I have witnessed more discussion about guns and gun rights in the past month than I have cumulatively in my entire life. And yet the Left keeps yammering on about “we have to do SOMETHING”, as if even doing something extra-constitutional (at best) or highly destructive (at worst) is a better option than choosing NOT to.
If they habitually spill coffee on their carpeting, is their solution to burn down their house (“well, the carpeting was ruined anyway…”)??
It would be doing something, after all.
Much as was the case with Obamacare, the Left is again focusing on an end result of a problem, and not the problem itself. Illegal gun violence is the end result of people who choose to commit illegal violence; that’s it. Guns are not good or bad, any more than toaster ovens are good or bad.
When we look at people who choose to commit illegal violence, what we’re really discussing is personal accountability. THAT is where this all leads. Personal accountability is the ultimate result of freedom, and is one of the founding principles of American society. As such, it is anathema to the Left. They reject it in their views on Healthcare, Incarceration and the Death Penalty, Abortion, school Test Scores and almost every other arena you can name.
Because you can’t have an all-powerful Government if every individual is truly responsible for their own actions, and vice-versa. It’s like Dennis Prager says, “The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen”.
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So now Obama has put forth his 23 edicts on gun control, which will necessarily restrict the freedom of law-abiding citizens, while doing exactly nothing to decrease the chances for bad people to do bad things with guns. And just like Obamacare, it will continue us on the road to our becoming more subservient to the State in pursuit of an unachievable Utopia.
No responsibility; no accountability; no freedom.
This entire thought process was summed up succinctly by one of our greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. Included in a speech back in 1968, Reagan was commenting on the urban riots that had swept the nation in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.:
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the law-breaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”
–Ronald Reagan; July 31, 1968
His statement was true then, …and it’s just as true today. The antithesis of President Obama’s speeches from this week, it also serves as a reminder (and a warning) of just how far down the road to tyranny we already are.
Two Heads are Better Than One 
Reagan, as usual, was completely right, he was decades ahead of almost everyone else.
Wait ’til Part TWO, tomorrow, CTX.
😉
The man was so clear-thinking in so many areas, it’s positively scary…
“No responsibility; no accountability; no freedom.-it is refreshing to know that there are other people who can see this problem clearly. I always say this, that freedom comes with responsibility. Too much freedom and idiocy=well you know sum total.
Thx, Prdwtr!
It seems obvious to you and me: you can’t have freedom without risk, and with risk comes failure of every type, human and otherwise.
The Lefties want a bubble-wrapped world, where there is no pain of ANY sort, and everything is perfect.
You and I have a term for that: we call it HEAVEN.
And it doesn’t exist here.
Lib/Lefty/Commie/Marxists only care about the “people” when they’re trying to push one of their seemingly endless litanies of Constitutional intrusions.
Free speech? Only for what THEY say. You racist/bigot/mysogonist/homophobes on the right HAVE NO free speech.
Religious Freedom? Only for the religion of atheism (and the cause du jour: Islam). “Christian” is nothing more than “whisper speak” for the gun-toting, Bible-thumping neandrothals on the Right.
The Liberal ideology could give a northbound-rat’s-south-end about the victims of CRIMINAL gun violence, up to the point that they can use it to attack the second amendment.
If they were serious, they wouldn’t need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the discussions regarding “crime and punishment” or “law and order” which we all know they’ve pigeon-holed as Right-speak for racism.
The right to bear arms wasn’t about hunting, etc. It was about an armed citizenry being able to withstand an oppressive government regime.
I could go on, but JTR limits me to to 200 words or less, and I couldn’t count the hyphenated stuff as one word……
Yeah, like I could really limit how much you say!!
ROFLMAO…….!
Heck, when you get going I just pull up a chair, ’cause I know it usually takes awhile…
😉
And, by the way, YES.
I agree…
Let me be Clinton-esque: I feel your pain, JTR….
But, seriously….I don’t know what gets me more miffed (my anti-swearing campaign is tough at times…) Is it the fact that our Prez is the most un-Constitutional, least forthcoming Prez of all times, or is it the brain-dead lemmings who follow him like a Philadelphia Eagles fan hoping for the playoffs?
Playoffs? PLAYoffs?
2 sides of the same coin, PGH.
One wouldn’t be as frustrating without the other.
If we just had brainless idiots following a powerless fool, we’d all just shrug our shoulders and go on with our lives. Same holds true if it was a megalomaniac with no followers or real power.
But here, you have the Leader of the Free World, with followers who’ve requested to have their mental Kool-Aid administered to them intravenously.
Recipe for disaster…
Pingback: Ronald Reagan on the gun debate… (part TWO) | Two Heads are Better Than One
Great post. We miss you Ronald.
Thanks, brother. And yeah, we ALL miss him….
BTW:
when you read Part Two, it becomes even MORE clear how thoroughly Reagan had thought through his positions.
And it’s actually eerie how much it applies today…