As gun owners we know that the media is often biased against us. We know that many stories are reported with facts omitted or words chosen to cast guns and their owners in the worst light. We've seen this bias repeated again and again. Yet when an individual or group acts in a way that someone feels is inappropriate many so-called 2nd Amendment supporters suddenly take these slanted stories as gospel truth. Many so-called 2nd Amendment supporters fail to double-check the facts. Instead, many of the hypocrites begin condemning others without a second thought.
Men with guns were in the children's section of a library. Were they with their children? Was the section marked as such? What were they doing there? Did you even pause to consider any of these questions?
Consider this: You have no right to safety. The world is not a safe place. You may slip on a patch of ice and break your neck today. Your car may blow a tire and cause a fatal accident. A sociopath may assault you. This is reality. Only you can take steps to protect yourself from any of these examples. Salt your sidewalk, regularly inspect your car, carry the means to defend yourself. Hiding under the blanket will not keep you safe and when that blanket is named "government" it may smother you.
A man carried a shotgun in a library. Was it appropriate? Apparently he felt that it was. As a legal adult it was his decision. An apparently legal option that he chose to exercise. How can you condemn him for his choice while with the next breath demanding your own choices remain uncondemned?
Such condemnation is wrong.
Do you or do you not believe in rights and equality for all men and women? You can not pick and choose rights. You can not pick and choose who among us deserves those rights. Either you support freedom, or you support tyranny.
This is not a question of what you feel is appropriate. This is a question of what is right. So long as an individual is not infringing upon the rights of others, their actions should not be condemned. You may question those choices. You may debate their merits. You may make different choices. You should not condemn another's decisions; so long as their choices do not infringe upon your rights, their choices are their own to make.
But, but, the mean legislator's will take our rights away!!!
No. They won't. They can't. Only you can give up your rights. Only you can allow your rights to be stolen.
STAND UP! Do not allow anyone to take your rights. Make yourself heard. Talk to your neighbors. Hold educational community seminars. Write to your representatives. Call your representatives. Pass out fliers and picket in the streets if necessary, but do not hide in the shadows and condemn those who stand in the light.
The blacks stood up and said, "No more!" The homosexuals stood up and said, "No more!" These are just the largest, most obvious examples.
Government is not your friend. Government is not there to help you. Government exists because humanity needs an organization to police itself, but the government is made up of humanity and must itself be policed. Who polices the government? We do. We, the people, are the source of the government's power and so we, the people, must check that power should it threaten to become tyrannical.
Speak. Write. Call. Vote. Check the power where it infringes upon your rights.
.
