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| -Land of the Free |
| I was wrong about the Second Amendment |
| 2014-11-15 |
| This opinion piece is so full of false dichotomies and blatant lies, it had to be fisked. The writer is using the modern version of the bloody shirt, a poor kid who was killed at Sandy Hook, Noah Pozner. Noah Pozner did nothing to change my mind, except die. Before he died, I believed a few sensible gun laws could save children like Noah Pozner. After he died, after he and his Sandy Hook classmates were mowed down by a man with a gun, I changed my mind. You have the unfettered right to change your mind, just as I have the same right not to change mine. After he died, I realized an old custom had to die with him, so a nobler one could take its place. Before Noah Pozner died, I thought there was nothing wrong with the Second Amendment a little common sense couldn’t fix. After he died, I’ve come to believe “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” no longer promotes our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but daily threatens them. How free are we when more people are shot and killed each year in America than populate the towns in which many of us live? How free are we when a backpack that unfolds into a bulletproof covering is a must-have item for schoolchildren? "Common sense" is that concept that the thinking of the social body is more valued than the individual's rights. It is a flim flam used by grifters to take property, that the grifters don't like and that doesn't belong to them in the name of "public safety". If this Quaker was aware of how the concept of "public safety" is consumed by the state's ongoing need to take blood and property by violent means, maybe he would rather advocate for taking guns away from governments and their employees as a "common sense" solution for gun violence. Guns are about freedom. Having your rights taken from you could focus your attention on the notion that, if you are afraid of people owning guns, the only solution is to get a gun, and defend yourself. And let others around you do the same. Stop giving the state far more power than it should ever have. “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” While I concede that a well-regulated militia might be necessary to the security of a free state, that role is now ably served by our military, professionally trained and highly disciplined, drawn from the ranks of our families and friends, from whom we have nothing to fear. We no longer need Minutemen. The British have not surrounded Concord. This is not “Independence Day” and we’re not under alien attack. I cannot imagine any circumstance in which our government would urge us to arm ourselves in defense of our country. Our nation has outgrown its need for an armed citizenry. The disadvantages of widespread gun ownership far outweigh any perceived advantage. Ask the parents of Noah Pozner. Ask African-American residents of Ferguson, Missouri. Ask what America’s love affair with guns has meant to them. Keeping and bearing arms is about countering the very same government that trains the military, police and security services, some of which have been used against citizens in the past; and are being used to threaten citizens as we speak. America doesn't have a "love affair" with guns, but we do have a "love affair" with freedom, hence guns. the problem with Ferguson can be laid at the feet of the very government you would use to take personal property away from people. Your Golden Boy, Michael Brown was a violent thug, who resisted police and got shot for his troubles. The merit of a position can be gauged by the temperament of its supporters, and these days the NRA reminds me of the folks who packed the courtroom of the Scopes monkey trial, fighting to preserve a worldview no thoughtful person espoused. This worship of guns grows more ridiculous, more difficult to sustain, and they know it, hence their theatrics, their parading through Home Depot and Target, rifles slung over shoulders. Defending themselves, they say. From what, from whom? I have whiled away many an hour at Home Depots and Targets and never once come under attack. I have always said the making of a show of gun ownership, such as having the AR or AK slung over your should, while it may be your right is inappropriate, and unnecessary in most instances. But I don't think those guns should be stolen using the power of the biggest thug on the block: government. Your idea that NRA supporters are loud and vociferous in their views could be turned around, using this very article as an indicator that gun thieves' and fascists' advocacy of theft and murder "grows more ridiculous, more difficult to sustain, and they know it, hence their theatrics..." They remind me of the Confederates who fought to defend the indefensible, sacrificing the lives of others in order to preserve some dubious right they alone valued. They would rather die, armed to the teeth, than live in a nation free of guns and their bitter harvest. You can have my gun when you pry it from around my cold, dead fingers, their bumper stickers read. How empty their lives must be if life without a gun is not worth living. We have new Confederates now. They advocate using the raw power of the state to steal property from people who own them, killing them in the process if necessary. And backing them and shouting them on are fascists such as the writer of this article. I can think of nothing less odious than a man who asks me to give up my rights in favor of a group, which, if not placated, will send armed thugs to steal the property anyway. Turn this thing around. A large group of people wish for you to be disarmed and will make the state send thugs after you if you don't. You are one of those people, no better than the armed thugs who will try to kill you if you resist. Wouldn't you want to at least have a chance to take one of those bastards with you? Wouldn't you want your friends to follow up with the people who made this happen? The first thing Hitler did was confiscate guns, the gun lovers warn, a bald lie if ever there was one. But let’s suspend reality and imagine it was true. Where is the Hitler in Canada, in England, in Sweden, in every other civilized nation whose citizens have resolved to live without guns? Let the NRA trot out its tired canard about the housewife whose husband thoughtfully armed her, who shot the intruder and saved her family. I will tell you about the father who mistook his son for a burglar and shot him dead, about the man