PA Bill Number: HB1472

Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...

Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...

Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT

Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024

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Subtle anti-gun media bias is tyranny of a different sort :: 07/04/2015

A story in yesterday’s U.S. News and World Report contained a reference to “so-called Second Amendment rights,” while another piece in that same publication back on June 23 suggested that Americans “feared increased gun control” because of the “first black president.”

In yesterday’s Huffington Post, there was a first-person piece about Sandy Hook and Charleston that wondered, “As yet more victims of gun violence are laid to rest in the U.S., what will this mean for gun control legislation? Changes that may inhibit some citizens’ right to possess, but ultimately lead to reduced gun violence and unnecessary death? Or further denial that lax gun laws and gun violence are linked, and another ramping up of state and civilian “security”?

Did anybody catch any of this? As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day (not the Fourth of July, that’s just a date on the calendar), perhaps now is a good time to consider throwing off the bonds of subtle media bias against the Second Amendment.

To wit: There is no “so-called” Second Amendment right, there is a genuine, fundamental individual civil right to keep and bear arms that is affirmed and protected by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It’s been delineated by the Supreme Court twice in the past ten years. Referring to it as a “so-called” right suggests that maybe this right exists only in some peoples’ imagination. Tell it to the men who stood shoulder-to-shoulder on Lexington Commons as British regulars entered the town. Nice try, but no cigar.

That bit about gun buying increasing because of some fear of “the first black president” might be considered a very subtle suggestion that people who bought firearms were motivated by racism, rather than a color-blind concern about Barack Obama’s position on gun rights. Indeed, a lot of gun owners and several leading Second Amendment advocates are black. So what? We're all Americans.

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From ev'ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

The president’s history on gun control is pretty well spelled out at the On The Issues website. This has material dating back to when he was running for Illinois State Senate. He was consistently opposed to concealed carry, for example. Today, some 12 million Americans are licensed to carry, including more than 493,000 Washington state citizens, as reported by this column Wednesday.

And the HuffPo’s intimation about “gun violence” — is that somehow different from lethal “knife violence” or “blunt instrument violence” since all the victims are equally dead — suggests that firearm homicide is up, when it has actually declined over the past several years, during that same period when gun sales have essentially skyrocketed. "Gun violence" isn't different, but you're supposed to think so.

Don’t overlook that reference to “lax gun laws.” That is a term so over-used by gun prohibitionists as to be in need of new shoes. The soles of this canard are wearing awfully thin, and the heels are nearly gone from too many attempts to stomp the Second Amendment into the pavement. To some people, a gun law is "lax" if it allows someone to actually own a firearm.

Even the HuffPo’s headline was misleading: “Sandy Hook, Charleston and How About Some Gun Control?” It’s as if the thousands of gun laws now on the books — along with laws against armed robbery, rape and murder — didn’t exist.

If you don’t understand this sort of subtlety, it’s difficult to recognize it even when you’re looking right at it. It’s like the often-used contention that 40 percent of gun sales in this country don’t involve a background check, even though that claim has been thoroughly debunked. The Daily Caller ran a piece yesterday from the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action discussing a string of anti-gun prevarications. While many will consider the source tainted, the information isn't.

Tomorrow is Independence Day. No doubt tonight there will be barbecues, patio parties, campground gatherings, picnics on the beaches and no small amount of relaxation. There ought to be something else: Reflection on where we’ve been as a nation, where we are right now, and where we want to go from here, with all of our civil rights intact.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

One last note: Be careful with fire. Leave the fireworks to the professionals. Anybody who starts a forest fire, or burns down a neighbor’s house with a bottle rocket or some other such incendiary is no different than the fool who fires guns in the air on New Year’s and puts a hole in someone’s house. Rights carry responsibilities.

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