By DAVE HAMRICK
Editor-at-large

I have a question for those involved in and supportive of the so-called Million Moms March.

Exactly what is it about “gun violence” that makes it more abhorrent than knife violence, baseball bat violence and good old-fashioned hands around the throat violence?

Yes, I know that your agenda is to put pressure on Congress to pass more gun control laws to add to the dozens already on the books.

And I know that for many of you, the ultimate goal is to repeal the Second Amendment, either through an act of Congress or the same way you repeal many of our constitutional rights, by ignoring them until they become irrelevant.

I know as well that most of you don't really think gun violence is worse than other types, but you think it can be prevented by taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens and, therefore, are willing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish that end.

Those are good intentions of the highest order, and I don't mean that to be in any way sarcastic.

But good intentions are not enough of a reason to trample on people's right to choose.

That's right. What we're really talking about in the gun debate is freedom of choice. That's a phrase I'm sure you marching moms are familiar with.

You have made your choice. You've weighed all the options and decided that guns are too dangerous to have around the house and that you're better off facing the potential threat of a surprised burglar, an armed robber or rapist without one.

This may surprise you, but I've made the same choice. I don't like guns, don't want one around. I trust my feet and a well-developed sense of self preservation to take me away from danger, and I pray I may never regret the choice that I've made.

But right or wrong, it was my choice... my decision to make. I certainly don't think so highly of my ability to run others' lives that I would make that choice for someone else.

You see, while you like to spout statistics about how many “children” are killed by guns, you ignore the thousands of times each day that guns are used to protect life.

Even the incidents in which criminals are killed or wounded by people protecting themselves or others are not reported, but they're rare compared to those in which criminals are apprehended or turned away at the point of a gun without a shot being fired.

Yes, children are killed by guns, and yes, it's preventable... through education and the employment of safety rules.

I said I don't like guns and don't like to be around them, but I have friends who have guns and I'm not the least bit uncomfortable around them. That's because I know that they are responsible people who know what they're doing and they follow the rules of safety.

I've made my choice, and they've made theirs.

So I don't have any problem with one of the proposals being pushed by the antigun crowd — that gun owners be licensed and trained. That's one I would think everybody could get behind, from the NRA to the NAACP.

The problem comes with the second part of that proposal — the registration of all guns.

If the government issues a license to John Smith indicating that he has passed a background investigation, has taken a safety and proficiency course and demonstrated his knowledge of safety and his proficiency with guns through testing, why must the government also have a list of each gun Mr. Smith chooses to own?

The only logical reason would be so that the government can later go to Mr. Smith's home and confiscate all of those guns, along with those of every other law-abiding citizen.

I know this kind of talk frightens you marching moms, but you just can't run away from the fact that governments do sometimes go bad. That's why this nation's founders made sure the right to bear arms was in the Constitution... not just for protection from criminals, but for protection from a government gone bad, and as additional insurance that the government won't go bad.

Sorry, but I can't assuage your concern that there are crazy people out there whose definition of a “government gone bad” would include the U.S. Government as it is currently constituted. That's unfortunate.

But those people, just like any other criminal, can get guns with no trouble on the black market.

Our fear of such people shouldn't cause us to take away the rights of everyday, law-abiding citizens.

In fact, that sort of reasoning is exactly how governments go bad.

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