Just when you think you’ve heard everything, the Asheville, North Carolina, Citizen-Times informs us that their local Tea Party is hosting a “Machine Gun Social” at an indoor arms range as a fundraiser Saturday, September 29.
For a mere $25, you get to shoot a 30-round clip from a 9mm submachine gun, $35 pays for use of an M16 and for $50 you can play with an AK-47. Pizza and drinks (non-alcoholic, thank goodness) are included.
The money raised is for Tea Party endorsed candidates and to oppose the election of anyone who might support un-American policies like tighter controls on the availability of guns designed primarily for killing people.
To me, this is wrong at so many levels.
First, political parties should be about ballots, not bullets. A part of being a sane, civilized democracy is being able to oust people from office by peaceful means, not to associate elections with brandishing firearms.
Second, it plays into an interpretation of the second amendment as being less about guns for hunting or even self-protection as for purposes of overthrowing the government by force. During Nevada's 2010 Senate election, for example, Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle suggested "Second Amendment remedies" when "government becomes out of control."
Finally, in light of all of the recent fatal shootings engaged in by crazed psycho-terrorists, do we really want to promote the use of killing machines as a form of entertainment? I know some feel lives could have been saved if enough people had been well armed in cases like the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, but can you imagine the chaos of people being caught in the resulting crossfire in a dimly lit theater?
What’s our future in this increasingly polarized and overly armed country? To become another Mexico or Syria?
I pray not.
P. S. You might also be interested in other posts on this topic.
photo by Asheville Citizen-Times
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