On a cold night of
March 1692, all was quiet except the chilling moans escaping from a house belonging
to the village minister, Samuel Parris, of Salem Village in Massachusetts. In a back room of the house, a nine-year-old girl
clutched her throat and began spinning around as if in a trance. Elizabeth Parris then flung her frail body on
the hard wood floor in a fit of passion.
Another young girl, Elizabeth's eleven-year-old cousin Abigail Williams,
followed suit and soon both girls were screaming hysterically. They fought and clawed the air as if fighting
against a supernatural beast. The
floorboards beneath their small bodies creaked and the noise echoed throughout
the small house. Elizabeth’s father called for the village physician immediately.
After much deliberation, the doctor pronounced that the girls were
suffering from “bewitchment.” Soon, the
two girls accused other villagers of witchcraft and for the next several
months, the small New England community was in an uproar.
From June through
September of 1692, the Salem
Witch Trials condemned hundreds of people as witches. The accused were men, women, and children and
included people from surrounding neighborhoods.
Once the fervor against the “witches” began, there was no end to the accusations. People from all levels of society were
accused and tried as witches including the Governor’s wife. At least nineteen condemned men and women died
from hanging. Other witches either died
in jail or lived the duration of their lives as social outcasts-always afraid
of the authorities.
No one explanation
provides the answer to why the Salem Witch Trials reached such a great height. Indeed, the Salem Witch Trials remain curious
even today because of the magnitude of people who were accused, convicted, and
executed for it. Historians have stated
economic, social, frontier troubles with Native Americans, and petty jealousies
as few of the reasons why so many accusations arose. Whatever the cause(s), one thing is certain
that many innocent people lost their lives because of the hysterics prompted at
the behest of a few.
As with those hunting
for witches in 1692, today, the liberals are also looking for “witches.” The unfortunate and inhumane killing of
innocent children in Newtown,
Connecticut on December 14, 2012 has renewed the liberals’ taste for vengeance. Unfortunately, criminals are not the focus of
their wrath but it is the Bill
of Rights. Liberals feel that the
law needs to be “reformed.” Indeed, they
would like to do away with the Bill of Rights completely if at all possible. They are not interested in finding true solutions
that work to keep such tragedies from recurring; instead, their ultimate goal
is the destruction of our liberties as American citizens. To achieve this goal, they have shamelessly used
the tragedy of the Newtown shooting to promote their own political agenda: banishing the second amendment
altogether. Their argument is that by
banning guns, there will never be another tragedy in America.
Indeed their argument
would serve well if only it made any sense.
In most states, law-abiding citizens who own guns must first pass a
thorough background investigation, fingerprinting, and identification process
before they can acquire any weapons. Some
states require firearms safety training before they issue permits. Suffice it to say, those people who own guns
legally must meet state standards (which differ widely by individual states) to
own guns. For someone to go through the
stringent process of becoming a gun owner only for the sake of going on a
shooting spree seems illogical to say the least. Of course, there are always exceptions to the
rule but most law-abiding citizens are aware of the risk they take if they use their
guns to hurt innocent people.
Typically, people who
own guns legally do so for protection, recreation, or mere nostalgia. If anything, many of these law-abiding
citizens have used their weapons to defend themselves and even protect others. A 2012 study performed by Clayton
E. Cramer and David Burnett for Cato Institute in Washington D.C. shows
several true examples of law-abiding citizens who used their guns for self-defense
purposes.
The “right to bear arms” is a fundamental right
given to every American citizen. George
Washington once said: "The very
atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -
they deserve a place of honor with all that's good." Yet, liberals have long forsaken Washington
and are now working diligently to eradicate the Bill of Rights too. Criminals will continue to find ways to get
guns as they do even now with the current laws in place. If anything, by banning guns, the government will
only further assist criminals in attacking innocent people who will have no way
to protect themselves from the criminals' dastardly deeds. Consider what a difference it would have made
on September
11, 2001 if any American citizen on Flights American 11, United 175,
American 77, and United 93 had carried legally obtained guns. What liberals seem to be missing is that those
who want to commit a crime by definition are not law-abiding individuals to
begin with. As such, to expect such people
to honor “reformed” laws that ban guns altogether is foolhardy. The only thing these “reforms” will bring
about is further destruction of American society.
As with the Salem Witch
Trials, and September 11, 2001, the Newtown shooting has become an infamous
part of American history. All of us will
remember it forever. It is a disgrace for
the liberals to suggest that only they feel the pain for the loss of those
innocent lives. It is equally shameless
for them to use the tragedy of the Newtown shooting as a way to punish law-abiding
American citizens by eradicating our constitutional rights. Laws need to be “reformed” but not to hurt those
who abide by them. September 11, 2001
united all Americans regardless of
their personal beliefs, should not the Newtown tragedy do the same?
No comments:
Post a Comment