Michelle Malkin Fires at Colorado in the        Great Gun Debate
      
      The debate over gun laws has waxed and waned in the public conscious for decades.  After the recent and extremely horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut, the debate has returned to front and center.  Lawmakers are grappling with a myriad of questions concerning guns and gun ownership; How do we as a nation prevent such tragedies from occurring?  Who should be allowed to own a gun?  What types of guns may be obtained by citizens?  Where should they be permitted to carry their guns?  etc. The time to finally pass new laws on gun ownership has come.  On Monday, February 18, The Colorado House passed a bill which included the following restrictions:

The proposed ammunition restrictions limit magazines to 15 rounds for firearms, and eight for shotguns.

 

The House also approved a bill requiring background checks on all gun purchases, including those between private sellers and firearms bought online.

 

Other proposals would ban concealed firearms at colleges and stadiums, and another requires that gun purchasers pay for their own background checks.
 

        Michelle Malkin wrote an opinion piece on the subject titled The Anti-Choice Left's Disarming of the American Woman".  Malkin aligns herself with a segment of our country who consider themselves strong supporters of the second amendment.  Unfortunately, this segment of the populous seems rarely able to engage in a truly educated debate on the subject, in part due to their zealot-like upholding of certain myths.  She can't even get out of the gate on this debate without asserting three fallacies as fact;

1. That the Left is Anti-Choice
2. That any type of gun restriction is in reality "disarming" citizens
3. And that this matter is specifically about women.

The Left is Anti-Choice
     I take issue with conservative Republicans throwing around the "anti-choice" label especially when it comes to guns.   Republicans will get up in arms about gun rights, but when it comes to a woman's reproductive rights-which is in my opinion the very pinnacle of women's rights-they stand in opposition to such important matters as access to contraception and a choice in unwanted or dangerous pregnancies.  They will oppose her most basic rights concerning her own body but when it comes to guns, nothing is more sacred than a woman's right to bear arms.

Gun Restrictions = No Guns!
     In order to operate a motor vehicle, a person must go through training and become licensed in order to drive.  To get a job a person must usually undergo a background check.  If you want to own a gun, which object's sole purpose is to injure or kill it's target, you may not be required to show you know how to operate it.  You may not have to go through a background check.  If you want to carry that gun into a stadium full of people, or onto a college campus, you simply need to obtain a permit to conceal your weapon and then you may take it where you want.  In the interest of public safety, it seems only reasonable to impose  certain restrictions.  No one is trying to abolish the second amendment.  But since our weapons have evolved beyond single shot muskets it is time to make some adjustments to the laws.

Thinking Pink
     Instead of having an intelligent debate about public safety, both sides have unfortunately engaged in a classic straw man attack.  In regards to whether or not guns should be allowed onto college campuses, the argument has been derailed into one about how women can protect themselves against rape.  If we look at National Statistics about Sexual Violence on College Campuses, it is clear that rape is a huge problem on college campuses.   "One in 5 college women are raped during their college years."(stats)  This statistic is astounding and one that absolutely should be addressed.  Unfortunately, fighting for a woman's right to carry a gun on campus so that she can protect herself from rape takes the debate away from talking about what can actually help her.  If we lived in a video game world where "rapers" were behind every corner waiting to ambush anyone who walks by, then it might be advisable to carry a weapon.  The fact is, rape rarely occurs in random settings by random people.  "85% of rapes are committed by a person the victim knows." (stats) I don't care how stylish they make your gun.  I don't see an AR-15 becoming the latest trendy accessory to your Little Black Dress for your next hot date.

      By engaging this particular straw man debate, proponents of gun regulations have allowed their opponents to paint them as "morons".  The comments about rape prevention made by several of the Democratic senators during the debate in no way helped their case and certainly do nothing to help women.  In fact, perpetuating the rape myth and spending even one minute debating whether or not vomiting or urinating or using a ball point pen is a good deterrent against an attacker, takes us further away from solving real problems facing our nation's citizens.  If we continue to disregard the realities of violence on campuses and allow research into the causes and effects of guns in public safety to be halted our country will continue to endure many more tragic gun deaths.

The Hole Shebang

      Michelle Malkin is in a position to inform many Americans about public policy and the ways in which they are affected by it.  She could be doing the citizens of this country a great service if she would engage in real and honest debate and learn the facts about an issue instead of holding fast to a political ideology based in myth.  She might also sound more educated if she spent less of her efforts coming up with condescending adjectives to hurl at those who oppose her beliefs.  When you resort to name calling, I have to surmise that your argument is full of holes.