Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/107894
My Take on Gun Control by DAVID G. WILSON Make no mistake, I am a gun owner and have been for at least the last 60 years. I am not a gun fancier nor am I a gun collector. I would oppose any measure taken by the federal government to "take away my guns." But since such an extreme idea has not even been floated by anyone in Washington, I do not worry about such nonsense. I do not own an assault rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a machine gun or a 50-caliber, tripod-mounted sniper rifle. So I do not feel threatened by certain restrictions and regulations recently announced by President Barak Obama that do not include any language about taking away your guns, if you have any. But that unfounded fear is apparently what is motivating the current gun-buying hysteria that is sweeping the country. The thinking (and I use "thinking" here advisedly) is that one day, perhaps soon, "they" will come after our guns as a first step toward converting the United States of America into a totalitarian state and "they" will not because we have assault rifles. If you buy into that, please get a refill on your medication and try to stay calm. I also am not bound by the tenets of the Church of the NRA to which the majority of the United States Congress is seemingly obligated. The House of Representatives is Republican-controlled so the likelihood of any meaningful legislation passing the House is nil. Republicans are unlikely to favor any obviously much-needed gun control measure proposed by the President. Why? I believe it's because he is not a Republican and because such measures would not be approved of by Wayne Lapierre, High Priest of the Church of the NRA. No fate is more to be dreaded by the House neo-cons than to receive anything less than an A+ from the Church. Any flinching, any comment favoring a reasonable approach to the nation's gun ownership plague and the NRA grade slips. That is fatal to Republican house members. They could be "primaried out" by a yet more conservative interloper vying for that cushy high-salary, high-benefit, high-retirement package, big staff, fancy office, free travel, taxpayer-paid junkets job that means everything to these "public servants." The Church of the NRA, at which House Republicans daily worship, would cut off any congregation member at the knees should they fail to hold steadfast to the Second Amendment argument. These elected officials would mow down any effort to replace reason as regards to gun control with assertions that our founding fathers certainly had exactly considered military-assault rifles when they laid down the Second Amendment. Insist that keeping assault rifles and large-capacity magazines in the hands of whomever and whatever should want them is serving the best interests of not only their constituents but the country in general. Dismiss tragedies such as the Newton, Conn., massacre as "something's bound to happen" because the teachers and principal were not packing. And so gentle readers, you see the problem. We elect people to run our government to make our laws and serve the interests of the nation and yet they only are concerned about themselves. I acknowledge that some House Republicans are simply misguided and misinformed and believe that every American has a right to own any weapon he or she can afford to buy or steal. But most just want to keep their nice jobs and if voting against gun control will make that happen then so be it, let the schools, movie theaters and shopping malls get shot up and innocents be killed by the dozens by lunatics. When questioned about a "nay" to proposed gun legislation, the Honorable Whoever can always plead more mental healthcare and by all means more guns are needed to solve the too many guns problem. The focus of the gun control conversation is on assault rifles. These are weapons designed and intended for military use and they are efficient and effective killing machines. Since Newtown, the overthe-counter price of these somewhat ugly utilitarian kill machines has almost tripled from about $1,000 to more than $2,500. And the darned things are useless to civilians. They are absolutely not a good deer rifle. If a "sportsman" took an assault rifle deer hunting and felt a need for a 30-round magazine he or she might consider getting some marksmanship training or take up golf. So the weapons are hung up on a wall in some macho guy's den to demonstrate that he is, well, macho. That same individual may indeed have some shortcomings for which his assault rifle is intended to mask. The Declaration of Independence asserts that every person is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The 20 first graders of Newtown, Conn., will not realize any of these three inalienable rights because they are dead. The Second Amendment of the Constitution establishes that every American, unless denied by legal restriction, has a right to bear arms. But I maintain that the Second Amendment was never intended to trump the fundamental rights expressed in the Declaration. Killing someone is the ultimate denial of rights. Killing 11,000 annually in this country by gunfire is an epidemic of unfettered violence. It is time for sanity to supplant extreme paranoia, DAVID G. WILSON, Contributing a malaise that has infected an Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. alarmingly large segment of the American population. Celebrate Valentine's Day With Us! Valentine's Day Special Surf-n-Turf for Two $39.95 Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-3pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! FEBRUARY 6-12, 2013 UCW 5