By Dean Weingarten
Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- In a virtue signaling display common on the left, the Washington Post published an article critical of a church for raffling two rifles for charity. Amy B. Wang, a writer for the post, made a national story of the dislike of a leftist for the raffle of two AR-15 type rifles.
“I had a kid approach me: ‘Would you like to join a raffle? We’ve got two AR-15s.’ And I’m like, whoa,” Belden-Adams said.
Just the Sunday before, a gunman had opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and wounding about 500. Inside the shooter’s suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, investigators discovered 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Among those weapons were an AR-15-type rifle modified with a “bump stock,” a device that would allow the gunman to inflict damage more rapidly.
It hadn’t even been a week since the Vegas shooting, Belden-Adams thought.
“We have flags still half-mast for the Las Vegas shooting here in Oxford,” she said. “I thought it was in bad taste at this time to be auctioning an AR-15, the same weapon used in Las Vegas. Or one of them.”
Charity raffles cannot be turned on and off like a light switch, at least without enormous cost and consequences. They have been planned for months. Donations have been received. Tickets have been sold. Financial and legal obligations have been made.
The idea that an organization should cancel such an activity because a person committed a horrendous crime using an object similar to the one being raffled, would allow criminals to determine the course of our lives. It would allow crybullies who claim the ability to determine what is right and wrong, or politically correct, or “insensitive”, to rule everyone.
That is the narrative here. Disagree with the left, and you are evil. In this case, the message being sent is: charity raffles with guns are bad. Why? Because we say so. Consider this quote from the article:
There, Dalton plans to ask the ministry’s leadership why it couldn’t have raffled off something else in light of the tragedy in Las Vegas.
That would require the ministry’s leadership to chose something else before Las Vegas happened. Changing a prize after the raffle is already in progress is not a reasonable response. It is not ethical. The article never addresses the irrationality and unreasonableness of that request.
Anti-Second Amendment activists posted reviews against the Oasis Church, even though they had never been there or met anyone from it.
I found it absolutely disgusting that this church was promoting an AR-15 raffle. You shouldn’t be called church. You couldn’t be farther away from love and gospel.
It seems the writer is pushing hate for a charity raffle because of a political viewpoint. Here was a non-political review:
The church is very diverse! I was so incredible pleased to see about 50 percent black and 50 percent white! That’s what the body of Christ should look like!
The worship was very lively and the pastors message was great with illustrations!
The article could have been written from a viewpoint that supports and treasures the Second Amendment.
The centerpiece could have been the person who refused to cancel the raffle, because they refuse to allow criminals and terrorists to rule our lives and determine our culture.
To Amy Wang’s credit, she includes a minimal protrayal of the Constitutionalist side, with a quote from Tennessee Representative Andy Holt. Andy Holt refused to cancel a similar raffle after the Orlando massacre. The Orlando killings were by a Muslim Jihadist, who proclaimed his allegiance to ISIS.
I’m sick and tired of the media and liberal politicians attacking our right to keep and bear arms. I’ll do everything I can to ensure the 2nd Amendment is protected and people are equipped to exercise their innate right to self-defense.
The article shows where Amy stands. She doesn’t like people raffling guns.
Raffling icons of American freedom and the Second Amendment are strong signals that guns are acceptable in society, they have utility, and the participants will not be cowed by media imposed views of right and wrong.
Amy could write an article about media complicity in mass killings with guns. Many mass killings with guns are triggered by the media. Las Vegas may be one of them. It is almost certain what happened at Port Arthur in Australia. From Professor Mullen, Chief of Forensic Psychiatry at Monash University:
“.. was inspired by the killings. “He followed Dunblane. His planning started with Dunblane. Before that he was thinking about suicide but Dunblane and the early portrayal of the killer, Thomas Hamilton, changed everything.”
It is called the copycat effect, and it is real. Mass killings with guns in American society have been promoted by the media for at least 30 years. They get ratings and money. The people get more mass killings.
Before we impose more infringements on the Second Amendment, the media should adopt standards to reduce mass killings from the copycat effect. They will not, because mass killings with guns benefit them financially, politically, and ideologically.
It is a bad idea to change laws under the heat of emotion and the moment. It leads to bad decisions.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.