Pat Buchanan: We Are A Soulless People Explains Newtown, CT… NOT Guns

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – After I was done weeping for those children, as I sat there like a sponge in a chair boohooing and praying for those children’s souls in Connecticut, the next thought turns to anger, then rage, then to why.  Then when you start trying to process it, or the way my mind works anyways, my next thought was: What is it that was lacking in that young man’s mind, in his heart and in his soul that gave any cover whatsoever, logical, illogical, sane, insane, whatever, to that taking of life?  Was there a lack of a soul there?  The nut job that went into the theater during the Batman movie, was there a lack of a soul there?  Was there no fear of atonement in the afterlife?  The lunatic that tried to murder Gabriel Giffords, was there no fear of what would happen to him in the afterlife if he was successful?  I think the answer is clear on that. Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Back to the discussion, there’s going to be all of this demagogic argument.  There will be demagogues on the left, demagogues on the right.  They’re all going to talk about the law.  They’re all going to talk about the firearms.  They’re all going to talk about the gun.  The Clinton News Network right now is flashing photographs on the screen of the sweet, innocent children that were taken out by this madman in Newtown, Connecticut.  They’re probably going to follow that up with some discussion of what Congress and what our laws can do about this.  Buchanan points this out in his piece today, “Adam Lanza’s Dead Soul.”  As I said, this is where I was going to take the conversation.  Had I been here yesterday, this is what we would have spent most of our time talking about.

After I was done weeping for those children, as I sat there like a sponge in a chair boohooing and praying for those children’s souls in Connecticut, the next thought turns to anger, then rage, then to why.  Then when you start trying to process it, or the way my mind works anyways, my next thought was: What is it that was lacking in that young man’s mind, in his heart and in his soul that gave any cover whatsoever, logical, illogical, sane, insane, whatever, to that taking of life?  Was there a lack of a soul there?  The nut job that went into the theater during the Batman movie, was there a lack of a soul there?  Was there no fear of atonement in the afterlife?  The lunatic that tried to murder Gabriel Giffords, was there no fear of what would happen to him in the afterlife if he was successful?  I think the answer is clear on that.

Pat Buchanan points this out.  The common thread that runs through almost all these cases where you have these young men that perpetrate these horrific acts is that they’re soulless.  Here’s what Buchanan writes, in part:

[reading]

Before he went into that school to shoot 20, 30 or 40 children, barely more than babies, he knew his slaughter would be so stomach-turning and heart-wrenching that the TV crews would come running. [Mike: There went Soledad O’Brien to the rescue for the infamy of Adam Lanza.] And by day’s end, the world would know who Adam Lanza was. Lanza kept firing at the children until he heard the sirens. Then he pulled out one of the Glocks, put it to his head and ended it, knowing he was on his way to becoming world famous. Just as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of Columbine are famous. Just as James Holmes, the “Joker” of the Aurora “Dark Knight Rising” massacre, is famous. Just as Jared Lee Loughner, the Tucson mass murderer who shot Gabby Giffords, is famous.

A desire to be famous coupled with a dead conscience is the common thread running through these recurring atrocities. These loners and losers want us to know who they are. And, to succeed now, each almost has to outdo in horror those who went before.  [Mike: That is a very moving and accurate way to put it.] Since the news first came in Friday from Newtown, we have argued about guns in America and mental illness, but heard little about the moral sickness of our society.

[end reading]

Mike: That’s exactly right, Pat.  Just like when I bring morality up when I’ve got nine people on hold, and I start reading from Brad Birzer or J.R.R. Tolkien or Russell Kirk, the phone lines all go dead and I don’t hear from anyone for the rest of the hour for the same reason.  No one wants to confront this.  We’re a heartless, soulless, Godless people.  This is what happens.  When you have nothing to atone for, when you have nothing to live for in the afterlife, what does it matter what you do here on Earth, as long as somebody is going to make a movie about you, as long as somebody is going to write a book about you, that is payment in the world and in the realm of man, is it not?  Back to Buchanan:

[reading]

Americans have always owned guns. But in Prohibition, when gangsters like John Dillinger, “Machine Gun” Kelly and “Baby Face” Nelson were notorious, the most remembered atrocity was the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” Al Capone’s gang executed seven of Bugs Moran’s gang in a Chicago garage. [Mike: That was just seven adults.] Yet, just two years ago, when one Washington, D.C., drive-by shooting ended with four dead on a sidewalk and five wounded, it was just local news.

