# Is Gun Control The Answer to the One Percent's Prayers?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 28, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330 "2012-12-28T01:23:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/1 "2012-12-28T01:23:45Z")
As we all\* know, the one percent is currently looting the middle class and controlling more and more of the wealth in the US. This is the A Number One Most Important issue to the wealthy plutocrats (the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, etc.) who really run the conservative movement in general, and the Republican Party, in particular, in America. (They also pretty much own Obama and the elected Democrats on economics issues.)
I am SURE they are cackling with glee and rubbing their hands together at the vision of all the people on the left and the right who are squaring off on the issue of gun control. The sight of all those gun control thread and debate cheers their hearts. They have to have SOME kind of social issue to distract the masses so they can continue their looting relatively unnoticed. The numbers are clear: their old standbys, gay marriage and abortion, are turning into losers for them. The polls make it clear that gay marriage is going to be accepted most everywhere except the Bible Belt. And their long string of minor victories on abortion have forced Republicans and conservatives to become so rigid and right wing on that issue (because they’ve won on all the more middle of the road issues) that this year it resulted in the Republican Rape Squad debacle that cost them big time among female voters in the political center.
Now here comes gun control. Be forewarned, all the right wing blogs, news outlets, and so forth will be trumpeting the news that lefties are using the murder of a mere 20 or so grade school children who were probably commies anyway, as an excuse for an orgy of gun grabbing. The loss of our precious Second Amendment rights is nigh, nigh!
If they can get the focus OFF of the growing wealth inequality in our nation, and ONTO gun control … big win for the One Percent’s looter squad!
I’m not sure what the proper response here is, other than a full-court press. I’m all for some good limiting legislation on guns, but we MUST keep our eyes on the looters, and on the fact that the elected Democrats are owned by the looters, and will betray us if they think they can get away with it.
\*I understand that there are people on the Dope who will argue this point, or any point you can think of, but I think they are tiny minority. So that’s what the asterisk is all about.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/2 "2012-12-28T01:33:57Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#):
>
> . . . and on the fact that the elected Democrats are owned by the looters, and will betray us if they think they can get away with it.
Well, but, unlike the Pubs, not **wholly** owned. It really does make all the difference.
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### Author:  [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/3 "2012-12-28T01:43:16Z")
A lot of the “one percent”, including its best representative in politics, Michael Bloomberg, supports gun control.
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### Author:  [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/4 "2012-12-28T02:05:27Z")
I’m reminded of the scene from John Singleton’s Higher Learning where the professor played by Lawrence Fishburne’s professor character starts ridiculing one of his black radical students who’s convinced of various conspiracy theories in place to keep black people down.
“Really, do you think there’s some white man in a booth somewhere pushing buttons to make these things happen.”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/5 "2012-12-28T03:15:28Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#):
>
> I’m reminded of the scene from John Singleton’s Higher Learning where the professor played by Lawrence Fishburne’s professor character starts ridiculing one of his black radical students who’s convinced of various conspiracy theories in place to keep black people down.
>
> “Really, do you think there’s some white man in a booth somewhere pushing buttons to make these things happen.”
Not any more, but that was pretty much the case, once. The “buttons” were [redlining,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining) [“sundown towns,”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town) the [White Citizens’ Council,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Citizens%27_Council) etc., etc., and ever so etc.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/6 "2012-12-28T04:33:42Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> A lot of the “one percent”, including its best representative in politics, Michael Bloomberg, supports gun control.
I do not think they care NEARLY as much about gun control as they do about continuing the looting.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/7 "2012-12-28T04:36:10Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#):
>
> I’m reminded of the scene from John Singleton’s Higher Learning where the professor played by Lawrence Fishburne’s professor character starts ridiculing one of his black radical students who’s convinced of various conspiracy theories in place to keep black people down.
>
> “Really, do you think there’s some white man in a booth somewhere pushing buttons to make these things happen.”
Jeebus, Ibn, why do you think they write those million dollar checks to PACs? For their health? Tell me again how many of the HSBC guys who let Mexican drug gangs, Al Qaeda and Iranians launder millions through their bank got so much as a day in jail for their activities? You, sir, are a Pollyanna!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/8 "2012-12-28T04:39:17Z")
Actually, I think **immigration** is more likely to be the answer to the 1%'s prayers. It can always be used as a diversionary issue to the ignorant, without actually ever threatening the supply of cheap immigrant labor the 1% values. OTOH, it might backfire, in the long run, by changing electoral demographics . . .
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### Author:  [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/9 "2012-12-28T04:50:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Actually, I think **immigration** is more likely to be the answer to the 1%'s prayers. It can always be used as a diversionary issue to the ignorant, without actually ever threatening the supply of cheap immigrant labor the 1% values. OTOH, it might backfire, in the long run, by changing electoral demographics . . .
Well if the left is opposed to the free movement of inanimate object (ie free trade) why whould it support the free movement of people?
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### Author:  [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/10 "2012-12-28T05:00:35Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#):
>
> Jeebus, Ibn, why do you think they write those million dollar checks to PACs? For their health? Tell me again how many of the HSBC guys who let Mexican drug gangs, Al Qaeda and Iranians launder millions through their bank got so much as a day in jail for their activities? You, sir, are a Pollyanna!
