Bret Stephens, a so-called neoconservative, of the NY Times believes that repealing the Second Amendment would be a good thing but he forgets that law-abiding citizens have the right to defend themselves and naturally, those like him, which includes liberals, forget that the Second Amendment also helped civil rights activists against Jim Crow laws.
Stephens and many liberals like him, is misguided in his thinking when he stated that from a personal-safety standpoint, more guns means less safety.
Damon Root of Reason.com stated that Stephens should widen his gaze to include the struggle for civil rights and racial justice in the Jim Crow South, in which the Second Amendment played a noble role on the side of personal liberty.
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As part of his case, Stephens explicitly rejects the “personal liberty” argument for gun rights. “The idea that an armed citizenry is the ultimate check on the ambitions and encroachments of government power is curious,” he writes. “The Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s, the New York draft riots of 1863, the coal miners’ rebellion of 1921, the Brink’s robbery of 1981—does any serious conservative think of these as great moments in Second Amendment activism?”
Perhaps Stephens should widen his gaze to include the struggle for civil rights and racial justice in the Jim Crow South, in which the Second Amendment played a noble role on the side of personal liberty.
“I’m alive today because of the Second Amendment and the natural right to keep and bear arms,” declared John R. Salter Jr., the civil rights leader who helped to organize the famous sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in Jackson, Mississippi. “Like a martyred friend of mine, NAACP staffer Medgar W. Evers, I, too, was on many Klan death lists and I, too, traveled armed: a .38 special Smith and Wesson revolver and a 44/40 Winchester carbine,” Salter recalled. “The knowledge that I had these weapons and was willing to use them kept enemies at bay.”
Salter knew perfectly well many state and local officials were either indifferent to his well-being or were themselves affiliated with the domestic terror groups that wanted to harm him. By exercising his Second Amendment rights, Salter was able to safeguard his life and liberty in face of government malfeasance and criminality.
One thing is for sure, for those like Stephens and liberals, if one were to ask them if they can show one law that prevents suicide, one law that prevents speeding, one law that prevents murder, one law that prevents child molesters, or one law that prevents robbery, one would be waiting for the answer for a very long time as such laws have not prevented such actions from happening.
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