Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. . .
Those who have made religious idols of guns and treat them as if they are holy relics ought to reread the first two Commandments. And then there are those who have a psycho-sexual fetish for guns. That is disturbing on many levels.
Arizona Daily Star editor Sarah Garrecht Gassen responds to the gun idolatry and fetish crowd who insist that no gun may ever be destroyed in an op-ed today, Gun owners have the right to destroy weapon if they choose:
The right to own a gun includes the right to destroy that gun. That's as American as apple pie.
A gun is not a sentient being in need of a savior. A gun is a tool - an efficient and deadly tool - but a tool.
A gun has the same rights as my toaster.
Yet those who make the physical preservation of guns paramount over all else act as if guns are an endangered species in need of devoted attention and loving protection.
This head-scratcher of a viewpoint fuels the frothing hysteria about the gun-buyback event planned for 9 a.m. today. Bring a gun you don't want, and don't want anyone else to have, to the Tucson Police Department midtown substation so it can be destroyed, and get a $50 grocery gift card in exchange.
And if you don't want to, then don't.
To hear criticism of the buyback, you'd think the British were coming. The prospect that a gun might be destroyed is heresy to its venerators.
But their vociferous opposition doesn't make sense - and it certainly isn't about protecting gun owners' rights.
No, it is idolatry and fetishism, Sarah.
This being Arizona, if you want to own a gun, you pretty much can. You can keep it in a closet, under your pillow, take it to the shooting range. Shoot it a lot, shoot it a little, shoot it never. That's up to you.
But you are not allowed, according to the self-appointed gun do-gooders, to decide you don't want it anymore. And heaven forbid if you decide your gun should be destroyed. These do-gooders will trample all over your ability to do what you want with your own property while noisily declaring themselves the protector of rights.
Because, you see, the gun is presented differently, depending on the circumstances. It's property, but it's not. An object, but also a cause. Gun devotees can't have it all ways, though they valiantly try.
It is idolatry and fetishism, Sarah.
If the gun discussion were rational, gun devotees wouldn't twist the shooting murders of 20 children into a perceived threat against themselves and their beloved guns. The sheer self-centeredness is astounding. But we've seen it again. And again. And again.
* * *
But if a person wants to dispose of his gun, or if a community decides that it doesn't want some types of weapons and accessories to be so readily available, then the gun suddenly possesses all manner of noble qualities.
The gun, not the person, becomes most important. The gun embodies liberties and freedom - it is a friend, a protector, a companion, a member of the family. The gun is not the means to a goal, it is the goal. Cue the gun-waving, soaring eagle draped in the American flag.
It is idolatry and fetishism, Sarah.
[D]estroying my own gun? Making sure it's out of commission? That's my business. It's my right to decide I want it done, and who should do it. So back off.
If the whole crux about owning guns is about individual rights, as supporters claim, then let the individual exercise his rights.
Fighting a small-scale gun-buyback program by trying to intimidate supporters and participants into forfeiting their right to do what they want with their own property does not make you a Second Amendment crusader.
It makes you a hypocrite.
And more than just a little creepy.
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