If you’re trying to convince me of the validity of your argument I’d recommend not complaining about banks allowing “Iranians” to invest money in them.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/11 "2012-12-28T05:09:09Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> Well if the left is opposed to the free movement of inanimate object (ie free trade) why whould it support the free movement of people?
The left, I think, would be open to allowing **both at once,** but not just the one.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/12 "2012-12-28T15:29:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Actually, I think **immigration** is more likely to be the answer to the 1%'s prayers. It can always be used as a diversionary issue to the ignorant, without actually ever threatening the supply of cheap immigrant labor the 1% values. OTOH, it might backfire, in the long run, by changing electoral demographics . . .
It certainly hasn’t helped them in 2012 and it’s very unlikely to help them in future elections. Gun control, I suspect, is another urban/rural issue at heart, and what’s more it has a lot of mindless one-issue types attached to it who will vote for the party that is economically dismembering them and their families, and their neighbors’ families, who might otherwise apply some thought to their vote.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/13 "2012-12-28T15:31:50Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#):
>
> If you’re trying to convince me of the validity of your argument I’d recommend not complaining about banks allowing “Iranians” to invest money in them.
Quib me no quibbles. Iranian banks used HSBC, The Bank of Crooks, to get around US economic sanctions. I should have said “Iranian banks” so consider it said.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/14 "2012-12-28T15:34:35Z")
No, their prayers have already been answered by the OWS movement. That group associated financial reform with kooky anarchist types. The economy is improving, joblessness is going down, if ever so slowly and no serious effort is underway right now-- this whole gun control orgy will be over in a month or so anyway.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/15 "2012-12-28T17:32:58Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#):
>
> I am SURE they are cackling with glee and rubbing their hands together at the vision of all the people on the left and the right who are squaring off on the issue of gun control. The sight of all those gun control thread and debate cheers their hearts. They have to have SOME kind of social issue to distract the masses so they can continue their looting relatively unnoticed.
And here I thought the OP was going to make the case that the 1% are gleeful about gun control because it takes guns out of the hands of the roiling underclass and prevents revolution.
You disappoint me, **EC**.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/16 "2012-12-28T17:57:16Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#):
>
> Jeebus, Ibn, why do you think they write those million dollar checks to PACs? For their health? Tell me again how many of the HSBC guys who let Mexican drug gangs, Al Qaeda and Iranians launder millions through their bank got so much as a day in jail for their activities? You, sir, are a Pollyanna!
HSBC is a British (formerly Hong Kong based) bank.
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### Author:  [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/17 "2012-12-28T19:21:51Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#):
>
> If they can get the focus OFF of the growing wealth inequality in our nation, and ONTO gun control … big win for the One Percent’s looter squad!
Why?
It doesn’t matter what the rabble think or do, as long as they don’t get anywhere near the levers of power or cause civil unrest (camping in a park does not count as civil unrest).
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### Author:  [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/18 "2012-12-28T19:31:45Z")
> [@marshmallow](#):
>
> Why?
>
> It doesn’t matter what the rabble think or do, as long as they don’t get anywhere near the levers of power or cause civil unrest (camping in a park does not count as civil unrest).
That’s the point. Keep the rabble distracted with “issues” that don’t actually matter much, and organized civil unrest is much less likely to occur. Plus, any level of disarmament of the rabble makes serious civil unrest easier to quash. (Because the people who wield the real power won’t be giving up THEIR guns, no siree. Although they may delegate the grubby task of actually puling the triggers to appropriately obsequious underlings who may or may not be wearing uniforms.)
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### Author:  [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/19 "2012-12-28T20:01:58Z")
> [@artemis](#):
>
> That’s the point. Keep the rabble distracted with “issues” that don’t actually matter much, and organized civil unrest is much less likely to occur.
I suppose it might have some effect along the margins of those in a position to be politically motivated e.g. upper middle class liberal whites, but most people can’t afford to pay attention to modern media and be “distracted” (like they’d be making pipe bombs or organizing third parties otherwise). They recognize they’re being bent over the table but they have to spend their energies keeping their head above water.
Even the OP admits the Dems are a corporate party. That is more dissident than most on this board. So I don’t understand why the so called 1% would need a prayer for anything. They’ve too busy doing touchdown celebrations.
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### Author:  [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gun-control-the-answer-to-the-one-percents-prayers/645330/20 "2012-12-28T20:15:46Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> And here I thought the OP was going to make the case that the 1% are gleeful about gun control because it takes guns out of the hands of the roiling underclass and prevents revolution.
>
> You disappoint me, **EC**.
It was my first thought as well, instead we only get some weird reverse Ayn Randian screed about the looters conspiring to use gun control as the soma of the masses.
> [@Evil\_Captor](#):
>
> As we all\* know, the one percent is currently looting the middle class and controlling more and more of the wealth in the US. This is the A Number One Most Important issue to the wealthy plutocrats (the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, etc.) who really run the conservative movement in general, and the Republican Party, in particular, in America. (They also pretty much own Obama and the elected Democrats on economics issues.)
> …
> \*I understand that there are people on the Dope who will argue this point, or any point you can think of, but I think they are tiny minority.
You honestly believe this is what the great majority of American know as the revealed truth? It seems to me the asterisk is all about trying to pass this dodgy opinion off as fact without having to defend it.
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