They Carry the Gun in One Hand, and the Flag in the Other

   "The Second Amendment is becoming a suicide pact," California Gov. Gavin Newsom warns.

   In America, you are considered dang near a communist if you question the Second Amendment. Americans hold the amendment to be sacrosanct, irreversible, irrevocable . . . perhaps even a part of their religion. You don't question it, you don't challenge it. You hold it closer to your heart than your heart, itself. 

   They shield their eyes from all the mass murders, carnage and death. At all costs, the Second Amendment must remain enthroned. 

   As Gov. Newsom says, it has become our suicide pact.

   For these Americans, death will be their form of dignity. "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands," they say. They might as well repaint the old Patrick Henry saying to say, "Give me the gun, or give me death."

   Gov. Newsom is not the first to point out the cost. "Only in America do we see this kind of carnage, this kind of chaos, this kind of destruction of communities and lives," he notes. Newsom is but echoing what has been said many times before. "This type of mass violence doesn't happen in other advanced countries," Pres. Barack Obama once said. "It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency."

   Step into a conversation with a gun advocate. Try to set him straight when he insists salvation and the gun are really the same thing.

   Say, "But, Empirical research shows places with more guns have more homicides. And, it just so happens that in America, we have more guns than any other advanced nation -- by far. So, should we be surprised America has more gun deaths than any of its peer nations -- by far? Not at all."

   Look the gun advocate in the eye and say, "But, this is not just me talking, this is science. No less an authority than Scientific American has suggested that, "By enacting simple laws that make guns safer and harder to get, we can prevent killings like the ones in Uvalde and Buffalo."

   "The science is abundantly clear," the article says.

   You can give the gun advocate all the "buts" in the world. "But, we need to do something." "But, people are dying." "But, we need to be able to walk down the streets without the fear of being killed; we need to be able to go to our schools without fear of being killed; we need to be able to go to our concerts and dance halls without being killed."

  "Don't give me no 'buts' " you can almost hear the gun advocate replying. "The evidence you speak of is fake and absurd. Guns save more lives than they take -- and our country will fall without them."

   The gun advocate simply sweeps all the evidence under the rug.

   Justice is never justice when the facts just get in the way.

    But, no matter. Against reason, the gun advocate still insists he is right. During the 1990s, says the Scientific American article, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to study gun violence as a public health issue. The studies tied having guns to increased homicide. "The National Rifle Association took action," said the Scientific American article, "spearheading the infamous Dickey Amendment, diverting gun research dollars and preventing federal funding from being used to promote gun control. For more than 20 years, research on gun violence in this country has been hard to do."

   They silenced the truth. 

   In America, owning a gun is viewed as part of being a patriot. The gun and the flag are pretty much the same thing; you carry the gun in one hand, and the flag in the other. One doesn't come without the other. Freedom will be lost if the gun is lost. Only the gun will sustain us. Only those with guns will survive.

   Somewhere along the line, someone should stand up to the gun advocate. It has been said once that we should stand up for the truth, and for what is right, even when it is unpopular. Now, as we speak of Americans and what they are like, that is the kind of American we need. 

   Are you onboard?