[end reading]

Mike:  AG, remember the last time I was in Washington with you and we were on our way to have dinner with Dave?  I asked you if you had seen that story about that woman who ran that little store on the corner and some lunatic had just gone in there and taken what he wanted out of her register and put a bullet in her head.  Life just kind of went on.

AG:  Yeah, that H Street Deli killing.

Mike:  That’s what it was.  Remember, we were talking about it.  You had watched a different newscast than I had watched.  The part of the story that I thought was most poignant was one of the reporters actually interviewed some of the people that lived around that woman.  H Street was the street the deli was on, right?

AG:  Yeah.

Mike:  One of the reporters had interviewed some of the neighbors.  They said all that kid had to do was go in there and ask her.  She would have given him anything he wanted.  That’s the kind of person she was.  Did they ever catch that perp?

AG:  I think, ironically enough, there was a break in the case.

Mike:  Good.  The neighbors all said she was a wonderful neighbor to have, a wonderful woman who practiced good Christian charity, and if that man had just gone in there and said, “I’m down on my luck.  Can you spare some food and cash,” she would have given it to him.  Of course, that’s not what we do in video games and movies these days, is it?  We walk into stores, pump a couple rounds into some stranger’s head, take what we want, then go about our business onto the next quest in the video game.  Of course, none of this is related to the kids perpetrating these acts, is it?  Back to Patrick J. Buchanan:

[reading]

Why are these atrocities growing more frequent and deadly? We are told that it is because the guns used–especially assault rifles like Russian-made AK-47s and civilian copies of the M-16 used in Vietnam, like the Bushmaster–are all too available. But the guns used in the Sandy Hook massacre were legally purchased by Lanza’s mother, and she and Adam lived in a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the country. And the Bushmaster is not a machine gun but a semi-automatic, as are the 100-year-old Colt .45 and M-1 rifle used by GIs in World War II. Fully automatic weapons like the Thompson submachine gun cannot be purchased without a federal license. No fully automatic weapon has been used in any of these massacres.

Will ending all sales and transfers of assault rifles and limiting the rounds in clips and magazines reduce these massacres in malls, movie theaters and schools? Did it succeed when the assault weapons ban was in force in the Clinton years? If assault rifles are evil things that ought not be in the hands of decent Americans, why do “shoot-to-kill” video games feature these weapons?

[end reading]

Mike:  That’s a god question, isn’t it?  When you’re making your way through Doom or Quake or the latest Call of Duty 84 Black Ops or Purple Ops or Double Secret Probation Black Ops or whatever it is, you don’t get to get the good weapons, the semiautomatics and what have you, until you’ve whacked enough people.  You have to kill to get the weapons.  I am not up on all these games, but I have read enough on them.  No, I haven’t played them.  The last shoot ‘em up I played, my shoot ‘em up happened in a galaxy far, far away and was the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic game.  To me, Patrick J. Buchanan is asking all the right questions.  Again, had I been here yesterday, I would be in concert with Buchanan, although he is a far better writer than I shall ever be.  Back to Buchanan:

[reading]

Why does Hollywood glamorize assault rifles in action-packed films of slaughter starring Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris and Jason Statham? Few of America’s young have seen an assault weapon fired outside the military. Scores of millions have seen them fired on TV. Many of our movies are advertisements for the efficiency of assault weapons in the hands of good guys doing heroic deeds. Are the folks who think America would be a better place with a more restrictive Second Amendment willing to restrict the First Amendment to stop all distribution of movies and cable shows that depict famous actors blasting enemies with assault weapons?
[Mike: Then Buchanan puts the nail into the wood, taps it a couple times to make sure it’s aligned properly, then proceeds to nail it.] Not long ago, there existed in our hearts “a fear of God.” How, we would ask ourselves, if we commit an evil act like murder, will we answer at God’s judgment seat? For He will decide if we enter what the president called in Newtown, God’s “eternal house in heaven.” But if God is dead, not to worry. Just put the gun to your head and pull the trigger, and it’s over. No trial. No disgrace. No prison. Nothing to worry about anymore.

No voice of conscience told Adam: Do not do this evil thing! [Mike: Boy, that’s a point I haven’t heard anyone make.] Now he is no longer a nobody, a nerd, a recluse. He is famous. Everybody is talking about him, and ruminating on what might have motivated him. Adam wanted to be somebody. And now he is. And out there others like him are thinking: That could be me.

[end reading]

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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