Henry Rollins: When It Comes to Gun Control, the Bad Guys Have Won the Day

By Henry Rollins Thu., Jan. 10 2013 at 10:21 AM

Please notice that at no point have I advocated taking anyone's guns away, so save your poorly spelled, rarely signed bullshit letters. I consider any gun that can chamber a round and send a projectile down its barrel at a high rate of speed into my body -- causing me injury or death -- to be an assault weapon. Moreover, I am afraid of anyone in possession of a gun. Police, soldiers, hunters, citizens -- all of them. One of the most insane environments I have ever spent time in is a gun range. There we are, all in a line, armed to the teeth, firing away. Sheer lunacy.

America taught me how to duck.

On the other hand, happiness is a warm tube amp. Music time!

I Have Heard the Future and It's Bright Dept.: Here are three releases slated for 2013. I have spent a lot of time with them and they will be worth checking out.

The Miles Davis Quintet, Live in Europe 1969. The Bootleg Series Vol. 2: You get three CDs and a DVD of one of Miles' most powerful lineups: Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. They all played together on the Bitches Brew sessions in 1969 and 1970 but not in this exact configuration. What you have here is one lean and mean touring unit and, damn, are they great! You get to hear Bitches Brew tracks right before Miles recorded them a few weeks later. Concerning this lineup, Miles said this to Quincy Troupe in an interview for the book Miles the Autobiography: "I took the band out on the road; Wayne, Dave, Chick and Jack DeJohnette were now my working band. Man, I wish this band had been recorded live because it was really a bad motherfucker."

Indeed. Some of you have perhaps heard some of these recordings on bootlegs -- I was picking them up in Germany years ago -- but these versions sound way better. Hell, it's worth it just to hear DeJohnette work out on "Footprints" from 1967's Miles Smiles album. Thanks to Columbia and the Miles estate for rolling out such a worthwhile release for the fans. Superb. Look for this one at the end of January.

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txmetalguitarist

Gun lobbyists pretty much get what they want. Not a snowballs chance in hell that gun legislation would pass on the Hill.

Liliana Vasquez-Duran

The only ones who like guns are those whom like to kill be it for sport or otherwise

Liliana Vasquez-Duran

Ofcourse it does! Violence is an extremely profitable business for both criminals and the law..

Robert Willer

Mr. Guptil, Tell me something about Rollins, anything? other than the fact that his view's regarding guns are obviously different than yours. MY views differ from Henry's as well and I exercise my 2nd Amendment rights. Does that make me hardline gun nut, hardly. There is far to much knee-jerk political posturing from both sides of the aisle on this issue. While I respect your opinion, for you to call the man a Communist is a little rich don't you think? on another note ...really looking forward to the new Bad Seeds album. That little ditty was at the end of this article if you took the time to get past his personal view's regarding guns...

JP Myers

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with our Constitution. Duh.

Pat Walsh

I used to like him until now. Were Americans, were gonna have our guns one way or another. I'd rather have taxed purchases that the government has the info on who is buying them, then have the cartels, drug smugglers, and gang members get rich selling imported guns under the table with no documentation.

John Kovacic

Very solid deduction Stephen.

David C Thompson

Thanks, Henry.

Greg McGonagle

The founding fathers also believed in slavery.

Victor Cardet

Really! The guy thinks everyone should have to chance live and love peacefully. And your best is to call him a communist.

Patrick Carpenter

oh, is that why the founding fathers created the second amendment?

Anu Nigul Guptill

Henry Rollins is obviously a Communist who should go back to North Korea.

Liisa Lee

Yes.

Saxon Burns

Totes.

JennieVasquez topcommenter

When it comes to the discussion of gun control, America needs to take a deep breath and sit down, relax, and listen to one another. Not scream and shout, not turn a deaf ear, we need to listen and discuss the issues at hand. What's one issue that bothers me? Innocent people are the ones getting hurt, not the bad people so many claim to be trying to protect themselves from. Are guns ever going to be eliminated? Of course not. I grew up in a country like environment in the Inland Empire and my Dad always had guns. He would hunt with them and any call to the cops had a response time of at least an hour so he liked having a weapon just in case of an emergency. The greater danger was a bear rather than a person but that's the joy of country living. I loved to target shoot on the ranch I grew up on and thought nothing of holding a weapon. I know the side of having a use for guns and being a responsible gun owner. As I've aged I don't personally like to be around guns but understand why some want them. The few years I spent as support staff at a police station sealed the deal for me on guns. They are a powerful weapon that can cause a lot of damage, I hated being around the officers when they were carrying rifles. I was always afraid they would trip. I trusted most of them, not all that's a whole other can of worms, and knew they were responsible, I just didn't trust their feet.

The problem is that so many people live in fear and have been lead to believe that we are in constant danger of someone wanting to kill us or steal our stuff that we must at all costs be ready to defend ourselves. Are we in constant danger? Yes, life itself is dangerous but I know I don't want to spend every waking minute in constant worry of all the ways I can be hurt. I rather live in my naive bubble and look for the good rather than worry about the evil. If something bad happens well then that will suck for me. My fear is that the more guns in the hands of people that are perhaps not so mentally stable, not responsible gun owners, people who had too much to drink, or worst of all in the hands of a child that finds one lying around, the more shootings many accidental, there will be and the more innocent people will be harmed. What can be done about that? I wish I knew the answer.