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Non-gun-owning woman speaks out about Obama and his gun control methods
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JohnJohnsn
Mar 18, 2013, 8:11:06 PM3/18/13
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Op/Ed |1/18/2013 @ 8:00AM
Using Children To Pass Gun Laws Is Grotesque And Childish
By Carrie Lukas
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/carrielukas/files/2013/01/300x1951.jpg
President Barack Obama embraces Grant Fritz and other children who
wrote letters to the White House about gun violence after Obama signed
a series of executive orders about the administraton's new gun law
proposals in the Eisenhower Executive Office building January 16, 2013
in Washington, DC.
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Parents are often asked by their children to solve unsolvable
problems. When woken by nightmares, my daughter seeks reassurance
that bad dreams won’t return when she closes her eyes again. I offer
a fresh pillow, inviting her to think that somehow it will foster only
happy visions.
If I cajoled them to, my kids could scratch out some tear-jerking
pleas for the President to put an end to nightmares, lost stuffed
animals, and illnesses of all kinds. Yet that really shouldn’t be the
impetuous for nation-altering legislation. Grown-ups—including
politicians—may have a duty to offer children reassurance after a
trauma, but we cannot pretend that we have the power to wipe bad
things out of existence.
Using children’s pleas to end violence is about the most grotesque
rhetorical tool available to politicians. Our natural instincts are
to want to shield children from life’s pain. Yet fixating on our
desperate desire to protect children from harm distracts from the
truly important, adult business of assessing what solutions are
actually available.
So it is with the gun debate. As if the massacre of children in
Newtown, Connecticut wasn’t emotional enough, the President is now
posing with children and publicizing kids’ pleas for the government to
take action to prevent gun crimes. The Administration’s messaging
strategy is clear: If you care about children, then you’ll do what we
say and support new regulations and restrictions. Never mind
questions about whether there is any evidence that the new
restrictions will actually disarm would-be killers. We have to do
something. You are either with us and the children, or you are on the
side of mentally-ill, child-murdering maniacs.
This is not an intelligent way to approach public policy.
Like many Americans, I’m no fan of guns. The first time I saw a real
gun that wasn’t on a police officer or solider was in 2001 when I went
skeet-shooting with my future husband’s grandfather. I was surprised
by how much I enjoyed skeet-shooting, as well as how much my shoulder
hurt from the shotgun’s kick-back. Years later, I went with my
husband and some of his family to a firing range and shot a revolver.
That wasn’t fun at all, it was terribly noisy, and I haven’t shot
anything since.
I know only enough about guns to know that I know very little at all.
I cannot imagine personally being comfortable enough with a gun to use
one in self-defense, so guns scare me.
Yet just because I would never personally want to own or use a gun
doesn’t mean that I have nothing at stake in the gun rights debate.
I’m glad that there are women who know how to use guns and do so in
their own defense. I want potential assailants not to assume that all
women are helpless until the police arrive.
If keeping guns out of the hands of criminals were as easy as
outlawing certain categories of guns or ammunition or more thorough
background checks, then it seems that all of the existing gun laws
would have been more effective at reducing gun violence and that
cities with the strictest gun laws, like Washington DC and Chicago,
would be among our safest. They are not.
I have yet to see convincing evidence that more burdensome federal
restrictions, like those being proposed by the President, will hit the
target and reduce gun violence. I have seen studies suggesting that
stricter gun laws disarm law-abiding citizens and make it easier for
violent criminals to operate. But I’m open to reviewing new data if
the President has some to offer after he’s done tweeting the most
recent missive from an eight-year-old.
Let’s have a real conversation about the efficacy of gun laws, and
what measures might prevent mass shootings and keep deadly weapons out
of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. Yet let’s have that
conversation as adults, and leave the children out of it.
-30-
Carrie Lukas is the managing director of the Independent Women’s
Forum.
--
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carrielukas/2013/01/18/using-children-to-pass-gun-laws-is-grotesque-and-childish/
---
“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much
because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious
forces working from within.”
