THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW

BY RUSSELL TURNER


WORD GAMES


All of us have had the pleasure at one time or the other of being the target of a fast talking salesman who is intent on relieving us of some of our hard earned cash for some worthless trinket. I have heard the old expression that a good salesman could sell an icebox to an Eskimo. I have found that the best defense to deal with the fast talking salesman is to slow down a little bit and do some thinking before you sign the bottom line. According to the great renowned philosopher Dr. Phil, he makes the point that no matter how thin you make a pancake there is always two sides to it. Over the past several weeks I feel that we Americans have allowed ourselves to elect a bunch of fast talkers to the highest offices in the land.


I have noticed that many politicians, instead of talking about raising taxes, simply state that all of our problems will be solved with more revenues. I guess that for many people merely changing the word from taxes to revenues makes the whole process more acceptable. Since the school shooting in Connecticut I have heard several politicians say that we need to close the GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE. I have been to several gun shows and there is no loophole. In reality what they are talking about is private individuals swapping or selling guns to each other.


I can remember when I was a young man there were many times when I or my friends would trade firearms with each other. If I had an extra deer rifle I might trade it to someone for a shotgun or a 22. If the gun control people get their way, the private transfer of guns that I just outlined would be illegal. If you wanted to make a trade with a friend or relative you would have to go to a licensed gun dealer and sell the gun to him then your friend or relative would in turn have to purchase it from the gun dealer. In essence, if you wanted to pass down an old rifle to a son or another family member you would have to go through a broker in order to do it legally.


Before we all get ready to jump on the bandwagon and support more gun control we need to remember that the purpose of the second amendment was to insure that the citizens of this country could defend themselves if our government ever got out of control. History is full of instances where tyrannical governments disarmed their citizens and then later slaughtered millions of them because they could not defend themselves.



The problems that we are witnessing in our country are not because of law abiding citizens owning guns. The real culprit is our acceptance of declining morals and integrity in our society. Until we address those problems we are just playing word games.

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