Following the media frenzy over the pro-gun control March For Our Lives event Saturday, the gun control debate has been going full force on social media, most of which includes the repeating of fact-challenged talking points, smearing of political opponents, and vague calls for ill-defined “common sense” gun control policies.
When actor Zach Braff tweeted out a call for solidarity over “common sense regulations,” Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro responded by asking him to get specific.
“One can support the 2A and respect the rights of Americans to own guns for protection and hunting and sport and ALSO think there are common sense regulations to be had,” wrote Braff.
“Cool! You start by naming some, so we can have an intelligent conversation about them!” Shapiro replied.
Vanity Fair contributing editor Kurt Eichenwald responded by offering three measures he felt confident that even the Pro-2A crowd could get behind: 1) “universal background checks,” 2) “ban bump stocks,” and 3) “ban 100-round drums and high capacity magazines which are ONLY designed to fire as many bullets as possible.”
“That wasn’t hard, was it @benshapiro?” wrote Eichenwald.
But as Shapiro demonstrated, it might be a little harder than Eichenwald thought. Shapiro responded to his tweet point by point: “(1) Fine with the bump stock ban, though it will be ineffective; (2) Universal background checks require a universal gun registry; (3) High capacity mags are easy to produce, and normal magazines can easily be replaced quickly.”
As highlighted by Twitchy, Eichenwald responded by attempting to channel gun owners in Texas, who, he suggests, all want universal background checks.
“Here’s the reality, @benshapiro: I live in Texas. LOTS of gun owners,” he wrote. “And I dont know a single one who opposes universal background checks because they are good guys. I dont know of a single one who opposes a high cap mag ban. In fact, because they RESPECT guns, they have hardcore beliefs about what should be done in terms of keeping guns safe – requirements for combination lock safes, murder charges against gun owners who leave guns lying around that result in deaths. They are hardest of the hard core in control. They dont think guns are toys.”
As Shapiro notes, implementing true universal background checks would result in what amounts to a gun registry, which many gun owners look at with a jaundiced eye, and would be irrelevant to those willing to obtain a firearm illegally. As for bump stocks, there’s growing support for banning those, including on the Right, but, again, as Shapiro notes, the ban will likely not have much of an impact; bump stocks simply haven’t played much of a role in mass shootings, the one high-profile exception of course being Las Vegas. Likewise, the issue of high-capacity magazines is arguably overplayed, as standard-sized magazines are easy to replace and are frequently used in mass shootings.