Lying liars and the liars who lie about them

Lies. Deceit. Misdirection. Obfuscation. These are the tools of the few who cannot operate on the playing field of the many who seek to live with the decisions and responsibilities of a civil society. The liar lurks behind the curtain of made-up facts, and thrives on the coSuch as it is with the gun control efforts of our deliberately misinformed fellow citizens. Since before the heinous actions of a mentally deranged kid in Connecticut, anti-Second Amendment clowns have sought to curtail a fundamental right granted by the Constitution. The gun haters and their lobby have worked tirelessly for many years to ‘correct’ something they see as a flaw in understanding by those rights given to us by our Founders. Primary to their efforts is deceit. As a society, we are being bombarded by a slew of vile and venomous attacks on our liberties with no concern for truth. This onslaught comes from all quarters. The biased media, the Liberal professoriate, elected officials, and even our Chief Executive are all waging our war against us. Their primary weapon is the lie, pure and simple. To someone who has an end-goal in mind, there are always many paths to victory. Sometimes a plan may be having a rational and honest conversation. Other times, there may be the ad hominem attack on the opposition. It may be a part of the strategy to confuse the argument, while still being a principled participant in the game. The lowest of the low, in a fit of trying to win at all cost, may just simply tell us something that is patently untrue in order to gain advantage or save face. The Christ said that any without sin could cast the first stone. Sage advice, that, if not a direct commandment. Indeed, I would not try to moralize about truth. Who among us doesn’t have the occasional white lie in our hip pocket? We have all called-in to work as being sick when we really could have appeared. We’ve made excuses as to why we couldn’t attend this or that event, and we’ve told our kids things which were not exactly true, all in the name of protecting them. Opposite of these ideas are the beliefs that the ends of all actions justify the means. Marx and Engels were adherents of this idea that, no matter what one did, as long as it furthered their goal, it was okay. A lie to an individual or the general populace was preferred over the truth if it moved the marker in their direction. It is consequentialism, writ large. We as individuals practice this on a daily basis, albeit on a smaller scale. To most of us, a small lie, as long as it protects us from harm or admonishment, is preferable to facing up to the truth. It is not the same with our anti-gun detractors. In the name of saving us from ourselves, the forces on the Left are marshaling every lie they can to make sure that we are unarmed and unprotected. Foremost in this assault is the idea that our Founders did not mean for us to protect ourselves from the tyranny of government. One after another on the Left tries to confuse us with the falsehood that our fathers meant for us to only own firearms if we belonged to a militia. They put forth the premise that the signers of the Constitution did not envision ‘assault weapons’. This flies in the face of the Founder’s intentions, since they knew that whatever weapon was at hand was a weapon to be used against an overreaching government. None of the signers of the Constitution would have shied away from the modern musket, the AR-platform rifle, as something which needed intervention or regulation. Another lie in the anti-gun lobby argument is the belief that less legally-owned weapons make less crime. John Lott, economist and gun rights advocate, showed definitively that those counties in America who had easy gun laws had less criminal activity. In fact, when one looks at places that have free and open gun laws, we see a lessening of violence. Legal gun owners are far less to commit crime. Period. Contrasting that, look at the areas that have had traditionally strong gun control, Chicago (the President’s home), Baltimore, Detroit, Washington D.C. These cities are representative of the worst of what our country is about. The anti-gun lobby looks at this and they see something different than we do. They see an inherent propensity toward criminal activity with anyone who owns a modern sporting rifle. This flies in the face of both science and common sense. Any gun owner who is willing to legally own a sporting firearm is the least likely person to commit a crime. Handgun users, by far the most contributors of violent crime, are divided amongst those who legally have a sidearm and those who steal or buy their gun for felonious intentions. The folks who purchase and abide by whatever state regulations are in place are the least likely to commit crimes. Criminals do not register their handguns. They also see something evil with gun shows. That thought process derives from the fact that most anti-gunners have NEVER BEEN TO A GUN SHOW. It is a lie that criminals are getting their guns from these expositions. If you try to purchase a handgun from an exhibitor, you still have to pass a background check and wait for your handgun to be shipped to a licensed dealer in your state to be picked-up. There is no way around this. Which leads us to another big lie, in that our government tries to make us believe that handing down a firearm to someone is dangerous. The fact is that gun owners pass down firearms to their progeny in a manner which is responsible. None of us want to see crime. Gun owners are usually the folks who adhere to the law. Let us not devolve into the group who buys into the lies that somehow we are wrong for supporting the Constitution and believing that being honest is punished. nfusion of others. Deception is the last refuge of the opportunist, who may wield it both as a blunt club and as a sharp sword.