John Derbyshire Shoots Like a Spaz

I have avoided almost all media coverage of the West Virginia shootings on the presumption that American journalists are using this tragic event as an excuse to exercise their most sentimental and maudlin impulses. But one piece of commentary caught my eye. In the National Review, one writer castigated the students for not rushing their attacker. In support of his red blooded screed, John Derbyshire gives us this bit of infantry knowledge: "...just jump him. Handguns aren't very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can't hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. "

What a crackpot.

John, handguns, particularly 9mm and small caliber weapons like a .22 are very accurate at close range. That is why 32 people are dead. Your inability to "hit squat" with your weapon is more telling about your lack of skills than anything else. (As a general rule I have noticed that handguns are never accurate or inaccurate. Those wielding them, however, can be extraordinarily inaccurate or accurate.) Had you bothered to look down the range in your moments of frustration, you would realize that most shooters who keep their eyes open can hit quite a lot of squat at distances of less than 25 feet. John, I am not going to win any shooting competitions any time soon, but I am very confident in my ability to deliver a fatal shot with a 9mm handgun at such a distance.

John, you have outed yourself. Not only are you a bad shot, you are apparently too stupid to know that you are a bad shot and further seem to lack even the most basic knowledge of handguns. We rely on conservatives for so little, but we do rely upon you for an encyclopedic knowledge of all things sports and munitions related. For your inability to even serve this meager end, you deserve to be the butt of jokes. (In case you didn't get it John, that was a pun. The butt is the tail end of the pistol. Where your instructor puts that long thingy full of whatchmycallits before he tells you to get your hand out of the way of the slide and stop yanking the trigger like a spaz.)