Is it ethical to stand around outside a Presidential event with a loaded handgun? How about with a loaded automatic rifle? Apparently it's legal, at least in Arizona and New Hampshire, where people have been doing it.
It scares the heart out of me, remembering the killings of JFK, RFK, MLK, John Lennon, and the 168 federal workers and children at the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Not to mention the shooters who failed to kill Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan.
The people carrying these weapons near the President claim to be exercising their Second Amendment rights, and perhaps they are, hopefully without providing cover to would-be killers.
But rights, schmights. Don't they--or anyone who believes in legal weapons for hunting and self-defense--understand the difference between rights and common sense? Or ethics?
The late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
7 comments:
Oh, thank you so very much for this post. It's so appreciated. I LOVE Justice Potter Stewart's distinction.
I just thought of something. If there was a group of law-abiding black men in Detroit who carried visible semi-automatic weapons in a public square because they had the right to do so when President Bush was in office, how would this have been viewed by law enforcement AND those in the crowd? Might these men have been arrested on the spot? Might they have dispersed the crowd automatically, as in immediately? The visibility of these weapons is just so incredibly frightening no matter who's carrying them or who's in office.
Bob - Your thoughtful post has really got me thinking. Yesterday, I linked it to mine, Being an Irrational Gun-Toting Second Amendment Citizen. I also wanted to direct your attention to another piece I wrote yesterday, Being Anti-Semitic. While a commentator included a very important link to an article written by Joe Klein in the first post, it directly relates to this post too and should be widely read. The article can be read here. Thanks again for your words here. They're appreciated.
I would think of guns at political meetings as a sort of "Honor Guard".
Not an "Honor Guard" for the politicians but an "Honor Guard" for our Freedom.
Just because a person's skin or rifle is black is not a reason to disparage either one I.M.O.
P.S. Are only people named "Judith Ellis" allowed to post here?
Hi, PshootR--
All comments welcome. I worked many years for Defense and saw lots of honor guards--even a few for me. Far as I know they always had UNloaded weapons.
I couldn't agree with you more. that last line was PERFECTLY phrased. I wish i came up with it! ;)
KDAWG is my pseudonym apparently.
Rupa
Post a Comment