MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS STUDENTS CHAFF AT, RATHER THAN APPLAUD, SCHOOL SECURITY MEASURES IN THE WAKE OF TRAGEDY.

PART SEVEN

THE DEAFENING, MIND-NUMBING CALL, SHOUTING OUT ALL REASON: GET RID OF CIVILIAN OWNERSHIP AND POSSESSION OF GUNS; AND THEN SCHOOLS WILL BE SAFE!

Students who attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the tragic incident last February, who took part in the recent “March for Life,” organized and orchestrated by Michael Bloomberg’s antigun advocacy Group, “Everytown for Gun Safety,” fervently believe, albeit erroneously, that gun violence in schools can be traced, in this Country, directly, indisputably, and solely to the existence of millions of semiautomatic long guns, dubbed, ‘assault weapons.’ The answer to gun violence in schools, as these students have concluded, is simple: just outlaw civilian ownership and possession of guns in this Country, commencing with “assault weapons,” and, once accomplished, schools across the Country will be safe from gun violence and from any other deadly violence. Ergo, no other security in schools is needed.

How is it that young people—students in our Nation’s schools—have inculcated a virulent abhorrence of firearms? The answer may seem, at first blush, to be simple. After all, many students have witnessed deadly violence firsthand. They have seen lunatics misuse firearms, causing catastrophic, horrific violence. So, it would seem reasonable to conclude that young people have linked violence inextricably to guns and to guns alone. Thus, many young people now fear firearms. There is a name for this fear it is called, ‘hoplophobia.’ But, why has this fear of guns blossomed among so many young people. After all, schools across the Country, once had gun clubs. They once did, but no longer. Now there is fear of guns. That phobia is seen now as the “new normal.” 

ANTIGUN ACTIVISTS, ANTIGUN POLITICIANS, AND THE ECHO CHAMBER OF ANTIGUN ADVOCATES–THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA–DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ASSUAGE THE IRRATIONAL FEAR OF GUNS; INSTEAD THEY STOKE THE FEAR, FEEDING THE FEAR, LIKE ADDING WOOD OR COAL TO A FIRE.

Clearly, antigun advocacy groups that lurk behind the scenes have fostered, in the minds of young people, the notion that societal violence is to be equated unequivocally and solely to the existence of large numbers of firearms in society—especially those semiautomatic long guns given the appellation, ‘assault weapons’—and that such violence is intractable so long as civilian ownership of firearms continues. This, obviously, is a false notion. But once a person accepts this notion as a self-evident truth, no further explanation for the existence of rampant violence in society is necessary. And the answer to stamping out rampant violence in society becomes clear: simply abolish civilian ownership and possession of firearms, commencing with those modeled on the original AR-15 Armalite prototype; and that, once this is accomplished, society will be safe and secure from violent acts. That is the simple and straightforward answer. The boogeyman, the bugbear, is “the gun.” Abolish “the gun” and society will be safe and secure–so it is said. And, that is the clarion call of antigun advocates.

It is difficult to believe that sentient, rational beings would truly believe such a simplistic notion to a complex matter, as violence is endemic not only in our society but, indeed, endemic  across the nations of Europe where guns in the hands of the civilian population is virtually unheard of.* Yet, severe restrictions on civilian access to firearms is the singular the message antigun activists have delivered constantly, unceasingly, and disingenuously to young people, in recent days and weeks, and many youth of our Nation have internalized this false notion and now hold to it with indefatigable conviction as the simple and certain answer to the horror that befell some of them. The answer invariably presented–just preclude civilian possession of guns, commencing with the confiscation of assault weapons–sounds plausible enough, on the surface at least, as many wrong theories often do.

Truthfully, those students suffering from the trauma of the horrific tragedy that unfolded in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School can be forgiven a failure to pierce the veil of deceptive messaging. But, as for these antigun activists, they are not to be forgiven. For, they are deliberately filling the minds of young people with nonsense about firearms, insidiously taking advantage of and shaping the minds of young people whose clarity of reason has been severely weakened through the horrific violence witnessed. The students of MSD, and in other schools that have faced similar tragedy, are looking for answers, for some common, sensible thread that may explain a horrific act that defies simple explanation; and they will grasp at anything that may seem reasonable, even if that explanation is superficial–even nonsensical upon close examination and reflection. Antigun activists arrive to fill the void, taking advantage of a monstrous happenstance to further their goal of a disarming the citizenry of this Nation.

