Simpson Column: No logic to gun fears
Published: July 3, 2009
Tomorrow, Saturday, July 4, we celebrate American independence! During this time I hope that Americans will take a few minutes to reflect on how we gained our independence … while so many, to this
very day, are still unable to achieve liberty.
The fact is, we can thank our success on one thing — the individual right to bear arms. If it were not for the firearms owned by private citizens in the late 1700s, the British would have easily defeated us.
Yet so many today are willing to give up this basic right in the hope that government will be there to protect them and will never become oppressive.
Thomas Jefferson wrote “… that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny …”
A couple weeks ago the issue of limiting private gun ownership reared its ugly head again when a piece of human excrement — who I will not give the honor of mentioning by name — got drunk and killed
a duck next to Tim’s Rivershore Restaurant.
This act elicited an Our View editorial by the News & Messenger that queried: “It makes one wonder why people should be allowed guns in restaurants, period.” With the follow-up rhetorical question “Do
we really want a criminal and a patron exchanging gunfire in a crowded restaurant?”
I have heard many accounts of murders in restaurants — I still remember the incident (late ‘70s I believe) of a massacre that took place inside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on Rt. 236 (Duke
Street) next to Interstate-95. Someone walked in and killed many patrons, and no one was armed and able to stop him. Or the event where unarmed people were massacred in a New York subway train,
again where the citizens were unable to defend themselves. So yes … I would rather have a fighting chance than be a helpless victim.
Criminals are going to obtain weapons. If more laws are passed reducing private ownership, crime will increase as evidenced in places like Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. Even in
countries where private ownership is outlawed, criminals acquire weapons.
If guns were the problem, then thousands of deaths would be reported at gun shows. Anyone who takes a minute to shrug off the fear indoctrinated into many by the liberal media will rightly conclude that
most gun violence occurs in areas where people have been disarmed — universities, public schools, places of employment, restaurants, etc.
The Our View piece from June 20 also states that “Guns should be banned from restaurants, plain and simple.” It goes on to suggest that if the government won’t ban guns, then restaurant owners should
post signs banning guns as the law provides for establishments to prohibit them if they desire.
This would only serve as an invitation to anyone wanting to rob a restaurant or its patrons.
The fact that we need a “permit” to carry is already a serious infringement of the Second Amendment. We don’t need to ask the permission of government to practice a religion, speak our minds and
peacefully assemble. Every step that is taking to remove our God given right to protect ourselves moves us one step closer to tyranny. Many are fighting very hard to remove the private sale of guns,
requiring the government become involved in every transaction … as well as requiring that all individuals register their guns. The latter has been used numerous times throughout history to confiscate guns
once those governments realized that their tyrannical nature was inciting a citizen revolt.
From a document issued by the Second Continental Congress on July 6th, 1775 titled Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms: “From thence the troops proceeded in warlike array to
the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people suddenly assembled to
repel this cruel aggression.”
These people did not reply to tyranny by throwing stones. Our government is currently diving headlong into financial ruin. You can’t just magically produce trillions of dollars and not have significant
repercussions. You can’t have the government take over huge parts of the private sector and not have significant repercussions. It will not be long before our government turns oppressive.
Freedoms, once lost, are very difficult to regain. Please try and remember why we celebrate July 4 as you are watching the fireworks.
James Simpson lives in Lake Ridge.
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Reader Reactions
“Kind of makes me wonder why people are so quick to disparage the lives that they never lived.“
Kind of makes me wonder what’s in the kool aid you’re drinking. I’ve always considered you to be one of the more rational Conservatives on this site, Willow 703. But here, you’re sounding just as crazy as Pwanon and Scorpio. What’s up with that?
“Someone wanted to make sure they weren’t in the oatmeal, so now you have to read all of those pesky ingredient labels.“
And now I have to wonder why there are ethoxylated monoglycerides and diglycerides - in addition to the mono and diglycerides - in the loaf of bread on my table. By the way, I grew up in a town where timber was a major industry, so I ingested some sawdust as a child. I might also have ingested some lead-laced paint chips & I know I handled a lot of mercury, we played with that a lot when I was a child.
