The ignorance and Logical Fallacies of the "intelligent" Benn Steil

Benn Steil is an economist and writer. He was educated at Nuffield College, Oxford and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Steil is the senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the founder and editor of the journal International Finance. He has been awarded the Hayek Prize and the Spear's Book Award. Director of International economics, Council of foreign Relations. Author of the award-winning "Battle of Bretton Woods".


Mr Steil went on Twitter a few days after the Orlando shootings and asked this question...








Of course he got hammered, with many bringing up the obvious Revolutionary War. Some brought up WW II but I decided to go another route.

I was very careful with my response. I re-read his question multiple times. His question was very clear. "How many tyrants have been stopped or overthrown by liberty- loving American gun owners".

It really is a perfect description of most U.S. Special Forces Soldiers. He did not specify civilians or specify that it had to be done in the U.S.

With the typical snark of someone using the logical fallacy "Appeal to Authority", him being the authority.

He replied to me with this...

He used the logical fallacy of "Movient the Goalpost" by demanding that it wasn't in America.

After posting his question and my response on Instagram, someone in the comments brought up The Battle of Athens TN.

For those not familiar:

Revolt in Athens, Tennessee!
 20 People Wounded
14 Autos Overturned, and Burned at Town Square
Jail Under Seize 8 hours
Sheriff, Senator & Others Flee County
Athens, Tennessee: The uprising was led by ex-GIs recently returned from battle, to discover dishonest election tactics and corrupt and crooked local government. Having seen first-hand, Tennessee blood spilled and Tennessee lives lost in the battle for freedom, these patriotic veterans weren't about to knuckle under to the special interests. Certain insiders, for their own profit and benefit, had taken control of the small community of Athens, a town of about 7600 people.
 The violence started on election day when a poll watcher was attacked and thrown through a glass door. The town folks, already agitated, became incensed. They went home and returned with pistols, shotguns and whatever weapons they could lay their hands on. The incumbents and "insiders" had recruited extra deputies from neighboring cities and counties but they were no match for the now armed and angry citizens of McMinn County. Sheriff Pat Mansfield and State Senator Paul Cantrell, along with others, fled the scene. Twenty-five deputys retreated to the jail which was surrounded and fired upon by the civillian army.
 At 4:00 A.M. the next morning, the "25" surrendered their arms and came out with hands up. Although a cry went up to "hang 'em", cooler heads prevailed. The "25" were taken to the edge of town, stripped naked and told not to come back.
 The upshot was the incumbent and "insider-clique" were out. The slate backed by the citizens and supported by the GI patriots was officially certified victorious by State authorities in Nashville.
 Thus, a new sheriff, trustee, register of deeds, circuit court clerk and county court clerk were seated (3 Democrats, 2 Republicans). All were new, all were honest and freely elected. The year was 1946. In 1948, a city council / county commission form of government, one of the first in the state of Tennessee was created. Athens prospered and grew and today has more than doubled in population.

I was reading the comments under Mr. Steil's post and another great example popped up. 

For those not familiar with the story, here is a link from the Smithsonian Mag on the true story behind the movie.

Here is the trailer for the movie "The Free States of Jones"

Instead of acknowledging my two extra examples that happened in America, after the Revolutionary War...

He did what they always do...

HE BLOCKED ME.

Over 1000 Green Berets Sign Letter Supporting Second Amendment

This was an open letter and posted on 29 January 2013. Shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a group of current and former U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers started talking about making a statement one the website Professional Soldiers. After a month of back and forth, edits, re-edits and re-re-edits it was finally ready. 

It was sent out privately to every Special Forces soldier available with the request that if they agreed with it, would they be willing to sign their name. The list was not made public but it was 100% verified that every single person who put their name down had graduated the Special Forces Qualifications course and was authorized to wear the Green Beret and Special Forces tab. 

After what happened in Orlando I thought it was important to put it back out for everyone to read.

I am honored that I was able to put my name on that list.  

Loren Schofield

De Oppresso Liber

Protecting the Second Amendment: Why all Americans  Should Be Concerned

We are current or former Army Reserve, National Guard, and active duty US Army Special Forces soldiers (Green Berets). We have all taken an oath to “...support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.…” The Constitution of the United States is without a doubt the single greatest document in the history of mankind, codifying the fundamental principle of governmental power and authority being derived from and granted through the consent of the governed. Our Constitution established a system of governance that preserves, protects, and holds sacrosanct the individual rights and primacy of the governed as well as providing for the explicit protection of the governed from governmental tyranny and/or oppression. We have witnessed the insidious and iniquitous effects of tyranny and oppression on people all over the world. We and our forebears have embodied and personified our organizational motto, De Oppresso Liber [To Free the Oppressed], for more than a half century as we have fought, shed blood, and died in the pursuit of freedom for the oppressed.

