In a commencement speech to the University of Mississippi on Saturday, former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw again indulged his elitist “freedom is OK for me, but not for thee” hypocrisy, darkly warning that allowing the unwashed masses to own firearms—as opposed to special people like himself—will result in more violence.
“I’m appalled by the determination of organizations and individuals to arm more people, without any appreciation of the consequence of evermore lethal weapons in our midst,” Brokaw lamented, no doubt in his voice of hand-wringing concern. “More guns and more firearm tolerance will mean more homegrown acts of terror,” Brokaw pronounced.
There’s just one catch: It just ain’t so. Over the past decade, as the number of privately owned firearms has skyrocketed, America’s violent crime rate has fallen to a 40-year low, and accidental firearm fatalities have fallen to the lowest levels ever recorded. But that doesn’t fit with Brokaw’s paternalist agenda.