Obviously, antigun advocacy groups have exploited the young of our Nation in pursuit of a personal agenda, one immediately detrimental to the safeguarding of our sacred heritage, detrimental to the continued security and well-being of our Nation and its people, and incompatible with the preservation of our sacred rights and liberties. Antigun advocacy groups—certainly those in the upper echelons of these organizations know full well that ever further restrictive gun laws—laws aimed at the average, rational, law-abiding citizen—will not stem gun violence. But the raison d’étre of these antigun activists–those at the highest levels of their respective organizations–are directed not at stemming gun violence but at population control. They realized the “plum” dropped in their laps after the tragedy struck a high school in Florida. These young people serve a useful purpose for what the antigun activists ultimately seek: the de facto or de jure destruction of the Second Amendment and, thus, the end of the individual right of the American citizen to keep and bear arms. But, even that goal is not the end they seek in and of itself. No! They seek a general ban on civilian ownership and possession of firearms to accomplish something more: namely, to exert control over the masses: the American citizenry. That goal will be realized, first and foremost, through suppression of the fundamental, sacred right codified in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. These antigun activists have conscripted many young people to fill their ranks as budding antigun activists. But, it is not population control that is stressed: rather, it is public safety–suppressing civilian ownership and possession of firearms would be a positive thing because, as they argue, it would promote public safety by protecting the public from itself; it would protect the public from the rapaciousness of guns, just as the Eighteenth Amendment–later repealed by the Twenty-first--was meant to protect the public from the danger of alcohol consumption. What the antigun activists really have in mind is population control; not public safety, as the firearms restrictions they seek to impose would not control, and are not designed to exert control, over the criminal population embedded in the Country. Antigun activists do not see psychopathic criminals, or even lunatics, as the real scourge. No! For the hard-core antigun group leaders, and for the billionaire internationalists who fund those organizations, it is the average, law-abiding, rational citizen who is perceived as the real threat to security. But, that concern is not addressed to public. It is only conveyed to those in the upper echelons of the organizations.

AN ILLUSION CAREFULLY CULTIVATED

The illusion, or delusion of guns as the personification of evil in society, has gripped many Americans, young and old, in our Nation. Reporters and editors, commentators and contributors of the mainstream media, have, at the behest of their billionaire internationalist, trans-nationalist Globalist benefactors, vigorously, passionately, methodically, and unceasingly cultivated, and stoked, and pushed on the American public misperceptions about an inanimate object: the “gun.” Many individuals have bought into that paradigm, blind to the fact that subtle and not so subtle factors contribute to or serve as the true causal agents of violence in society: broken homes; the destruction of the nuclear family; moral relativism overriding traditional values; the rewriting of a Nation’s history; the presence of criminal gangs and drug cartels running amok in our Nation; waves of unassimilable people coming to our shores, holding odd, alien beliefs, and harboring secret resentment toward our Nation and toward its core values; the easy availability of and access to illegal drugs and, concomitantly, rampant drug addiction affecting masses of citizenry young and old alike; unchecked illegal immigration, permeating and percolating throughout our Country; and the crass fostering, by Hollywood moguls, and computer game programmers, of themes of unimaginable violence, targeting, mainly, the young people of our Nation. These are a few of the causal agents of violence in our Nation. But, for antigun activists, there is only one supernal cause of violence in society, and one abiding concern as they relate to the public: the availability of firearms to the American citizenry, as a threat to societal order. This illusion—delusion really—is the takeaway for many young people, understandably very seriously impacted by the horrific violence that took place in their school.

It should surprise no one, then, that young people, who took part in the antigun rally in Washington, D.C., and in Cities across the Nation, should exhibit passion for and toward the antigun cause. For, as they observe a lunatic murdering their friends with a firearm—a sight difficult to fathom—they matter-of-factly equate violence solely with firearms. That is understandable; for that is what they saw. Antigun advocates, for their part, far from dissuading these young people from overgeneralizing about guns, and from drawing false connections and conclusions, are encouraging remonstration against guns, and guns alone, as the root cause of violence in the Nation’s schools and in the greater society. So it is that antigun groups have indoctrinated the young people into fervently accepting the truth of patently false beliefs about both guns and about public safety—this, notwithstanding that lunatics and psychopathic terrorists have, in recent years, murdered and seriously injured innocent people—and on a massive scale—through a variety of means, including: bombs, knives, and even vehicles. No guns were involved in any of those horrific events. Yet, as for the people murdered or maimed by a bomb, or a knife, or a vehicle, the American public is to conclude what, exactly, from this? That it is still the existence of the firearm that remains the singular problem in our society? So, argues one antigun activist, Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, even as terrorists did indeed foment deadly violence on innocent people in the City, in recent months, but through means—a rented truck in one instance, and a bomb in another instance—that did not involve use of “the gun” at all.

