To hear them tell it, the Second Amendment deniers in Washington and their accomplices in the media know about all there is to know when it comes to guns.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some guns\u2014so-called \u201cassault\u201d rifles\u2014we just don\u2019t \u201cneed<\/em>,\u201d they constantly tell us.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that the President and his fellow partisans wish to prevent American citizens from exercising their Second Amendment liberties.\u00a0 They just wish to prevent us from obtaining those guns that no one needs <\/em>in any event.<\/p>\n For the moment, we can put to one side the monumental presumptiveness involved in third parties instructing the citizens of a free society as to what they do and do not need.\u00a0 It is more important that we grasp what this little lesson entails.<\/p>\n When the Second Amendment deniers talk about \u201cneeds\u201d in respect of guns, what they imply is that guns have a unique purpose: <\/em>guns kill.\u00a0 <\/em>Since, say, no one \u201cneeds\u201d a so-called \u201cassault rifle\u201d for hunting, it is commonly argued, no one \u201cneeds\u201d an assault rifle, for the only purpose of such a weapon is to slaughter.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the very same people who insist upon making this argument from purpose when it comes to guns ridicule it when it comes to almost everything else.\u00a0 Take the issue of sexual morality, for instance. For millennia, Christians (among others) have contended that sex is permissible only within the confines of marriage.\u00a0 According to this reasoning, sex has two purposes.\u00a0 Its chief purpose is reproductive.\u00a0 <\/em>Yet it is also intended to unite <\/em>the spouses. Since only marriage\u2014heterosexual <\/em>marriage\u2014can fulfill this twofold purpose, sex within any other context is immoral.<\/p>\n This argument may or may not work.\u00a0 The point, though, is that those on the left resolutely reject this <\/em>argument from purpose while relying upon another such argument to restrict the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s play along.\u00a0 Let\u2019s assume that the left\u2019s argument from purpose against the Second Amendment is sound. And now let\u2019s apply it to the First <\/em>Amendment.<\/p>\n A free people do indeed need <\/em>a free press, for the latter fulfills the purpose of preventing government from becoming tyrannical.\u00a0 Those in the press are supposed to be forever vigilant against any and all signs of government corruption and abuse.\u00a0 They are \u201cwatchdogs.\u201d\u00a0 It is on this basis that they are forever poised to take refuge behind the First Amendment when criticisms come their way.<\/p>\n However, what if our media figures fail <\/em>to fulfill the purpose for which the First Amendment allots them free speech?\u00a0 What if they not only suspend their skepticism toward all government office-holders, but actually begin to side with some of them?\u00a0 And, worse, what if those politicians toward whom they\u2019re partial are just those politicians who are anxious to expand <\/em>the national government ever further?\u00a0 That is, what if they promote those plans that threaten the liberties of the very Americans for whose sake they exist?<\/p>\n Sadly, these aren\u2019t really hypothetical questions.\u00a0 The blunt truth of the matter is that those in the \u201cmainstream\u201d media have <\/em>failed to fulfill their purpose.\u00a0 And they have failed abysmally.\u00a0 Moreover, they have <\/em>allied themselves with politicians, particularly, those politicians, like Barack Obama, who are all too eager to grow our Gargantuan Government even beyond its already monstrous size.<\/p>\n Since these same media personalities seem to agree with Obama and his party that those gun rights<\/em> that allegedly don\u2019t advance the purpose of the Second Amendment<\/em> the federal government can essentially revoke, then maybe they can be persuaded that those speech rights <\/em>that don\u2019t advance the First Amendment <\/em>should be revoked as well?\u00a0<\/p>\n After all, the speech that comes from a free press is supposed to function as a check upon government.\u00a0 Outside of politicians, no one needs <\/em>speech from the media that frustrates this function by strengthening the hold of the government over the citizenry.\u00a0 Thus, press-control, or media-control, may be necessary.<\/p>\n Maybe we should pressure government into assembling a bipartisan commission to preside over Congressional hearings in which the owners, managers, and even employees of various journalistic outfits are forced to answer tough questions about government-media collusion.\u00a0 Those organizations deemed guilty of propagandizing on behalf of government will face stiff penalties, including and up to losing their licensing.<\/p>\n Media personalities will be permitted to exercise their free speech rights. But this means that they will be allowed to operate in the media only if they are using speech in order to challenge government.\u00a0<\/p>\n To be clear, I am not seriously advocating any of this. My point, rather, is to point out the glaring hypocrisy of journalists and politicians who would never in a million years think to say the things about the First Amendment that they say about the Second. \u00a0<\/p>\n originally published in Front Page Magazine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To hear them tell it, the Second Amendment deniers in Washington and their accomplices in the media know about all there is to know when it comes to guns.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some guns\u2014so-called \u201cassault\u201d rifles\u2014we just don\u2019t \u201cneed,\u201d they constantly tell us.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that the President and his fellow partisans wish to prevent American citizens from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n