The gun enthusiast thought that he was making his point. He posted a picture of Adolph Hitler with two young children. The caption was, “Take all of the bad guns from the people…to save the little children”. The message was that restricting access to guns was necessary to protect children.
Our Facebook buddy was trying to tell us that it is our patriotic duty to allow every American with an inferiority complex and a couple hundred dollars to own an arsenal.
BULLSHIT
Hitler’s German army walked through much of Europe, but a couple of tailors with pistols could have prevented the Holocaust? This ignorance, and the people who propagate it, does not denigrate the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust. The Six Million are beyond their reach. No, the people who post this trash disgrace the memory of their fathers and grandfathers who served in the war and risked their lives to fight fascism.
And isn’t that really one of the problems? Do you really want some of these Yahoos to be armed? G-d knows they are already dangerous.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) would like to have the teachers packing heat. I remember my junior high and high schools. I can think of several teachers who might have jumped at the chance to carry a gun. My children attended public school in both South Euclid and Shaker Heights. I had to confront a bully, one teacher still working long past his sell-by date, and warn him to leave my kids alone. He would be the first in line to carry a gun.
Would our children be safer with more guns in schools? I don’t think so. An armed guard might deter some intruders, but certainly not someone on a suicide mission. Do we hire rent-a-cops and let them carry service revolvers, or do we provide off duty policemen with assault rifles? Do we limit our school buildings to only one door and eliminate all windows on the ground floor? What do we need to do to keep our children safe while allowing just about anyone capable of fogging a mirror to possess unlimited firepower?
And as I write this I know, I know, that there will be some people who will read the above and say, “Not Me. I will be prepared”. They might be licensed to carry a concealed weapon. They might keep a gun in the car – just in case. Or one in their bedroom. And if we are lucky, no one will steal their guns. And their kids won’t play with their guns. And they won’t overreact and accidently shoot someone. And they won’t feel threatened by an unarmed kid in a hoodie and shoot him. And they won’t…
The Supreme Court has determined that Americans have the right to keep a gun in their home for security. OK. We all know people who hunt. Again, not my thing, but I understand that hunting is part of the culture.
I have no interest in eating a ham sandwich, but you having one has no impact on my life. An assault rifle with a large magazine puts us all in danger.
Last weekend we had the spectacle of Larry Ward, Chairman of Gun Appreciation Day, actually wonder if we would have had slavery “if the African-Americans had been given the right to bear arms”. How do you respond to such ignorance?
And it is many of those same people who are, at best, friends of convenience to both African-American and Jewish-American causes who would post this picture of Adolph Hitler with small children. That picture of ignorance.