There Oughta’ Be a Law
By Randall Nunn (02/08/06)
The shooting last week of 6 innocent people at a mail processing facility in California by an ex-postal worker armed with a handgun highlights the need for strict gun control. After all, if some tough gun control laws had been on the books, this could never have happened. Oops! I forgot – California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Then, just how could this multiple shooting have happened and what are we going to do to see that it doesn’t happen again? If you are a liberal, your first thought will be to pass some new laws that will focus on firearms as the culprit.
Gun control is one of the key planks in the liberal platform to remake America in their image. Firearms (so liberals believe) cause a certain number of deaths each year, which could be prevented if guns were taken out of the hands of all who do not require them for a legitimate purpose. Self-defense is not a legitimate purpose in the eyes of most liberals, since we have police to keep order and obviate the need for self-defense in most situations. And every liberal knows that the Second Amendment is an anachronism and was meant to apply only to organized state militias (the fact that the courts and legislative history of the Second Amendment clearly say otherwise is not persuasive to liberals). Given the liberal mindset, there is no problem in denying law abiding citizens a constitutional right in order to impose their societal vision since it is clear to them that such a right should not exist in a modern and progressive society.
The governor of Wisconsin recently vetoed a concealed carry bill passed by a majority of the Wisconsin legislature, provoking no howls from the media. Hawaii and several other states have proposed banning all .50 caliber weapons based on nothing other than their belief that the average citizen has no legitimate need for such weapons. Corporations in a number of states are pushing to ban firearms from employees’ automobiles in the company parking lots. Such proposals are met with no outcry from the general public or the mainstream press. The liberals and the mainstream media have done such a thorough job of demonizing guns that only those citizens with a direct interest (shooters and owners of such firearms) protest such actions.
There are very significant legal issues involved when government attempts to deprive citizens of a key right protected by the U.S. Constitution, especially when such prohibitions are based on misinformation and faulty premises. If the media gives almost no coverage to these issues, or only slanted coverage, many readers who have no personal interest will not feel that their rights are threatened and will not object. But once the principle is established that firearms of a certain caliber can be demonized and banned, or that companies can deprive employees of rights guaranteed under state law and the U.S. Constitution, it will be only a matter of time before the liberals are back nibbling away at the remaining structure in an effort to gut the Second Amendment of any real effect.
Conservatives must stay engaged and oppose any efforts to undermine the essential individual rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The fact that many of us do not own .50 caliber rifles or do not park in a company parking lot should not cause us to be passive when the rights of others are taken away. A threat to the basic principle embodied in the Second Amendment is a threat to all citizens, even if the particular restriction or limitation does not strike at a personal right or activity near and dear to us at the moment.
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