In the last few days, I’ve wondered if there is anything which we all agree on.<\/p>\n
Surely we all agree that the murder of innocents is wrong and that we should strive to prevent it.\u00a0Where does the conversation break down?<\/p>\n
Guns.<\/p>\n
I own a shotgun, for sport rather than self-defense, but\u00a0I do keep\u00a0it within reach in those places where I’m likely to\u00a0encounter a rattlesnake. Or a zombie.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0a general principle I don’t oppose allowing\u00a0sane, responsible adults to own guns – if\u00a0they have a reason to do so, and know how to care for and use them safely. I know many people who hunt for their food, and I\u00a0don’t see how anyone can argue against their right to do that.<\/p>\n
Yet I’m bewildered that the slightest mention of putting any sort of control around the possession of guns – even something relatively innocuous, such as renewing the ban on\u00a0assault weapons, registering gun ownership, or requiring liability insurance – cannot be calmly discussed in public forums. Instead, it gets stirred into a vicious debate where neither side is listening.<\/p>\n
The need to have restrictions on ownership and use of a lethal weapon is just plain common sense.<\/p>\n
We have to air\u00a0all the voices in this debate – and everyone needs to listen.<\/p>\n Those who want to ban all guns need to listen closely to those who say “Just try to take my gun<\/a> from me.” Those who love guns need to listen carefully to the anguished voices of the widows and parents\u00a0of those who are killed<\/a> by firearms.<\/p>\n But above all, when the people DO agree – such as on background checks<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0for gun purchases<\/a> – their elected representatives must\u00a0listen to them.<\/p>\n Not listen to the campaign contributions<\/a> of gun manufacturers<\/a> or the NRA<\/a>.<\/p>\n Because associations and corporations are not citizens.<\/p>\n From many, one.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the penny was redesigned in 2009-10, the new reverse side featured a shield. The slogan E pluribus unum\u00a0– “from many, one” – became larger. In the last few days, I’ve wondered if there is anything which we all agree on. Surely we all agree that the murder of innocents is wrong and that … read more Day 56: E pluribus unum<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[36,197,196,199,198,194,195],"class_list":["post-4947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-refraction","tag-36","tag-america","tag-guns","tag-lobbying","tag-politics","tag-slogan","tag-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4947"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5388,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947\/revisions\/5388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2015\"](\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/e-pluribus-unum-8823.jpg\")
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