Alan Korwin, the author of this article. Visit his website GunLaws.com.
A judge who votes to overturn the Second Amendment is a “moderate.” Wrong.
I’m cataloging the gun myths decent people have been enduring in the struggle to preserve, protect and defend the right to keep and bear arms. I didn’t choose those verbs lightly.
They’re the words in the oath the president swears to take office—to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. So when the person currently in the White House picks a judge for the U.S. Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, one who voted to overturn a case that protected the nation’s right to arms, and the media and White House call the candidate a moderate, we’re just drowning in mythology. Let’s leave that self-evident malarkey right there.
It did dawn on me however that when we’re done cataloging the myths, and if they can slow down throwing new ones at us, we should start catalog solutions—gun laws and policies that would really help. Remember:
The left can’t pass any common-sense gun legislation because they aren’t proposing any.
Like what? How about a GunBurger bill. What’s that? Stick around, you’ll find out. And great Model Laws already posted at GunLaws.com and elsewhere. And Guns 101 laws, and gun-education funding, anti-gun-tax improvements, and Unilateral Background Checks, 911 Limited Immunity laws, and comitatus clauses for all laws. The fact that you don’t know what half that stuff is reflects the miserable state of affairs in newsrooms nationwide. They’re keeping you totally in the dark. Alls you get is guns are bad, criminal acts and gore.
THE ARMED-TEACHER MYTH
Colorado teachers get a free CCW course. (Photo: ABC7 Denver)
Left-wing hoplophobes (people with morbid gun fear) are keeping our nation’s schools in mortal peril, by loudly, illogically and immorally demanding that teachers be banned from their constitutional right to be armed. We entrust our children to teachers, they’re tested and screened as well as government is capable. To suggest they’re so totally incompetent they cannot safely bear arms is insulting, preposterous. It’s psychological projection of the opposition’s own fears. It’s a myth—or teachers are worse than we dreamed and need replacing.
It could not be more obvious that schools must be defensible, without the delay caused if the nearest armed officials are police officers off somewhere. Whatever you ascribe recent school shootings to, the fact that they now occur and never did when we were growing up, it needs a solution now. The idea that teachers are forced to go about gunless, disarmed at the threat of arrest and dismissal, so violates their human rights it’s astonishing the media doesn’t shout from the rooftops, with huge public support.
But the mythical part is the hardest to understand. Utah has armed its teachers since 2008. Eighteen states already have programs in place for armed educators (AL, CA, CT, HI, ID, IA, KY, MA, MS, MT, NH, NJ, NY, OR, RI, TX, UT, UT, WY). No psychotic and accidental mayhem has ensued. That fear was mythical, a fabrication just like the paranoid delusions these same untreated hoplophobes burdened us with when CCW laws were enacted in all 50 states. It is well past time to single out the naysayers and myth purveyors, help them with interventions and counseling, and get on with the process of training and arming the staff where our precious youngsters gather on a daily basis. Stop the lunatics from stopping reasonable, common-sense gun-safety laws, like armed teachers.
THE GUNS-ARE-GERMS MYTH
An illustration from a Washington Post op-ed, titled, “Do you own a gun? Why your kid’s doctor needs to know.“
Some myths die when it becomes obvious they are inane. For a long while there, doctors, who should be paragons of scientific virtue, were proliferating abject nonsense in a spurious paradigm, to pretend that guns were part of their practice of medicine.
To make this seem palatable, at least to them, they drew up a model where guns are germs (it’s true, doctors did this), ownership of guns is a disease (sacre bleu!), and the gun culture is an epidemic (OMG!). I have to try not to laugh as I write this, it is so bizarre it is hard to type the words.
Actual medical journals publish articles proposing political agendas straight out of the Brady/Bloomberg anti-rights campaign, lacking balance, displaying little understanding of the issue (recently, in Annals of Internal Medicine). Real doctors with medical degrees propose non-medical propaganda for gun confiscation. I need a thesaurus to find enough sufficiently ridiculous adjectives to describe the pseudo-medical constructs. People like Gary Slutkin, a University of Chicago epidemiologist formed “Cure Violence,” a group treating violence as contagion. “We need to understand this as a biological health matter and an epidemiologic process.” Doctors took it seriously, and are around who believe this to this day. Physician heal thyself.
“Doctors who give their patients advice on guns, which is typically anti-gun-rights and disarmament advice, are committing boundary violations,” says Dr. Timothy Wheeler, executive director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, an organization of medical professionals who watch and study the gun issue occurring within the medical community. Doctors are, for the most part, completely unqualified to practice firearms advice giving, and are typically promoting political agendas they picked up from hate groups that want the public disarmed and have little or no understanding of the rights underlying gun ownership, possession and use.
SEE ALSO PART I: KORWIN: AMERICA’S REAL GUN PROBLEM — THE PROGRESSIVE’S GUN MYTHS
###
About the author: Alan Korwin’s website GunLaws.com features plain-English books on your state and federal gun laws, and more common sense like you just read. Write to him or see his work on his site, where you can get any of his 14 books, and DVDs, that help keep you safe. Try After You Shoot to help lower your risk after a self-defense shooting, or get Your First Gun for your gunless friends.
This, like the now-discredited nuclear disarmament effort, is nothing but the presumptuous misuse of the trust that Americans implicitly place in MDs to foment the gun-grabber’s agenda. I’d like to hear from doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who’ve had to deal with crazed junkies trying to rob them for drugs, and what they think of firearms. Might be a surprise to this so-called group of ‘concerned’ physicians.
