The thick, bittersweet irony of the Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down Washington D.C.’s ban on "live" guns is that is has the left-wing, anti-gun gang completely up in arms. Robert Stein calls the mind set behind the decision "our national schizophrenia", then proceeds to demonstrate how utterly clueless an obviously intelligent man can be once liberal dogma seizes the reigns of his mind.
What’s got Mr. Stein so confused is that he can’t reconcile polls that reveal that a majority of Americans support the right to own guns with statistics indicating that only 1/3 of Americans actually own a gun.
There’s no inherent contradiction in these data points. On the contrary, this result is exactly what I would expect – a majority of people who acknowledge the fundamental right of self-defense and a fair number of those who choose not to avail themselves of that right based on their individual situations.
The "disconnection" Stein sees is a figment of his imagination, a product, perhaps, of looking for a problem where none exists in response to a personal distaste for weapons and their use, even in the cause of good.
Stein’s ideological position bleeds through quite clearly in this statement:
How do we reconcile the apparent contradiction that many of those who believe in preserving the life of fetuses are just as passionate about the right to own weapons that kill human beings after birth?
Once again there is no contradiction in these positions. What Mr. Stein fails to recognize is that the right to own a gun is not the right to kill one’s fellow man outright. Instead it simply provides a means to do so as a last resort when confronted with the necessity of defending one’s life and property against a criminal attack.
By contrast, a baby killed in an abortion is terminated by the parents’ disregard for the value of his or her life. The baby has no voice, no choice, and no ability whatever to act in self-preservation. Abortion is the direct, brute-force ending of a human life in its most vulnerable, most innocent state. Viler acts can be committed; however, none are more absolute in terms of the disparity of power between killer and victim.
In fact, the real disconnect here is that leftist thinkers like Mr. Stein espouse abortion as a method of birth control while refusing to accept the fact that a criminal killed during the commission of a felony – say invading a family’s home under cover of darkness – quite literally chooses his fate by disregarding both the law and others’ rights to life and property.
Similarly, liberals who oppose the death penalty refuse to accept the logical conclusion that murderers and child rapists choose and accept their ultimate punishment by committing their heinous crimes with full knowledge of the consequences.
If there is a national schizophrenia it is this: the fundamental self-deception that lies at the core of liberalism’s measure of life and its value.
(NOTE: Although I’ve directing some of my remarks at Robert in response to his article, his beliefs are in many ways representative of the anti-gun, anti-death penalty, pro-abortion American left. This not a personal attack on Mr. Stein; rather, it is directed at all who espouse these values, ones that I consider highly illogical, misguided, and unworthy.)