who rigged a shotgun in his barn to discourage thievery and accidentally slew his precious little girl when she entered the barn to play with her kittens. Sucks to be those people. Bad decisions happen all the time. It's called freedom for a reason,. What you want is fascism. I won't have it peaceably, and you should be aware that through your advocacy you also become a participant in any resulting violence. Seriously, man, defend yourself: get a gun and learn how to use it. What drives this fanaticism? Can I venture a guess? Have you noticed the simultaneous increase in gun sales and the decline of the white majority? After the 2010 census, when social scientists predicted a white minority in America by the year 2043, we began to hear talk of “taking back our country.” Gun shops popped up like mushrooms, mostly in the white enclaves of America’s suburbs and small towns. One can’t help wondering if the zeal for weaponry has been fueled by the same dismal racism that has propelled so many social ills. Racism goes both ways. The "white majority" is declining because whites aren't reproducing faster than other races. The wherefores don't matter. It just is. You may have have a pet theory... Wait a minute. You're a fascist. And all fascists have a favorite race theory. It's what they do. When I was growing up, our schools and colleges were unmatched, our medical care unrivaled, our infrastructure state-of-the-art, our opportunities unlimited. America set the gold standard. We can be great again, but not without addressing the fear and ignorance that feed our gun culture, for no nation can ascend until it cures the virus of violence. We cannot let the most fearful among us set our nation’s tone, lest we descend to that sorry state we labored centuries to rise above. It is time for America to grow up, to become adults, so that children like Noah Pozner have a fighting chance to do the same. Phil, you are part of the fear, in case you or your readers haven't noticed. You are fueling the violence the state will visit on people who own guns And you haven't gotten to that higher level of thinking that, if you are afraid of people who have guns, get a gun and learn how to use it. A Quaker pastor, author and speaker, Philip Gulley received his masters of divinity degree from Christian Theological Seminary, and is co-pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting in Camby, Indiana. He is also the author of “Living the Quaker Way: Timeless Wisdom for a Better Life Today” by Convergent Books. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #10 Easier to focus on GUNS and OWNERS than it is to blame CARS, which cause more deaths annually. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2014-11-15 23:19 |
| #9 Well, I hope his book is written better than this crap. In his effort to slalom platitudes, he threw in Furgoson, which is a government vs. citizen killing, and the local agitators' 'they shooting us down in the streets'. That there is a Kennedy-level ski accident to this whole coming out statement, but to continue: Do you think 1930's Germans knew to to elect Hitler, because he is a Hitler? How about a Baghdadi? I hear there is a mayor from Mexico looking for a job...can't remember his name, but it isn't Hitler so he should be a swell guy. The British have not surrounded Concord. You putz, eveyone was British there back then. S'why Paul Revere's network was saying 'The Regulars are Coming!'. S'why everyone was in shock of their own government sending troops against its own citizens. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2014-11-15 21:22 |
| #8 Salon needs to rebrand as "Troll" as a truth in advertising thing. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2014-11-15 19:11 |
| #7 #4, That's the federal militia. States which have their own militias might have different age groupings. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-11-15 17:22 |
| #6 Face it, the people have already lost the right to keep and bear arms. At the time the Constitution was written, one had the right to keep and bear the most advanced arms available -- rifles. To be able to wage an effective insurrection today you would need AK-47's, shoulder launched surface to air missiles and anti tank missiles, etc. And those are all illegal. Second amendment advocates have already lost the battle. Although I've got to admit that even I would be against individuals owning atomic bombs, or chemical weapons, etc, since one crazy armed with those is no doubt far more dangerous to the general welfare than a tyrannical government. |
| Posted by: DLR 2014-11-15 12:50 |
| #5 Would have been unfair to 78 year old Samuel Whittemore at the Battle of Concord too. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-11-15 11:59 |
| #4 "consists of all able-bodied males under 45 years of age" So my wife and I have to turn in our guns? That stinks. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-11-15 11:42 |
| #3 There was a time way back in the late 40s and early 50s when rifle clubs were common in middle schools. Kids were taught about the proper use of firearms and gun safety. There were no mass shootings to my recollection. There were no shrill screams from the extreme left for gun confiscation (that is the ultimate goal of the "gun control" crowd). There was virtually no left. The communists were our enemies. My how times change--not always for the better. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-11-15 11:24 |
| #2 I read an interesting thing once that said (with statistics, but I didn't verify them) that if you took the crimes of the predominantly black areas out of US stats the US is generally the same as Canada when it comes to gun crime. So in effect it is gangs and some verify high profile nut jobs. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2014-11-15 11:12 |
| #1 Before you hit the Quakers, know that General Nathaniel Greene who orchestrated the brilliant Southern Campaign in the American War of Independence that move Cornwallis up to Virginia to meet his fate and General Jacob Brown who would end up as the commander on the Niagara front in the War of 1812 giving the British as good as they dealt out were from such stock. Just a socialists have completed the long march in the Donk party, they've done the same here. Hey pastor - read the law, 10 U.S. Code § 311 - Militia: composition and classes - (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard. (b) The classes of the militia are— (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-11-15 10:58 |