A Shadow on the Second Amendment

[mrjarrell]

J. Neil Schulman reprints his piece on remaining civil in the ongoing war against the 2nd Amendment and the various disputes that surround it. Words have consequences, as he well knows.

via J. Neil Schulman

Silent tolerance of bigots and haters is an intolerable danger to our just causes – particularly when one of those causes is the deterrence to despotism the Framers intended widespread private firearms to be. Our movement has a good track record in rooting out and shunning extremists, but that’s not good enough. We also need to admit openly that evil men do walk among us, and to tell the pundits who claim to educate us that that lying in defense of our rights is no virtue.
Most importantly, we need to remain civil in disputes with our opponents, even while we fortify our backbones with steel.
The Second Amendment movement just can’t tolerate a Bill O’Reilly who – knowing that Dr. Tiller had previously been shot at and his clinic bombed — repeatedly and editorially called George Tiller a “baby killer.” O’Reilly boasts The O’Reilly Factor has the highest ratings in cable/satellite television news. O’Reilly knew there are always psychotics waiting for a justification to commit mad violence and it was as foreseeable endlessly repeating “Tiller the Baby Killer” was inviting murder as it was for King Henry II’s infamous remark that led to the assassination of Thomas à Becket: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
It’s a lesson I learned in 1994.
While promoting my book Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns on the Chuck Baker radio show in Colorado Springs in August, 1994, I implored listeners to burn up Congress’s phone lines to stop passage of the unconstitutional Federal Assault Weapon Bill.
One listener was Francisco Martin Duran, who was so worked up by our feverish rhetoric that he travelled to Washington D.C. and on October 29th, 1994 opened fire with his SKS semi-auto rifle on the White House lawn. Duran was convicted of trying to assassinate President Clinton and sentenced to 40 years. Like Roeder, Duran was mentally unbalanced. Like von Brunn he had a criminal record.
Knowing that, I still now temper my rhetoric whenever I’m at a microphone.

Read the whole thing, it's worth the few minutes.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

mrjarrell, is this not the the guilt-ridden ramblings of someone projecting his own fears into others?

Despite his citing a couple of mad dogs, political violence comes from the Left.

Those on the Right (mostly, not counting Libertarians) have family, employment and responsibilities to commit violence.

 

[mrjarrell]

Violence comes from both sides, left and right, which he acknowledges. I tend to think that he's advocating more for civility in rhetoric from someones who's seen his words twisted by a lunatic, than from a point of fearfulness. Some people, like O'Reilly speak with no thought to the consequences of their words. There can be little doubt that his continuing harangues against Dr. Tiller played a part in the man's murder. Watching ones words, is not a bad thing when there are madmen out and about. Their actions reflect on us, whether we like it or not.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Violence comes from both sides, left and right, which he acknowledges.

Come now, mrjarrell, violence comes from the Left. Look at the assassins in American politics, all lefties. Heck, the Left made a movie about killing Bush and wrote many books on killing Republicans.

O'Reilly is a media leg-humping centrist. He picks out the "moderate" ground on all issues so he can be invited to parties in Georgetown and the Upper West Side. He is not on the Right, despite his appearance on Fox.

Our man Neil, an Obama voter, is a guilt ridden liberal trying to rationalize his actions with "everyone does it, but I get a pass cause I'm a good person."

Not everyone does it. He needs to stop projecting.

 

[txgho1911]

John Ross blames his book's fallout from fbi and battroop for his broken marriage. Unintended Consequences included some detailed description of nefarious activity against the fed gov in many areas.

Kirk did your bud simmon cowell put you up to this?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

John Ross=>Democrat

 

[DocBoCook]

John Ross=>Democrat

Please explain, I don't know much about him beyond his book

 

[Kirk Freeman]

He is a registered Democrat and has run for office in Missouri (Sheriff, IIRC).