– General Douglas MacArthur
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more
and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and
glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright
moron.”
-- H.L. Mencken
Using Children To Pass Gun Laws Is Grotesque And Childish
By Carrie Lukas
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/carrielukas/files/2013/01/300x1951.jpg
President Barack Obama embraces Grant Fritz and other children who
wrote letters to the White House about gun violence after Obama signed
a series of executive orders about the administraton's new gun law
proposals in the Eisenhower Executive Office building January 16, 2013
in Washington, DC.
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Parents are often asked by their children to solve unsolvable
problems. When woken by nightmares, my daughter seeks reassurance
that bad dreams won’t return when she closes her eyes again. I offer
a fresh pillow, inviting her to think that somehow it will foster only
happy visions.
If I cajoled them to, my kids could scratch out some tear-jerking
pleas for the President to put an end to nightmares, lost stuffed
animals, and illnesses of all kinds. Yet that really shouldn’t be the
impetuous for nation-altering legislation. Grown-ups—including
politicians—may have a duty to offer children reassurance after a
trauma, but we cannot pretend that we have the power to wipe bad
things out of existence.
Using children’s pleas to end violence is about the most grotesque
rhetorical tool available to politicians. Our natural instincts are
to want to shield children from life’s pain. Yet fixating on our
desperate desire to protect children from harm distracts from the
truly important, adult business of assessing what solutions are
actually available.
So it is with the gun debate. As if the massacre of children in
Newtown, Connecticut wasn’t emotional enough, the President is now
posing with children and publicizing kids’ pleas for the government to
take action to prevent gun crimes. The Administration’s messaging
strategy is clear: If you care about children, then you’ll do what we
say and support new regulations and restrictions. Never mind
questions about whether there is any evidence that the new
restrictions will actually disarm would-be killers. We have to do
something. You are either with us and the children, or you are on the
side of mentally-ill, child-murdering maniacs.
This is not an intelligent way to approach public policy.
Like many Americans, I’m no fan of guns. The first time I saw a real
gun that wasn’t on a police officer or solider was in 2001 when I went
skeet-shooting with my future husband’s grandfather. I was surprised
by how much I enjoyed skeet-shooting, as well as how much my shoulder
hurt from the shotgun’s kick-back. Years later, I went with my
husband and some of his family to a firing range and shot a revolver.
That wasn’t fun at all, it was terribly noisy, and I haven’t shot
anything since.
I know only enough about guns to know that I know very little at all.
I cannot imagine personally being comfortable enough with a gun to use
one in self-defense, so guns scare me.
Yet just because I would never personally want to own or use a gun
doesn’t mean that I have nothing at stake in the gun rights debate.
I’m glad that there are women who know how to use guns and do so in
their own defense. I want potential assailants not to assume that all
women are helpless until the police arrive.
If keeping guns out of the hands of criminals were as easy as
outlawing certain categories of guns or ammunition or more thorough
background checks, then it seems that all of the existing gun laws
would have been more effective at reducing gun violence and that
cities with the strictest gun laws, like Washington DC and Chicago,
would be among our safest. They are not.
I have yet to see convincing evidence that more burdensome federal
restrictions, like those being proposed by the President, will hit the
target and reduce gun violence. I have seen studies suggesting that
stricter gun laws disarm law-abiding citizens and make it easier for
violent criminals to operate. But I’m open to reviewing new data if
the President has some to offer after he’s done tweeting the most
recent missive from an eight-year-old.
Let’s have a real conversation about the efficacy of gun laws, and
what measures might prevent mass shootings and keep deadly weapons out
of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. Yet let’s have that
conversation as adults, and leave the children out of it.
-30-
Carrie Lukas is the managing director of the Independent Women’s
Forum.
--
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carrielukas/2013/01/18/using-children-to-pass-gun-laws-is-grotesque-and-childish/
---
“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much
because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious
forces working from within.”
– General Douglas MacArthur
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more
and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and
glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright
moron.”
-- H.L. Mencken
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