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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 4, 2013/ 24 Shevat, 5773
Push for gun control misplaces blame
By
Star Parker
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Difficulty in getting change in our country is an ongoing source of frustration. Particularly when we have huge problems facing us as we do today.
But the founders knew what they were doing setting up the checks and balances of our constitutional republic. The delicate arrangement we call freedom should never submit with ease to a charismatic demagogue or to an emotion-filled crisis.
The current push for gun control is case in point. It is at a time like this that we should be grateful that changing our laws is hard to do.
Every normal and decent American wants to live in a country where we will never again see life lost as result of a weapon held and fired by some deranged individual. If we knew how to prevent it from ever happening again, we all would sign off in a minute.
But we don't know. And that is the point.
Ironically, President Barack Obama acknowledges that we don't know what causes the irrational violent incidents we have witnessed. It is the reason one part of the proposal he has put forth is to provide funding to the Centers for Disease Control to study the problem.
Yet, despite acknowledging a lack of understanding about what drives gun violence, the president and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California do not hesitate to offer what they claim is a solution. They propose further controls on gun ownership that are deeply problematic in their intrusion on our freedoms, and on our right to bear arms, guaranteed under the Second Amendment of our Constitution.
Why are the president and Feinstein so ready to compromise basic American freedoms with gun control measures, which already have a dubious record of success, to solve a problem that Obama acknowledges we don't understand?
To the president's credit, in his remarks introducing his gun control initiative, he acknowledges that there may be cultural reasons that contribute to this sick, violent behavior.
But he defines the cultural parameters of what he chooses to look at in such narrow terms that you have to question his seriousness or sincerity.
The president said, "Congress should fund research into the effects that violent video games have on young minds."
But why limit this discussion to video games? Has the president walked by a local movie theater complex recently to see what is playing? How about the local fare on television? Or what about the content of rap music?
Can it possibly be that the disproportionate support that the Democratic Party gets from the entertainment industry -- major sources of gratuitous violent media -- gets them a pass from today's discussion?
Obama outraised Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney by a 5-1 ratio from the movie/TV/music industry.
This industry was among the top 10 sources of business funding for Feinstein's re-election in 2012, with election funding sources showing these entertainment businesses didn't provide a dime to her Republican opponent.
What about other major themes in American culture today that contribute to a sense of meaningless and lack of respect for the sacredness of life?
Of course, I am talking about our indifference to the lives of unborn children, who are murdered in our country with impunity. Somehow, those who want to intrude on gun ownership can live with the violence perpetrated on the unborn and have little interest in seeing its implications on violence in other areas of our society.
Another part of this discussion is about the mentally ill. Can Obama or Feinstein give us a good definition of mental illness and seriously tell us how this can be used to control gun ownership?
We have a serious problem on our hands, which demands serious discussion.
This discussion is not taking place and the gun control initiatives that have been put forward do not begin to justify the compromise of our basic freedoms, which they would require.
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Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education.
Previously:
• 01/28/13 How the GOP can help destroy America
• 01/21/13 Are MLK's Christian values welcome today?
• 01/14/13 Roe v. Wade, 40 years later
• 01/07/13 D.C. is de-tached . . . from reality
• 12/31/12 Blacks are NRA's natural constituency
• 12/24/12The lesson of Newtown isn't guns. It's that there are social truths as well as individual truths
• 12/17/12 We must fight to restore America
• 12/07/12 Wonderful, innovative, compassionate --- and irresponsibly wrong
• 12/03/12 The Republican Hispanic challenge
• 11/26/12 A society in decline: Our definition of marriage should follow process, not principle?
• 11/19/12 Leadership is about identifying the truth, believing it and telling it in a way that people can grasp
• 11/11/12 How conservatives can win over blacks and Latinos
• 11/05/12 Racial divide has worsened under Obama
• 10/29/12 How trillions are poured down a black hole
• 10/21/12 Missouri Senate race model for the nation
• 10/15/12 On the road to 'death panels'
• 10/08/12 Why the Obama bubble still hasn't burst
• 10/01/12 To promote freedom abroad, practice it here
• 09/24/12 A time for truth, not word games
• 08/20/12 America ready for Paul Ryan's adult conversation
• 08/13/12 Our economic crisis is a values crisis
• 08/06/12 Black pastors press Democrats on gay marriage
• 07/30/12 Is Christianity now un-American?
• 07/23/12 Entrepreneurs, not politicians, build the nation's prosperity
• 07/16/12 The new American food stamp plantation
• 07/09/12 In search of conservative leadership
• 07/02/12 Light v. darkness in racial politics
• 06/25/12 Republicans missing chance on education
• 06/11/12: Raise levels of personal responsibility, not the minimum wage
• 06/11/12: Free societies soon won't be free if its citizens see freedom as something that should be of responsibility
• 06/04/12: Americans have become decidedly more pro-life
• 05/28/12: Booker's comments about Bain, capitalism should not surprise
• 05/21/12: Obama forcing blacks to make hard choices
• 05/14/12: Fairness? The struggle in our public spaces is about competing worldviews, not neutrality
• 05/07/12: Morality and economy are separate universes?
• 04/30/12: How to keep the poor poor
• 04/23/12: Obama's real 'stay-at-home mom' problem
• 04/16/12: Obama makes foul call for economic 'fairness'
• 04/09/12: GOP's black, Hispanic problem
• 04/02/12: A wakeup call to a nation still sleeping through a crisis
• 03/26/12: Supremes to confront new, energetic efforts to undermine the principles upon which this nation stands
• 03/19/12: Republican race is just getting started
• 03/12/12: Contraception flap 'defines deviancy down'
• 03/05/12: Breitbart's final message to the Left
• 02/27/12: Support for Santorum will grow despite attacks
• 02/20/12: Libs' recent victories fuel Santorum surge
• 02/06/12: Memo to Mitt: Whole nation is on government plantation
• 01/30/12: Obama's vision puts America last
• 01/23/12: Court ruling on ultrasound law worth celebrating
• 01/16/12: Capitalism on trial
• 01/09/12: NAACP plantation masters play race card again
• 01/02/12: Youths' support for Ron Paul is misplaced
• 12/26/11: In search of an ambiguous conservative leader
• 12/19/11: Thank U.S. troops, notably wounded warriors
• 12/12/11: Land of the envious and home of the victim
• 12/05/11: Payroll tax cut is another welfare scam
• 11/28/11: Pray every day that America does not lose its way
• 11/21/11: We're ignoring the Constitution
• 11/14/11: The central issue of our time will define the 2012 presidential election
• 11/07/11: Separation of . . . morality and economy?
• 10/31/11: Every American should listen to Paul Ryan
• 10/24/11: Disrespect for life and disrespect for property go hand in hand
• 10/17/11:The right argument for Cain
• 10/10/11: Occupy Wall Street: More from the culture of narcissism
• 10/03/11: Why so many blacks continue to fail
• 09/26/11: So many GOP debates, so few candidate revelations
• 09/19/11: The the last vestige of the triumph of hope over experience is throwing itself a party. They'll be passing out palms-up portions of pity, but few solutions
• 09/12/11: I'll defend Perry on Social Security Ponzi scheme
• 09/05/11: Marco Rubio's Courageous speech
• 08/28/11: The Steve Jobs/Martin Luther King Jr. Connection
• 08/19/11: Blacks' dilemma with Obama
© 2013, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
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