In an opinion column published by Eric Liu on CNN, “The Accidental Asian” tries to confuse us by using “gun responsibility” instead of “gun control.” Why do they think we’re so stupid? Here’s what he writes:
Gun responsibility isn’t gun control. It isn’t about “controlling” people or banning ownership of guns or confiscating weapons. But neither is it about treating the gun issue as if it were only a matter of rights — as if everything else, from the safety of our children to the lethality of everyday crime to the reduction of gun suicides or accidents, were irrelevant.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/11/opinion/liu-gun-responsibility/
It is an issue of rights. Nobody talks about speech responsibility, religious responsibility, assembly responsibility, etc.
A gun responsibility agenda respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms. It also demands that the right be exercised with the level of responsibility that a functioning society applies to any public health or safety issue.
The Second Amendment is NOT a public health or safety issue.
I’ve fired an M-16A2 semiautomatic rifle at Marine Corps target practice. I’ve hunted deer and duck with a rifle and shotgun. I can respect those who respect the power of these weapons and the craft of their skillful use.
That does not make you a Second Amendment expert.
At the same time, gun responsibility means accepting — indeed, championing — reasonable rules and standards for the ownership and use of firearms. Criminal background checks prior to gun purchases, to take one obvious example, should be completely noncontroversial. That’s the bare minimum responsibility requires.
Aha! You mean GUN CONTROL. By the way, when was the last time anyone went through a background check to buy crack, cocaine, illegal weapons, etc?
The idea of gun responsibility can and does appeal to people across the spectrum. A majority of NRA members would likely call themselves adherents. It’s not about left versus right. It’s just about being adult versus being immature. Adults know that every right carries an implicit duty to others — that no right, constitutional or not, is absolute — and they live accordingly. Such mindsets have nothing to do with age.
In other words, “if you don’t agree with me, you’re being immature.” These liberals are quite the debaters, aren’t they? Let’s see what Ayn Rand has to say about “duty”
One of the most destructive anti-concepts in the history of moral philosophy is the term “duty.”
The meaning of the term “duty” is: the moral necessity to perform certain actions for no reason other than obedience to some higher authority, without regard to any personal goal, motive, desire or interest.
“Duty” destroys reason: it supersedes one’s knowledge and judgment, making the process of thinking and judging irrelevant to one’s actions.
“Duty” destroys values: it demands that one betray or sacrifice one’s highest values for the sake of an inexplicable command—and it transforms values into a threat to one’s moral worth, since the experience of pleasure or desire casts doubt on the moral purity of one’s motives.
“Duty” destroys love: who could want to be loved not from “inclination,” but from “duty”?
“Duty” destroys self-esteem: it leaves no self to be esteemed.
Source: http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/duty.html
See? There is no duty. I don’t buy from you because I owe you something, I buy because you have something I value. I am a responsible gun owner not out of duty but simple self-preservation. If I break a gun law, I will suffer, I do not wish to suffer thus I don’t break gun laws. Simple as that.
A group of activists has chosen to designate December 15, the day after the Newtown anniversary, as “Guns Save Lives Day.” They’ll ignore the desire of Sandy Hook families for quiet by loudly protesting “attacks” on their gun rights. They’ll brandish firearms and insist against evidence that more guns means less gun violence. There is a term for this, drawn from adolescent psychology: acting out.
The evidence is actually against you:
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report shows that while gun ownership climbed from 192 million firearms in 1994 to 310 million firearms in 2009, crime fell—and fell sharply. According to the report, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” rate was 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993. Following the exponential growth in the number of guns, that rate fell to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2000.
As for your other charges, where the freedom-riders acting out? Was Martin Luther King, Jr. acting out? Are gay rights protestors, abortion sympathizers, Occupy Wall Street, and every other group acting out? No, they are PROTESTING, they are exercising their rights of speech and assembly, and in our case, arms.
A good way to honor the children of Sandy Hook Elementary school is to thank gun owners who behave like adults, to support policies that encourage greater gun responsibility — and to remember that this is how we fulfill our Second Amendment duties.
We don’t have Second Amendment duties, we have Second Amendment RIGHTS, and the only children I see here are the gun haters who can’t wait for Big Daddy Government to tell them what to do and how to live.
Do us a favor, Mr. Liu. Stop lying, if you hate guns, say so, but stop it with “gun responsibility” and “Second Amendment duties” and your ridiculous Orwellian language and barely hidden contempt against gun owners.
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