"Gang Rush" to Conclusions Without Context

A table of illegal firearms confiscated in a large weapons bust in East Harlem are on display at a press conference on October 12, 2012 in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty)

To anyone ready to jump all over Megan McArdle for suggesting that we teach kids to bum rush shooters:
STOP AND READ HER ENTIRE BLOG POST FIRST, PLEASE!

Caveats: I'm not her fan, friend, follower, or defender.

I just think that it's important that with something as emotionally charged as Newtown and gun violence that we avoid jumping to too many conclusions about what someone else is supposedly suggesting we do about it.

I think that's especially true when all we know about said suggestion is what someone else has decided to dissect and share from it. It's too easy for that someone to then, intentionally or unintentionally, deliver it to us out of context. (Yes, I'm mostly looking at you, Fox News and all the right-wing mouthpieces, but not this time. This time it's Media Matters using this same strategy.)

Without reading the entire post, I think it's impossible to put the presumably worrisome passage into context. I read the entire post. I came away convinced this idea of a "gang rush" was meant to reinforce the message of the rest of her post.

My conclusion is that she's of the opinion that in the America we live in today there is little, if anything, in practical terms that can be done to prevent people from going on shooting sprees short of an outright ban on all guns, and that we all know that that is impossible.

Or, do we?

Links:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/17/there-s-little-we-can-do-to-prevent-another-massacre.html
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/12/18/newsweeks-megan-mcardle-calls-for-children-to-b/191889