Wall Street Journal on gun control--the far left

Response to "Democrats Stall on Gun-Records Bill" by David Rogers, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2007.

What makes this issue frustrating for me as a citizen is that even with 32 innocents dead at VA Tech, we focus on gathering information and causing undue burden to many millions of law-abiding citizens--and unnecessarily restrict their rights rather than facing the real issues head-on.

We ignore what happened just a few miles away from VA Tech when a similar mass-murderer entered another "gun-free" zone at Appalachian School of Law. Two students ran to their cars, and returned with handguns, and as soon as the perpetrator saw a gun pointed at him, he dropped his own. Only 3 died. The police arrived almost 5 minutes later. Imagine how many more would have died had these students not armed themselves and this lunatic had proceeded across campus in his deadly rampage. But no one tells that story, or the truth about how "gun free zones" attract such cowards.

Gun control does little but place undue burden on the innocent or deny them their only reasonable means of self-protection. Our founders, both in the Bill of Rights and all of their writings surrounding the crafting of our constitution, clearly indicated that U.S. citizens have the individual right to keep and bear arms. And that means for self-protection from aggression of any kind, as well as in response to tyranny.

We only argue about this now due to the acts of activist 20th century judges with political motives. Many elderly people have a gun for family protection they obtained in the service many years ago, or which was passed down through the family. My father lived in a remote rural area and experienced numerous occasions where he simply held a gun without pointing it and aggressive individuals calmed down and chose not to enter his home uninvited.

A recent London Times article reported the elderly in the U.K., where firearms restrictions prevent them from owning reasonable means of self-protection, are increasingly helpless victims of home invasions. New gun ban and gun control laws being proposed in the U.S. unfairly target the poor, elderly, women, people with disabilities, and people of short stature--whose only reasonable means of self-defense is a firearm. And worse, the various "assault weapons" bans seek to criminalize the very features that make firearms useable by this group. Only a linebacker has the size and strength to operate a gun without these features. The government has banned or limited sound suppression, which would protect individuals' ears--and then closes down ranges where law-abiding citizens enjoy shooting sports because of the noise! This insanity needs to stop.

Another problem is the very idea of "mental illness." The DSM-IV, arguably the bible of the mental health profession, is based on voting by politically selected opinion leaders--not science. Women who suffered post-partum depression or hormonally-based depression in menopause, or men who suffered due to a natural mid-life crisis or post-traumatic stress from their participation in war are not statistically more likely to commit crimes than those who never reported symptoms. In fact, it's likely that most people never report symptoms at all, out of fear they will be listed as mentally ill by mental-health witch doctors.

When most people were around guns all the time, kids routinely learned to shoot and care for guns when they were little. When kids had rifle shooting sports in the schools, no one paid much attention to guns. Kids carried them on school buses.

But now we've taken a frighteningly extremist turn, and little boys can't exercise their natural tendency to make sense of their world at war by drawing guns, tanks, and military artwork in school. This very cathartic and natural behavior is squelched by anti-gun extremism based on unfounded fear. Our children are losing their constitutional rights and being raised in a culture of fear.

Congress needs to drop the entire issue of gun bans and gun control and bring back gun sports to schools. Our founders trusted citizens to act properly. This proposed legislation makes our own leaders seem increasingly like those of fascist regimes. Notice in those countries where guns are banned that the criminals and corrupt government officials still have them, and use them to harm and kill innocent defenseless citizens.

Some of the anti-Second Amendment groups who seek to further limit or even destroy legal access to guns by law-abiding citizens, or fund such efforts, include the Brady Campaign, Rainbow PUSH Coalition (Jesse Jackson), the Million Mom March, Protest Easy Guns, the Joyce Foundation, Americans for Democratic Action, the League of Women Voters, the AARP, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Violence Policy Center, the Legal Community Against Violence, Ceasefire, and the American Hunters and Shooters Association.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police is one of the most dangerous organizations--comprised of people from dictatorships and countries that already banned gun ownership, they are extensively cited by U.S. researchers in all sectors, although the Fraternal Order of Police, Law Enforcement Alliance of America, and the National Association of Chiefs of Police do not share their strident anti-Second Amendment views. These well-meaning but misguided individuals don't realize the repercussions their public policy has on law-abiding citizens, for whom a gun is the only reasonable means of self-protection.

Another unspoken reality--the law of supply and demand will prevail. Guns are easy to manufacture and distribute. If we limit access to or ban guns, crime organizations will quickly take over the lucrative business of manufacturing and distributing them--to criminals! Criminals and corrupt government officials will always have them, as will celebrities. Law-abiding citizens are the ones who lose their constitutionally-guaranteed rights--and potentially their lives.

This legislation needs to be dropped altogether. The National Rifle Association, Brady Campaign, and legislators potentially "seizing the moment" following the VA Tech shootings amounts to a nation-wide amygdala hi-jack. It is nothing more than a knee-jerk emotional response combined with misdirected opportunism. Whatever happened to a society built on trust?