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enlarge C&L readers know that I have my own spiritual beliefs, but I keep them private and rarely write about them because they are mine, not right or wrong—not better or worse than yours and certainly not in conflict if you have none at all. And then there’s the RRRs: the religious right Republicans who can’t stop telling you enough times how superior they are because of their belief in their GOD. I write this because not only does Tallman write a despicable column, but then he uses his GOD to justify it. He’s terribly upset with Gail Collins because she –like most Liberals– advocates for stricter gun controls in a countrywith an incredible amount of guns causing incredible amounts of harm. And unfortunately, it’s only enabled by courts that are willing to rule that people drinking in bars in states like Arizona should have the freedom to carry guns . When Gabby Giffords was shot in the head by a lunatic packing a Glock, the debate on sensible gun control did come back to the forefront since most of us are civilized people. Jamison Foser was the first person I saw write about Tallman’s dressed-up psycho-philosophical debate about good and evil, making a rather odious analogy as a response to Collins’ column: Townhall columnist and talk radio host Andrew Tallman finds a rather inflammatory way to emphasize his dislike of the government : [T]he government itself is made up of people: real, morally flawed people. Since bad people with power are capable of far greater evil than bad people without it, our country is predicated on the belief that we have more to fear from sinners in government than we do from sinners with personal freedom. Remember, the government has guns, too. And their misuse of them in history has been exponentially worse than anything private individuals have done. But because Gail Collins has unshakeable faith in the inherent goodness of Government, she doesn’t mind trusting its guns. As for me, I’d rather take my chances with the Jared Loughners of the world. Anti-government right-wingers usually stick to denouncing Department of Education bureaucrats; Tallman goes further and suggests he sees the U.S. military and law enforcement personnel as a greater threat than Jared Loughner. Good to know. This is a truly twisted thing to say, but not to conservatives like Tallman. They understand each other perfectly. Since he’s from Arizona, I wonder if he knows of Pastor Anderson? Does he agree with Anderson’s take on President Obama? .Nope. I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell. When I go to bed tonight, that’s what I’m going to pray. And you say, ‘Are you just saying that?’ No. When I go to bed tonight, Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell. I ask this because Tallman’s column is riddled with his own religious vision and since he has his GOD on his side, life is all so easy to understand. Any crime is the result of a variety of causes including but not limited to: education, genetics, parenting, social treatment, friends (or lack thereof), religion (or lack thereof), internalized sense of virtue, financial hardship (or excess), altered brain chemistry, peer pressure, dangerous ideas, a weak moral culture, psychological disorder, access to the instruments of crime, failure of others to notice warning signs and/or intervene, and (my own personal favorite) individual free will. It’s incredibly rare that any one of these factors is solely or even mostly to blame for any particular crime, and you’ll notice that government isn’t even featured on the list. But if we do include government, it offers two main entries: inadequate police prevention and permitting too much freedom. Since police are primarily punitive rather than preventative, the remaining big governmental “defect” factoring into most crime is the existence of freedom. And that’s the real point Governmentists miss: Just like any other problem in society, crime is primarily the result of people misusing their freedom. I’ll say it again because it’s really important to grasp this point: Just like any other problem in society, crime is primarily the result of people misusing their freedom. I won’t go into a whole long-winded piece to debate this bit of lunacy and just say this to Tallman: If Loughner wasn’t able to acquire a semi-auto gun with a high capacity magazine because of his obvious mental condition with some simple gun control measures (which wouldn’t affect any normal person) then Gabby Giffords would have stood a much better chance of not being shot in the head on that tragic day and six others might not have lost their lives. Now, those responsible government regulations wouldn’t have prevented Kevin Harpham from allegedly planting a backpack bomb in Spokane on MLK day , but Gabby Giffords might have had a nice glass of ice tea with her day off because of the national MLK holiday while Christina Green might have had a few friends over to watch either High School Musical again or a Harry Potter movie. I’m just saying.