I don't post a diary often. There's a reason for that, and it relates directly with the rancor that boils over on certain issues. I'm sure that will be true of this diary, too, and I'll end up regretting it; but after seething for three days over the Zimmerman verdict, I can't ignore the compulsion to say something about guns that is ignored by both sides of the political argument:
Every right carries with it a responsibility.
Every right, no matter how fundamental or elementally human, must be fully and naturally counter-balanced by a responsibility of equal weight.
The right to free speech isn't unfettered. I cannot yell, "Fire!" in a crowded theatre - in other words, I can't create a danger to another person's well-being with my words. Neither can you. Likewise, my right to freely practice a religion doesn't allow me to throw virgins into a volcano.
A "right," separated from responsibility, transforms into a privilege. Once we begin to conflate privilege with rights, we are surely lost. So it is with guns.
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