Beliefs have consequences.

You know how atheist Leftists looooove to mock Christians because they believe in stuff that can't be proven or isn't true?

Well now friends we can mock them back, because they have their own catechism of stuff that's completely wrong.

Case in point, the idea of gun control is that guns -cause- violence. The presence of a gun in an emotionally charged situation creates the situation that someone will get shot. If no gun was there, then no fatal incident could happen.  Because its much too difficult to simply beat somebody to death, whereas shooting somebody is easy. Just a trigger pull.  Therefore because its easier people are more likely to do it. In the literature this is known as the "Impulsivity Theory" of gun violence.

Now, without arguing the validity of the theory just yet, let us examine the logical consequence of it. If guns make it easier to kill somebody, how about other things? Wouldn't a knife make it easier to impulsively stab somebody? Well yes it would, and indeed there are plenty of British doctors signing on to a policy of banning certain kinds of knives.

A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

Also, Japan has what's referred to as the Firearms & Swords Control Law.  Meaning anything the cops feel like calling a sword, pretty much you don't get to have. In Japan, on the whole only the cops and the Yakuza have guns, and only museums have swords. Except for the odd mass murderer, now and again.

How about a baseball bat, wouldn't that make it easier to beat somebody? Well yes it would! Shouldn't we ban them then? Well yes we should, and in Tokyo they do!

Four teen-age biker gang members were arrested Sunday as Tokyo police for the first time wielded a traffic restriction on cruising the streets with baseball bats.

A 17-year-old metal worker from Chiba and three other boys received the dubious honor after they allegedly carried metal baseball bats while riding around Tokyo.

Under a revised Tokyo traffic regulation introduced on Sept. 30, people sitting on the backseat of a motorbike are banned from holding a baseball bat, iron pipe or similar items.

Highway police said the boys, who were riding tandem on two bikes, were netted at a temporary checkpoint set up in a Toshima-ku part of the Metropolitan Expressway early Sunday. (Mainichi Shimbun, Oct. 28, 2001)

Hey, how about DANCING? Dance clubs attract all sorts of bad elements, can we ban dancing? Well yes we can, and in Tokyo they do.

Japan's club scene is dying. From Sapporo to Fukuoka, dance floors in some of Japan's most prominent venues are filled with motionless twenty or thirtysomethings, if at all.  Club staff make their rounds, interrupting unknowing or rebellious jubilants and pointing to the prominent "No Dancing" signs in major Roppongi clubs (your taste may vary), where they even give out paper warnings that read something like this:

              PLEASE NO DANCING

It's prohibited by the Japanese law to dance in any commercial place in Japan. We don't allow to dance in this establishment.

Thanks for the cooperation.

Poor translation aside, this is the state of Japan now. Some clubs even kick out dancers, although swaying like you're at a high school dance seems to be acceptable (perhaps out of pity).

 Clearly once you believe that things cause crime, there is no limit to what you need to ban.  Britain banned guns, now these idiots at NIH are on about knives. Japan banned guns AND knives, now they're on to baseball bats and dancing. In Saudi Arabia women wear the veil because a woman's uncovered features cause rape!

That this belief is both obviously and demonstrably insane does not matter! The believers believe it, and they will put thier hands over their ears and shout "La la la can't hear you!" if you try to question their belief. You can't talk to them, you can't mock them, you can't shame them. They have the One True Belief and -you- are just an infidel.

There's really only one way to manage people bent on banning your freedom to keep you from misbehaving. Three guesses what that is, first two don't count.

The Phantom