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David McElroy

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If principles of First Amendment still apply, principles of Second do, too

By David McElroy · January 29, 2013

TV news control room

The Second Amendment wasn’t written to protect hunters. It also wasn’t written just to protect the rights of people to defend their own property from thieves. It was written to make it clear that individuals had the right to own weapons to defend themselves against tyrannical governments.

For too many years, supporters of gun rights allowed the lobbyists of the National Rifle Association to define the arguments of the pro-gun side. As a result, many people are fixated on the historically inaccurate view that the Second Amendment is all about hunters and individual protection. Instead, that amendment is far more radical than the NRA was willing to state.

The Second Amendment was written by people who were very serious about the notion that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of [individual liberty], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….” The Second Amendment was written by people who had just finished fighting a revolution. It was intended as a guarantee that future Americans would have the ability to fight against a future government that had grown too powerful.

People on the Progressive left tell us that the Second Amendment wasn’t written for today. They say the amendment was written for a day in which weapons were far less powerful. For instance, CNN’s Piers Morgan recently tweeted, “The 2nd amendment was devised with muskets in mind, not high-powered handguns & assault rifles. Fact.” Let’s look briefly at his claim and its implications.

At the time the Second Amendment was written, muskets were the weapons used by individuals and by the government. There wasn’t any difference in the weapons the two could deploy. There wasn’t some high-powered musket technology that the government retained for its exclusive use. The people were on equal footing if it came time to revolt.

Today, government has exotic weaponry that individuals aren’t allowed to own, even if they could afford it. Try to buy a functioning tank or fighter jet if you don’t believe me. We’re supposed to trust them, not the other way around. Starting in the 1930s, it became almost impossible for individuals to own automatic weapons — commonly called machine guns — although governments can deploy them in any way they choose. Overall, it’s made it more and more difficult for individuals to compete with tyrannical government if they need to revolt.

Soldier firing musketThe other issue that many people are overlooking is that they’re being inconsistent. Those who hate right guns and are eager to find a narrow reading of the Second Amendment love to take the most broad interpretation possible for the First Amendment.  They tell us that the Second Amendment wasn’t written with modern technology in mind, but have they stopped to consider that the First Amendment wasn’t written with modern technology in mind, either?

The First Amendment refers to freedom of speech and of the press, among other things. Through various court decisions, that has been expanded far beyond the narrow text. Nobody says that government can stop television and Internet journalists from telling the truth simply because their technology is far more powerful than any press that was dreamed of when the words were written. We understand “speech” to be pretty much any personal expression. For instance, most of the porn that’s available today is covered by freedom of speech, even when there are no words involved.

The First Amendment wasn’t written with modern technology in mind, but we understand that the principles are what matter. We look to the intent of the people who wrote it and we understand that they intended to recognize the rights of individuals to have the maximum freedom to express themselves. We need to bring the same principles to bear on the reading of the Second Amendment.

You can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to pretend that a constitution can limit a government, then you have to stick to what the text says and what it was understood to mean. Be consistent. Be intellectually honest. The First Amendment recognizes the freedom of individuals to express themselves in pretty much any way they want. The Second Amendment recognizes the freedom of individuals to have weapons that would allow them to revolt against their government.

If you’re still trying to live in the framework of the U.S. Constitution — because you believe that “limited government” is possible — be consistent in how you look at the freedoms of individuals. At least try. Or at least pretend to try.

One-size-fits-allAnd then when you finally figure out that there’s no such thing as limited government, let’s talk about how to go beyond the “one size fits all” system of today and set up something so that we can all pick our own rules. Those who’d like to live where nobody owns weapons are welcome to do so. Those who’d like to live where everyone is armed to the teeth is also welcome to do so. We need a system that recognizes the rights of people to do their own thing instead of being forced to obey rules handed down from above.

Nobody has the right to make up one set of rules and force them on all of us. Until enough people finally reach that conclusion — and quit trying to force everyone to agree with them — we’re going to be stuck with people who are selective in which freedoms they like and how intellectually honest they’re willing to be.

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For “throwback Thursday, let me introduce you to For “throwback Thursday, let me introduce you to Sam. In 2009, I took in a young feral cat who I named for the early American revolutionary Samuel Adams. He was one of the most confident — downright arrogant, in fact — cats I’ve ever been around. He had an amazing personality and I immediately loved him. He was no more than 8 or 9 months old when he suddenly died for reasons that my vet couldn’t explain. Even though I had him only a short time, he was one of my all-time favorites. #tbt #cats #tabby #feral #birmingham #alabama
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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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