Unfortunately, it isn’t very often that mainstream media outlets choose to publish content in favor of gun rights. Far more often, the media takes the side of gun control activists and publish pieces in favor of stricter gun laws and gun bans. Therefore, when a major media outlet such as USA Today publishes a piece arguing in favor of gun rights or against increased gun control, supporters of the Second Amendment are shocked.
On Monday, USA Today published an op-ed titled “More Gun Safety Law aren’t the Answer to Gun Violence”. In this piece, Robert Farago, the article’s author, spells out the obvious, stating that more government intervention has rarely fixed any problem and certainly isn’t going to fix our nation’s problems with gun violence.
At one point in the article, Farago mentions Ronald Reagan’s famous quote which says, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”.
Farago goes on to ask USA Today readers “Do you really think the government can solve America’s ‘gun violence’ problem — firearms-related suicides, deadly gangbanging and deranged school shooters — by enacting ‘gun safety’ laws?” and claims that they are “delusional” if they answer yes.
These two quotes seem to sum up the main thrust of an argument that USA Today readers probably aren’t used to hearing; Gun violence is a societal problem that is far outside the government’s ability to control, and any attempts on the government’s behalf to fix this problem with more “gun safety” laws are sure to backfire.
It’s worth noting that the Farago’s USA Today op-ed is both brief and devoid of any statistics or examples of how badly gun control has failed in the past, and it’s also worth noting that the article was tagged by USA Today as being an “opposing view”. In other words, Farago’s brief statement about the ineffectiveness of government intervention when it comes to stopping gun violence may have been all that USA Today was willing to publish.
Farago could have also discussed countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia where strict gun control laws have failed to halt growing violent crime rates or taken the time to further detail the lack of logic behind popular gun control initiatives such as restricting how many firearms a person can own or banning high-capacity magazines (it only takes one firearm to commit a mass shooting, and a shooter with three 10-round magazines is every bit as deadly as a shooter with one 30-round magazine).
Nevertheless, while Farago’s USA Today op-ed was a far cry from being a brutal takedown of gun control arguments, it is still refreshing to hear a viewpoint that a majority of Americans agree with voiced in a major media outlet.
By and large, those in favor of increased gun control are well-meaning people who are simply uninformed about the opposing viewpoint. With this being the case, more widespread coverage of the many shortcomings of “gun safety” laws is exactly what we need to help turn the tide.
Read the USA Today story for yourself here.
Common sense isn’t common, especially in a Democrat crowd, you have to look at a gun as a tool, a gun cannot purchase itself, a gun can’t walk out of a store, a gun can’t purchase ammunition, a gun can’t load itself, a gun can’t put a round in its chamber, a gun can’t squeeze its own trigger!
Why then, do we call it gun-violence? A very disturbed person, kills another person for no reason! That is what separates a violent act, using a gun, from suicide, and/or an accidental shooting death! You have to first, be specific! You take a man with God given talent, you watch that man consume drugs, and alcohol, then you watch that man get on a stage, in front of 100,000 people, and play his guitar without missing one single note, a man who’s perfection means everything! No matter if it’s Jimmy Page, or Eric Clapton, or Jeff Beck, they can be reckless with their health, but their reputation demands perfection!
There are people in this world, who are as sane as the day they were born, they live their lives never harming another human being, but they are excellent marksmen from repitititious shooting, and they would never touch a firearm under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Then you have some good ol boys down in Louisiana who sit on their beer coolers in a dove field all day long, having a good ol time!
Irresponsible but not violent! Then you take a kid, who has been bullied at school, a quiet kid who is picked on, and laughed at, and his self esteem is sub-par, he has access to a firearm where gun safety at home is lax, a kid who’s father for whatever reason doesn’t, or can’t, spend enough time with him, all this builds up, until one day an incident sets him off. The following day, he comes to school with a loaded gun, and those faces, the bully, the laughter, is all he sees, then everything else, is too late.
We as parents, as teachers, and as students as well as law enforcement, local news, commercials, all of the above, need to be diligent, make it a priority!
It’s an unhealthy mind that commits mass shootings!
Then there is the power hungry politician, billionaire, or social worker, desperate for gun control, and the corrupted FBI, ATF, CIA, NSA, in bed with the power hungry billionaire, they decide to go off the reservation, they say if we kill enough people, the citizens will demand gun confiscation! They do the mass shooting, then they roll up, and control the investigation, either way, it’s a sick mind!
A helping action would be to restrict/prevent the sale of foreign guns in the US. The US is flooded with Chinese and Russian guns (and other “enemies”) … especially used guns that often fly under the radar.
This would help US manufacturers, while reducing cheap guns that make their way into the US.
The people the second amendment was written to protect us from have taken over the White House! The more insane the government gets, the more we NEED our firearms.
We have allowed the Socialists to openly try to overthrow our Constitution. Since we are not lawyers or politicians, physical self defense may now be our only solution to this unwanted problem.
It is heartwarming to see that some people aren’t falling for this “Stricter gun laws” hype. As the old saying went, “The cause of car problems are not the car, but the nut behind the wheel.” That applies to gun ownership. Blame the person not the gun for the violence. Prosecute that person and carry through with the process. Plea bargaining is one huge government problem. Every State has to contact the Government when selling a firearm. Keep up government information and this will stop gun sales to criminals. The newspaper, USA Today, mentions the results of draconian laws in Australia. Crime is so rampant in Australia most all homes have fences.
I I served many years in our nations military, in many countries. In all, where government had guns and citizens didn’t there were unchallenged abuses of power, police brutality, sexual abuse, horrible prison conditions political imprisonments and lots of graft,
There was NO upside ! Individual rights go when guns are only in government hands..
II hold a copy of Cadet Major Kelly Strong”s “Freedom is not free” where I can read it often. As I read I think of the Marine’s I saw killed just feet away and the numerous times that i came so close before I was 19 protecting our rights. As I read it anew, I say to all- there should not be any overreach by government to take guns from law abiding citizens for many a wonderful life would have been wasted at the moment the right to own them is taken
You must know by now that the 2nd amendment will be eventually eliminated by this administration. All freedom laws will be eliminated or curtailed. What is happening is a long calculated Marxist move by the Globalists to undermine all that we have valued and shed blood for 200 years is now being culminated by the once Democrat Party(Marxists). They took the elections by cheating. The FBI. CIA. DOJ and even the Supreme Court have shown no interest in investigating the most important elections in our history. They have ignored the coup against the duly elected President Donald Trump. We are the new Venezuela. The mask debacle is just another way of muzzling the public and keeping them from group affairs which could lead to actually questioning what is going on under their very noses. I’m sorry to say I don’t see anything good happening. I believe the coup has succeeded.
The position in the op-ed piece is not the position of USA today, which is pretty much anti-gun. Robert Farago is the founder and former owner of The Firearm Blog., a shooting enthusiast and die hard second amendment supporter site.
By the time one has to ask themselves if “their” government has a right to confiscate citizens’ guns, it is too late to mount a meaningful response. By the time a topic is broached, the seed has already germinated.
I’d opine that the comment, “…those in favor of increased gun control are well-meaning people who are simply uninformed…” falls far short of reality.
In my experience, most gun grabbers adamantly refuse to hear both sides and refuse to educate themselves. Many conservatives err by believing they can change their minds.