The BBC today describes Piers Morgan as facing a "backlash" for his commentaries on the Second Amendment, reporting that a Whitehouse.gov petition demands Morgan's removal from the US. To wit,
British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.
It's difficult for me to take Second Amendment supporters seriously anymore, although a deeply visceral part of me hopes that the White House responds with a simple "STFU." (Yeah, I know, not very presidential :) ). Regardless, this simply continues a long-seen trend where those who are unwilling - or unable - to make a case for why individuals should have nearly unrestricted access to weapons whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of human beings in a short amount of time instead seek to silence their opponents. Of course, the irony of advocates seeking improper retaliation against an individual for exercising their First Amendment rights to speech is not lost on me, but Second Amendment supporters seem to think that they can force their views on every American.
In reality, they already force those views daily on Americans who live in the shadow of gun violence, be it a simple mugging gone wrong, the astonishing rates of suicide by firearm in the United States, the ambush of emergency responders in Rochester, NY, or 20 young children in Connecticut who had no holidays this year nor any other year in the future that should have been ahead of them.
4:13 PM PT: Sorry for not being able to stick around, folks, got called away for family stuff for the day. Am tending now as I can :).