Friday, November 15, 2019

There is no such thing as gun rights

I keep hearing people on both sides of the "gun debate" talking about "gun rights." I'm here to tell you that there are NO gun rights. Period. That's all.

You see, guns don't have rights, people do. So let's change the conversation from "gun rights" to "self defense rights." After all, it's self evidently wrong to stop someone from defending themselves. And that's what the gun control crowd is really after, not guns. They want to remove the right of citizens to defend themselves.

If the issue were "public safety" they wouldn't even be talking about gun control, because as public safety issues go, it's a minor issue, unless you live in Chicago, Baltimore, or one of the other cities where gun control has been tried and failed.

If the issue were guns, then they wouldn't also push other laws to keep honest people from defending themselves without guns. For instance, New York City just passed a ban on "undetectable weapons." Sounds like a good things right? But what it really does is prevents women from possessing one of the most common, effective non-lethal defense against rape, the cat self defense key ring (see photo above). Likewise, it is illegal to buy pepper spray in New York City (and no, hair spray is not a self defense weapon). The New York Knife show had to move to New Jersey because so many ordinary knives are illegal in New York City.

But New York City isn't the only place infringing on the rights of self defense. In New Jersey a sling shot is an illegal weapon (I'm not kidding). New Jersey also has "duty to retreat" laws which say that you cannot defend yourself, in any way, even in your own house unless you can prove that you could not flee the scene. Sorry, but that armed home invader is not an "unwelcome house visitor."

All of these laws (and many more) infringe on our rights to self defense, and don't involve firearms at all. They involve either criminalizing a method of self defense or favoring the "rights" of the attacker over that of the victim. Let's stop arguing "gun control" and start talking about victims' rights and the right to defend oneself.