Will There Be No End to the Violence?

I understand that slightly more than half of the members of the U.S. Supreme Court believe that the Second Amendment right to own a firearm in this country is inviolable. They have now made that clear in their 5–4 decision on McDonald v. City of Chicago, striking down Chicago’s 30-year old handgun ban and extending to all the states the protections of the amendment. Okay, I get that. more

I don’t think all acts of gun violence should be equated. They aren’t equally immoral. When the retired Chicago cop shot two men who had just murdered his son, a police officer, while trying to steal a motorcycle, the two shootings are not equal. One is illegal and the other legal. When the senior citizen, whose home had been broken into before, shoots an armed intruder, it’s a distortion to chalk it up as simply more “gun violence.” We each have a moral right to self defense, even if Mayor Daley doesn’t think so. Guns can be used for good or bad purposes. Let’s distinguish between them.

Paul on Monday, July 19, 2010

Not all gun violence is morally equal. A rapist who threatens his victim with a gun is on one end of the gun violence spectrum, while a potential rape victim who brandishes a gun to chase away an attacker is on the other end. When guns are used to protect innocent people from being harmed, I think that’s a good thing.

Paul Froehlich on Monday, July 19, 2010

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—Martin Luther King, Jr.