PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Gun Control as a Pro-Life Issue :: 10/21/2015
First we should recognize that whoever came up with the socio-political term “pro-life” was brilliant. Even those of us who support a woman’s right to choose certainly would not want to be considered “anti-life,” or coldly “pro-abortion,” so we wound up with the term “pro-choice,” which does not have half the emotional impact. Score one for those who are still fighting Roe v. Wade.
Stick with me–I am not going to reargue the issue of abortion. I want to consider the full meaning and extent of being pro-life–an issue that lasts long past live birth.
First, someone truly pro-life would support expanding free or inexpensive pre- and post-natal care for those who have little access to it. Many parts of the USA have the infant-mortality rate of third-world countries.
If one is genuinely pro-life, one certainly should oppose capital punishment–which is doctrine in some faiths, though clearly not followed by all members. As one opposed to the death penalty I’m pleased that more and more states have abolished it and expect that someday the US Supreme Court will outlaw it.
Similarly, shouldn’t we all oppose suicide–also a mortal sin in some faiths?
I think we can also agree that we all oppose murder.
Which brings me to my essential point. If you are truly pro-life you should be actively in favor of gun safety–the term that currently seems to go down easier than “gun control.”
Gun violence kills an average of 31,500 people every year, 10 per cent of them children and teens– and more than 60 percent of all those deaths are suicides.
Opponents of Roe v Wade have invented dozens of laws and ordinances to reduce abortion, ranging from severe restrictions on the kind of facilities the operation may be performed, the maximum number of weeks it can legally take place and in some places requiring the doctors who perform the operation to be officially linked to a local hospital. States such as Texas and Mississippi make it extremely difficult if not impossible for a woman to legally terminate a pregnancy.
It’s possible that many of those laws and ordinances may eventually be found unconstitutional. But those who developed them have been remarkably diligent and inventive in efforts to circumvent Roe.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if those diligent and creative pro-life people applied themselves to devising and passing laws to restrict the sale and possession of assault weapons and handguns as a means of getting around the Supreme Court’s controversial Second Amendment decision upholding almost everyone’s a right to buy any kind of gun and as many as he or she wants?
Many ideas are already on the table: outlawing assault weapons again; closing the loophole that permits immediate sales at gun shows; outlawing high-capacity magazines; stringent background checks of all purchasers and their families. Especially interesting is the notion of manufacturing and selling only “smart” handguns that can be fired only by the buyer.
Think of the suicides that would be prevented. Consider the potential reduction in murders–individual or mass. Consider all the potential lives saved. Now that would truly make you pro-life.
http://www.cdobs.com/archive/featured/gun-control-as-a-pro-life-issue/
