In the proud Orwellian tradition of proclaiming that "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery" and "Ignorance is Strength," Andy and Colin Goddard argue, in "The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak or LaPierre?" that the United States is under "the despotic influence" of gun rights advocates:
Perhaps it is time for the people of America to take to town squares in vast numbers, not to oppose our government, but to demonstrate that we have had enough of the despotic influence of the extremism that [NRA executive vice president Wayne] LaPierre represents.
Regular readers have probably noticed that for this column to defend LaPierre and the NRA is something of a novelty, but criticism of the NRA in these pages is based on that organization's timid, "pragmatic" approach to gun rights advocacy, rather than for anything resembling excessive zeal on the NRA's part. What really raises eyebrows, though, is the Goddards' apparent contention that gun rights advocacy somehow violates rights, and that, conversely, advocacy for more infringements on that which shall not be infringed is a courageous stand for freedom.
And that is a theme the Goddards are clearly quite fond of in their little piece:
Americans should finally take a stand against the oppressive influence of LaPierre and the NRA . . .
Today, we ask you to join us in raising our voices in the streets and town squares of America, on the blogs, news sites, social media forums, as well as through old-school telephones and letters to Congress and President Obama, to peacefully bring to an end the hold of LaPierre over our representative democracy.
This, of course, isn't really about either LaPierre, or even the NRA in general, except in the sense that for the intellectually lazy, "the gun lobby"= the NRA, rather than being composed of millions of American gun owners unwilling to surrender an inch of the Constitutional high ground, and its guarantee of the fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms. As pointed out here before, even Jim Kessler, former director of the rabidly anti-gun Americans for Gun Safety, knows the true nature of "the gun lobby," as he told Salon.com:
The two opposing lobbies are very different. The gun rights lobby consists of a grass-roots membership who are gun enthusiasts. The gun control lobby consists mainly of the family members of crime victims.
Perhaps the worst libel in the Goddard piece, though, was the comparison of LaPierre to terrorists:
Wayne LaPierre has done more to obstruct the development of this country than any foreign terrorist group could ever dream of accomplishing.
Wow--all that, just for arguing that maybe the Second Amendment means what it says (and doing so rather tepidly, in LaPierre's case, to boot).
Professional victim Colin Goddard has managed the alchemists' dream of turning the lead of the four bullets with which he was shot, into the gold of a paid position on the Brady Campaign's (shrinking?) staff, but he will never succeed in transmuting advocacy for the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms into "oppression," or "terrorism;" or the suppression of that right into a courageous and principled resistance to despotism.
We are the freedom advocates, and we shall overcome.
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Comments
I get a headache whenever I read their c***.
Goddard and his ilk do not seem to understand or even care that nobody is trying to force them to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. If they are happy and secure with the idea of dying while waiting for the police to show up, so be it.
The only thing I ask, no, demand of them is that they leave me and my rights the hell alone. I'm afraid however that is another concept they have found impossible to even consider.
[W3]
Might is might, there are no rights. The biggest threat to your "rights" is the idea that you have rights, that those must be written on paper, voted there and ratified by politicians. All this distracts you from using your full potential to secure your full interests.
I have no rights and I am entitled to nothing. But I do have mights !
Let them push their extremist comparisons. It drives away moderates and makes others even more hardliners when they're called 'terrorists'.
The Goddards are "rabbit people". They'll squeal as they are slaughtered and blame those who would have shown them how to avoid that fate. Sad losers, both.
Hooray for the New Civility and huzzah for the New Tone.
Kurt, everyone understands your wish to "get through to these guys" by offering reason in response to their collectivist drivel. Ain't gonna happen. There are those who would rather see a woman raped and lying dead in an alley, than have that same woman (holding her still-smoking firearm) alive and reporting the sequence of events which led to her attackers demise to the late-arriving law enforcement authorities.
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