The Continuing Insanity In The Aftermath Of Newtown

Obama and the gun-grabbers are cranking up the rhetoric, trying to please those suffering from Do Something Syndrome (or DSS).

Already New York Governor Cuomo has signed a tough new gun control law that, in the end, will do nothing but make it more difficult, if not impossible, for law-abidingNew Yorkers to arm themselves. If history is any indicator, it's likely to produce the opposite effects from those intended. (Cuomo and Bloomberg have both stated that New York City hasn't had that problem despite the heavy regulations on guns, but that has be credited to former mayor Rudy Giuliani and his 'broken windows' police tactics, cracking down on crimes large and small.)

Much of this is driven by DSS, which is an offshoot of what Lenore Skenazy calls PTSS, or Post Traumatic Stupidity Syndrome.

Folks in the throes of PTSS are so traumatized by a tragic event that they immediately demand something – ANYTHING – be done to prevent it from ever occurring again. Even if the chances of it happening are one in a million. Even if the “preventative measures” proposed are wacky, wasteful, ridiculous - or worse.

I asked readers to tell me what their districts were doing in reaction to the Newtown shooting and thus I heard about lots of schools reviewing their lockdown drills – which makes sense, like reviewing a fire or tornado drill. But then I also heard from readers whose school administrators seem to have lost their minds.

One school, for instance, proceeded with its first grade Christmas concert…except that all the parents attending had to hand in their car keys to the office before entering the auditorium.

Because guns don’t kill people … people with car keys kill people?

Actually, people with car keys do kill people. In fact, they kill more people than people with guns every year.

By working to disarm the law-abiding citizens the Powers-That-Be are merely making larger free-fire zones for the criminals who will ignore the law (as they already do) and continue to carry illegal firearms. How does that help anyone?

In reality, it doesn't. But it makes the people suffering from PTSS and DSS feel better...until the next time. And then they'll demand even more stridently that someone “Do Something!”

As Lenore concludes:

And so it goes, after Sandy Hook. Distrust. Panic. Terror. This feeling of being besieged on all sides used to be considered paranoia.

Thanks to Post-Traumatic Stupidity Syndrome, now it’s considered proactive.

And that's the problem.

(H/T Instapundit)