Opinion articles are easy to write. All you need is an opinion and a basic grasp of language.
Well-writen, informed and correct opinion articles are another matter.
Yesterday, I responded to an anti UN gun-grab editorial where its author, Bob Confer, made a good case for defending gun rights with one key exception: he claimed "assault weapons" were "justifiably maligned."
I contacted Mr. Confer and invited him to justify maligning them. He responded, and parts of his response were troubling: he believes they're only made for killing, although he is open to being "swayed."
It's troubling because, via published opinion pieces and radio appearances, he has established himself as a liberty leader of sorts, someone who influences the course of public debate, and thus, public acceptance of political actions. To do this with such a fundamental lack of knowledge as he has displayed is irresponsible. His "assault weapon" stance is essentially identical to that of the Brady Campaign.
We've run into "sportsmen" who call for "reasonable gun laws" before. I don't think Mr. Confer is overtly one of these guys, but if he maintains and continues to promulgate the Fuddite concept that "sporting purposes" guns are good and ugly, cheap, too big, too small, too hot or too cold guns are bad, his effect will be twofold:
Well-writen, informed and correct opinion articles are another matter.
Yesterday, I responded to an anti UN gun-grab editorial where its author, Bob Confer, made a good case for defending gun rights with one key exception: he claimed "assault weapons" were "justifiably maligned."
I contacted Mr. Confer and invited him to justify maligning them. He responded, and parts of his response were troubling: he believes they're only made for killing, although he is open to being "swayed."
It's troubling because, via published opinion pieces and radio appearances, he has established himself as a liberty leader of sorts, someone who influences the course of public debate, and thus, public acceptance of political actions. To do this with such a fundamental lack of knowledge as he has displayed is irresponsible. His "assault weapon" stance is essentially identical to that of the Brady Campaign.
We've run into "sportsmen" who call for "reasonable gun laws" before. I don't think Mr. Confer is overtly one of these guys, but if he maintains and continues to promulgate the Fuddite concept that "sporting purposes" guns are good and ugly, cheap, too big, too small, too hot or too cold guns are bad, his effect will be twofold:
- It will misinform the general public.
- It will continue dividing the gun owner community, with the sporting crowd protecting their turf, but abandoning "shall not be infringed."