MILLION MOM MARCH - What if they had a rally. . .?

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Washington Times EDITORIAL • May 15, 2001

What if they had a rally . . .?

Not much coverage attended the rally by a "million moms" against "gun violence" over the weekend, perhaps because almost no one showed up. Far less than a million in fact. And the meager handful estimates place the crowd at maybe 200 people were mostly professional gun-control agitators, not "moms." The press pretty much blew off the entire event anyway, so how would you know that? No derisive reports about "fringe" groups or people "out of the mainstream," abuse that is almost routinely heaped upon any group that espouses views at odds with the commandments of political correctness. You can bet that had the National Rifle Association spent months organizing a "Million Gun Owners´ March" and had a few dozen souls showed up instead it would have been the focus of endless media snickering. But mum was the order of the day, with only a few words mentioned on most evening news broadcasts about the small gathering at Freedom Plaza.

Perhaps the bizarre comments of some of the speakers was to blame. For example, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams´ mother, Virginia Hayes Williams, made the statement that people opposed to gun control are "willing to see all our children die so they can have their way with guns." Not a word about personal responsibility, not a mention of the many thousands of people who use handguns and long guns each year to ward off criminals in legitimate self-defense. No wonder so many actual moms are turned off.

Some, however, were nearby protesting the protest. The anti-gun-controllers in attendance included members of the Maryland chapter of the Tyranny Response Team, the National Rifle Association and a group called Free Republic. Many of these were in fact actual moms such as Beth Caherty of Takoma Park. The mother of two young children ages 10 and 11, she described the gun-control agitators as members of the "liberal elite" who "can afford alarm systems and security systems" in their homes. "But a single working mother, what am I supposed to do ?" she told The Washington Times. Affluent liberals in gated communities may never share those concerns and should consider themselves lucky.

Incoherent rhetoric about "the children" serves no good purpose and tells us nothing about the problem of criminal misuse of firearms. It cannot serve as the pretext for depriving millions of law-abiding people of their constitutional right to armed self-defense. More and more "moms" seem to be reaching that conclusion and electing, to their great credit, not to march in someone else´s parade.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

Answers

What? No Rosie quotes? Wasn't she there?

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2001

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