Posted on 01/13/2006 9:24:06 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
The NRA versus the Rest of Us
Posted by Lorelei Kelly
Another example of how well conservatives have staked out the terrain at the intersection of politics and ideas: This month's Foreign Policy magazine has a terrific article about the worldwide influence of America's highly influential gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.
Author David Morton, writing from South America, depicts how the NRA exploits the dark side of globalization--using shallow "feel good" messages about liberty and freedom to push its ideological agenda--one that allows no limits on individual ownership of guns.
The disappointing part of the NRA is not found in its basic premise, gun ownership, education and safety. The problem for society and, apparently, for the rest of the world is their "slippery slope" insistence that any regulation will lead to complete disarmament. When they decide to take their message international, therefore, the painstakingly constructed and maintained regime of international arms control is threatened. If gun control is bad in America, goes the NRA logic, then arms control must be bad for the world. The NRA and their flacks in other countries claim that gun control advocates want to leave citizens vulnerable to "criminals". Well, in increasing circumstances those "criminals" just might be free-agent or organized jihadistas who want to get their hands on deadly devices to kill us.
But the NRA, though not explicitly, through its anti-gun control agenda--erodes away domestic will and support for government programs that help reduce that threat-- like compliance and inspection, like participation in international arms trafficking, (or supporting the UN conventional arms registry) like discussing limits, period.
Both the military and the State Department have excellent arms control programs--and do mighty amounts of work for pennies (appx 3 million a year at state). They have received more attention lately because of real military threats, small arms and light weapons like shoulder launched missiles (MANPADS) and the dual-use nature of regular old munitions that create pernicious destruction (IEDs.)
Last summer, I spoke with an American soldier who worked on an inspection team in West Africa--he said he had visited villages where they found huts that looked like "Wal Marts for Terrorists".
It seems the NRA is willing to risk all of our safety--military and civilian alike--with its distorted version of individual rights and a worldview seemingly unchanged despite the threats that 9/11 brought home. The Bush administration has recognized that criminals and terrorists can be one in the same, nevertheless his supporters will not pass up a chance to drive a Mack truck through every gun control loophole that's presented itself, domestic and international. Maybe its because their political base includes those gun fanatics who shoot out the traffic cameras in Idaho intersections, but say nothing about his domestic spying agenda. A convenient political tradeoff: their votes for our safety. Thanks, NRA.
The Second Amendment...
America's Only Homeland Security!
Be Ever Vigilant!
When the NRA speaks about 2nd Amendment rights, they're speaking specifically about rights that we Americans enjoy exclusively.
That's simply wrong.
Jefferson didn't write "that all Americans ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights".
Not every individual in the world is in a position in which he can freely exercise these rights. But he has the rights, regardless. That these rights are subject to frequent infringement by government doesn't mean that he doesn't have these rights. It just means that there are a lot of illegitimate govermnents in the world.
And that's precisely why the UN is so opposed to civilian ownership of firearms.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.
The nations of Turkey, Russia, France, Spain, and all other despotic kingdoms, in the world, have an inherent right, when ever they please, to shake off the yoke of servitude, (though sanctified by the immemorial usage of their ancestors;) and to model their government, upon the principles of civil liberty.
- Alexander Hamilton
The great Thomas Jefferson could really only speak for American citizens with any true authority. It is very nice that he felt that everyone in the world deserved certain God-given rights...but those were really just words.
Our national sovereignty is the same reason we don't respect some crackpot, gun-grabbing, America-hating leader in the Middle East sandbox who has bad things to say about our precious RKBA...
~ Blue Jays ~
Rights aren't laws. They aren't legal constructs. They're meta-legal constructs. Part of the moral framework that motivates the law, or opposition to it.
Every man, woman, and child, everywhere, has the right to be free.
Regardless of what sort of thugocracy they happen to be living under at the moment.
Ask the people in San Francisco what is at the bottom of the "slippery slope".
5.56mm
Thanks, NRA.
Since the major cause of violent death on this planet during the 20th century was caused by governments, it is infinitely safer to have individuals armed against government, than to have governments armed against defenseless individuals.
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