PA Bill Number: HB2089
Title: Establishing the Coal and Clay Mine Subsidence and Landslide Insurance and Assistance Program within the Department of Environmental Protection; ...
Description: Establishing the Coal and Clay Mine Subsidence and Landslide Insurance and Assistance Program within the Department of Environmental Protec ...
Last Action: Referred to INSURANCE
Last Action Date: May 14, 2024
Buried in the Latest Trump Gaffe Is an Important Point About Self-Defense :: 09/30/2016
Across the political spectrum pundits are adding Donald Trump’s comment last Friday that Hillary’s Secret Service detail should “disarm” to his long list of reprehensible comments and bone-headed gaffes. They shouldn’t. I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Trump actually wants the Secret Service to disarm (he’s certainly not calling for his own detail to drop their weapons).
Instead, he’s (very inartfully) making the beginnings of an important point about which lives we apparently believe are important enough to merit armed protection — and which lives are not.
Again and again conservatives watch politicians and prominent celebrities call for varying degrees of gun control — often including gun confiscation — all while they protect themselves with armed security. They should protect themselves. It’s their right. But is the life of any politician worth more than, say, the life of a single mom who’s fearful of an abusive ex-boyfriend? Restraining orders are mere pieces of paper, easily and (often fatally) violated. Is the life of any celebrity worth more than the lives, say, of the shoppers in St. Cloud Minnesota — people who faced a crazed jihadist unarmed until a good guy with a gun came on the scene?
While no decent progressive would say that the lives of average citizens are worth any less than the lives of celebrities or politicians, they’ll respond instead with some variation of an argument that you and I can’t be trusted, while armed bodyguards and police officers can be. If I own a gun, I’m more likely to hurt myself than defend myself. If I own a gun there’s a chance my kids might accidentally discharge it. Therefore . . . what? I lose my inalienable human and natural right to effective self-defense? Are cops immune to crime, suicide, or accidental discharges?
When a person reaches a certain level of public prominence — regardless of ideology — they tend to accept armed protection reflexively. They know it’s a dangerous world. They see the threats. Yet danger is hardly concentrated at the top of the American social pyramid. Indeed, that’s one of the safest spaces to occupy in all of national life. Actual danger tends to be concentrated in the American economic classes that are least able to afford security. These lives are precious. These lives enjoy the exact same rights to self-defense as all others.
Yes, there’s a way to make the argument in a way that leaves no doubt that you respect Hillary’s right to self-defense, but the point still stands. Everyone has a right to protect themselves.
