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Originally published in the November 29, 2004 issue of the Alamance Independent
NRA SHOULD OPPOSE OPEN BORDERS (OR KISS SECOND AMENDMENT GOODBYE)
By Mark Andrew Dwyer - 12/2/04The National Rifle Association is a 4 million member-strong organization, with a $200 millions annual budget, that made the defense of constitutional Right of the people to Keep and Bear Arms its foremost goal. It has been NRA's tradition to not interfere with matters that were not directly related, at least in NRA leadership's opinion, to the RKBA. In particular, the NRA steers clear from issues related to border enforcement and immigration. And that's very unfortunate because immigrating masses of aliens that are incompatible with norms and principles America has been built upon pose a serious threat to individual freedoms and rights, including the RKBA, that this country so generously offers (or acknowledges, if you prefer) to its all residents.
Recent events during deer hunting season in Wisconsin (see [1]) that led to tragic deaths of six innocent people taught us a lesson that the NRA cannot afford to ignore. Chai Vang, a Hmong immigrant from Laos, apparently upset with several people asking him out of a private property that he trespassed while deer hunting, shot and killed six and wounded two others. Although reporters were quick to claim that this tragedy was not caused by Vang's cultural or ethnic identity, it's hard to imagine an American-born hunter committing this kind of atrocity.
Safety precautions and responsible firearm handling have been one of the foremost concerns of generations of American hunters and their organizations, including the NRA, which resulted in today's culture of hunting responsibility. Although accidents do happen, judging from the news, it's statistically easier to get shot in a school, church, or post office, than on a hunting trial. Hmong, on the other hand, are known of their cultural separateness. They, apparently, don't think of private property right as something that would stop them pursuing a game during a hunting season. (There were, reportedly, clashes between American and Hmong hunters in the past.) They have been well known for living up to their own, and not American, norms, and there is no reason to assume that Vang was different. (A woman Vang lived with described herself as his "cultural wife".) And all this American emphasis on safety and responsibility must have looked like a gross exaggeration to them. Vang's apparent lack of generations of cultural conditioning, as well as his sense of ethnic identity, made pulling the trigger easier for him. After all, a firearm's purpose is to shoot and not to be kept unloaded or pointed in a safe direction. So why bother with thinking about the consequences?
Well, the problem is that the self-restraining attitude of law-abiding Americans who own firearms is not just their courtesy for the society but a matter of survival for their right to keep and bear arms. For there is a vocal lobby of journalists and political activists in this country who can't wait until next tragedy, like the infamous Columbine shooting, gives them another chance to cry that Americans are not to be trusted with firearms and that all guns have to be banned. Several influential U.S. lawmakers already have a blueprint of such a ban and are just waiting for a suitable opportunity. Few more unassimilated Vangs, more innocent lives tragically lost, and a law that would outlaw semiautomatic hunting rifles is a sure thing to happen. It would have been much better for the victims and for those of us who believe in the RKBA if Vang stayed where he was born.
All American organizations that sincerely and unreservedly support individual rights as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights should unite in their efforts to stop gradual erosion of these rights. They should recognize that in today's overcrowded world that year after year adds to its population some 80 million people, a vast majority of who were born in societies that are strangers to American self-restrain and honesty-based individualism, secure borders and a highly selective (if any) immigration are necessary conditions for free America. We cannot continue, indefinitely, with the American Way without shielding this nation from billions that reject our values, our norms, and our culture. When the borders are wide open, masses of unassimilating aliens are in and our cherished freedoms and liberties are out. I wish NRA's leadership realized that before we kiss Second Amendment goodbye.
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