PA Bill Number: HB2300
Title: Authorizing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to join the Counseling Compact; and providing for the form of the compact.
Description: An Act authorizing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to join the Counseling Compact; and providing for the form of the compact.
Last Action: Referred to PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE
Last Action Date: May 20, 2024
Heat for Texas prof supporting gun control, while NY writer takes different tack :: 05/22/2015
A professor at the University of Texas at Austin is taking heat for an Op-Ed in the Dallas Morning News calling for restrictive gun control following the shootout in Waco, while an opinion in the New York Post yesterday warned that New York officials better pay close attention to this week’s concealed carry victory in the District of Columbia.
It is ironic that an anti-gun-rights opinion would appear in a Texas newspaper in contrast to a pro-constitutional rights opinion in a New York newspaper. There are plenty of reactions to the opinions of Prof. John Traphagan, who teaches religious studies and anthropology, while there does not appear to be a comments section for the New York Post’s piece from Seth Lipsky.
Traphagan observes, “The solution to gun-related crime is not further arming the public. It involves enacting comprehensive gun control laws that prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly curtailing or eliminating access to and the ability to purchase guns, and implementing programs in which the government confiscates or purchases illegal guns already in circulation among the public.”
With logic that might appeal to anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety or the folks at the Washington Alliance for Gun Safety, the professor adds, “For those firearms that are legal, ownership should be tied not only to background checks, but to extensive and mandatory training in the safe use and storage of weapons.” Essentially, in Traphagan’s world, where most guns would be prohibited, those that are left would be heavily regulated, and their owners treated with suspicion.
Reaction to Traphagan has ranged from sarcasm to fury. Wrote one reader: “There are almost 200 different countries on this planet, all with varying laws restricting guns. I’d suggest the author pick one to his liking and go there.” Another wondered “how many of our other freedoms the author is willing to give away in the name of safety.” A third observed, “Criminals will always have guns. This author wants to ensure the rest of us don’t.”
On the other hand, Lipsky – writing in the Post yesterday – takes sides with the Constitution in a way that seems to slap people like Bloomberg and his ultra-liberal successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, right in the face. Referring to the ruling by Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr., that smacks down the District of Columbia’s requirement to show a “good reason” to bear arms, Lipsky notes, “It’s a big deal because the ‘good reason’ hurdle is being used by municipalities to evade the Bill of Rights.”
“What would be the reaction were Americans required to show ‘good reason’ before they were allowed to pray in public,” Lipsky asks. “Or before they were allowed to speak on a street corner? Or before they were allowed to publish or read newspapers? Or, for that matter, to demand to see a search warrant. Or to remain silent when arrested. All are protected under the Bill of Rights. No questions asked.”
Ah, but that pesky right to keep and bear arms is a real problem, Lipsky intimates, with no small amount of irony. About New York, he provides a bit of embarrassing history: “The most progressive state is one of the most regressive when it comes to the Second Amendment. And it’s a far cry from New York’s roots; the state ratified the Constitution only on the condition that it would protect the right to bear arms. It carefully marked that condition in a famous statement put out in Poughkeepsie at the time the Constitution was ratified.”
As the long Memorial Day weekend looms, it might be a good time for gun prohibitionists to remember what this holiday is all about. It is not the official start of summer, or the vacation and backyard barbecue season. It’s to remember all the citizens who made the supreme sacrifice to defend and protect our way of life. That way was made possible and is guaranteed today by a Constitution that includes a Bill of Rights designed to place limits on government, not on individual citizens.
Many believe the cornerstone of that document is the Second Amendment, because it affirmed the right of individual citizens to keep and bear arms; the last – and perhaps the first – barrier against tyranny. If that’s an outdated notion, tell it to all of those who lost their lives defending it.
This is America, where rights aren’t abandoned because some people behave badly, and where people should never be required to justify the exercise of those rights. It is a nation of citizens, not subjects, and as Lipsky notes, the Second Amendment says the “people have the right to keep and bear arms. It said nothing about them having to show a good reason.”
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