It's all about "Freedom"

One of the main characteristics of propaganda is that it tries to bypass logic and use the emotions. That's because most of the arguments made by propaganda don't pass scrutiny, so they need to use something such as "freedom" which most people want.

On the other hand, what exactly is the "freedom" being proposed and how does that effect society?

In the case of the pro-gun viewpoint "Freedom" is the unfettered access to all sorts of deadly weapons by all sorts of people. To these people, incidents such as Gabriel Giffords only point out that "Freedom is not Free". It comes with a cost.

And the cost is to society in terms of money spent treating the victims of gun violence, prosecuting the perpetrators, and then incarcerating them--if they happened to have lived. There is also the cost to soceity from the effects of these shootings on families and communities.

The "gun rights" crowd like to cite the Second Amendment which clearly states that its purpose has something to do with "well-regulated militias":

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

When question comes to the truth of whether this deals with "gun rights" or the right to a Well-regulated militia, one needs to assess whether it makes sense that the intent was to see society plagued by the effects of gun violence?

or

This had something to do with how the nation was intended to be defended?

Doesn't the latter make far more sense?

So, the pro-gun crowd has to do everything to keep people from scrutinising their arguments since they blatantly fallacious and don't stand intellectual scrutiny. Scratch the surface and the issue behind the Second Amendment was a standing army v. the militia, not "gun rights".

Use your intellect, not your emotions. The pro-gun arguments are all propaganda that don't want you to stop and think.

Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got

Dennis Henigan on American Exceptionalism

In his article in the Huffington Post, Dennis Henigan recounted several of the holiday shooting stories we've all been talking about. His conclusion was quite interesting.

On some level it seems that we ought not to have to confront such horror during the season of peace. But not even the most joyous time of the year can immunize us against the reality of gun tragedies. The deadly drumbeat of gun violence just goes on and on, an American tragedy of a kind and dimension unknown to other Western nations. Among all the Western, high-income nations of the world, 80 percent of gun deaths occur in the U.S., a particularly unwelcome instance of American exceptionalism.

What's your opinion? Don't you think the gun-rights crowd is a bit blinded by its bias? How could they cling to that thin reed of "guns do more good than harm," while the United States is drowning in gun violence? It baffles the mind.

Please leave a comment.

More on the Careless Firearms Deaths of Kids in CO over the Holidays

I don't believe that ANYONE is safe sleeping with a loaded handgun on their nightstand, routinely. This is a classic example of someone who wrongly believed they needed that loaded handgun for self defense, and did not - obviously - secure it adequately. And someone died as a result who should not have died.

But hey - this is ok with the gun loons, so long as THEY are never inconvenienced or regulated in their firearm practices.

How important is a five year old boy or girl dying, here or there, anyway? Those lives are unimportant compared to unregulated gun rights under the 2nd Amendment. Those kids and all the other people who were shot, all those who were injured, they're expendable when it comes to guns for gun lunatics compared to how important having those guns are.

From MSNBC and Reuters :

Man charged after Colo. toddler fatally shoots brother

updated 12/30/2011 8:09:28 PM ET

DENVER — A Kansas man accused of leaving a loaded handgun where a 3-year-old Colorado boy found it and shot his 5-year-old brother dead was charged on Friday with felony child abuse.

Authorities said Adam Dean Laham, 23, left his loaded .32-caliber semiautomatic handgun unsecured while visiting the boys' home in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado earlier this month.
The toddler shot his brother in the chest after finding the weapon in a bedroom where Laham was staying, police said.
The boys' father heard the gunshot and raced to the bedroom, where he saw the 3-year-old holding the weapon. He performed CPR on his older son until an ambulance arrived, but the boy was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The 3-year-old told police he wanted to show his brother the gun and that he accidentally "shooted" his older sibling, according to the affidavit.
Laham, who is being held on a $40,000 bond, told police that the shooting "was totally my fault" because he had not stowed the handgun, an arrest warrant affidavit said.
Prosecutors charged him with reckless child abuse resulting in death. If convicted, he faces up to 48 years in prison.

Laham told investigators he went outside to smoke a cigarette, and gave the boys permission to play video games in the bedroom where he was staying. He told police he always sleeps with a loaded gun at his bedside, and forgot to secure it because he is unaccustomed to being around children.

"He does not have children and is not used to putting it away," the affidavit said.
The December 23 shooting was the first of two fatal gun deaths in Colorado involving 5-year-old children over the Christmas holiday.
On December 26, a 5-year-old girl in south-central Colorado was mortally wounded after the .45-caliber handgun she was handling in her parent's home discharged, said Captain Don Pinover, spokesman for the Fremont County Sheriff's Office.
Police consider that shooting accidental, but prosecutors were weighing whether to file criminal charges in that case, Pinover said.

Update on the Shooting of a Minnesota Law Enforcement Officer

That report on the deaths, including shooting deaths, of Law Enforcement officers is going to have to be amended.  Another law enforcement officer has died, killed by someone who was a prohibited person from owning a firearm, but who was able to obtain guns far too easily in spite of that prohibition.

Every person here who obstructs law regulation which would keep guns out of the hands of people like this, who would use firearms to kill other people shares in the moral guilt for this man's death, and for all the other deaths and injuries that we could avoid and prevent by greater gun restrictions.

For every one of you who believes that so long as YOU have a firearm, YOU could use it to stop a bad guy - this was a trained and experienced law enforcement officer, responding to a situation where there was a known, reported threat in a situation where shots were fired prior to his being wounded.  All of you believe you would somehow miraculously kill the bad guy, and be heroes, not believing you would be wounded or killed, or that you would ever kill or injure the wrong person or persons.  You live in a world  of gun fantasies. This is the reality; you are not better, stronger, smarter, faster, as well trained,  or more omniscient than this officer.  You will not make any crisis situation with a firearm better, ever.  But you could very easily make such a situation worse, with your lunatic gun fantasies.

From MSNBC.com, and the AP

Minnesota officer dies 11 days after being shot in head

Suspect was found dead in home after daylong standoff with Lake City police

AP

This Jan. 27, 2009 photo provided by the Lake City, Minn., police shows Officer Shawn Schneider, 32, who died Friday after being critically wounded Dec. 19 in a shooting while responding to a domestic situation.

msnbc.com staff and news service reports

updated 12/30/2011 10:21:57 PM ET

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Lake City, Minn., police officer died Friday night, 11 days after he was critically wounded by a gunshot while answering a domestic disturbance call, the Mayo Clinic said.

The family of Officer Shawn Schneider, 32, thanked "everyone for their overwhelming support and well wishes during this difficult time," the hospital said.
Schneider was shot in the head on Dec. 19, NBC station KARE reported.
After a daylong standoff with the suspected shooter, Alan John Sylte Jr., officers found the 25-year-old dead inside the home. He had taken his own life, police said.
A 17-year-old girl who escaped from the house told police she had broken up with Sylte the previous week. Court documents say Sylte sent the girl 282 messages over the weekend before fighting with her at her family's house in Lake City the day of the shooting.
A Wisconsin National Guard spokeswoman said Sylte, from Hager City, Wis., was an Iraq war veteran who was in the process of being discharged from the guard for failing to report to duty.
Schneider had been transported to the Mayo Clinic's St. Marys Hospital in Rochester where he remained in critical condition until Friday night, KARE said.
Schneider, a nine-year veteran of the Lake City police department, leaves behind a wife and three young children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.