Op-Ed: March for Our Lives/ Hands-Off 2A Rally

The following Op-Ed was submitted by Julie Paine. Note: Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

Saturday, June 11^th was the “March for Our Lives” and a counter rally organized by the Idaho Liberty Dogs called “Keep Your Hands Off Our 2A Rights”.

I hadn’t planned to attend this event, but I needed to meet with a friend, and this was the most convenient intersection.  It turned out to be eye-opening and will drive my efforts to preserve our God-given right to preserve life.  This piece does not address all facets of the gun-control debate, just some of my observations during this event.

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I arrived early and a detail that may have gone unnoticed by others is that the “March for Our Lives” did not begin with prayer.  I found this interesting considering the weight of the issue and the recent tragedies used to justify the event.  It does reveal something about the type of people behind gun control and their understanding of the origin of the sanctity of life.  They have the appearance of compassion and benevolence but with no appeal to the Creator of Life about the destruction of life, one has to conclude that their approach will be flawed.

Prominently supporting the student-lead “March for Our Lives” (MFOL), whose full policy can be read here https://marchforourlives.com/policy/, was “Moms Demand Action” and the NEA.  The initial speakers were two teenagers who represented MFOL and after reading the MFOL agenda after the event, it became clear to me that these youth are being used as pawns and do not fully comprehend the magnitude of the policies they are being led to espouse.

The presence of these young people creates an emotional appeal, but their ignorance about guns, laws, government, and all other facets of the issue was profound, and it is regrettable that they have become tools.  All they could convey was fear and their desire for gun owners to agree with them.  They tried to convince the media that they are not anti-gun, without being able to see that the very measures they propose will deny good people their fundamental right to have the guns they need to preserve their own lives.

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There were several speakers, Tara Marie, was the most disturbing.  She talked about her failure to deal with trauma and displayed such erratic gesturing and screeching that as a rational observer, I could quickly conclude that she is the last person I would look to for a solution to any problem.

The fear expressed by every speaker was truly sad and the solution proposed is even more pathetic:  restrictions for normal people to make them, the paranoid, feel safe.  It is naïve on the surface, but diabolical at its heart to believe that one can pretend to target a perpetually elusive evil, while making slaves of us all.

Many signs read “Protect Our Children” and the burning question in my mind was:  “With what, dear Liza, with what?”  Without a weapon in your hand, you stand no chance against random violence, especially if you are a woman.

More laws seemed to be the only suggestion without the acknowledgment that criminals do not obey laws, particularly the one against murder.  The real causes of the uptick in violence were not addressed and the solution presented at the end of the program was to call Senators Risch and Crapo and demand that they do something.  At no point did I hear discussed the real reasons behind the increase of violence in this country, except to blame the guns.

Virtue and mental health are in freefall in America and the policies of the Left are an open invitation to the disturbed to kill without consequence.  Gun free zones are an advertisement to criminals that they will face no opposition in carrying out their atrocious plans.

Businesses, Churches, and Schools who forbid the carrying of firearms on their premises do nothing to lower the risk of someone coming in to kill customers, parishioners, or students, they just ensure that the customers, parishioners, and student have no way to defend themselves.  Police will only arrive after at least one death has already occurred and as we saw with Uvalde, law enforcement can be absolutely impotent in saving lives.

One of the signs I saw at the rally said, “I am a teacher, not a human shield.”  To that I would say, “Fine, you do not have to be armed.  You may sit in your classroom and hope others will protect you.”  Not everyone can adopt the sheepdog mentality, however, I guarantee that within any public-school staff, there are at least five teachers or administrators that would willingly volunteer to be armed and trained, and all it takes to stop an active shooter is ONE good man or woman with a gun.

I felt no animosity toward these poor people who have been brainwashed into seeing themselves as victims, who have been exposed to so much propaganda that they live in perpetual fear.  I simply felt sincere pity that they cannot see another way to live, that they cannot see that right across the street are the very people saying, “I will never let this happen to you.”  Across the street were the sheepdogs saying, “I will even take a bullet attempting to stop a threat from reaching you.”  Across the street is the solution, the Defenders that the fearful seek to shackle.

I reflected on my own recent journey from being a woman with little firearms experience to a trained and licensed concealed carry 2A advocate.  Fear is dispelled when truth and preparation are pursued.  I can only hope that at least one youth present, seeing the courage of those who would place themselves in harm’s way to save a child, will realize that their own life is worth defending, and act accordingly.

People can wish all they want that we could just live in a violence-free society, and they can pretend that getting rid of all guns would do that, but they are out of touch with the nature of man and the fallen world in which we live.  The root of our society’s decline is the denial of God and the rejection of His laws.  Did Cain kill Abel with an AR-15?  No.  It was in his heart to murder, so he found the means, and so it will be with every person who is similarly depraved.  You will never legislate that away.

It is in the nature of man, the best you can do is meet evil head on and say, “Not on my watch!”  We have to continue to be free to equip ourselves to meet evil with equal force.  When a person enters a building and begins to destroy life they have voluntarily forfeited their own life and we must accommodate them in order to protect the innocent who still wish to live.