Perspectives: A doctor said it so it must be true

OPINION – Gun control advocates have been frustrated lately. Even with the emotional leverage of two recent high profile shooting rampages, lawmakers are showing little interest in committing political suicide by enacting stricter gun laws prior to an election. So the anti-gun forces are changing their tactics.

Two recent articles calling for gun-related violence to be treated as a social disease are making the rounds. One is by an Associated Press medical writer and one is from a physician. But both articles lead to a similar manipulative conclusion: Repeal the Second Amendment or enact drastic regulatory controls of firearms ownership in the name of public health.

Using medical doctors to call for gun control is a cunning move since generations of Americans are indoctrinated to give reflexive deference to anyone cloaked in perceived authority. It is the conditioned response that most of us have been programmed to give since we were schoolchildren.

After all, how could anyone possibly question what is being said by a trusted medical expert about a deadly epidemic that threatens our society?

Here are two rules of thumb from writer Claire Wolfe to keep things in perspective: 1. Don’t give in to the fear. 2. Don’t assume an expert is an expert.

So much of our daily national news coverage amounts to little more than a poisonous dread supplement that keeps the masses fearful and uncertain. This, in turn, makes us easier to manipulate. Wolfe reminds us that, “Fear is the most potent of the power-mongers. They spook us with some threat — which may be real or illusory. Then they promise to save us from it — as long as we give up just a few more billion dollars, a few rights, a little of our privacy, a lot of our independence, and ultimately all of our freedom.”

On the second rule about dealing with experts, Wolfe wisely counsels, “Never presume anyone is right — or has more rights than you do — just because he or she is standing in front of a classroom, wearing a uniform, talking legalese, shouting from a pulpit, appearing in the media, or carrying a government badge.”

This is sound advice. And it’s why using physicians to promote a gun control agenda is likely to succeed in duping more than a few Americans who can’t be bothered to do their own fact checking.

This is why the recommendations of the doctors who wish to treat gun-related violence as a disease, sound like press releases written by the anti-gun lobby. Both decry all gun-related deaths without taking into account the times that guns are rightly used to protect life and property. They call for bans on certain types of firearms and ammunition. They call for licensing and registration of all firearm owners. They seek to impose more mental health requirements before a person can purchase or own a firearm.

Calls for such measures coming from a profession like health care, where government is increasingly entrenching itself, sound so “reasonable” so “common sense.” Especially when the call for gun control is coming from someone in a lab coat rather than a professional anti-gun lobbyist. The telltale sign of collusion is that the solutions proffered call for a blanket approach to restricting gun ownership rather than one that affords due process to each individual.

This leads to the false assumption that an individual must first prove to government that they are not a felon before the State gives its grudging permission as to whether a person may purchase a firearm or not. A citizen who lives under a government that honors and upholds the natural rights of each individual does not need the state’s permission to exercise an unalienable right like self-defense. But a slave does.

With due respect to those physicians who would make gun control a medical issue, they are demonstrating a staggering amount of ignorance regarding the natural right to self defense and the proper role of government. They promote the consolidation of armed force in the hands of the state while simultaneously rendering the citizenry incapable of self-defense. Historically, this has been a very bad idea.

Anyone who has studied the government-sponsored murders of tens of millions of individuals in the 20th century will find that gun control played a central role in those genocides. In every instance where out-of-control government had a monopoly on the force of arms and the people were unable to resist, laws had first disarmed the unsuspecting populace.

History shows clearly that a government that seeks a monopoly on the right to bear arms is not to be blindly trusted. Nor are the spokespeople, however respectable, who are calling for it.

Bryan Hyde is a news commentator and co-host of the Perspectives morning show on Fox News 1450 AM 93.1 FM. The opinions stated in this article are his and not representative of St. George News.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @youcancallmebry

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2012, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

4 Comments

  • Murat August 13, 2012 at 2:47 pm

    You’re a lot more likely to be killed by your friendly family doctor than an active shooter. It’s a fact–look it up. I view them as little more than state-sanctioned drug dealers.

  • Murat August 13, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    “Never presume anyone is right — or has more rights than you do — just because he or she is standing in front of a classroom, wearing a uniform, talking legalese, shouting from a pulpit, appearing in the media, or carrying a government badge.” This is good advice and I live by it. Even when I’m dealing with what appears to be a police officer, I always have a plan to kill him or her in a split second if necessary, because they could be imposters or crooked cops planning to kill me. It’s happened before. Another piece of advice I live by: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

    • Jorge August 13, 2012 at 7:01 pm

      This is one of the most AWESOME posts I have ever read!!

      • Kelli August 13, 2012 at 7:49 pm

        Yep, Bryan Hyde wrote a nice review last year on “The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook”, and Bryan pulled that “never presume” quote out as one of the more noteworthy passages. The “polite, professional” quote was spoken by General James Mattis. The original quotes of course were presented in a much better context without all the buffoonery but you get the idea 🙂

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.