THE SAD TRUTH: PASSION ALL TOO OFTEN CLOUDS JUDGMENT

A local Floridian newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, reports: Broward County School officials have instituted new security measures at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and across the School District, in the wake of the tragedy. They include the use of student identification lanyards, and transparent backpacks for students.

You would think that students would applaud these new security measures, minimal ones at that. Not so. Many students have been taken aback by them. Here’s a sampling of their statements that appear on Twitter or as recited to the Press:

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In a Fox news account, one student, Shanon Li, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High School, remarks: “It’s a little insane, because we need our privacy.” 

Another student activist, Delaney Tarr, who attends a school in Parkland, Florida, echoes the sentiment, asserting, erroneously, albeit indignantly with the conviction of young people, convinced of the truth of their beliefs that: his having to wear a clear backpack at school is a “violation of privacy.”

Yet, another student, Chris Christianson, posts, on Twitter, the words of the Fourth Amendment to make crystal clear—evidently as clear as the transparent backpacks that students must, henceforth, use in Parkland, Florida schools–his consternation over perceived violations of the Fourth Amendment. This student is wrong, of course, even as he obviously views the School Board’s new requirement that students use transparent backpacks to constitute a gross infringement of the unreasonable searches and seizures clause of the Fourth Amendment. And, what of the Second Amendment? Apparently, that Amendment can be dispensed with.

Isabelle Robinson, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School told CNN as picked up by the website, infowars, “It feels like being punished,” “It feels like jail, being checked every time we go to school.” 

David Hogg, and MSD student and the new face and darling child of the student antigun movement, sporting the hashtag, “#NeverAgain activist,” makes clear his disdain for the new security measures, telling “Axios’ Mike Allen on Friday that his high school is ‘like a prison’ since the shooting last month, with increased security and safety measures.”

Another MSD Student asserts (news.com.au) with all the conviction of a child, deaf to the voice of reason: “Clear backpacks are an invasion of privacy.” New security measure forces kids to carry personal items & school supplies in a school-issued clear bookbag but many students feel as if they’re being punished.” That same student adds, sarcastically: “This backpack is probably worth more than my life.”

Lauren Hoggs, David Hoggs’ sister, asserts in one “tweet”, so as not to be outdone by her brother:

“Today when I walk into school I will be greeted with armed police, wand detectors and clear backpacks. Is this what my high school experience is going to be like? 3 more years of this. . . Someday when my kids ask me about my high school experience what am I going to tell them?”

And, in another “tweet,” Lauren Hoggs retorts, sarcastically:

“My new backpack is almost as transparent as the NRA’s agenda. I feel sooo safe now. As much as I appreciate the effort we as a country need to focus on the real issue instead of turning our schools into prisons.”

Yet another student exclaims (news.com.au), acidly: “Can I just ask, where in these #clearbackpacks are females supposed to put their tampons/sanitary towels? Are they supposed to wedge it between books? Well if you could do that then surely you could put a gun in a folder or between textbooks, no?”

Even adults get into the act. The mother of one student, focusing on firearms, rather than on school security, and showing her obvious disdain for firearms, asserts, acerbically (mobile.twitter.com) “If we’re not going to do anything about our lax gun laws, then my son needs a bullet proof backpack, not a clear one.”

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What is going on here? The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students–viciously attacking the sanctity of the Second Amendment–are suddenly expressing concern over ridiculous accusations of violations of the unreasonable searches and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment.

