The Los Angeles Times, like all the other mainstream media, is beating the drum and jumping up and down, trying to instigate drastic action against America’s 80 to 100 million gun owners. We are the target of choice for their undifferentiated rage in the wake of the Newtown school shooting. This is understandable coming from the press corps, many of whom have a long and scandalous history of obfuscation, rabble-rousing, and bloody shirt-waving when guns are discussed. We expect judges, however, to refrain from the heat of emotion and to assure that the rule of law is followed.
But the December 20th issue of the Los Angeles Times opinion page contains an amazing repudiation of that duty by a judge who, of all people, should know better. The author of this astonishing article is federal district court Judge Larry Alan Burns, who sentenced Jared Lee Loughner to prison for the Tucson mass shooting. Judge Burns renders these observations on gun owners:
“To guarantee that there would never be another Tucson or Sandy Hook, we would probably have to make it a capital offense to so much as look at a gun. And that would create serious 2nd Amendment, 8th Amendment and logistical problems.”
We’re sorry to disappoint you, your honor, but you’re right—you can’t frog-march 80 to 100 million American gun owners to the death chamber. The Second and Eighth Amendments were adopted to restrain tyrants, but who knew they would ever find application to a federal judge?
“Ban the manufacture, importation, sale, transfer and possession of both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Don’t let people who already have them keep them. Don’t let ones that have already been manufactured stay on the market. I don’t care whether it’s called gun control or a gun ban. I’m for it.”
Judge Burns would apparently send teams of armed police out with lists of residences where the owners are known to have guns. This would be made possible thanks to long-established gun registration, a favorite gun control mechanism of anti-gun rights activists. Those selfsame anti-gunners have always ridiculed gun owners for being wary of gun registration schemes for just that reason. And how would Judge Burns fund the deployment of millions of police to do his tyrannical bidding, assuming he could scrape together enough sworn officers to act as domestic soldiers against their own neighbors and friends?
The aftermath of Newtown has seen vitriol, ridicule, baseless accusations, and even death threats against defenders of the right to keep and bear arms. We knew that was coming. But forced gun confiscation recommended by a federal judge? Seriously?
Those gun rights defenders have shown remarkable restraint and dignity in the face of outrageous abuse over the last week. It’s time for gun rights defenders to finally speak up. All 80 to 100 million of us. It’s about to begin.
—Timothy Wheeler, MD is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation.