GNN’S STANCE ON NEW YORK GUN LAWS LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED

The Greater Niagara Newspapers on November 14th issued an editorial across all four newspapers entitled “Handgun law would foster troubling legal climate.” This piece was their analysis of the impending Supreme Court decision concerning gun ownership in Washington, DC.
Their editorial board’s approach was decidedly unconstitutional. They ignored not only the Constitution but also the primary tenets of Natural Law, taking the stand that…

1. The right to own arms is a collective one (militia)
2. New York’s gun laws are good as is and in no way should be loosened
3. Giving America’s greater gun rights will spell disaster

These observations are also in defiance of the gun rights platform of the Libertarian Party, defined here.

GNN columnist Bob Confer has written many pro-gun op-eds for that very same newspaper system and his ramblings (true to the LP’s interpretation) are in stark contrast to the editorial board. Here are some snippets from his past columns:

On collective gun rights where he focused on “the people” portion of the second amendment…

By picking apart language of the Second Amendment and looking at it as a stand-alone law independent of the rest of the Constitution these souls have ignored how it fits into the whole scheme of things and how this law, no, this right, should be appropriately interpreted. The amendment is properly written and, therefore, non-controversial as long as one looks at how its language is used in the rest of the Constitution.

The maligned “the people” appears throughout the original document, also showing up in amendments 1, 4, 9, and 10. The phrase is used in the same fashion on every occasion. If it were to be looked at in the collective sense every time our nation would be very short on personal rights.

On New York’s gun laws…

By any standard, becoming shut-ins fearful of the outdoors is the only route health-conscious women could take under such circumstances. With a monster on the loose, a jaunt in the park could become a dangerous thing because women’s rights to protect themselves were thrown under the bus by Albany politics. Every single option that is available on the market in most states by which to give a woman an edge over a sexual predator is not an option here.

What if she wants a small pistol to keep on her person? A woman has to go through loopholes to get a pistol permit in NY, one of only twelve states that require such a permit, something in extreme defiance of our second amendment.

What if she wants to possess a stun gun? She can’t in New York, one of only six states in the whole US in which they are illegal despite their incredible level of safety.

What if she wants to carry pepper spray as a weapon? She has only a few places where she can buy it and she can only buy so much for New York is, once again, one of just a handful of states (8) with a limitation.

On the natural right to protect oneself….

What happened at Virginia Tech was a tragedy, a dramatic example of is what is allowed to occur day in, day out across our country. Innocents - whose ranks on a daily basis far outnumber the victims at Virginia Tech - are robbed, raped, maimed, or killed by stronger or armed predators. Our government has assisted in making them the victims by denying them the right – or making it difficult to reclaim the right – of protection.

This proves that any of Man’s laws that override natural laws are destined for disaster. The scheme of nature is such that we cannot change or inhibit the act of survival. If we do, only the fittest will survive…the fittest being those who are the most evil.

It’s because of these beliefs that the Libertarian Party of Niagara County finds fault in the Greater Niagara Newspapers’ editorial.

Written by Bob Confer, Niagara LP