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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Healthcare Reform Debate
Turns Into Gun Debate
A lack of a clear message by the president and lawmakers of what is and how the proposed healthcare reform is supposed to work took a side step yesterday when some Americans who came to listen to President Obama’s speech carried guns with them.
This raised a few alarm bells for police outside of the Phoenix Convention Center where the president was giving his speech, especially when they saw one man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, according to the Associated Press.
However, no one was arrested and no one fired shots in the air or at each other. It certainly crushes the myth that all gun owners are irresponsible rednecks that some believe.
It was not too long ago in America’s history that many citizens would go to political rallies with their guns and no one made an issue of it. But times have changed and many do not feel that gun-carrying citizens should be near the president.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that having a gun at a political speech creates a dangerous atmosphere and it preoccupies the Secret Service from doing their job of protecting our president.
But thankfully, cooler heads prevailed though.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the gun owners were not doing anything wrong, that they were in the designated public viewing area and that they would not have been allowed in the convention center with their guns.
This country and certain states allow any citizen, who meets certain requirements, to have his or her constitutional right to bear arms.
But sadly, in today’s political and social climate, too many have become needlessly afraid of the honest, responsible gun owner. And while this editorial can easily go into great detail about gun rights and how countries with total gun control have deadly crimes, it would take away of what these gun owners did yesterday.
Many wanted to make a statement. Many wanted to let the country know that just because a Democrat is president again does not mean that they will be intimidated, either real or imaginary.
But there needs to be a level of responsibility by all parties. People should not be afraid of gun owners or condemn them. And gun owners should not use their firearms to make political statements during a speech on healthcare reform.
Because right now fixing the healthcare problem in this country is too important to be sidetracked by another political issue. Let’s try to keep our eyes on the ball.
