By Timothy Wheeler, MD
H.L. Mencken (from: photogravure.com)
The U.S. District Court in Texas ruled in a summary judgment last week that the federal ban on interstate transfer of handguns is unconstitutional.
So we thought it was time to revisit a brilliant commentary from the last century on the subject, “The Uplifters Try it Again”.
H.L. Mencken was a famously acerbic columnist for the Baltimore Sun in the early 20th century. Mencken’s reputation suffered in recent decades because of some frankly racist comments, but none of that detracts from his ability to portray eternal truths about human nature.
His hilarious article resonates with the same tired clichés that today’s “uplifters”— what Mencken called the control-freak reformers of his time—still employ to persuade Americans to give up their right to keep and bear arms. Mencken wrote this amazing piece 90 years ago, which only demonstrates that some things never change.
(Hat tip to Stephen Wenger’s DUF Digest)
—Timothy Wheeler, MD is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation.