Freedom grabbers like Joe Harris are disturbing.

Firearms have become this nation's "weapons of mass destruction".

Approximately 35,000 people will be killed this year by gun violence in this nation. That is nearly 40 times more people than will be killed in Canada and nearly 1,000 times more people than will be killed in Japan. The United States has the highest rate of deaths by gun violence than all the industrialized nations. There are over 222 million firearms in the United States. 30,708 people died from firearm injuries in 1998. There are 35 times more firearms in the U.S. than in Canada.

In the United Kingdom handguns are outlawed entirely. Police officers do not even carry guns. England, Japan and Australia have far less gun ownership than the U.S. In both England and Japan police forces rely on the ability to exercise search and seizure with ease. England has evolved culturally to the point, where firearms are not needed, as a significant part of society. They are sipping tea, content in the peace that dominates their country.

Never mind that the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" is a played out cliche. This guy thinks a society that has "evolved culturally" to the point where government agents "exercise search and seizure with ease".

He's also pretty loose with the statistics. Comparing firearms deaths directly is always a misnomer. For one thing the deaths undoubtedly include defensive uses as well as offensive uses; including even those who are shot by the police government. Also, comparing homicides by firearm doesn't mean much if you don't throw in all the other ways people are killed. There's a lot to be said for Archie Bunker's statement, "would you rather they was pushed out of windows?"

When you throw in the different ways that countries calculate statistics there's just no easy way to compare the numbers.

Painting the picture that England is "sipping tea, content in the peace that dominates their country" is idealogical bullshit. Britons may be sipping tea at home, but that's only because they are terrified to go out. You are more than twice as likely to be robbed in London than in New York. So much for dominating peace. The only thing dominating England is the bureaucracy, and idiots like this would have us do the same thing here.

He goes on to claim that white gun owners are all just a bunch of racists, afraid of being attacked by blacks. This is unfounded, he says, apparently because blacks never attack whites.

Blacks with guns and bad values don't kill white people. Angry white people with guns kill white people. Angry black people with guns kill black people.

Harris does get it right that gun control laws are inherently racist.

Gun law history Most Americans don't realize that gun control laws were first created to keep black people powerless and enslaved. This continued after the Civil War, when more laws were passed to prevent Blacks, freed slaves, from getting guns. The passage of the "Black Codes" of 1865 were laws limiting the rights of blacks, after slavery was abolished. These Black Codes were the first gun control laws of the country. They were meant to prevent blacks from owning firearms. Other such laws followed, all aimed at preventing blacks from owning or obtaining guns. The term "Saturday Night Special," which refers to a small cheap pistol, comes from the racist epithet "Niggertown Saturday Night," an early 20th century derogatory term, used to refer to blacks who came to town to revel on Saturday nights, after a hard week's work in the fields.

Of this fact, I cannot agree more. But then Harris somehow concludes that gun control (despite it's inherent racism) is a good thing.

A well-regulated national centrally administered gun control law is warranted and necessary. Such legislation has proven successful in Canada, England, Japan, Australia and other industrialized nations.

Now that's a whopper. The Canadian gun control registry is 5000% over budget and has been rendered impotent by the provinces unwillingness to enforce it. It's on the verge of being scrapped.

Gun control in England and Australia has resulted in skyrocketing crime. From the rugged Australian outback to the capital, citizens are left to fend for themselves against wild animals. And in England, the streets are so dangerous even the police don't feel safe anymore.

If that's their idea of progress, they can have it.