Where is the ACLU when they are really needed? Or any other rights
group that is so quick to come to the defense of any strange cause having
to do with perceptions of constitutionality? If any group is now in need
of defense against government or societal infringement right now it is
not those who are offended by religion or the myriad humorless groups who
develop apoplexy over a semantic infringement of their tender sensibilities.
The new, and very real, victims in our society are the very businesses that employ our citizenry and make an unprecedented quality of life available to most Americans. As I warned not too long ago, the same unconstitutional war is now being waged against gun manufacturers that has all but destroyed the tobacco companies.
Since the anti-smoking forces in this country have been brain-washed into believing that every death in this country even vaguely related to smoking would have never happened without the wicked tobacco companies, the companies, not the smokers themselves have been blamed and no one has risen to their defense.
Every lawsuit so far that has been won by a plaintiff should have been thrown out by the Supreme Court, but with popular opinion so vehement that has not been necessary.
I assure you that had anyone or any group in this country who could have mustered an iota of sympathy at the "public opinion polls" been so egregiously trampled in constitutional protection, the court system in this country would be demolished. Now the public opinion and government guns (pardon the pun) have turned on the manufacturers of weaponry.
Smith and Wesson has already capitulated, much to the distress of American-owned companies, who still believe that we have a constitution and that it should apply to them (perhaps they haven't figured out that we now have law by public opinion rather than by the constitution). Public opinion has always influenced law in this country, and to an extent that is as it should be. When the public panics, however, those who have read the law and are considered leaders in the field should apply a more reasoned approach.
No one is more appalled than I am at the dreadful events concerning guns in the wrong hands that have caused this public panic. But anyone who thinks that gun manufacturers are responsible for, or that gun control laws will stop any of this violence is simply whistling Dixie. People who are bent on violence will always be armed. And they won't be armed with guns with fewer bullets in the clip or with safety devices on the trigger. Drug-dealing, dysfunctional families will never know (or care) whether or not their children have access to a gun lying around the house. Sociopathic people will continue to be created in a society that refuses to demand good values and teach them at an early age. The brutal point is that until we demand that people take responsibility for their own behaviors, people will die of those behaviors. Another brutal point is that there simply aren't enough businesses out there for us to blame everything on, product liability lawyers notwithstanding. There are, however, enough product liability lawyers, attorneys general, mayors and presidential candidates out there (not to mention judges and justices with more on their agenda than upholding the law) to sue every business in this country into bankruptcy. It won't be long, for instance, before someone studies artificial sweeteners in diet cola products. They will figure out that not only are these sweeteners addictive, but they also wreak havoc with the urinary tract. When enough bladder and kidney problems are traced to this product, even though it is legal, then the soft drink companies will follow the manufacturers of silicone, tobacco and guns as targets of public opinion and governmental disenfranchisement. The only reason this hasn't already occurred is because "thin is in" so there is no popularity problem. It will take awhile, but at some point, no one in this country will be willing to risk doing business. I will probably not be around to see the whole economy collapse, but many of our younger readers will. I hate to think how badly people will need guns to protect themselves when this occurs. Of course the productive, law-abiding people won't have guns - thanks, of course, only to themselves for preferring safety to constitutionality.