President Donald Trump addresses supporters of gun rights at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: AP)
President Donald Trump can send 18 to 21-year-olds to their deaths to defend the Second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution, but has now joined the calls to limit their gun rights. He can and does send young men and women to God-forsaken third world nations in defense of a document many apparently believe should not apply to them equally.
Brian Kilmeade, a host on the Trump-friendly morning show Fox and Friends, coincidentally began pushing this idea following the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Sure enough, Ainsley Earhardt also suggested viewers be open to the idea.
Steve Doocey didn’t exactly push back, even when double-amputee veteran Johnny Joey Jones pointed out that there are no data sets to back-up this proposal. It’s baseless and without merit, despite the study making the rounds in the media now.
Simply because 1 in 4 recent mass shootings involved a rifle does not mean the shooter would not have chosen to commit mass murder.
The most deadly mass murder at a U.S. school was committed by Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan. Kehoe, who was in his late 50s at the time, killed 38 elementary school children, 6 adults and injured at least 58 other people in what was referred to as the Bath School disaster or the Bath School massacre.
He used explosive devices, not an AR-15 or some other rifle. He was a full-grown man, not a young adult.
Americans under 21 years-old are already prohibited from purchasing a handgun from a licensed gun dealer. Yet, data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show only 3.6% of gun murders in the U.S. are committed with any kind of rifle.
Handguns are the predominant weapon used in gun violence. Many of these crimes are committed by 18 to 21-year-old criminals who aren’t allowed to purchase them in the first place.
This knee-jerk, emotion-based effort not only scapegoats a constitutional right but also hinders meaningful solutions that actually have a snowball’s chance in hell to prevent further tragedies.
Big Media Corp makes a big deal out of just about everything this president says. More times than not, we don’t indulge in or even engage with their hysteria. But this debate goes to the core of why this man was elected.
Americans in general have come to expect political expediency and cowardice from Republican politicians, which is why primary voters rejected 16 other candidates for a businessman from uber-liberal New York with no experience holding public office. They will rightfully see this as a betrayal by President Trump.
“You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you,” he said during his speech in April, 2017 to the NRA Annual Convention in Atlanta.
That was the first time since Ronald Reagan a sitting Republican president addressed the gun-rights group. It was allegedly to show his appreciation for “coming through” on Election Day. And that they did. The NRA endorsed then-candidate Mr. Trump earlier than they had ever previously endorsed a presidential candidate.
You cannot give in to the fascist left, not ever and not even an inch. Unlike the insignificant-sized alt-right movement, which isn’t at all ideologically right wing, the left has a large fascist element. As we’ve seen over and over, they thrive on the slippery slope during times of civil unrest.
For them, the end game is disarmament. Barring a literal or an effective end-round repeal of the Second Amendment, they will not be satisfied with alternative actions such as these.
Capitulations, no matter how big or small, will only serve as precedent for future, more draconian proposals. They will be used during the Crisis and Leviathan to steepen the slope that leads to stripping Americans of their God-given right to self-defense.
President Trump won the Republican nomination and later the presidency precisely because voters believed he understood that. They trusted and still trust him. Until now, he has demonstrated that he does. We witnessed it during the non-debate over Confederate monuments.
That movement started with similar non-stop media coverage of for-hire protests pushing for the removal of publicly displayed statues of General Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures. They couldn’t win on that issue at the ballot box, either. So, cowardly politicians in charge of Southern metros around the country began to remove them in the middle of the night.
It quickly slipped down the slope to monuments and statues praising and depicting General George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and all other slave-owning founding fathers.
Young adults can volunteer to serve in the U.S. military and are subject to conscription. In fact, pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution and 10 U.S. Code § 246, compulsory conscription applies to males as young as 17 years-old.
As a nation, we expect them to defend us and the U.S. Constitution. But we want it to apply to them on a limited basis? The Bill of Rights recognizes the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right. It’s a recognition, not a proclamation.
Nowhere in that document does it limit that God-given right to some arbitrary age decided upon by cowardly men and women who hold political office.
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.
We’ve seen 18 year-olds handle the unfairly demonized AR-15 and other firearms more responsibly than many irresponsible older adults. This issue is about education and awareness, not age.
It’s about understanding that no man-made law has the power to make a free society a violence-free society. It’s about understanding that rights come with responsibilities. Unfortunately, as the debate over the Second Amendment reveals, too many Americans want the benefits of the former without the burdens of the latter.
