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Friday, February 23, 2018

Thinking the Unthinkable



Friends, much as it pains me, today I must beg to differ with President Trump.  Yes, you heard that right.  I expect much gnashing of teeth and rending of hair to result, since one of the constants of the universe is being upset, but sometimes a conservative has to say his piece.  If the ghost of Reagan sheds a tear as a result, so be it.  I'll make it up to the Gipper by writing plenty more articles in praise of all things Trump!

The source of my disquiet is President Trump's suggestion that the minimum age for some gun purchases should be raised from 18 to 21.  Why is that a problem?  Read on...

Conservatives Must Oppose Age Restrictions on Gun Purchases

In the wake of the horrific Parkland, Florida school shooting, President Trump has unveiled a number of proposals to increase school safety. His best suggestion is that a select number of trained teachers, coaches, and staff members should be permitted to bear arms in our schools, so that attacks can be deterred, and, if necessary, shooters can be promptly neutralized. Few conservatives will balk at the idea that guns can indeed promote safety, in the right hands.

Unfortunately, President Trump has also proposed that the legal minimum age for gun purchases should be increased from 18 to 21, although whether this would apply to so-called assault weapons, semi-automatic firearms, or all guns remains unclear. Regardless of Trump's intentions, any policy of this kind would be a grave error, and conservatives should work to dissuade the President and, if need be, to defeat any bill in Congress that incorporates such a change.

Why? First, the right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional right, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and as such should be subject to regulation but never to infringement. This is what conservatives have been correctly arguing for decades. A constitutional right cannot be denied to any person on the basis of sex, race, religion, or age. Indeed, even to attempt to infringe a constitutional right in this manner would be dangerous and un-American. True, federal law already prohibits some handgun sales to persons under 21, but this ought to be struck down as unconstitutional.

Second, in a country of 325 million people and a roughly equivalent number of guns, there is little reason to suspect that an age restriction, or any form of gun control, would succeed in depriving any would-be school shooter of the opportunity to kill.

Lastly, those who support raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21 have clearly not considered the anomaly this would create: hundreds of thousands of young Americans would suddenly be serving in our armed forces, bearing not only guns, but howitzers, torpedoes, attack helicopters, and even nuclear weapons, but, as private citizens, they would be unable to purchase firearms. One word for such a predicament would be “unjust” – personally, I prefer the more apt term: surreal. Our nation simply cannot deny its soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines the full and unabridged constitutional right to self-defense.

President Trump has been a breath of fresh air, proposing and implementing innovative solutions to our country's problems, and literally saving the Republic, which would otherwise have been plunged into the Clintonian abyss. In this case, though, the President has not properly considered the full implications of his suggestion. 

Where the heartfelt desire to protect children from harm bumps up against common sense and the U.S. Constitution, it must be the latter that prevail. There are simply better ways to defeat school violence.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com.

You can find the article here, at Artvoice:

 https://artvoice.com/2018/02/23/conservatives-must-oppose-age-restrictions-gun-purchases/

4 comments:

  1. Dr. Waddy: All points very well taken especially the one about the military. I also dislike disagreeing with our good President; he's doing the job for the real America and he richly deserves our unwavering support. He's such a canny deal maker though, I almost wonder if the age change proposal is some kind of feint. I trust that common sense tells him that the only way to stop these ghouls is armed defense in the schools. I just wish he'd order Federal troops in right now until local police, National Guard, volunteers and willing armed staff can take over. Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson used regulars within the U.S.

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  2. Trump was right that whoever had the bright idea that schools should be "gun-free zones" was inviting big trouble! You may be correct -- perhaps the 18 -> 21 proposal is just a feint. I find it hard to imagine that the House would pass it, which brings me comfort.

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  3. The reading I have been getting from numerous articles/news is that the folks are just tired of the gvt. And the bone headed decisions by people who really don't have our vested interests at heart. I think most people just want to say "enough" and the 2nd Amendment is one of them, hands off. I think the President will (prayerfully) be set straight on this topic.

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  4. I think you're right, Linda, that he will back off. He may be doing so already. Nonetheless, he planted this idea in people's heads, and Dick's and Walmart have already run with it. I hope they will be sued for age discrimination!

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