Stifle individual rights to benefit 'the collective'

[PegLeg45]

Says the father of one of the kids killed at Columbine.........
Another sheep trying to sway others through exploitation, even using their own child's death as contorted reasoning. The child's death, while tragic, has nothing to do with gun control.

Father of Columbine victim: Stifle individual rights to benefit 'the collective'
By Kurt Hofmann

A recent article in The Atlantic, "The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control)," makes a perhaps surprisingly sincere effort in seeking balance in the gun rights/"gun control" debate. Author Jeffrey Goldberg makes no effort to hide his desire for various infringements on that which shall not be infringed--banning private sales, more intrusive background checks on prospective buyers, etc. On the other hand, he seems to have accepted (if without enthusiasm) that people equipped for self-defense are safer than those who are not.

-----------------------

In researching the article, Goldberg spoke to Tom Mauser, whose 15-year-old son, Daniel, was murdered in the Columbine massacre.

  [Mauser] blames the American attachment to guns on ignorance, and on immaturity. . . . “We’re still at the stage of rebellious teenager, and we don’t like it when the government tells us what to do. People don’t trust government to do what’s right. They are very attracted to the idea of a nation of individuals, so they don’t think about what’s good for the collective.”


Mauser seems either unable or unwilling to realize that in a culture where every individual looks out for his or her rights, everyone's rights (the rights, therefore, of the entire "collective") are looked out for. Mauser goes on to lament that if the U.S. were as "mature" as the nations of Europe, "the federal government would have a much easier time curtailing the average citizen’s access to weapons." Don't worry, Mauser, the "maturity" you speak of seems to have crossed the Atlantic and gotten as far as New York, with an Assemblywoman demanding that citizens "give up some of their liberty" for "the safety of all."

The intent here is not to fail to acknowledge the depth of Mauser's grief. One's capacity for sympathy ends, though, when the mourner tries to exploit his own child's death to trample the rights of others, and indeed, to render others as helpless to resist murderous violence as his son was.

Suppressing the rights of individuals, in favor of "the collective," is anathema to a culture of liberty. It does, however, fit very nicely with the "progressive" agenda of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.



http://www.examiner.com/article/father-of-columbine-victim-stifle-individual-rights-to-benefit-the-collective

[tombogan03884]

This is the result of communist infiltration of the Dem party.
It dates back to at least the 1920's.
The last chance we had to beat these people was in the 60's and the best they came up with was Kent State.
Every protest with Che tee shirts, and commie flags should have been Kent State.
Tom Haydn and Bill Ayers should have been killed by police back then.
We were to focused on the Soviets to see the real threat right here.
Now we pay for it.

[MikeBjerum]

This goes right along with the Great One's plan.  I had an interesting supper last evening with some family and friends who are on county level boards and elected township officials.  They related what they have faced over the last four years. 

Coming down from D.C. the plan to castrate everything grassroots.  Farm Services Agency, ag people will recognize this, has gone from bi-monthly meetings to quarterly meetings; township boards are hearing that counties can handle things; counties are being forced to merge and share services, and they face pressure to start merging (eliminating counties); school boards have been stripped of almost all of their ability to work by unions, state and federal control; zoning commissions can no longer adapt due to state and federal overreaching through the use of historic, ecology, wildlife, etc; tax commissions have zero power indecision making, as the state has a book that covers everything when it comes to valuation or classification; and cities are ruled by state and federal mandates that narrow how they can govern to the point that we no longer have individuality.

Everyone of these people that were present last evening and involved in local government shared how they have personally seen and how their larger organizations all view it as clear castration of grassroots action.  I was shocked and without thinking I blurted out that this nation was founded on grassroots.  Everyone of them agreed and lamented the end being in sight for grassroots as we all remember them.

Time to start fighting back and changing things rather than bending over and taking it!

[Ichiban]