“Kind of makes you wish for the days when ketchup was still considered a vegetable…“ Kind of makes me wish for the days when the label on the ketchup bottle had only 3 ingredients & high fructose corn syrup wasn’t one of them.
Kind of makes me wish for the days when people didn’t consider lions, tigers, boa constrictors, & ducks, to be “family pets”.
Kind of makes me wish for the days when, after being out the house from sunup to sundown, I would come home & my mother would ask me what I had been doing in all of the places where my presence had been reported to her.
Kind of makes me wish for the days when the doors of my parents’ house were never locked.
Kind of makes me wonder why people are so quick to disparage the lives that they never lived.
Yes, yes, Willow. Someone wanted to make sure they weren’t putting sawdust in the oatmeal, so now you have to read all of those pesky ingredient labels. And then someone wanted to make sure they weren’t eating a million calories in an appetizer so now you have to look at all of those annoying calorie signs when your eating out. What’s the world coming to when we have to deal with facts and figures and we can’t make decisions based simply on what our parents and pastors told us? It’s enough to confuse even the most moderate conservative. Kind of makes you wish for the days when ketchup was still considered a vegetable doesn’t it? Ah, the world was so much easier to understand when Hoover was president. Well, take heart. You can still shoot a pet duck with an automatic weapon at the same restaurant where the calories signs are now required, so it’s not a total dictatorship—-yet.
Ron,
You are not getting it. There is nothing wrong with restaurants having to post seating capacities & evacuation schemes. They & other businesses are required to do so, in the interest of public safety, How often do you see them or even look for them?
I still have food choices, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Tex-Mex, etc. I rarely eat out & I know which restaurants serve only Pepsi & which only Coke; I usually drink coffee, tea, or water. I can still choose which to go to. The government has removed soft drinks from schools, how long will it be before they are removed from restaurants?
Some people have no problem living in 40-story apartment buildings & having someone else run their lives. I am not one of those people.
Even having all the information available, some people will make wrong choices & some will pay dearly for those choices. That’s called freedom, Ron. It’s not free, but I’ll pay the price rather than accept the alternative, which is dictatorship.
willow703,
In my opinion, you are not willing to accept my answers.
“Forcing restaurant owners to post calorie counts is like forcing them to post seating capacities & evacuation schemes.“
What is wrong with posting seating capacities and evacuation schemes? That is another part of general health and public safety. It’s al about making informaiton available to those who want it. It’s a person’s choice to use the informaiton provided or not - BUT THEY HAVE THE RIGHT to have accurate information available that is needed to make an informed decision.
“What about food choice? I don’t like spinach, I do like brussels sprouts. Will I soon have no choice?“
In fact, right now due to excesses of corporate practices, you do not always have a food choice in restaurants. If a restaurant carries coke products, they don’t necessarily carry Pepsi, and vice versa, because of contract requirments. That is anathema to what Liberalism is about, but fully in line with the “let markets decide” fantasy world of Conservatism.
The entire concept of a democracy is that people, armed with the necessary information and the education to know how to use that information, will make the best possible choice in every situation. In a vibrant Democracy, armed with the necessary information and education, the people will always elect the best leaders.
I think it’s no coincident that Conservatives continually do whatever they can to weaken education and suppress information. Liberals continually strive to improve education and make information public and freely available.
Ron,
You didn’t actually answer my questions.
What you say is all well & good, but I’m not a child. My every action does not need to be dictated to me, & and that is where this current, “nanny state” Congress is headed.
Forcing restaurant owners to post calorie counts is like forcing them to post seating capacities & evacuation schemes. What’s next, requiring every patron to certify to having read & understood said calorie counts?
What about food choice? I don’t like spinach, I do like brussels sprouts. Will I soon have no choice?
