It's the bedrock tenet of American justice. It is the promise that our legal system and its enforcement arm will not meddle in our lives as long as we follow the law.
It's a policy that firearm owners are no longer allowed to enjoy.
Firearm owners, regardless if you are a concealed carry advocate or a one-weekend a year deer hunter, are automatically labelled a societal scourge, degenerates, paranoids, and mass murderers-in-waiting.
The vast majority of firearm owners are law-abiding citizens, no different from their non-gun owning neighbors. Yet, we are subjected to restrictions, laws, registration, licensing, and scrutiny that no other class of citizen must face.
Seriously, what other class of citizen is subjected to this? What if we substitute other adjectives in place of "gun owner" or "gun"? How do current laws read then?
Let's experiment.
What if we required all Jewish people to go down to the police station and pay $10 to register their Menorahs? Oh, they can still possess them, but they have to be tracked. Can you imagine the uproar? Forcing a class of people to register an inanimate object on the grounds of what they MIGHT do with it?
Cars kill tens of thousands more people every year than firearms. Yes, we do require licenses and registrations. How about we also require everyone to submit to an FBI background check and a five-day waiting period before they can buy a car?
Better yet, how about we regulate cheap, or Saturday Night Special, cars? Maybe we should ban all non-police vehicles that hold more than five people? Sure, the market price on a pre-ban Suburban would skyrocket, but think about all the lives we'd save!!
You can be Catholic, but only if you openly wear a symbol of Catholicism when in public. No Concealed Catholics allowed in certain cities or stores. Certainly not in banks or hospitals. After all, if a Catholic has only good intentions, why should he or she be afraid to show their faith?
Are there bad gun owners? Hell yes. Are there bad baseball bat owners? Hell yes. Are there bad drivers? Hell yes.
Firearms, bats, and cars are not good or bad. They are inanimate objects that have no intrinsic good/evil value. What has happened is that the anti-gunners have created a symbolic definition of firearms as being pure death. This is ludicrous. Non-living things cannot be good or bad. A gun can be used to save a life just as a Bible can be used to bludgeon someone to death.
There are just bad people in this world who will commit harm upon another human being regardless of the law. If they don't have a gun they will use a knife or a bat or a fist or a car or rope or fire or anything.
Look to the growing frequency of hobo bashing. The teens who are committing these cowardly acts are using bare fists. Should we require teens to be registered and tracked?
(OK, maybe that idea has some merit...)
Finally... Imagine the uproar -- no make that the riots -- that would break out if suddenly all around Nebraska you began to see signs appearing on storefronts and business doors.
"No Coloreds Allowed"
Discrimination is ugly. Bias has no place in America.
What our government and media are doing is holding a class of people to a separate but unequal standard of society based on their belief in self-preservation and the Second Amendment.
What can be done about this? In the not-too-distant past learning about the shooting sports was as common as learning to play catch. As urban areas grew, the sport died off. Now, the most exposure people get to firearms are through video games, film and TV, and the news. Very rarely are these positive images.
You hear it often, "Shoot safe, shoot often, and share your sport." The first two go without saying, but the last part is where most of us as gun owners fail. Your fair Shackmaster is as guilty of this as the next shooter.
Next time you're range-bound, invite a friend. If every gunowner in America would teach one friend, spouse, neighbor... heck, anyone... to shoot, we would double the powerbase overnight. I don't have to tell you how addictive shooting can be, but we need to get those fresh faces on the range.
I know some of the Freedom Fiends who visit this little soapbox are doing their part (and mine and yours and his and hers) by teaching others to shoot. For that, a hearty Shack salute. It's the rest of us who aren't pulling our weight.
So, here's my challenge. Take a new person shooting. Wife, boyfriend, co-worker, neighbor... Whomever.
The only way we will be able to end this discrimination is to make ourselves the majority once again.
xxx JM24 xxx
0 comments:
Post a Comment