{"id":93421,"date":"2023-06-05T22:35:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T03:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93421"},"modified":"2023-06-05T22:35:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T03:35:45","slug":"93421","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93421","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

A “compromise” from the gun prohibitionists – you can’t own one, but maybe you can borrow one<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier today we reported on the\u00a0first few hours<\/a>\u00a0of the supposed-to-be massive protest outside the Colorado state capitol in Denver, where the group Here 4 The Kids is holding a sit-in to pressure Gov. Jared Polis into signing an executive order banning gun sales and possession in the state. While organizer Saira Rao predicted 25,000 or more would be on hand early Monday morning, the Colorado Sun reports the number was closer to\u00a0250 people<\/a>, and though a few folks have trickled onto the capitol grounds since then there\u2019s nowhere near 25,000 in attendance.<\/p>\n

The Sun did manage to speak with a few supporters of the flagrantly unconstitutional executive order proposed by Rao, and it\u2019s fascinating to see how deep the delusion runs with some of these folks, starting with Rao herself.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYes, it is in violation of the Second Amendment, and what we are saying is, as a decent human being, at some point, you have to decide that the right to life and our children\u2019s\u2019 right to life must trump anybody\u2019s right to bear arms,\u201d Here 4 The Kids co-founder Saira Rao said Friday.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who have been elected to office have to choose if they will choose children\u2019s lives over guns,\u201d said Rao, a former lawyer who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the 2018 Democratic primary and then moved to Virginia. \u201cThat\u2019s the fundamental choice. And if he\u2019s saying he will not, he is making a choice that will put him on the wrong side of history.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Change doesn\u2019t happen without major shifts, she said. Americans had to amend the Constitution to abolish slavery, which was considered radical and unthinkable to many in 1865, at a time when slavery was the foundation of the American economy, she said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImagine if people were just like, \u2018We can\u2019t do it.\u2019 Indeed, they can, and they did, and now we have the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery,\u201d Rao said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rao\u2019s not trying to amend the Constitution. She\u2019s trying to get Polis and other Democrat governors to\u00a0ignore<\/em>\u00a0it, which isn\u2019t going to go well. As we\u2019ve seen from states like New York and California, anti-gun Democrats would prefer to pay lip service to the Second Amendment while violating the fundamental right to keep and bear arms rather than explicitly rejecting the right altogether, which would cause even courts that have been traditionally hostile to our Second Amendment rights to step in put a halt to their attempt at prohibition.<\/p>\n

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Rao\u2019s also forgetting (or choosing to ignore) history even as she claims she\u2019s on the right side. Take her repeated comparisons to civil rights era and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for instance.<\/p>\n

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They say they\u2019ll remain there until Gov. Jared Polis answers the demand of Here 4 The Kids and signs an executive order banning guns, or for at least four days, the same length of time the Selma to Montgomery marches lasted.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Polis\u2019 office said he won\u2019t sign an order that violates the U.S. Constitution. But Here 4 The Kids organizers said other civil rights laws that seemed unthinkable decades ago did pass following civil acts of disobedience, such as the marches from Selma to Montgomery that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Unlike Rao\u2019s prohibitionist demands, the marchers in Selma were fighting\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>civil rights. Rao and her allies are hoping to take them away, though at least one attendee at today\u2019s protest thinks she\u2019s come up with a \u201creasonable\u201d compromise.<\/p>\n

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McMullen Bushman said they are willing to give up guns \u201cbecause I\u2019m tired of seeing people die and something has to be done differently. I don\u2019t think any excuse is worth a kid\u2019s life.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we have to be willing to have those conversations and say, \u2018How can this be done differently? Is there a program where we can borrow guns \u2013 maybe through Colorado Parks and Wildlife \u2013 or specific hunting (organizations)? And does it have to be that everyone has their own gun?\u2019 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s necessary. Given all of the carnage and death around this, I would be willing to give up my guns for something to be done differently and for there to be change.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You know what would happen if every legal gun owner in this country gave up their guns tomorrow? We wouldn\u2019t turn into England or Australia, where violent crime rates have always been lower than the United States, even before they cracked down on legal gun owners. No, we\u2019d turn into Mexico; a nation with very few legal gun owners and a whole lot of armed criminal actors inflicting mayhem and misery on the country at large. Mexico has a single gun store for the entire country and places tight restrictions on who can lawfully own firearms, yet their homicide rate is about five times higher than that of the United States.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear, however, how many of the scant number of anti-gun activists on hand in Denver are actually on board with full repeal. Instead, it sounds like some of them are just trying to move the Overton Window on what\u2019s \u201creasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There has been \u201cso much support\u201d for maintaining the status quo on guns. Whenever conversations about gun control arise, many people view the dialogue as a threat to the Second Amendment, which prevents meaningful discussion, McMullen Bushman said.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not imaginative at all for what possible solutions can be and I think having a conversation that\u2019s so bold as, \u2018We\u2019re going to ban all guns and have a buyback program\u2019 is just as radical as, \u2018You can\u2019t do anything to stop and curb gun violence or how people get ahold of guns because you would be infringing on Second Amendment rights,\u2019\u201d McMullen Bushman said. \u201cIt is just as radical and it is what is needed to pull us hopefully to some kind of accord along the middle.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Something like this, perhaps?<\/p>\n