Is there a silver lining? Will the unemployment problem be solved by the sheer number of people required to enforce all of these dictates?
willow703,
How does requiring my house to meet government standards of energy efficiency relate to public safety and good order and discipline?
It reduces the net energy requirements of the neighborhood, which in turn reduces the overall demand for energy in the region,...and so on.
How does requiring restaurants to post the calorie counts of entrees served relate to public safety and good order and discipline?
It provides the information necessary for those patron who wish to watch their diet know what it is they are eating. Same rational for requiring food processors to include the ingredients, and supermarkets for providing per unit pricing. As a side benefit - you get what you inspect, not what you expect. Forcing restaurant owners to post the calorie count of their meals encourages them to, you know, actually serve nutritious meals.
“Funny thing, it seems it’s always liberals - not this Liberal - who are pushing for fewer restrictions on civil liberties - except for gun ownership.“
Funny how that works. I guess it’s all in the rational. I see that fewer guns floating around in the hands of untrained people - who for the most part may not actually know which end the bullet comes out - as an improvement in public safety and greater freedoms for all, in the form of less worry about some nut walking into a school and shooting the place up. Or accidentally shooting their buddy hunting with them while drunk.
Let’s not exaggerate, here, Willow… We have more freedom, resources, latitude, choice, privilege, ease, possibility to do any thing we darn well please, right now, if we choose, than 95% of all of humanity now living or that has ever lived. What, exactly, do you want to go out an do, today, that you can’t? Sadly, it is this freedom and privilege that is causing us so many problems. It is not all about you, alone, your rights and desires. It is also about what we are doing collectively that is weakening us as a culture and a nation.
Al Mostonest
Ron,
“all these laws an regs are done in the name of public safety and ‘good order and discipline’.“ How does requiring my house to meet government standards of energy efficiency relate to public safety and good order and discipline? How does requiring restaurants to post the calorie counts of entrees served relate to public safety and good order and discipline?
“Funny thing, it seems it’s always conservatives pushing for more restrictions on civil liberties - except for gun ownership.“ Funny thing, it seems it’s always liberals - not this Liberal - who are pushing for fewer restrictions on civil liberties - except for gun ownership.
rain3fly,
“...like Willow, I don’t like to be put out by change, especially when it is necessary.“
I don’t mind all change - I’ve seen a lot of it in my 70-some years - but not all of it has been necessary for my existence and quality of life. There are still some things that I would like to decide for myself.
I sympathize with Willow. I just wish life could cruise along on autopilot for the good of all. I hate it when I have to change, even though I believe in change on principle. I don’t like the government telling me what to do when I don’t want to do it. I don’t like retailers telling me what to buy and charging me more for it. I don’t like my doctor telling me what to take or what to cut out. I don’t like hard facts or reality forcing me to alter my ways. I don’t even like telling myself what to do when I have to exert some discipline or self-restraint in my life. But, alas, I have to change, as I always have. I have to keep evolving to keep a proper balance.
These problems we are facing are not new: the budget deficits, the decline in American industry, loss of manufacturing jobs, Detroit, the Social Security gap, drugs, obesity, illegal immigration, loss of quality, pollution… They have all been building for over 50 years, and what has been done to stop them? Corporate America’s greed has been part of them problem, and the Average American citizen has been happy to go along for the ride. Reagan’s answer was for the government to step aside and just let the market decide. Well, it did, as we know. We forget that there were times in our history when the government had to step in a break up huge trusts (Roosevelt and Taft) or assert constitutional authority on the States (civil rights). Does anybody seriously think that we can continue like we have for another 50 years and still be around as the country we know and love? We had better make some real changes in the way we live or else. Who is going to do this? Will Corporate America get together and work, selflessly, or the good of our country and not try to pocket every penny it can grasp? Will individuals spontaneously come together to do the right thing and give up their individual entitlements and privileges for future generations? It has generally be a national leader, a politician, who has stepped up to the plate and forced the issue. But, still, like Willow, I don’t like to be put out by change, especially when it is necessary.
Al Mostonest
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