Reactionaries and Guns

Reactionaries and guns; This could be about any number of people who over-react, misrepresent, lie, freak out or attack over the sight of a gun. We have an unlimited supply of those who fit any or all of these descriptions it seems. I want to focus on two recent stories however.

Recently in New Jersey, a man posted a photo on facebook of his son holding a .22 rifle he received for his 11th birthday. Some busybody friend of his(presumably on facebook) reported the the family to the Department of Children and Families(DCF). The DCF along with the Carneys Point Police Department soon paid them a visit[1]. After much duress and discussion with the police and the DCF, Moore was able to keep all of them out of his residence without having to show anyone anything. This was three days ago and no further action on the part of authorities has taken place. We can only assume that they were satisfied and legally restricted from acting any further.

This man, Moore is a certified firearms instructor for the National Rifle Association, an NRA range safety officer and a New Jersey hunter education instructor. In short, there are probably few people in the state any more qualified to own a gun or to teach his own son about gun safety. Even the child has a New Jersey hunting license and recently passed the state’s hunter safety course. He too is probably more qualified than most in the state when it comes to handling a firearm. You can even see in the photo that he is following safety guidelines in the manner in which he is holding the rifle. You can't tell from the photo, but I would bet you any amount that the gun is not loaded.

Someone who probably knows next to nothing about firearms, other than how evil they must be, decided that they were acting in such a reckless manner that they were obviously endangering the welfare of the child by allowing him to pose with his new rifle. To the point that child protective services must be called. If Moore didn't have the wherewithal to call his lawyer, he could very well have had his child taken by these reactionary thugs. The DCF worker that came to the home wouldn't even identify themselves when asked. What kind of policy is that? Luckily, the police had a little bit of sense in the matter and the constitution stood.

What about the person that reported this to begin with? Are they responsible for starting a witch hunt that produced no witches? Not according to a spokesperson for the DCF, "the person who reported the false allegations of abuse cannot be held liable", she noted. “You can’t be prosecuted for making an allegation of child abuse –even if it’s false" Why not? You can be prosecuted for false allegations for anything else. Couple this with the recent news that New York is planning on rewarding citizens $500 for reporting anyone for illegally owning a gun if it leads to an actual conviction. Again, in this scenario, you don't(you can't as far as most cases would go) even have to prove an illegal gun is possessed, you just make the accusation and let the snowball start rolling. This is bad news for all of us, not just for someone illegally possessing a weapon.

In the case of Mr. Moore and the photo of his son, so far, it has turned out ok. They left him alone when he confronted them with his legal rights. It is still a scary situation for anyone to have gone through. I fear that we will hear many more stories like this in the near future.

UPDATE ON THE MOORE CASE : 3-26-2013 Governor Christie gets involved

On the other hand, there is a completely different kind of lunacy at work on this front. Take the well publicized story of 7 year old Josh Welch from Maryland[2]. He had the recent misfortune of being suspended from his second grade class for bringing a fully automatic Thompson Machine Gun, fully loaded, with a plan to... Wait, wrong story. He actually had a Pop-Tart that his teacher decided had been nibbled into the shape of a gun. She alone was offended by this. No students complained, no one was injured, no one even knew about it until the teacher went ballistic. Welch was suspended, notes were sent home with the rest of the kids explaining that an incident had happened and there would even be counselors available for whom ever needed them after this horrible traumatic event.

I have very little to say about this that doesn't personally attack the intellect of all of those, except Welch, involved. Seriously, if anything, give the kid credit for being possibly the only 7 year old who knows what a Walther PPK looks like(if in fact, he intended to nibble himself a gun). He claimed he was making a mountain. Oddly enough, it is the teacher and school that ended up making a mountain out of a misidentified molehill.

Reason and accountability may prevail in this case as well. Sen. J. B. Jennings, a Republican representing Baltimore and Hartford counties, introduced Senate Bill 1058 -- "The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013" on Thursday. The bill would, absent a direct act of violence on school grounds, prohibit students from being suspended for "making a hand shape or gesture resembling a gun" -- the bill would also stop principals from expelling students who bring to school "any other object that resembles a gun but serves another purpose." Like a creatively nibbled-on Pop-Tart, a piece of torn notebook paper or a map of Florida.

It is a sad state of affairs when someone feels the need to introduce a piece of legislation to encourage teachers to stop being complete pantywaists and use 1/10 the amount of common sense it would take to blow their nose. But, I guess this is what we've come to. You have the leaders of our country brainwashing people into believing that guns are evil and evil people are not to blame for evil acts. You have lawmakers from the top down trying to ban guns in every way imaginable while letting 1000's of dangerous, hardened criminals out of jail to wreak havoc on society at large. You have the VP giving seriously detrimental advice on how to use guns to protect ourselves and senators giving equally bad advice on how to check for a pulse if you happen upon a homicide victim in your office.

We have to start educating people and we have to start now. We are in a war right now. It is a war of words, ideas and ideals. It is a war that can be won by telling the truth. Truth can not be refuted. We need to arm ourselves with as much truth as we can find and refuse to fight battles based in emotion. The opposite of truth is deception. Lies are being told by so many people and they have to be confronted. They have to be confronted. The truth doesn't have much of an outlet right now. You won't hear it on the evening news. The only way the truth is going to be heard is by us shouting it from every pulpit we have at our disposal.

This is no time to be silent. Stand up for your rights. Speak up for yourself. You have to believe that no one else is going to do it for you. If you believe otherwise, you may as well travel to Washington DC and kiss the constitution goodbye.