As a full time teacher who did law enforcement duties at a large sate park in the summer my principal asked me to keep a firearm handy should we have an active shooter present. He had faith in me and new the training I received may help someday. Shows you not all school administrators are not brain dead.
I see no problem with any California school district allowing a teacher or administrator who happens to be a reserve deputy sheriff or a military reservist, or for that matter, any military veteran honorably discharged, as by nature they have received weapons training and are (wo)men of good character. Not that I think that any ‘civilian’ is any less trustworthy with firearms on public property or at a school, but if they want evidence of good character and training with firearms, what could be better?
Korwin is by far the best writer on gun rights I’ve ever seen. His points are clear, his arguments sound, and his rationale well documented. Besides that his style is entertaining. He understands the enemy (hoards of hoplophobes) and will put up with none of their nonsense. I would pay $59.99 for a pay-per-view of a debate between Korwin and Hillary.
Hillary would be smart to find an excuse, like defending her husband, to avoid any contact with Korwin. He would show how foolish she is and we all could have an honest laugh.
My daughters Doctor gave us a form to fill out that asked about guns in my home.
I left that part blank.
He asked why, I told him that I wouldn’t be insulted on paper or in person by the insinuation that I don’t know how to keep my own child safe.
He never asked again.
I hope you changed doctors.
Evidently all doctors are being required to administer that questionnaire. I said “No answer” and I asked the Nurse assistant what do most patients answer for that question here in PA and she said it was “none of your business”. I was encouraged by that.
I would like some more information on the Armed Educators Program for Iowa. Everything I see states clearly that no guns are allowed on school property Iowa Code section 724.4B. I think the program would be useful and effective in helping educators protect my child. It is amazing to me the people who would be appauled at the idea of teachers with guns??? Never understood that mentality. I believe it should be the teachers right to choose. Some people could not take the shot and that is Ok as long as they know this. Here is the reference> Keep up the good work.
Firearms on school grounds (January 2013 School Leader Update)
Contact(s)
Nicole Proesch
515-281-8661
[email protected]
Iowa Code section 724.4B prohibits firearms on school grounds with few exceptions. In the wake of recent events, the Iowa Department of Education has received several inquiries about whether it is lawful to carry a weapon on school grounds if the carrier has a permit to carry. In January 2011, certain amendments to the Iowa Code provisions governing carrying weapons went into effect. In short, the amendments made it easier to get a non-professional permit to carry weapons in the state of Iowa. However, even if a person has a non-professional permit to carry weapons, Iowa Code section 724.4B clearly prohibits firearms on school grounds.
Iowa Code section 724.4B specifically states that bringing weapons onto the grounds of a school is a class D felony. The only exceptions to having a firearm on school grounds are if:
The person is a peace officer, member of the armed forces or National Guard, or correctional officer, who is carrying the weapon in connection with his or her duties as such; or
The weapon is unloaded, inside a closed and fastened container or securely wrapped package or in the luggage or cargo compartment (i.e., trunk) of a vehicle; or
The school has specifically authorized the person to bring the weapon onto school grounds, such as for purposes of conducting an instructional program regarding firearms.
Moreover, Iowa Code section 724.7, as amended, specifically states that a permit is not valid where possessing or carrying a firearm is prohibited by state or federal law. Under federal law, it is generally unlawful to possess a firearm in a “school zone,” subject to exceptions similar to those in the Iowa Code described above. 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2). “School zone” includes the grounds of any public or private elementary or secondary school, as well as all public property within 1,000 feet of such a school. 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(25).
In summary, unless an exception applies, both state and federal law clearly prohibit firearms on school grounds regardless of whether a person has a lawful permit to carry a weapon.
Questions on Iowa Code Section 724.4B and Other Means of Protection
The Department has received many questions regarding fact-specific situations relating to application of Iowa Code section 724.4B and other means of protection that can be used in schools, on school grounds, or at school events. There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to these questions. Besides relevant state and federal laws that apply, there also may be local school board policies and local law enforcement policies to consider. Superintendents and school districts should contact their local school attorneys to discuss these issues on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, local law enforcement and school resource officers should contact their department, city attorney, county attorney, and/or U.S. Attorney for guidance on these issues.
that is not what exception 2b to 724.4B states. it does not limit the exception to instructional programs, it says to include instructional programs.
It clearly states the school can authorize individuals to carry firearms on school property.
“b. A person who has been specifically authorized by the
school to go armed, carry, or transport a firearm on the school
grounds, including for purposes of conducting an instructional
program regarding firearms.”
Regarding the “Guns are Germs” issue…. Why are doctors and the CDC not researching and demanding solutions to what is the THIRD greatest killer of Americans today??? Washington, D.C., October 23, 2013 – New research estimates up to 440,000 Americans are dying annually from preventable hospital errors. Sources: http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/newsroom/display/hospitalerrors-thirdleading-causeofdeathinus-improvementstooslow. http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/deaths-by-medical-mistakes-hit-records.
FYI – Numbers One & Two are heart disease and cancer…
Recently at a trauma conference material was presented as “fact” including a bit from “Mother Jones”. If you’re interested contact me by email and I can forward the presentation.
I’d like that presentation sent to me.
Thank you.