{"id":57581,"date":"2020-07-31T13:52:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=57581"},"modified":"2020-07-31T13:52:52","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:52:52","slug":"57581","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=57581","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter to the editor | Don\u2019t be fooled by changes in language<\/a><\/p>\n

Language can be a powerful but cunning tool. Change words slightly and presto, the context changes beneath one\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n

For example, have you noticed how the language regarding guns has evolved recently? It\u2019s no longer \u201cgun control\u201d; instead it\u2019s \u201cgun safety.\u201d What a clever shift. No one can object to gun safety, right? It\u2019s just plain reasonable. If you criticize it, you must be one of those crazy gun nuts.<\/p>\n

The latest language shift is the characterization of \u201copen carry\u201d of firearms as a \u201cloophole.\u201d Obviously, if the Founding Fathers had any idea that citizens might run around carrying firearms openly, they would have forbidden it. It\u2019s perfectly clear to \u201creasonable\u201d people that \u201copen carry\u201d is a loophole they forgot to close. But never fear, we can make this minor fix to the Second Amendment for the \u201csafety\u201d of all.<\/p>\n

Of course, the open carrying of firearms is not a loophole in the Constitution. At the time, virtually all firearms were carried openly. It wasn\u2019t possible to carry them any other way. It wasn\u2019t until firearms became compact enough to conceal that concealed carry became an issue. Consequently, laws were drafted to require permits to ensure that the scary person next to you couldn\u2019t be carrying a hidden firearm unless properly screened and trained. (We can debate the constitutionality of such regulations another time.)<\/p>\n

My point is, we need to read between the lines to avoid the snares set by clever shifts in language.<\/p>\n

Mark Sherbine-\u00a0Portage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter to the editor | Don\u2019t be fooled by changes in language Language can be a powerful but cunning tool. Change words slightly and presto, the context changes beneath one\u2019s feet. For example, have you noticed how the language regarding guns has evolved recently? It\u2019s no longer \u201cgun control\u201d; instead it\u2019s \u201cgun safety.\u201d What a … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57582,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57581\/revisions\/57582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}