” Whitney said. “It’s just pure hate that this guy did this.”
Pure hate; pure evil. But notice: It’s not the knife’s fault. Nobody’s blaming the blade.
Nobody’s calling for common-sense legislation to curb knife use.
Nobody’s bringing up the need for red flag rules to make sure the mentally ill don’t have access to knives.
Not to be trite, or insensitive — the tragic loss of lives in this senseless attack is not a joke. But there is a joke being played on the American people with the Second Amendment, whenever there’s a gun-related fatality in this country, and it’s one that this knife attack aptly highlights. It’s one that goes like this: Guns, not people, kill.
That’s just not true.
And this knife attack reveals an interesting and important truth, one that in this hotly charged era of anti-Second Amendment politicking, can’t be repeated enough times.
Just as when knifers, knife — when shooters, shoot — it’s not the tool of attack, but the heart and mind and intent of the tool-holder to blame. Inanimate objects, by themselves, are neither good nor evil.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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