A Traitor In Our Midst?
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 10 months ago
From reader Felix, this:
Kyle Kashuv, a Parkland survivor and so-called gun rights activist, called for the implementation of gun control in an Op-Ed published by Daily Wire on June 7th. FIX NICS, the piece of legislation supported by Kyle Kashuv and originally cosponsored by Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, is a law that pressures every federal agency to submit thousands of more names of people to make them ineligable for gun ownership. FIX NICS is not in line with the 2nd Amendment; in fact, support for FIX NICS precludes you from being a serious gun rights advocate.
FIX NICS is so anti-gun, in fact, that having so much as a speeding ticket on your record gives the government the authority to deny you your right to self defense. While Kyle Kashuv likes to paint himself as the anti-David Hogg to rile up conservative bases, he is truly supporting the exact same legislation Hogg’s heroes sponsored. In this sense, Kyle Kashuv is no friend of gun rights. In fact, he is making the culture more anti-gun by endorsing this horrific law.
While Kyle Kashuv claims to be the hero of the 2nd Amendment, his anti-2nd Amendment beliefs are putting true gun rights activism at risk. The Overton Window is the window of acceptable discourse in mainstream society. Since Kyle Kashuv, who recently was hired by Turning Point USA as the Director of High School Outreach, uses social media to claim to be unapologetically and uncompromisingly pro-gun, he is affiliating pro-gun ideology with acceptance of FIX NICS, a law that will disarm more peaceful people.
It is indeed a horrific law. There seems to be no end to traitors in our midst these days. Well, this is the problem with the cult of personality and hero-worship.
A man had better meet a very high bar before you call or consider him a hero. Giving his life for you or your family, or something of that nature, is an acceptable reason for celebrating heroism.
A kid who claims to support your world-view but who in fact works to undermine it is no hero. Ignore personality. Commit to ideas.
On June 10, 2018 at 10:42 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
Re:”A man had better meet a very high bar before you call or consider him a hero. Giving his life for you or your family, or something of that nature, is an acceptable reason for celebrating heroism.”
It is well to remember that there are different types of heroism. There is the type which manifests itself in wartime, when a fighting man defies overwhelming odds to accomplish a mission or save his fellow soldiers lives, such as an Audie Murphy or John Basilone. This we might call physical courage, for lack of a better term.
There is another type of courage, which is moral and ethical heroism. Winston Churchill enduring a decade of ridicule, opprobrium and obscurity in order to warn the world about Adolf Hitler and the dangers of Nazism. Václav Havel defying the communist regime in order to restore freedom to his nation and people. Geert Wilders trying to warn his fellow Dutchmen and Europeans of the threat of Islam, despite death threats and living under police protection for more than a decade.
My observation, for what it is worth, is that physical courage, while rare, is not nearly so rare as moral courage of the kind displayed by leaders like Churchill, Havel and Wilders, to name three examples.
Both kinds of courage and heroism are essential to the survival of a society and civilization.
On June 11, 2018 at 5:52 am, Duke Norfolk said:
Some are just still too naive, and/or unable or unwilling to analyze these things and see where they inevitably lead to.
He’s young, and so naivete’ is definitely a possibility. This is also why looking to these youngsters for supposed wisdom is folly.
So those who jumped on the use of this kid (and others like him) to counter the Parkland Kids are being hoist on their own petard.
On June 11, 2018 at 7:29 am, Fred said:
Kyle Kashuv, future head of the NRA.
On June 11, 2018 at 8:54 am, revjen45 said:
Hero, genius, Nobel Laureate – all are accolades cheapened by becoming participation trophies.
On June 11, 2018 at 11:33 am, moe mensale said:
“FIX NICS is so anti-gun, in fact, that having so much as a speeding ticket on your record gives the government the authority to deny you your right to self defense.”
There’s a world of difference between speeding tickets and criminal convictions with more than 1 year jail time. FIX NICS might be a POS legislation that needs to be fixed but reporters (MSM & otherwise) need to stop perpetuating falsehoods. Even GOA fell for this.
That aside, why do we continue to look to children, of any political sway or mental capacity, for wisdom and guidance in anything? They don’t have any real world experience in dealing with life in general. Sorry but surviving any type of shooting doesn’t qualify you as an expert in anything. Both sides just turn them into useful tools.
On June 11, 2018 at 2:25 pm, ExpatNJ said:
“FIX NICS is so anti-gun … having so much as a speeding ticket … gives the government the authority to deny you your right to self defense.”
I predict great woe unto the politicos who make THAT happen.
On June 12, 2018 at 8:21 am, MarkPA said:
We gun owners are failing to see “NICS” from a productive perspective. What we call “NICS” is, in reality, 2 distinct things: 1) the query/response system FFLs use to get a GO/NO-go respond; and, 2) the database the FBI uses to generate the GO/NO-go response. We “see” only #1; and, our criticisms of it are valid. We fail to “see” #2; and so, we fail to understand its role in the great debate over gun-control.
Our BEST approach to the war-on-guns is to argue in favor of enforcement of “felon-in-posession”. Find, arrest, prosecute and imprison ONLY those who are Prohibited-Persons who have guns. Leave law-abiding citizens and their guns alone. But how do we imagine cops are to distinguish the black-hats from the white-hats? And, do so “instantly” so that we can be on-our-way? Without a system to reveal this distinction we toss our BEST ARGUMENTS out-the-window.
WE the gun-owners need to be first and foremost in the fight to advocate for the most accurate and complete database feasible. And, in this fight, accurate means ACCURATE. Minimize false-positives with just as much vigor as we work to minimize false-negatives. Neither is less important than the other. This is the PR part of the campaign.
The database can’t be any better than the Prohibited-Person law. When the law is flawed the content of the database will be flawed. We know the Prohibited-Person law is flawed. Non-violent felons (and 2-year misdemeanants) should be reformed. The mental-illness criteria is a MESS. Domestic-violence misdemeanors are problematic and need to be reconsidered. Getting OFF-the-list in an expeditious way is horribly neglected. Once gun-owners are seen as advocates of continuous reform of the NICS database we will be in a position to lobby for reform of the Prohibited-Person law.
On June 12, 2018 at 9:27 am, Fred said:
@ Mark, “Felon in Possession” is not biblical and I could probably make an argument than it’s unconstitutional as well.
On June 12, 2018 at 12:58 pm, moe mensale said:
“I predict great woe unto the politicos who make THAT happen.”
@ExpatNJ,
There’s no such provision – loss of gun for speeding tickets – in the proposed law. We can dislike the proposed law but not for what’s not in it.
On June 13, 2018 at 10:31 am, George Lob said:
Like it or not, the the law requires the use of the NICS database. In my view, if we have to use it, let’s make sure it is as accurate and up to date as possible. Why on earth would we want this database to be anything but? The more accurate it is, the easier it will be for all law abiding gun purchasers and concealed carry permit applicants and renewals to go through quickly and without incident. When it’s incomplete and inaccurate, that’s when we have to wait and be inconvenienced.
On June 13, 2018 at 5:44 pm, Ranger said:
The way I look at it, Kyle suffers from the same problem many people point out when talking about Hogg and friends: lack of real world experience and perspective.
He is just a teen-aged kid. He might not realize how flawed the FIX-NICS legislation is, and he might have a bad advisor whispering in his ear. We all know that there are many who purport to be in our camp who have ulterior motives.
That being said, I have no plans to give his opinion any more weight or consideration than I would any other inexperienced youth. With luck, the good people at TPUSA will educate the young man and he will see the error of his ways.
Ranger