Yet another issue of local importance you cannot comment on at the Pilot.
Concealed Carry in Churches
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Why Concealed carry in churches? Because they have become targets for madmen.
https://factsandtrends.net/2018/05/21/how-likely-are-u-s-church-shootings/
We might wish it were otherwise but madmen don’t care what you wish for.
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How did we get to this point?
Yesterday: put on your Sunday best, pack the kids in car, go to church and don’t forget the Bible.
Today: put on your Sunday best, pack the kids in the car, go to church and don’t forget your 9mm.
Tomorrow: put on your Kevlar vest, pack your AR and the 9mm, leave kids home, and take up your post beside the pulpit.
It is not the government we need to protect ourselves from.
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” a possum smarter than the average American evidently.
Second Amendment “solution” is now a Second Amendment problem.
IMHO
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How did we get here?
By calling people we disagree with racists so the Dylan Roofs are lost in the crowd.
By calling people with different opinions on matters of science ‘deniers’ and thus equating them with neo-nazis.
By using the term ‘1%ers’ like the Nazi’s referred to Jews.
By dismissing people’s beliefs about when life begins as ignorant or beyond the bounds of debate.
It has become acceptable in public discourse to dehumanize those with whom we disagree, and it is thus OK to kill them. And they feel the same way in return.
Hate begets hate.
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People have always hated other people. KKK, lynchings, evolution v. Bible, anarchists, communists, union busters, Mafia gang warfare, anti-Semitism on a grand scale, etc.
I really don’t think the climate change debates have caused a lot of shootings.
The only shootings about abortion have been by the “pro-life” side.
No, it is more than that. I suspect it is caused by the anonymity of the internet and social media. And in such a fashion, de-humanizing does become easier. Echo chambers of neo-Nazis feed hate and weak minded people are susceptible.
IMHO
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You provide an excellent example of what I am getting at.
“The only shootings about abortion have been by the “pro-life” side.”
Shootings yes, but you dismiss the other point of view out-of-hand. By their lights, there are close to 1.5 million murders of unborn infants every year. When you look at it from their point of view, the handful of violent responses to abortion are an example of remarkable restraint.
If you saw a person about the hack apart their infant in its crib, would you not take action to prevent it?
To many of your fellow citizens, there is no difference.
You don’t have to agree with them, but to be civil you must consider their point of view.
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And vice versa.
Civility runs in two directions. And it might start with not equating my stance on 1st trimester abortion or even birth control with being a murderer.
Aren’t you rationalizing murder as an acceptable alternative to compromise or dissatisfaction with the law of the land if one feels strongly about it?
That was the rationale for the man who attacked a synagogue just to “kill Jews”. Or Dylan Roof. What makes them any less principled or justified than extreme right-to-life folks who kill doctors or bomb clinics.
Violence is not an acceptable way to get a place in the marketplace of ideas. That is why we are a nation of laws and have courts to settle disputes rather than vigilantes. And if you do ascribe blame to those other than the perpetrators because they feel slighted or maligned, I submit we may not be a society mature enough to deserve gun rights.
Hence the perverse and certainly ironic need to always be armed.
IMHO
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It’s not a matter of me equating your stance on first trimester abortions as supporting murder, it is that for some people who base their concept of the beginning of life on religious precepts, it is murder.
I don’t agree with them in the first trimester, but I do in the 2nd and 3rd.
I don’t support murder of doctors who perform abortions, but I understand it.
For those who believe that a zygote has a soul, that abortion is the systematic and efficient mass murder of millions infants, it is a modern day holocaust. And, they are denied the legislative means to prevent it. That is why Roe v Wade was such a bad decision. It took the only peaceful means for resolving the issue as they see it.
It doesn’t matter if the write their Congressman, or elect representatives who will support protecting those babies(as they see them) because the courts will trump the legislature. There is no peaceful means for them to save those babies. That is why I say that the relative lack of violence shows remarkable restraint.
The same framework as Roe V Wade, had it been the result of a debate and passing legislation in Congress would not be so divisive, because they would have the option of re-legislating after the next election. There would still be a peaceful path open to them. But the court deciding the issue leaves them only submission to mass murder or violence.
You don’t have to agree with them, but you do have to understand their position and respect their sincerity.
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“That is why I say that the relative lack of violence shows remarkable restraint.”
Wow, aren’t we grateful.
There are plenty of resolutions. They can support a Constitutional amendment among other things.
I do understand that many pro-lifers consider abortion murder. I consider bringing a fetus to term with a known crippling, debilitating and/or fatal birth defect to be worse than that. That is deliberate torture.
So I should go out and kill demonstrators? My excuse is that they won’t respect my sincerity.
I understand their position, they refuse to understand mine. I know. I have debated this many times online and in person. In addition, there is no compromise in their view. I do offer compromises. Viability with a cushion. But that is not good enough. I agree with the law of 12 weeks, no restrictions and then needing more and more medical reasons for the 2nd and particularly 3rd trimester. Very few abortions take place in the 3rd and almost all for dire medical circumstances.
But these post are more than just about abortion. It is the idea that if you feel your principles are either mocked or not taken seriously, you can act out violently. And you seemed to argue that we need to see their side and if we don’t, it is our fault if someone gets hurt.
To me that is just insane. Such action has no place in a country based on the rule of law and with an extensive court system that is generally not corrupt.
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