Historical Distinction
One can make an early historical distinction between the ‘Tories’ and the ‘Freedom Fighters’. The Tories were those early settlers upholding the British Crown, against the supporters of colonial independence during the American Revolution. Tories refused a new constitution.
Emotionalists did not want to ‘rock the boat’, and portray British injustice. After the Revolutionary War, most Tories settled in Canada, Nova Scotia and the Bahamas. Thinkers knew firearms were the answer.
Sandy Hook
Guns have come under high scrutiny after the recent shooting deaths of 26 people-20 of which were children at Sandy Hook. Most don’t realize the 27 Amendments to the Constitution (1789) were written in a priority status. The first 10 [Bill of Rights] were the most important, and the “Right to Bear Arms” was the 2nd Amendment, enumerated in that most important Bill of Rights.
After the Newtown disaster, Dr. Miguel A. Faria: Mass Shootings and Mental Health – At What Cost …, portrays an accurate description of Adam Lanza’s rampage on helpless students in Connecticut. As a Clinical Professor/Surgery (Mercer School of Medicine), Faria understands how the media has turned criminals into morbid celebrities with ‘fifteen minutes of fame’. Television news usually goes by the mantra: ‘if it bleeds, it leads’.
As Michele Malkin (GOPUSA) put it: “The Newtown gunman [Lanza] was a monster who slaughtered his own mother, five heroic educators and 20 angel-faced schoolchildren.” Do you think any of those parents of those 20 children murdered in cold blood, would have been OK if a ‘packing’ teacher could have stopped Lanza before he killed their child?
Faria cites 20,000 existing gun laws that aren’t working. Emotionalists do not view guns as the inanimate objects that they are. It’s the criminals who operate them-who kill indiscriminately. But it’s rarely reported when someone with a gun stops a crazed shooter from killing countless others.
Thinkers vs. Emotionalists
Already, most US states have “zero tolerance” for guns in schools. That means teachers, principles, and assistant principles are strictly prohibited from carrying guns at school.
Thinkers already know the answer to school shootings. Emotionalists believe the answer is simply to remove the guns. Currently 300 million privately held firearms are owned by law-abiding Americans. Criminals have broken laws to obtain them, and will break laws to use them.
Thinkers understand even 5% of faculty population allowed to ‘carry’ on campus, provides a severe damper to the would-be killer. First, a potential shooter will realize he rarely can kill all his intended targets, and fulfill his dream as a martyr. Second, and most importantly, the shooter will have second thoughts about his killing spree, and will put off, or wait, for a more opportune moment.
As New York Daily News writes, Lanza was… “dark and disturbed, a deeply troubled boy.” They understood Lanza had a particularly troubled mental state. They indicated it was highly likely to be Asperger’s Syndrome, or case of criminal insanity.
After Newtown, Mike Rogers (NY Rep) told the New York Times: “What is the more realistic discussion is how do we target people with mental illness who use firearms?”
Psychotropic Drugs Can Trigger Violence
According to Dr. David Healy (British psychiatrist), over 90% of school shootings over the last decade are linked to a highly prescribed antidepressant (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor/SSRI). This statistic comes directly from RxISK(prescription drug website).
Healy reiterated, “psychotropic drugs of pretty well any group can trigger violence up to and including homicide. …advocates of treatment claim both that it is the illness and not the drugs that causes violence and that we are leaving huge numbers of people untreated.”
Dr. Peter R. Breggin, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist (Consultant/National Institute of Mental Health), said it’s likely Lanza’s problems began with “getting tangled up” with psychiatric medicine. Breggin insisted there is decades of overwhelming scientific evidence correlating psychiatrically prescribed drugs with violence.
Writing in Ethical Human Sciences, Breggin concluded SSRI drugs could be a factor in suicide, violence and other forms of extreme abnormal behavior-all documented in case reports, controlled clinical trials, and epidemiological studies.
Emotionalists-those making emotional decisions-are prevalent today in those with fear of guns. It’s hoped the ‘yard arm’ solution of pre-revolutionary times will not be necessary for their mode of thinking.
2nd Amendment Gives Americans The ‘Right to Bear Arms’
The 2nd Amendment gives Americans the ‘Right to Bear Arms’, for self-defense, and to preserve a free society. All Founders recognized this. Today’s logic is even more relevant:
“The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson
“The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.” James Madison
“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence.” George Washington
“The great object is, that every man be armed.” Patrick Henry
“And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to…prevent the people… from keeping their own arms…” Samuel Adams
“[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe. . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.” Thomas Paine
“If the Second Amendment is read to confer a personal right to ‘keep and bear arms,’ a colorable argument exists that the Federal Government’s regulatory scheme, at least as it pertains to possession of firearms, runs afoul of that amendment’s protections” (US vs Printz) Clarence Thomas