A Washington state lawmaker last week withdrew a bill to limit self-defense rights after saying she receiving threats by telephone and email that have made her fear for her life. Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, said House Bill 1012, filed last month, was spurred by the Trayvon Martin shooting last February, in which a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida shot dead the unarmed Martin, 17, after confronting him on the street…. Appleton’s bill would have required a person to retreat from a dangerous confrontation that person “knows or should know” that doing so would afford “complete safety.”…. The threats against Appleton, which were among the more than a hundred emails and telephone calls she received about the bill after reports of it circulated on gun advocacy websites, were non-specific but “very scary,” said her assistant, Donna Bezon.
I often find myself wondering why it’s virtually impossible to have a reasoned, rational discussion about the role of guns in our society…and then incidents like this serve as a wake-up call. There’s a class of gun owners so wedded to the weapons, so terrified that their guns will be taken from them by a “tyrannical government,” that they’ll resort to any tactic, including threatening the safety of public officials, in order to stifle diseent. Some in the “You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers” crowd view the 2nd Amendment as immutable, unalterable, and sacrosanct…and any attempt to breach that barrier is treasonous.
In this case, Rep. Appleton’s bill was a legitimate response to to the Trayvon Martin shooting in Floriduh. Yet, she was excoriated and threatened…evidently for having the temerity to believe that respect for human life should trump love of guns and the ability to use them in virtually any situation without being questioned. Welcome to the Wild West….
Bezon declined to provide copies of emails or transcripts of voice messages to The Associated Press, saying she wanted to spare Appleton, who has not seen the worst of them, the details contained therein. But she said the most concerning included information about where Appleton lived.
One advised the lawmaker to heed the lesson of an unnamed lawyer who had defended “murderers and rapists” but who had changed his allegiances after his family was attacked, Bezon said.
One of the perceived threats was forwarded to the state House of Representatives’ security office, said House Security Director Mark Arras.
“There was no direct or immediate threat, but there was disturbing language,” said Arras, adding that his office discussed it with the Washington State Patrol and continues to monitor the situation.
Appleton conceded that the bill could have been written more narrowly, but said the threats have left her fearful and unwilling to pursue such legislation again.
“I’m not going to fall on my sword to have to live with those kinds of threats,” Appleton said. “It will have to be somebody else that will do the bill.”
And so it appears the gun nuts are willing to threaten an elected public official, thus threatening the freedom they bleat about holding so dear. The reality is that they value freedom so long as it meshes with their agenda. They’re quite happy working to quash someonee’s 1st Amendment rights to protect their definition of their 2nd Amendment rights.
There’s absolutely no reason why we should not be allowed to have a national discussion about the role and place (and availability) of guns in our society. Guns should not be seen as the solution to virtually all of our problems, but it sometimes seems as if the kneejerk reaction of guns nuts is “MORE GUNS!” We’re the most heavily armed country in the world…and yet all one need do is pay attention to the news in order to recognize the toll that arsenal is exacting.
No one is talking about taking away guns. What we’re talking about are common sense solutions to get things like assault weapons off our streets. That there are those so threatened by this idea that they’d threaten public officials should tell you everything you need to know about allowing gun nuts a voice in this discussion. You can’t have a reasoned and rational discussion with unreasonable and irrational people.
That they would threaten those with the temerity to disagree with them should be enough to deny them a seat at the table.
