By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
ANALYSIS: An ABC News report about a student-turned-gun-control advocate includes some revelations about why activists may not “get it” about gun owners, the Second Amendment and solutions to violent crime involving firearms.
Drew Spiegel, who was in Highland Park, Ill.,. preparing to participate in the 2022 Fourth of July parade when a mass shooting erupted (he was not directly involved, but was told by activists with Everytown for Gun Safety that he was a “survivor of gun violence”). He is quoted telling ABC, “The change we’re fighting for, is not mutually exclusive with the Second Amendment. They can coexist. We can have a country where people are allowed to have guns and also a country where you don’t have to worry about going to school.”
It’s not a matter of “co-existence” with the Second Amendment. Because the right to keep and bear arms is specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights, it’s actually a matter of not infringing upon it, say run rights advocates. Likewise, it is not that people are “allowed” to have guns, it is that the amendment makes does not allow government to take those firearms.
The article concludes with Spiegel telling ABC, “I think our rights and freedoms will be under a higher attack than ever before. But I don’t think it’s completely.”
He’s right, but wrong at the same time. Second Amendment rights have been under attack for decades, as people including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have crusaded to treat the right as a government-regulated privilege, according to grassroots activists.
Spiegel is concerned that Donald Trump will abolish the Biden-Harris White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. He contends this year-old mini-bureaucracy, which was created solely to promote gun control from within the White House, “is helping to save lives across the entire country.” There does not appear to be any evidence this office has helped save lives anywhere.
Potential solutions to violent crime involving firearms are ones traditionally rejected by liberals, including “Three Strikes” and “Hard Time for Armed Crime” laws. For school safety, armed school resource officers and allowing volunteer teachers and/or administrators to be armed on campus are popular options with many people.
Improved and expanded mental health and drug treatment services are also options which would not impair or infringe upon the rights of gun owners.
Conservative pundits have noted that Trump learned from his first term in office. Mistakes made eight years ago likely will not be repeated. The next four years could be very educational for people on both sides of the gun issue.
