PA Bill Number: SB1198
Title: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and ...
Description: In plants and plant products, providing for plant and pollinator protection; conferring powers and duties on the Department of Agriculture and .. ...
Last Action: Referred to AGRICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Last Action Date: May 17, 2024
After Vegas, do we want solutions? Or just more rhetoric? Opinion By FOAC :: 10/10/2017
Last Monday morning, I, like every other American, awoke to the news of the horror in Las Vegas.
The mind boggles at the capacity of how another human being can coldly and consciously spray bullets into a crowd of innocents. The victims and families of the victims should be our first and foremost concern.
The impulse to act to stop tragedies, such as Las Vegas, that have come all too often to this land of Freedom is heartbreaking and understandable.
However, before some victims even were treated for their wounds, the all-too-familiar cacophony of contradiction from political demagogues and anti-gun groups began once again heralding the need for more gun control.
The narrative is not a new one, and it is recycled by talking heads every time an attack like this occurs.
Right on cue we have been treated to a barrage of impulse control-challenged all-knowing celebrities, safe-district collectivist politicians and apparatchik "journalists" out there foaming at the mouth about banning guns, background checks, etc. being the solution.
"Something must be done!" they scream in unison whenever a bloody tragedy presents itself.
Days after Las Vegas massacre, advocates claim 'biased agenda' on both sides of gun debate
The latest U.S. mass shooting has done little to change opinions on gun rights even as gun control advocates escalate their demands.
Ask them, "What 'gun law' would have prevented the Las Vegas massacre?"
They invariably respond with stalling, distraction, equivocation but in the end, have no definitive answer as to what would have stopped the killer, except for 'more' gun control.
Reviewing the layout of the Las Vegas shooting and where the killer was, where his victims were and unfortunately, even if the concert venue wasn't a gun free zone, there was next to nothing that armed law-abiding citizens could have done to stop what happened.
A good guy with a gun would not have been able to make a difference in the Las Vegas shooting. But that's ok. Sometimes when a car crash is bad enough a seat belt won't be able to save your life.
Does that mean we stop wearing seat belts? Of course not. Had the killer waded into the crowd in hopes of maximizing his body count, a law-abiding citizen, who ignored the gun free zone rules, could have made all the difference.
It has happened before.
Why words matter: Describing Las Vegas as the deadliest mass shooting may not hold against history
In the wake of the country's latest massacre in Las Vegas, the country's writers argued that dubbing it "the deadliest mass shooting" in history did not hold up against historical scrutiny.
For anti-gun groups and self-serving politicians, outright lying to the public about the number of gun laws and restrictions that already exist on gun ownership continues to be folded into the public dialogue.
Every citizen should consider that by saying 'more' laws are needed the anti-gun groups have admitted that 'all' the current laws have failed to stop these killers and 'yet' they are 'not' proposing the repeal of these failed laws, just to add more. Is that the real formula for success?
We must ask ourselves, do we want solutions or more of the same rhetoric?
Let's examine some of the current proposals and the argument goes like this: weapons such as assault rifles are far too dangerous for the general public to own.
There is no legitimate reason for a private citizen to own such guns, and people should trust and rely on law enforcement to protect them when real danger arises.
Despite the many philosophically troublesome issues with the argument, perhaps the most glaring issue is that it they are advancing gun control that has failed at every turn except to strip citizens of the right to self-defense.
For many Americans self-defense is the only thing that stands between life and death.
According to American Police Beat, the average response time for an emergency call is 10 minutes. In attempted robbery or assault situations, people don't have time to wait that long before the scenario goes from frightening to tragic.
The Second Amendment is not perfect -- as the tragedy in Las Vegas clearly shows.
But the average American should not be denied his or her natural rights on the accord of some nutcase acting on criminal impulse. You may believe that it would be safer to ban firearms -- but you must view your thoughts through the lens of the Constitution.
Hollowing out a Constitutional right, by lobbying officials to create laws that disregard it, is unethical, immoral and just plain wrong.
If you want to say that the Constitution shouldn't always matter, or that it should matter except on this issue, then really, what you're saying is that it never truly does -- because you yourself have already stated that exceptions are okay.
Either the document has integrity or it doesn't. Either it has the power to protect our freedoms or it doesn't.
I will remind you of the prophetic words of Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
The allure and illusion of gun control is the 'siren call' of greater safety.
So, what exactly is the gun control that these haters of the 2nd Amendment would pass that would have prevented the Vegas shooting at Mandalay Bay?
The answer is, nothing. All it will do is strip the freedom of self-defense from its citizens who surrender it while leaving the criminals, who will break laws anyway, free to prey on a now defenseless citizenry.
Kim Stolfer is the president of Firearms Owners Against Crime, an advocacy group. He writes from suburban Pittsburgh. Find them on Facebook.
http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2017/10/after_vegas_do_we_want_solutio.html
