From: Randall Parker 

http://reason.com/re/current.html
   Excerpt:
REASON Express
May 30, 2000
Vol. 3 No. 22

The Well-Armed Anti-Gun Activist
More Greenmail for Farmers
Michigan Teacher Suspended for Cookout Quick Hits


- - Whole Lotta Rosie - -
Poor Rosie O'Donnell, her politics keep getting in the way of her
lifestyle. For most folks it is the other way around: Politics keeps
jumping the fence and messing with their lives. To recap, first it was her
TV rants against guns versus her pitch-person job with K-Mart, one of the
nation's biggest gun sellers. Now, it is Rosie's position as chief emcee
and cheerleader for the Million Mom March smacking into her desire to have
a bodyguard who packs heat. Many have called O'Donnell a rank hypocrite,
but that is too easy. She can surely see the disconnect between her public
positions and her private choices. She just thinks she has very good
reasons for her choices, particularly the need for firearm protection.
O'Donnell clearly perceives a threat, one that, ultimately, can only be met
with a gun. She can still square that position with taking guns out of the
hands of millions of Americans by believing that they do not face real
threats.
Yet this still gets us to the odious heart of gun control, that a polyglot
of self-appointed experts--talk show hosts, cabinet secretaries, trial
lawyers, big city mayors, medical researchers--is in a better position to
judge the threats to average Americans than each and every one of those
average Americans.
And O'Donnell's explanation about her need for an armed guard shows this
disdain for the rabble goes even deeper. She said all she ever wanted was
for all gun owners to be as licensed and trained as her bodyguard. Welcome
aboard Rosie, you've just endorsed, in principle, concealed-carry laws, the
very thing Handgun Control Inc. crucified George W. Bush for enacting.
Except your idea is concealed-carry for the right kind of people, like
bodyguards to famous people. Now that is a cultural war with live ammo.
And there is still more, shall we say, irony. In TV ads which have aired in
heavy rotation in the nation's capital, Handgun Control blasts Bush for
signing a law that allows guns to be carried into schools and churches.
The circumstantial evidence suggests Rosie intended for her armed bodyguard
to accompany her son to school in the fall. So using a gun to defend
vulnerable populations seems to be something that is fine for the elite,
but not for the little people. Anyone remember when the suggestion that an
armed teacher or two at Columbine might've made a difference was hushed
away as lunatic?
Finally, the O'Donnell camp holds that of course she'd prefer to have
nothing to do with guns, that a gun-crazed society is forcing this awkward
choice. But that too is a predicament shared by plenty of gun owners who
feel they have no choice but to arm themselves.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/Advocate/release/05-25-2000/article1.html
Read the "Million Mom Myths," a Reason Online Breaking Issue at
http://www.reason.com/bi/guns.html

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