In accepting his endorsement for president from the National Rifle Association, Donald Trump said:
“We are getting rid of gun-free zones. OK? I can tell you,” Trump said after talking about the Chattanooga shootings last year, during which a gunman shot and killed five members of the military who were unarmed because rules forbade them from carrying loaded weapons on base.
“Heartless, hypocrites like the Clintons want to take this and get rid of guns and yet they have bodyguards with guns,” Trump said. “I think in addition to calling for them to name judges, we’ll also call them and let their bodyguards immediately disarm. OK?”
This is right. And it’s not a joke. Frankly, I have no problem with the idea of disarming Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards. If she wants everyone else to be disarmed, she should be disarmed as well.
People who claim to hate guns love guns, whether they know it and admit it, or not. Guns are not just a way to initiate force or harm against another. They’re a way to protect oneself from the harm of another. Guns are not only possessed and used by criminals. Guns and weapons are also used and possessed by police, soldiers, private bodyguards and others upon whose possession of guns your very life depends.
Guns in the hands of peace-loving private citizens also make your life safer, whether you know it or not. Because the harsh reality is that criminals are more comfortable in a context where they know it’s illegal for any peaceful person to own a gun than in a setting where, for all they know, their next potential victim might or might not possess a gun.
If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of guns, then you probably should not own one. It’s a personal decision everyone must make. But you ought to be happy that criminals in the neighborhood where you live, shop or work have no way of knowing whether you own a gun, or not. If all of America were made a gun-free zone, the criminal would know the green light exists to go after an unarmed population. The same goes for terrorists.
The sneering scowls of people who say things like, “You don’t own a gun, do you?” Or, “You don’t oppose gun control, do you?” reveal their heartless hypocrisy, as Trump puts it. And Hillary Clinton’s position is heartless. She, and others like her, are prepared to let soldiers — not even private citizens, but trained warriors, people who are there for our protection — be defenseless against the next militant Muslim (oops, not allowed to say that) or any other psychopath who decides to open fire on a military base to make a point. That’s what gun-free zones are.
Think about the intellectual idiocy and moral obscenity of establishing military bases, of all things, as gun-free zones. Supporting “gun free zones” are a way for people who want to be seen as hating guns to do so. Hillary Clinton, who supports gun free zones, is a classic example. “Look at me. I support gun free zones. I’m morally superior.” Yet this very same Hillary Clinton expects armed protection when she wants it. She knows full well that weapons, in the right hands, save more lives than they kill.
Guns are neither inherently good nor inherently evil. It all depends on who owns the gun. We have to stop letting ourselves be intimidated by the sneers and psychologically manipulative tactics of gun control advocates whose hypocrisy and willful ignorance on the subject is almost too much to contemplate.
I really hope people like Hillary Clinton are put on the defensive for their arrogant, hypocritical and thoroughly inconsistent views. It’s about time.
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