Like you, we are also loving and caring fathers and grandfathers. Like you, we have been stunned, horrified, and angered by the tragedies of Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Fort Hood, and Sandy Hook; and like you, we are searching for solutions to the problem of gun-related crimes in our society. Many of us are educators in our second careers and have a special interest to find a solution to this problem. However, unlike much of the current vox populi reactions to this tragedy, we offer a different perspective.

First, we need to set the record straight on a few things. The current debate is over so-called “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines. The terms "assault weapon" and "assault rifle" are often confused. According to Bruce H. Kobayashi and Joseph E. Olson, writing in the Stanford Law and Policy Review, “Prior to 1989, the term ‘assault weapon’ did not exist in the lexicon of firearms. It is a political term [underline added for emphasis], developed by anti-gun publicists to expand the category of assault rifles.”

The M4A1 carbine is a U.S. military service rifle - it is an assault rifle. The AR-15 is not an assault rifle. The “AR” in its name does not stand for “Assault Rifle” - it is the designation from the first two letters of the manufacturer’s name – ArmaLite Corporation. The AR-15 is designed so that it cosmetically looks like the M4A1 carbine assault rifle, but it is impossible to configure the AR-15 to be a fully automatic assault rifle. It is a single shot semi-automatic rifle that can fire between 45 and 60 rounds per minute depending on the skill of the operator. The M4A1 can fire up to 950 rounds per minute. In 1986, the federal government banned the import or manufacture of new fully automatic firearms for sale to civilians. Therefore, the sale of assault rifles are already banned or heavily restricted!

The second part of the current debate is over “high capacity magazines” capable of holding more than 10 rounds in the magazine. As experts in military weapons of all types, it is our considered opinion that reducing magazine capacity from 30 rounds to 10 rounds will only require an additional 6 -8 seconds to change two empty 10 round magazines with full magazines. Would an increase of 6 –8 seconds make any real difference to the outcome in a mass shooting incident? In our opinion it would not. Outlawing such “high capacity magazines” would, however, outlaw a class of firearms that are “in common use”. As such this would be in contravention to the opinion expressed by the U.S. Supreme Court recent decisions.

Moreover, when the Federal Assault Weapons Ban became law in 1994, manufacturers began retooling to produce firearms and magazines that were compliant. One of those ban-compliant firearms was the Hi-Point 995, which was sold with ten-round magazines. In 1999, five years into the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, the Columbine High School massacre occurred. One of the perpetrators, Eric Harris, was armed with a Hi-Point 995. Undeterred by the ten-round capacity of his magazines, Harris simply brought more of them: thirteen magazines would be found in the massacre's aftermath. Harris fired 96 rounds before killing himself.

Now that we have those facts straight, in our opinion, it is too easy to conclude that the problem is guns and that the solution to the problem is more and stricter gun control laws. For politicians, it is politically expedient to take that position and pass more gun control laws and then claim to constituents that they have done the right thing in the interest of protecting our children. Who can argue with that? Of course we all want to find a solution. But, is the problem really guns? Would increasing gun regulation solve the problem? Did we outlaw cars to combat drunk driving?

What can we learn from experiences with this issue elsewhere? We cite the experience in Great Britain. Despite the absence of a “gun culture”, Great Britain, with one-fifth the population of the U.S., has experienced mass shootings that are eerily similar to those we have experienced in recent years. In 1987 a lone gunman killed 18 people in Hungerford. What followed was the Firearms Act of 1988 making registration mandatory and banning semi-automatic guns and pump-action shotguns. Despite this ban, on March 13, 1996 a disturbed 43-year old former scout leader, Thomas Hamilton, murdered 16 school children aged five and six and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. Within a year and a half the Firearms Act was amended to ban all private ownership of hand guns. After both shootings there were amnesty periods resulting in the surrender of thousands of firearms and ammunition. Despite having the toughest gun control laws in the world, gun related crimes increased in 2003 by 35% over the previous year with firearms used in 9,974 recorded crimes in the preceding 12 months. Gun related homicides were up 32% over the same period. Overall, gun related crime had increased 65% since the Dunblane massacre and implementation of the toughest gun control laws in the developed world. In contrast, in 2009 (5 years after the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired) total firearm related homicides in the U.S. declined by 9% from the 2005 high (Source: “FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Master File, Table 310, Murder Victims – Circumstances and Weapons Used or Cause of Death: 2000-2009”).

Continued at Professional Soldiers...