Logic and reason keep ruining the gun-grabbers’ conversation

Published on Sunday, 14 November 2010 04:43

Written by Philip Mulivor

The more I wade into the firearm rights debate, the more I'm convinced that the gun-control movement largely depends on society's shrinking regard for logic and critical thinking. In today's pop culture, anti-gun arguments that can't be supported by reasoned discourse are easily buoyed by anti-intellectual tactics like emotionalism, myth, Internet "memes," junk science, political correctness, and outright dishonesty. All this mush satisfies a growing number of news reporters, legislators and academics, while classical reasoning becomes almost an anachronism.

Indeed, media outlets and gun-grabbing politicians are well-served by sloppy thinking: A universal respect for the rules of logic would wipe out today's anti-gun rhetoric with the force of a massive nuclear bomb.

Illogical people take irrational positions on critical issues like firearms rights. But in fairness, it might not be entirely their fault; logic and critical thinking skills have been neglected in public school curricula for more than a generation. (Does your child's school have a debate club with a coach who can teach the rules of logical argument? Can your high school student explain the basics of syllogistic logic or the taxonomy of fallacies?)

Pop culture is so indifferent to irrational thought that even credentialed experts frequently self-destruct in the logic department. Take, for example, the laughable study recently published by Case Western University School of Medicine, which examined high school students' cell phone texting habits. They found that the teens who send a ridiculous number of text messages during the school day are roughly the same ones who smoke, drink, and have sex.

The project's lead researcher, Scott Frank, MD, reaches this preposterous conclusion: "The startling results of this study…should be a wake-up call for parents to discourage excessive use of the cell phone…"

In truth, the only time the study becomes "startling" is when Case researchers countermand the rules of logic by calling for restrictions on cell phones.

Sound familiar? Attempting to mitigate teen drinking and promiscuity by spurning cell phones is as illogically absurd as blaming guns for the behavior of violent felons. Both these arguments are egregious violations of deductive reasoning, but who cares? Certainly not mainstream media, liberal lawmakers, or even the experts at Case Western. In their largely irrational world, it’s not the clockwork's gears but the overhead sun that makes their watches strike 12 noon.

Note: The article’s title is a parody of a quote by Mason Cooley.

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