IN THE FACE OF CONSTANT MEDIA ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE SECOND AMENDMENT AND IN THE FACE OF LEGIONS OF ILL-INFORMED AMERICANS WHO HAVE FALLEN FOR THE PROPAGANDA SPOUTED INCESSANTLY THROUGH THE ECHO CHAMBER OF THE NEWSPAPERS AND THROUGH CABLE NEWS, THOSE AMERICANS WHO HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN IN BY THE FALSE PRONOUNCEMENTS OF THOSE WHO SEEK TO UNDERMINE THE NATION’S BILL OF RIGHTS, MUST REMAIN CALM AND VIGILANT; BUT MUST ALSO STAND FIRM AGAINST THOSE FORCES THAT WOULD DARE  DESTROY THE NATION’S SACRED RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES, UNDER THE SPECIOUS, NONSENSICAL GUISE OF PROMOTING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY. AMERICANS MUST NOT BE TAKEN IN BY THE RUSE.

The real danger for Americans—certainly if Democrats attain majorities in the House and Senate—is that Congressional Democrats will use their power to undermine, yet further, the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The bizarre and absurd remarks that come out of the mouths of young people, of late, are, to great extent, the result of encouragement from, and reinforcement of ideas emanating from, antigun groups and from other liberal elements in our Nation that audaciously claim the moral high ground even as they undercut our sacred rights and liberties.

Instead of encouraging young people to exercise their critical judgment, these antigun groups and leftist elements in our Nation, including the liberal mainstream Press, as well as antigun politicians, are encouraging uncritical thinking, in furtherance of an agenda that is directed to undercutting the rights and liberties of the American people, undermining the Constitution, and reshaping the Country into a form that is completely at odds with, and alien to, that form envisioned by the founders of our Nation as manifested in our core values, our history, our traditions, as once conveyed to our young people in our Schools–but core values, history, and traditions conveyed to our young people no longer. It is abundantly clear that the cultivation of logical, thoughtful thinking is considered anathema today. Emotional rhetoric, devoid of substance, is now the substitute for critical thinking and judgment. A philosophy predicated on anarchistic principles, detrimental to the safeguarding of our heritage and detrimental to the continued security and well-being of our Nation is the end goal of the destroyers of our Nation. Nihilism is portrayed as necessary for our Country: wipe the slate clean, and begin anew. Children are taught to perceive our Country as less an independent sovereign Nation and more a cog in a greater federation of member nations; a Country without borders, subject to a multitude of multicultural influences, where the notion of citizenship is amorphous and everyone from the four corners of the planet is welcome–bringing with them bizarre, alien ideas, incompatible with our heritage.

In their seditious and pathological desire to tear down those sacred principles upon which our Nation was founded, upon which our founders gave their blood–the disruptors and destructors of our Nation intend to shred our sacred rights and liberties upon which a free Republic rests and upon which the autonomy and inviolability of each citizen depends. If successful, the unique, glorious Nation, forged by our forefathers, will be torn asunder, forever.

The youth of our Nation should think well before they speak ill about a sacred right. Today they perceive the Second Amendment through a narrow lens, magnifying what they see as its costs through a series of recent tragic events and forsaking consideration of the magnitude and majesty of the right existent in a truly free people that has survived for over two hundred years even as ruthless, cunning, and jealous forces, detrimental to the continuation of a powerful citizenry, chisel away at that right, desiring to hold such power manifested in that right, for itself. As these young people denigrate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, they should keep well in mind what it is they are forsaking. And, at the end of the day, if they think it just as well that the Second Amendment should fall, they ought to consider the ramifications of that decision. For, if the Second Amendment falls, the entirety of the Bill of Rights will fall with it. That is inevitable. Where will these young people look to secure their safety, autonomy, and well-being—and, “Oh, Yes,” their privacy—then?

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*Violence continues notwithstanding the elimination of guns. Consider: After a rash of violence in London, the “London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a crackdown on knives Sunday in response to the rising levels of violence in London, which recently surpassed New York City’s homicide rate for the first time. ‘No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife,’ Khan tweeted. ‘Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.'” Once guns are confiscated from the civilian population, the government will go after knives. But, the problem does not exist in the prevalence of guns or knives, but, rather, in those individuals who misuse a gun or knife or any other object, to harm an innocent person. Misuse of implements is to be linked to terrorists, lunatics, criminal gang members, and to the common criminal, and not to the average, rational, law-abiding citizen (or, in the case of Great Britain, let us say, the average, rational, law-abiding subject). And, what, then, is one to make of the loss of a tenable means of self-defense? Apparently, self-defense is of no consequence to government officials, either in this Country or across the seas.

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Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.