July 24, 2012 05:21 AM UTC

It's Time to Lift the Gag Order on Gun Laws. 


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• by: SSG_Dan

Once again, many people have been massacred with maniacal indifference, all enabled by a collection of firepower that seems completely unnecessary to the majority of Americans, be they gun owners or not.

And when that same majority of Americans dare to start asking the perfectly legitimate question of “why does one person have so many guns?,” the response from the Gundamentalists is usually the same –

“You’re exploiting this tragedy for political purposes – you want to take away the Constitutional Rights of Gun Owners!”



“Your liberal agenda is to create a gun-free criminal-safe zone here in Colorado!”



“This is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in his second term.”


“Hitler deliberately weakened gun laws so the he could conquer Germany.”

And so on. This angry hooting normally stops any attempt to try and get back to the questions originally posed, because any questioning of these statements usually results in more of the same. How dare you ask about this issue – simply accept my flawed and angry arguments, and give up.



It’s not limited to the Gundamentalists – if I dare mention I’m a gun owner, and I support everyone’s 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, I’m now a trigger-happy ogre who wants everyone to take an M249 SAW with them to Starbucks, or (even worse) I am now drenched in the blood of every victim of the Aurora shooting “because I want this to happen.”



So we give up, and then we let the death be buried, the questions go away, and we go about our lives until the next horrible massacre happens in a spray of bullets. We let a tiny majority of people dictate the terms and frequency of the discussion, because to them, it’s perfectly acceptable price to pay to let other people die in terror and pain to let them have their own personal arsenal.



No more.



I refuse to listen to these half-baked, angry and delusional arguments be the final word on the issue of guns. I also refuse to listen to the other extreme in which the banning of all guns is the only solution to this problem. The extremists on both sides have raised the rhetoric to the boiling point on this issue, to a temperature that only the craziest and angriest can survive the cauldron. 



We need to have a national dialogue on Guns. NOW.



The first step is that we have to stop accepting the premise that even asking a question about guns is an affront to the Constitution. None of the amendments to this governing document are unrestricted rights, and that 2nd one is no exception. The Supreme Court has ruled in District of Columbia vs Heller that Americans have the right to possess a firearm. However, it was quite clear that the 2nd Amendment is not unlimited – “It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

The Gundamentalists continue to be in denial over that sentence, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be.

We can talk about gun laws.

And let’s TALK. Let’s begin by trying to understand all of the issues, and not accusing anyone of undoing the Constitution or engaging in tyranny or wanting to let every carry an M60 machine gun. The majority of Americans seem to understand that a modified military assault rifle with a 100-round magazine is too much, as well as thinking that owning a handgun or a hunting rifle is about right. Why can’t we start with what we can all agree on, instead of digging in our heels that it’s either ALL GUNS or NO GUNS?



Most importantly, I don’t expect this dialogue to generate an list of “good” or “bad” guns, any sort of proposed legislation, or even a consensus on what gun ownership means. What I do expect is that people can realize that we can have an adult, informed discussion on a subject, and that once we get past the stupidity and shrieking, maybe THEN we can move on to something resembling common-sense legislation…..free of lobbyists, SuperPACs and figureheads hooting about “Liberty” or “Safety.”


Will it happen? I doubt it. We’re already reduced to snarky infographics on Facebook, fantasy statements about how more guns will fix the problem, and gunfighting bravado from fools who think a few hours playing a FPS makes them a SWAT team. The false quote about Hitler and gun control is already running amok in emails and in social media, and I don’t doubt that the NRA’s million dollar spokesman is already readying the  speeches at the RNC convention. 


In all honesty, I’m writing this plea not knowing what else to do. I’m tired of people dying because a stubborn few use their limited views on the 2nd Amendment to club the rest of us into submission. I’m hopeful that most of my buddies from my military past (Repub and Dem) seem to agree that there needs to be SOME rules to gun ownership, and that a CCW permit does not make you a SF A-Team.



But I do fear they’re in the minority. Am I wrong, or can we do this?

The Colorado shooting and the gag rule on guns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

Post Aurora: Don’t expect new gun laws

http://www.politico.com/news/s…

Colorado shooting: Why calling Obama ‘anti-gun’ is smart politics

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/P…

A Look at the Aurora Shooter’s Guns, Including the AR-15

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a…

President Obama and Mitt Romney are too afraid to take on the National Rifle Association because they fear it will hurt their chances for victory in November’s election

http://www.nydailynews.com/new…