He would certainly pass Dr. Kamm's ideological purity test Credits: Photo © Oleg Volk. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
According to Dr. Art Kamm, author of the "Art on Issues" blog, the "fatal flaw" of gun rights advocacy is that it is (somehow) racist, misogynistic, religiously intolerant, homophobic and anti-puppy (oops--sorry, he did not say anything about gun rights and puppies--that was the Violence Policy Center). To quote Dr. Kamm:
And it is the mixing of guns with individuals who have been so conditioned where stimulus can lead to the devastating response of taking an innocent life simply because of what that person is.
This issue is Gun Rights fatal flaw. It constitutes a threat to our countrys remarkable diversity through those who harbor hateful beliefs.
In other words, since there are people so consumed by their irrational hatreds that they would murder the targets of their hate, the rest of us, including those of us whom the hatemongers would like to kill, must endure more infringements on that which shall not be infringed--and the concomitant handicap to our ability to defend ourselves from such people. The next sentence is even more chilling:
I submit that there has been no real solution to this issue as we do not deny access to guns based on ideology.
Now he argues that having the "wrong" beliefs should be grounds for forcible disarmament. And the disqualifying beliefs are not only hatred based on race, religion, gender, sexual alignment, etc. Kamm also refers to "anti-government" sentiment as "hate," citing the Southern Poverty Law Center (more accurately referred to as the Southern Preposterous Lie Center) as a reference. SPLC finds "anti-government" sentiments in the darndest of places, and has in fact referred to the Oath Keepers (first responders and military personnel so committed to their oath of service that they have taken a second oath)--this one to disobey any unconstitutional order--as being "anti-government."
So what does Kamm propose as a way to "deny access to guns based on ideology"? Some kind of ideological purity test for prospective buyers at the gun shop? Who designs the test? Given his admiring citations of SPLC and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, it is patently obvious that any who believe that the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms serves as the final bulwark against tyranny would be among Kamm's "ideologically unfit for gun ownership" category. Kamm, in fact, cites militias in general--that which is necessary to the security of a free state--as "anti-government." Those of us who proudly identify as "Three Percenters"? Forget about it.
Kamm also ignores history, and the fact that "gun control" in America and throughout the world has from the beginning been, and continues to be, a favorite tool of bigots, to be used against those targeted for oppression--or annihilation. It was not a gun rights advocate, but "gun control" spokesman Andrew Goddard (father of Colin "The Alchemist" Goddard) who calls Mormonism a "strange cult." It was not gun rights advocates, but the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, who argued that the government rounding up "undesirables" and sending them to concentration camps would not justify armed resistance, and then blatantly lied in denying having done so. It was not a "right-wing hatemonger," but the far-left Ted Rall who advocated whisking peaceable armed citizens off to Bagram for imprisonment and torture.
This correspondent would certainly not meet Kamm's ideological requirements for gun ownership--a point of considerable pride. The question is, what does Kamm intend to do about it? Whose sons and daughters is he willing to send into harm's way in order to enforce his dream of ideology-based disarmament?