April 21, 2013

Has Society Moved Beyond The Second Amendment?

On Friday’s Real Time on HBO, Bill Maher quoted conservative columnist George Will from an article he wrote in 1991 titled, “How Embarrassing: The Constitution Protects the Guns that Kill.” Yes folks, this is actually a George Will article. “The Bill of Rights should be modified only with extreme reluctance, but America has an extreme crisis of gunfire,” wrote Will. “And impatience to deal with it can cause less than scrupulous readings of the Constitution.” Because anyone who thinks the language of the Second Amendment guarantees their right to own an assault weapon is hiding behind that Amendment, not comprehending it. “Whatever right the Second Amendment protects is not as important as it was 200 years ago, when the requirements of self-defense and food-gathering made gun ownership almost universal,” said Will.

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April 15, 2013

Boston Marathon Explosions And Modern Society

I don’t have any special insights or exclusive information regarding the two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon today, but what I can say is this — we are not living in a more violent time. We are not witnessing a societal free fall of morals and values. The human race is not degenerating into a vengeful, hateful species with no hope for the future. Chance are this was the work of one person, but I’ll leave that for the authorities to sort out. Even if it was the work of more than one person, they do not represent the rest of us.

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April 15, 2013

Concealed-Carry Gun Laws To Extend Across State Lines?

Last week the Senate started debate on the bi-partisan gun bill championed by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Expanded background checks is the biggest gun control provision, but we need to pay special attention to something else in the bill, national reciprocity of concealed-carry permits. It means gun owners with proper permits (in states that allow concealed-carry) would be allowed to cross state lines with their concealed firearm.

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April 13, 2013

Yes, People Do Cling To Guns And Religion

In April 2008, then Senator Barack Obama got into a bit of political trouble. Referring to working-class voters, the presidential hopeful said, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” This statement caused an immediate and lasting backlash. Ultimately he got past it, won the Democratic primary and then the presidency. And to this day, the common wisdom is that Obama was wrong when he made this statement. But was he?

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February 28, 2013

Assault Weapons: No One Needs Those Guns

On Tuesday night, Rachel Maddow’s guests were the siblings of Newtown shooting victim Victoria Soto, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Rachel asked Carlos Matthew Soto, brother of Victoria, what he would like to see congress change. “It would probably be the assault weapon ban. Just because, no one needs those guns,” said Soto. “There’s no reason to have them unless your military.”

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December 22, 2012

America’s Gun Culture: It’s Not Naive To Think We Can Change Minds

I know many gun owners and gun enthusiasts think liberals like myself are simply naive. — That we lack experience with guns. — That we lack the proper knowledge to talk about guns. — That we are silly to think we can change America’s obsession with guns. — But it is these same gun advocates who hold the naive belief that the “bad guys” will always have access to guns so we need to arm the “good guys.”

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