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On the House Floor
This week, the House passed H.R. 1495, the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 by a vote of 394 to 25. It authorizes Army Corps of Engineers civil works -- including flood control, navigation, and environmental restoration projects. The House also approved H.R. 1905, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act by a margin of 241 to 177. This bill would grant Washington, DC, one voting member in the House, rather than the non-voting delegate that has always represented it. The legislation would also create another House seat, bringing the total up to 436.
No Easy Answers
The unthinkable atrocity committed on the campus of Virginia Tech this week invokes many responses – sadness, anger, outrage. For some, it also offers convincing proof that more laws limiting access to firearms are needed to protect innocent people from unexpected massacre. While this would seem the easy answer on the surface, it ignores two compelling realities. First, ramped up gun control impinges on the human freedom exercised responsibly by the overwhelming majority of Americans. Second, it simply does not work.
American universities are supposed to be microcosms of our society at large, wherein the free exchange of ideas, liberty of movement, and freedom of assembly are practiced. In such an environment, people act with the assumption that others respect basic rights as well. Ultimately, it is impossible to maintain institutions of democracy and free enterprise when enough people refuse to or are prevented from accepting the inherent risks of freedom. Specifically, restricting the people at large from exercising their right to bear firearms, whether for sport or self defense, sacrifices the good of the many in order to protect against the evil of the very few. But to make matters worse, this surrender of liberty is all for naught because it simply does not lead to a safer campus, community, or country. Gun bans at malls, colleges, and cities did not prevent the random murder of five shoppers at the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City, the slaughter of 32 at Virginia Tech, or the rampant homicide problem infesting the District of Columbia. In each of these “gun-free zones” evil people were able to commit evil acts, despite the best intentions of the decision makers who imposed these supposed safeguards.
Ironically, the Commonwealth of Virginia is a model for implementing workable means of handling gun crime. As the home of Project Exile, a program that has imposed stiffer penalties for gun crimes and expedited gun cases, it has found a way to deal with the illegal use of firearms all the while respecting constitutional rights. Nevertheless, one deranged man found a way to do the worst. While there are no easy answers to the violence that too often plays out on the nightly news, one thing is certain. We must resist a knee-jerk response calling for stricter, ineffective gun control laws.
Banning Barbarism
Finally! Congress had to pass legislation several times under President Clinton, and again under President Bush before a ban on partial-birth abortion was enacted. And this week, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the prohibition on this barbaric procedure with a landmark ruling.
The practice, overwhelming opposed by a majority of Americans, is a method of late-term abortion in which the abortionist dilates the mother’s cervix, extracts the baby’s body by the feet until all but the head has been delivered, punctures the head, sucks out the baby’s brain, collapses the baby’s skull, and then delivers the dead baby. Sadly, this occurs 5,000 times per year in America – until now.
Whether one upholds the absolute sanctity of human life or believes a pregnant woman has the right to abort her baby, there is a broad consensus that partial-birth abortion does not belong in civilized society. Fortunately, the Supreme Court recognized this in upholding a key decision reached through the process of representative government.
Quote of the Week
“Mass killings were rare when guns were easily available, while they have been increasing as guns have become more controlled.” – Quebec economist Pierre Lemieux, Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2007.
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