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The NRA Goes All Orwellian
There, I said it. I am so astonished, flabbergasted, and appalled at the presser that Wayne La Pierre and the NRA held today. While he started out just fine, it just got creepier and yes Orwellian as it went along.
A federal program that puts an armed guard in every school across the country? Uh, no. The security of a particular school system is a local/state issue, not a federal one. Smitty over at The Other McCain accused me of being so federalist. My reply, you’re damn skippy I am. What conservative can get behind this suggestion? This is something that the left would do, not the right. Not the gun part, but the federal government control part. I mean the irony of all this is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Some on the right are heralding this as the great cure-all, and the left is screaming about it. Neither of things are true.
First and foremost, I am 100% against forcing a teacher to become a gun toter. Many teachers would not want to do this, and as an American citizen that is their right. The second amendment says nothing about every American must bear arms, it says the government can’t infringe upon that right. Even if the teacher was someone who liked guns, I still think it is a bad idea. All the students would know that the teacher is armed and I believed it could be a huge distraction; especially in schools were violence is an everyday part of life for the student body. What I would be willing to go along with would be highly trained and certified guard of some sort. I know where I live the police department has a unit of people who are hired out to all kinds of locations, even to some jewelry stores in the area. But only if the school system wants this type of thing. I don’t think it should be forced on a federal level. This is something that state/locality should decide upon. I know here in Virginia there is discussion if our Constitution would even allow the commonwealth to force this on every school system. A bill is expected to be put into our legislature next month. We will see how it goes.
But the thing that really takes the cake for me is the national database of the mentally ill. What??????? Does he really think that a person like me deserves to have my name put into a national database simply because I have a chemical imbalance in my brain? I have been very open and honest about my mental illness on this blog. It didn’t start out that way, but over time I have come to realize that in a very small way I could try to lift the stigma that surrounds mental illness.
Mental illness isn’t really a science. There is no blood test to determine if you have it or not. It is more of an art when it comes to getting a proper diagnosis. Which, by the way, is part of the problem. There is no way to determine who is going to become violent. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not in any dangerous to other people. They are in many ways self-destructive, but not dangerous. The differences between the two is huge.
I have been having a discussion about this on my Facebook page and have been told that I am already in a database about my MDD. True, but that is for purposes of insurance. While the police/government could get access to that information if they really needed to, but it would take a court order to do so. The differences between a private company having this information for those type of purposes and the federal government creating one that they alone have access to don’t compare in any way, shape, or form.
Am I going to have to start wearing a scarlet letter to identify myself to others too?
I have already seen comparisons between La Pierre and Hitler around the intertubes. I am sorry, but that isn’t so far off. Hitler didn’t like the mentally ill either. I am was not considered a good person to continue breeding, heaven knows I shouldn’t create any more mentally unstable people to mess up the landscape and the perfect utopia that due to be created in the imagination of that madman.
Under no circumstances should anyone be heralding the idea of a national database about mental illness. If you are, ask yourself, who gets to determine who is mentally ill or not? Does a woman who goes through postpartum depression get added? Postpartum depression is something that last a few months and is curable (yes curable) by a short round of meds. Many women don’t even go the route of meds, they push their way through it. Does a person who experiences a bout of depression after a divorce get added? Do we add all the over medicated children we have across the country too? Does he have any idea how this hinder getting medical treatment for such illnesses? Did he even remotely think this through? We already have a huge problem with stigma about mental illness in this country. This would make an already big problem even more unmanageable.
This is a violation of our freedoms and rights of epic proportions. It needs to be ridiculed for what it is. A Orwellian overreach of government. Wayne La Pierre should be deeply ashamed of his performance today, deeply and profoundly. SMDH.
just a conservative girl, 
signpainterguy 11:36 PM on 12/21/2012 Permalink |
I`m with you on the federalism thing; leave all this to the locals and state gov., but chase the feds out like rabid dogs ! The feds, administrated as they currently are, have NO BIZ creating any data bases outside of criminals and terrorists. Even with an admin. who breaks their backs to remain within constitutional bounds shouldn`t be in the data base biz. Orwellian indeed !
Like your area probably, we have SROs (Sch. Resource Officers) who are city cops inside city limits and Sheriff`s Deputies outside. They are trained to deal w/ the sch. environment. As for teachers and other staff having CCW permits and packing heat in schools, that should be limited to teachers and staff who first want to, secondly qualify and thirdly, only in schools where students are not so unruly that an armed teacher would be a challenge to overpower. I mean, the students would take it as an invitation among their clique. In those instances, I prefer the uniformed officers. But back to teachers and staff carrying concealed; I would imagine that should remain “concealed and secret”, thus maintaining the element of mystery as out in public. Who is armed ? Anyone might be !
edge of the sandbox 1:46 AM on 12/22/2012 Permalink |
Thank you for going against the grain. Whether or not school employees should be armed is a local matter. Personally, I favor school employees (not necessarily teachers) in our school district carrying weapons, but regardless, I also think it’s odd that the NRA would want a federal intervention here.
From what we know, Adam Lanza had Asperger’s, which is in most cases amounts to over the top geekiness… A personality flow, really. While I believe that the people who are danger to themselves and others should be institutionalized, Asperger’s can be annoying in day-to-day interactions, but doesn’t cause violent behavior. I don’t think there is any imperative to track people with AS — or to deny them the right to bear arms.
smitty1e 10:39 AM on 12/22/2012 Permalink |
Let me divide the discussion between political, social, and technical.
Politically, all information is a weapon that can and will be used against the citizen. To include blog posts and replies. :-)
Socially, you really do want the critical information available in the correct place and time to correctly credentialed people.
Technically, information doesn’t improve by compartmentalizing it. You’re NOT going to be pleased with the results.
Suggestion: a healthy discussion of the desired outputs, required inputs, and implementation details.
Complicating matters: there is a vast mountain range of existing work that you can’t wish away.
just a conservative girl 12:04 PM on 12/22/2012 Permalink |
so you have to start getting all techinical on me? thanks Smitty
theraineyview 5:36 PM on 12/29/2012 Permalink |
Excellent post. The last thing we need (or one of the last things) is more institutionalized, centralized, armed, intrusive governmentalization of our society. We need to make it possible, not required, for teachers to bear arms, and we need to make it possible for students to remove themselves from schools if they fear violence from a classmate, and to discuss their observations about classmates with teachers privately. We need more common sense.