Gun Laws & Legislation

Aborting Guns

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By Paul Avallone, Tattoo Zoo Author

Let’s for a moment forget about the pros and cons of President Obama’s new executive actions dealing with “gun control”—whether or not any of the new regulations will work to prohibit a single gun death in America. Save the argument for somewhere else. Rather, the debate should be over executive actions themselves, and how much should we trust a president in having such unilateral power. 

So, let’s take this opportunity for a little thought experiment. Let’s take some of President Obama’s words from his Tuesday address announcing his new executive actions and contrast them to a fictional Republican president two or three years from now—whether that president be Trump or Cruz or Rubio or Bush or even Santorum.

Scene: The West Wing of the White House. Lights. Camera. Action!

Pres Obama: “Every single year, more than 30,000 Americans have their lives cut short by guns. 30,000.”

Pres Republican: “Every single year, more than 1 million Americans have their lives cut short by abortion. One million.”

Pres Obama: “Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost brothers and sisters.”

Pres Republican: “Tens of millions of Americans have lost brothers and sisters, infants who they never got the chance to hold in their arms. And never got the chance to read Dr. Seuss to, or to teach how to ride a bicycle, or to share advice before a first prom.”

Pres Obama: “In Dr. King’s words, we need to feel the ‘fierce urgency of now.’ Because people are dying.”

Pres Republican: “In Dr. King’s words, we need to feel the ‘fierce urgency of now,’ Because babies are dying even before they have a chance to exit the womb.”

Pres Obama. “I believe in the Second Amendment.”

Pres Republican: “I believe in a woman’s right to choose.”

Pres Obama: “It guarantees a right to bear arms.”

Pres Republican: “It guarantees a right to do with one’s own body as a woman would, specifically, with a pregnancy.”

Pres Obama: “But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment.”

Pres Republican: “But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce abortions consistent with the Supreme Court’s upholding a woman’s right to privacy concerning the baby within her womb.”

Pres Obama: “How did we get to the place where people think requiring a comprehensive background check means taking away people’s guns?”

Pres Republican: “How did we get to the place where people think requiring a two-week waiting period before an abortion means taking away a woman’s right to choose?”

Pres Obama: “We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.”

Pres Republican: “We know we can’t stop every abortion. But maybe, when all prospective mothers are required to watch videos of live in-womb fetuses during the mandatory two-week waiting period prior to their medical termination of pregnancy, we could try to stop one abortion, to save one child’s life.”

Pres Obama: “We know that background checks make a difference.”

Pres Republican: “We know that two-week waiting periods and compassionate counseling make a difference.”

Pres Obama: “Meanwhile, since Missouri repealed a law requiring comprehensive background checks and purchase permits, gun deaths have increased to almost 50 percent higher than the national average.”

Pres Republican: “Meanwhile, since the country has sanctioned what amounts to drive-thru abortions, nearly 1 million are performed every year. One million.”

Pres Obama: “The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage.”

Pres Republican: “The abortion lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage.”

Pres Obama: “There are actions within my legal authority that we can take to help reduce gun violence and save more lives—actions that protect our rights and our kids.”

Pres Republican: “There are actions within my legal authority that we can take to help reduce abortions and save more lives—actions that protect our rights and our unborn kids’ lives.”

Pres Obama: “Second Amendment rights are important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. And we have to be able to balance them.”

Pres Republican: “A woman’s right to choose is important, but there are other rights that we care about as well. Like the rights of that innocent baby in a mother’s womb.”

Pres Obama: “Those rights were stripped from first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut. First-graders.”

Pres Republican: “The right to life has been stripped from the unborn, those even more tiny and more innocent and helpless than first-graders. The unborn. Tiny babies.”

Pres Obama: “Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad.” (insert tears here)

Pres Republican: “Every time I think about those tiny babies it gets me mad.” (insert tears here)

Pres Obama: “The gun lobby is loud and it is organized in defense of making it effortless for guns to be available for anybody, any time.”

Pres Republican: “The abortion lobby is loud and it is organized in defense of making it effortless for abortions to be available for anybody, any time, on-demand.”

Pre Obama: “We have to be just as organized in defense of our kids.”

Pres Republican: “We have to be just as organized in defense of our unborn kids.”

Pres Obama: “If we love our kids and care about their prospects, and if we love this country and care about its future, then we can find the courage to do what a sensible country would do.”

Pres Republican: “If we love our unborn kids and care about their prospects, if only for that first breath of air outside the womb, and if we love this country and care about its future, then we can find the courage to do what a moral country would do.”

See, it’s a two-way street. What’s good the goose is good for the gander. Turnabout’s fair play. Tit for tat.  

Today it’s gun rights being slowly stripped down, tomorrow it could just as well be abortion rights stripped down. 

Should any president have this kind of unilateral power to do the stripping down? 

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Former Green Beret and war correspondent Paul Avallone is the author of Tattoo Zoo, a novel of the Afghan War. Sample a short excerpt here.