https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/03/05/commentary-guns-utahns-and-mormons/
My response - This is a short commentary but contains a lot of errors. The
authors compare number of deaths using the vague description of “gun related violence”
to the more specific “foreign-born terrorist attacks”. They fail to clarify
that gun related violence includes suicide. The authors use language that falsely
represents the opposing view point. Example: “those that support unfettered gun
ownership” Who is that exactly? Is there a group arguing that 6 year olds
should have machine guns? No. Everyone believes in some restrictions on guns.
The authors are arguing against a mythical group. They suggest that Utahns have
lenient gun laws because of fears of terrorism. Never heard that. I had always
guessed it was because Utah has a lot of conservatives that believe the 2nd
Amendment is an important protection of their rights to keep and bear arms. (And
most states in the west have a lot of hunters.) Lenient? The right to keep and
bear arms is a right, no one has to ask a government to be lenient to grant it.
Utah may be more free in this regard due to history. Their ancestors witnessed
a government that did not defend them or their First Amendment right of free
exercise of religion. They left the US to escape. The authors claim that Utah
has more deaths from guns than from automobile accidents. True. In 2013 there
were 220 people killed in car crashes and 295 suicides. They fail to mention
there were only 33 homicides with a gun. So far more people die from car
crashes than are murdered with guns. “Death from guns” is a misleading term at
worst, vague at best and cannot be used to solve the problem. The writers
describe the NRA falsely saying “which began as a gun club for hunters but is
now a lobby for guns”. The NRA was founded after the Civil War to improve the marksmanship
and proper use of guns so that the Guard would have better trained soldiers for
war. It wasn’t a hunting club. The NRA isn’t a gun lobby, but a rights lobby. It
is interested in defending rights, especially those of self defense against
muggers and tyrannical government. Don’t forget the second amendment is the
same as the other nine. The Bill of Rights is a restriction on government power
to counter abuses that the British had recently imposed on their colonists and
make sure their new government could never do the same. They claim that people
are unwilling to pass “even the most commonsense measures.” These common sense
measures are never defined and tend to fall apart under the most basic
scrutiny. They are usually emotion based do-something responses to evil
actions. The authors write that Dick’s stopped selling assault rifles. First, assault
rifle is another meaningless term. It basically means scary-looking rifle and
is too vague to use for legislation. The truth is that Dick’s stopped selling
scary looking rifles after the Sandy Hook murders. They are also raising the
age to purchase a gun to 21. That is a fair action for a retailer to take.
Hopefully the experiment will provide evidence of the effectiveness of the idea
before it is made into law. Some people love guns like those that shoot as
sport. (Guns are even in the Olympics! ) Most people don’t love
guns, we love freedom and until you are willing to deal with a problem honestly
the answer is no. #goaway
