Granny’s in
the Attic
Charlie Earl
As a
grandparent whose spouse, children and grandchildren sometimes suspect of being
a full bubble off plumb, I hesitate to write this. The unspeakable events that
occurred in Newtown, Connecticut, just a week ago raise so many questions and
even more proposed solutions than seems possible. Predictably the first
response from the statist-tyrannical class was to further limit the
availability of firearms and some accessories for the people. Actually….on
frequent occasions I heard people suggest that only the military and the police
should be armed. This is the purest definition of tyrannical despotism that I
can imagine. The Sandy Hook incident has three overarching themes that merit
examination in my view. First, what role do firearms have in our society? Two,
how do we measure, quantify and qualify the value of individual lives in our
country? Third, how do we define, treat or isolate those who are aberrant,
deviant, mentally ill or flat out crazy or evil?
Admittedly,
as a gun owner and constitutionalist, I enter this discussion with a natural
bias. I believe that The Constitution of
the United States of America gives me the absolute and undeniable right to
possess firearms. Although I assiduously obey the laws of the nation and my
state (Ohio), I believe that many of the laws and regulations that impact or
limit my 2nd Amendment right are indeed unconstitutional. Firearms
are tools, and tools can be misused. Lizzie Borden allegedly used an axe to
commit a crime. Today….she would have a chain saw at her supposedly criminal
command. Tools are inanimate objects.
It seems odd
to me that the collectivist statists among us are willing to ban every
conceivable harmful object or activity to protect us from ourselves and one
another, but have no difficulty defending the deviants and perverts of our
society. Typically…they seek to limit our individual rights for the “good” of
all except for when they insist that social deviancy be given extra latitude in
the culture. In other words…they are willing to put everyone at risk in order
to not infringe on the outlier’s humanity, but at the same time are eager to
broadly limit the rights of the rest of us. It appears to me, a right-to-life
advocate and believer, that the collectivists-statists value individual lives
ONLY when they are aberrant or not normal.
More than a
century ago when our nuclear families were more intact and cross-generational,
family members would deal with the mentally ill and dangerous relatives using
their own resources. Nutty granny would be locked in the attic or crazy Aunt
Tillie would be chained to her bed. As government grew larger and society
looked to government for solutions, state hospitals and asylums became the
social and political answers for dealing with the incompetent and the dangerous
people among us. Just as there are members of the populace who are unstable and
dangerous, there are also those among us who are greedy, lazy and venal. In the
home-based system and the institutional setup there were abuses. Some people
were shackled or locked up merely for being different. Others were put away
because their “loved ones” wanted control of an estate. Some were undoubtedly
abused while theoretically under “care.” As a result, some 50 years ago a
movement gained momentum to dismantle the institutions that were erected to
care for those who have difficulty navigating through life. Today…we have come
full circle wherein the sick and the crazy are the responsibilities of their
families…. except that the ACLU and other so-called “rights” organizations have
intervened to allow the adult social deviants the final word in their
treatment, incarceration or medication unless they have been convicted of a
crime. The result is that either families must restrain a potentially dangerous
person, or the government will place them in prison AFTER they have performed
some heinous act. Meanwhile…all of us are walking on eggs shells, fearing that
the next person we inadvertently offend will harm us. And the government, the
collectivists, the statists and the uninformed bleeding hearts want to outlaw
our means of defense.
Charlie Earl
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