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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 ...

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Last Action Date: May 14, 2024

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Differing media opinions underscore difficulty of gun issue :: 10/13/2015

Two opinions published over the past 24 hours, one at the Huffington Post and the other by the Washington Post and Oregon.Live, underscore the difficulty of pinning down a solution to the “gun violence problem,” and KIRO radio’s Dave Ross has yet another suggestion about keeping guns out of the wrong hands.

In the HuffPo opinion, author David Ropeik says, “The people who fight so fiercely for unfettered gun rights are more afraid than the people who want reasonable gun control.” He goes on to note that the risk of being killed by someone with a firearm was remote, 0.0000035 by Ropeik’s statistic.

Then there’s Fermin DeBrabander, a professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College f Art in Baltimore. Writing in the Washington Post about a “proliferation” of laws allowing campus carry and stand-your-ground, he said, “We fear strangers will misinterpret our advances or demeanor as threats. We fear gun owners will be emboldened to shoot first and ask questions later. We feel less secure in public, and less free to approach, negotiate or simply coexist with strangers.”

Evidently we’re all afraid of something. Ergo, the “proliferation” of firearms. Or, as DeBrabander observed, “…‘guns everywhere’ laws is a grave threat to our freedom.”

Well, not so fast. Frank Gillispie, founder of the Madison County Journal, seems to suggest this morning that armed citizens haven’t got as much to worry about as their unarmed neighbors. “It is my opinion that every family should have at least one gun, and all members of the family should be taught to shoot,” he wrote. “Having it known that a home has weapons and people who know how to use them is the best way to avoid criminal invasion.

“If government were to succeed in taking our guns,” Gillispie continued, “then none of our natural or constitutional rights are secure. Government could easily become a dictator, forcing us to obey every demand from our rulers. If that happens, we will have lost America.”

Do you agree with Frank Gillispie? Is the right to keep and bear arms the lynchpin of Liberty? Weigh in below.

Weighing in for the second time in less than a week on guns, KIRO’s Ross today is suggesting that firearms dealers should simply say “no sale” to potential customers they think might be off the rails. In a morning commentary, Ross contends that gun dealers should exercise the same judgment as bartenders who cut off drinks to intoxicated customers. To many people, that may be an interesting strategy, since the Second Amendment is a limit on government, not on gun dealers. Of course, the argument would ensue that there is a right to own guns, but no specific right to drink one’s self into oblivion.

Ross contends that if the National Rifle Association got behind such a policy, they would win the Nobel Peace Prize. No they wouldn’t. Critics would argue they hadn’t done enough.

So, we’re either afraid of each other, or we’re not. We’re supposed to be wary of our government and guns keep that government in check. Gun dealers should exercise a bit of clairvoyance.

And in that, we’re supposed to find some consensus on gun rights? Good luck, and keep your powder dry.