Huff and Puff: Why Would Anyone Think Gun Control is Patriotic?

Sanjay Sanghoee, writing for the Huffington Post this week suggested that gun control would be patriotic. In other words, destroying the Second Amendment would be showing patriotism. He wrote:

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado, it is time to take a long, hard look at the role of guns in our society. This is not about politics but about pure common sense.

Let's start with the simple facts: a gunman, who is most likely insane, went to the front of a packed movie theater during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises and opened fire on the crowd with assault weapons. A dozen people died and dozens other were injured and probably traumatized for life. A disgusting act that has shocked the nation, but who is to blame for what happened?

The liberals would say that it is the NRA and the gun industry, who make it absurdly easy to secure assault weapons in the United States, including over the Internet. The conservatives in turn would say that it is not guns but people who do the killing. Literally speaking they are correct, but if the essence of what the conservatives claim is true, then the reason we have crazy massacres in this country is because Americans are a bunch of homicidal maniacs with no impulse control; and if that part is true, then should we really allow this same crackpot citizenry to carry firearms? You see the problem?

This is just nonsense. But then the writer added:

The Second Amendment of our Constitution was meant to protect us from harm, but had the Founding Fathers known back then that the proliferation of guns would put us in harm's way today, I bet you anything they would have put safeguards in place to prevent abuse.

The framers of the Constitution did create safeguards against despotic regimes: the Bill of Rights. Those inclusions were intended to reaffirm the natural rights of citizens and restrict the state from infringing upon them. 

The right to defend oneself makes sense but that should not encompass the right to own weapons of mass destruction, or to endanger the welfare of society. The belief that we need to stockpile guns of every kind to protect us from our own government is a sign of deep paranoia and madness.

In terms of gun rights, freedom of speech, freedom from unreasonable searches, etc., the government can be seen as a threat for its efforts to restrict or remove many of these guaranteed freedoms. There is no paranoia or conspiracy theory when we have entire municipalities and states restricting firearms rights to near non-existence. Think of Chicago, New York City, or the entire state of California. To get much worse, gun rights are simply remove entirely. 

And to the people who think that way, let me ask you this: do you really believe that if the U.S. government decided for some reason to direct all its military might against you , you would stand a chance against them?

Would standing up for those collective liberties in the face of a government which is out of control not be most patriotic? I believe so, and gun owners understand why more than most. 

Guns were actually fairly common when the Founding Fathers drafted the Second Amendment. And do we really want to take the risks of being left defenseless?

The spark that started the rebellion against the crown in this country occurred when Britain tried to end gun ownership by the colonists. I believe they knew better than anyone the reason firearms rights were more than necessary to defend a free society. 

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Original Page: http://www.firearmstruth.com/2012/huff-and-puff-why-gun-control-is-patriotic