By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — All of us are horrified by what happened at the Sandy Hook School. May the souls of those slain rest in peace. May we, as a nation, somehow learn from this horrible experience!
What disappoints me, in the aftermath of this outrage, is the arrogance of the people who so vigorously defend their “right” to carry assault weapons. They believe that their hobby is more important than the lives of innocent school children, theatre goers, college students, shoppers, restaurant patrons and so many others who have been senselessly gunned down by the mentally imbalanced.
“Hobby!” I use the word advisedly. That’s what carrying guns for the purpose of hunting or collecting boils down to — a hobby. I take photographs. Gun owners shoot at targets, or hunt animals. If cameras resulted in the deaths of innocent people, I’d be willing to submit to laws to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. But gun owners don’t feel the same way. Time after time, they have seen the damage that guns can do in the wrong hands, and yet they still insist that the “right” to this hobby be unregulated.
Not only that, but they wrap their selfishness up in the U.S. flag. They try to tell us that our Founding Fathers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution a mandate that citizens be slaughtered every so often by crazy people with weapons of tremendous killing power, just so some hobbyists can own guns. Oh come on, such an argument demeans the memories of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and the 37 other patriots who signed our nation’s guiding document.
Sometimes rights are in conflict, and I would say that the rights to attend first grade, or to go a movie, to shop at a mall, or to have a hamburger in a restaurant, without fear of being gunned down are more important rights than the right to add a semi-automatic killing machine to a collection of weapons.
The Second Amendment crowd needs to take another heart-searching look at this issue, and stop rehashing the same tired, bumper sticker arguments. They must help us protect our citizens from wanton murder!
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Don, you err when you say that the Second Amendment constitutional right to bear arms is not restricted. Indeed it is, via background checks and licensing to keep firearms out of the hands of felons or mentally ill. You, also, err regarding cameras. Court cases have found a first Amendment constitutional right to take photos, despite your willingness to surrender that right as well. — This young man did not acquire the firearms himself, his mother did and she was under no suspicion of mental illness nor was this wealthy woman a felon. — If you are serious, I suggest you contact all US congressmen and senators to vote on a bill forbidding firearms, including by the police or military, on any federal property in Washington, D.C. Lotsa luck on that one.