Legitimate gun owners and supporters of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment have good reason to be outraged by Mark Kelly’s publicity trick to further gun control efforts in America. According to published Fox News reports, the former astronut and husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a shooting victim 2 years ago in Tucson, Arizona purchased an AR-15-style rifle and a 45.-caliber handgun.
This comes on the heels of his highly publicized efforts in both Congress, as well as in Colorado, to assault the U.S. Constitutional rights of legal gun owners to own weapons. In fact, his comments, which he posted on Facebook, according to published reports seem disingenuous, when he states that people could easily buy similar guns at gun shows or over the internet without background checks.
The fact is, Kelly did actually do exactly what other law-abiding citizens in Arizona or any other state in the union have done beforehand. The Diamondback Police Supply gun shop, where he reportedly purchased the weapons, followed state law and had him undergo the mandatory background check.
Well, surprise, surprise he passed without any hiccups. So what was his point?
Many supporters of gun rights have weighed in on his open display of reactionary theater, by correctly pointing out that his entire stunt was to bring attention to his and his wife’s newly formed gun control organization named, Americans for Responsible Solutions.
It appears that the organization’s leader, Kelly, was actually seeking to create irresponsible reactions from fellow gun control sympathizers who would somehow rise up in hysteria and join up or gin up more donations to his national gun control cause.
What Kelly does not seem to want to accept, is that as tragic and woefully unfortunate as was the mass shooting of his wife and others on that horrendous day in the Tucson area shopping center, it was not performed by law abiding citizens going on a rampage.
Her attempted assassination was due largely to relaxed mental health laws dealing with mentally unbalanced and severely disturbed individuals that the mental health system in Arizona and other states have not been responsible for.
Kelly, instead, resorted to the quick, the easy, and the attention-headline grabbing techniques which are assured to raise the ire of mainstream media liberal heads. The goal of course is to place greater pressure on states like Colorado, which are caught up in a monumental gun control pitched battle in their democrat controlled state legislature.
It is truly quite unfortunate that a man who has given such admirable service to this nation, could be given to publicity stunts that actually undermine the very protections he served to uphold.
So, where again is the news value in his attempt? The owner of the gun shop actually had to hold onto the weapon for the required 20 days, to ascertain if the weapon had actually been used in a crime. Again, where is the news and where is the imagined harm?
Nothing, you might say. And that would be absolutely correct, because Kelly’s point is a red herring. There is no news made if Kelly were an ordinary citizen who decided to follow the laws of Tucson, and the state of Arizona, and legally purchase weapons. But it becomes news by name association.
Well, here is a bit of news that protectors of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment rights can pass onto former astronaut Mark Kelly. Cheap parlor tricks will not destroy or impede the ability to Americans to exercise their right to bear arms.
Instead, Kelly should focus his and his organization’s attention on the real problem and that is to make certain that states and localities actually enforce the laws on the books and prosecute criminal offenders in cities like Chicago, which owns the nation’s highest murder rate.
If Americans for Responsible Solutions wants a real solution then start your efforts in Chicago. Help the parents and the innocents in their war to get Obama’s former chief-of-staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel to stop attacking gun rights and punish criminals who use guns to murder.
Now that would be a real responsible solution all Americans could support!
Image:NASA astronaut/husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Mark Kelly;source:http://space flight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-134/html/jsc2011e015245.html; author: NASA/James Blair;public domain
