In covering the tragic story of a young girl accidentally killing her range instructor with an Uzi, my colleague Matt Vespa predicted that the anti-gun lobby would exploit this story to promote their agenda. It appears his prediction has been proven true. This past Thursday, Geraldo Rivera, a noted proponent of gun control, posted the following anti-Second Amendment message on his website and Facebook page: (emphasis added)
Like I always say, the 2nd Amendment, the provision that gives every American the right to keep and bear arms, is blind and stupid. In its relentless pimping for the gun industry, the NRA has unleashed an avalanche of deadly weapons on this gun-crazy country. Just as protects access to weapons for cops and hunters, it also protects access to weapons for domestic abusers, mental patients, jerk-offs on the no-fly list, all-around dim bulbs, and now little children.
As the father of a sweet, smart nine year old daughter myself, the latest example of gross excess is the image of that pony-tailed New Jersey girl accidentally killing her gun range instructor. It is obscene and uncivilized to let a third grader shoot a fully automatic Uzi machine gun. What was she training for, revolution? Invasion? Service in the coming post-apocalyptic social disorder? Stupid, but just another of countless examples of how far into insanity we have let the gun nuts push us.
As Matt noted in his article, there's a general consensus that the shooting range behaved negligently in allowing a young child to shoot a fully automatic weapon.
I actually agree with most of Rivera's second paragraph: it was absolutely irresponsible for a young child to be shooting an Uzi. I disagree, however, with the assertion that it is the "gun nuts" fault that the girl was on the range. It's not uncommon at all for a child to learn to shoot at a young age, whether it be for hunting or sporting purposes. Giving an Uzi to a child, on the other hand, was absolutely ridiculous and this tragedy easily could have been avoided.
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While it's not exactly a shock that someone against guns thinks that the Second Amendment is "stupid," it is somewhat troubling that in Rivera's eyes the amendment being "blind" is also a negative quality. The U.S. Constitution applies to every citizen regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sex and intelligence level. It would be thoroughly anti-American to have a set of Constitutional rights only for people who meet certain intelligence (or other arbitrary) qualifications.
This incident was a preventable tragedy, no doubt. But it's not an appropriate tool for outrage against the Second Amendment.
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