Sex and Guns

By Gerard Valentino

(This commentary has also been published at CNSNews.com)

When abstinence is floated as a way to keep teenagers from having unwanted pregnancies, the left is openly scornful of the idea. Liberals claim that sex-education and familiarity with contraception are the only viable way to teach teenagers to practice safe sex. They argue that kids are going to have sex so it is important to teach them how to avoid the pitfalls involved with irresponsible behavior.

Liberals preach education as the answer for a host of other social ills as well, including discrimination, sexism and environmental issues.

Funny, however, that the only problem liberals refuse to attack with so-called education are accidental gun deaths among children. When it comes to guns, liberals and anti-gun groups, are unwilling to discuss how educating children can lead to a decrease in the very type of accident they use to justify their existence.

Currently, Ohio is considering a bill that would offer gun safety training as part of the high school curriculum. While pro-gun groups are quick to praise such a move as a way to decrease gun accidents through education, anti-gun leftists are already using their tired propaganda in opposition of the bill.

They claim that teaching gun-safety in schools will push a pro-gun culture on unsuspecting students. Yet, at the same time liberals claim that teaching sex-education with mentioning abstinence won’t teach a culture of promiscuity among high-school students.

The question at hand isn’t whether people agree with how sex-education is being taught in schools. It is simply a useful example of how the liberal anti-gun movement continues to fight their losing battle against guns with blinders on, completely unaware that they are becoming a political laughing-stock.

Pro-gun advocates have for years claimed that groups like the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence are not interested in pushing gun-safety and decreasing gun accidents, but instead have only one goal – total gun confiscation.

Their decision to oppose a current proposal to teach gun-safety in high schools proves that pro-gun advocates are correct.

Liberal anti-gun groups, and their cohorts in the establishment media, are blinded by an emotional hatred of guns to such an extent that they would oppose a program designed to achieve their claimed goal of making kids safer. They won’t admit that if gun accidents are reduced it takes away their biggest public relations bonanza.

The liberal anti-gun reaction to such programs is actually a public relations win for the pro-gun movement because the American public is smart enough to see that anyone who truly wants a decrease in accidental gun deaths should support teaching gun-safety in schools.

Only the help of the establishment media keeps the anti-gun movement afloat by giving credence to the otherwise discredited studies and statistics bandied about by groups determined to confiscate guns. The establishment media also fails to point out the hypocrisy of how liberals recommend sex-education as a way to stop teen pregnancy, but refuse to accept gun-safety education as a way to stop teens from accidentally shooting each other.

The anti-gun movement has seen its power and credibility wane as gun-control laws have failed to bring about a violence free nirvana as promised. Legal concealed-carry put more guns on the street without a corresponding increase in crime which further damaged the argument that guns are at the root of crime. Now, in desperation they steadfastly refuse to accept that properly educating children on the dangers of guns is just another example of how far they will go further tragedy - and then exploit it.

They are terrified because they know that as people become educated about guns, and the gun issue, it will further expose their duplicity. A great example is how the anti-gunners use the absurd assertion that the definition of children includes anyone to the age of 25 when it comes to statistics on gun deaths, including suicides. But they are unwilling to care for children when it would really matter due to the fact that it would hurt their message.

Gun-safety programs in schools will save lives, and to steal a line from the anti-gun movement, if only one life is saved by such a program they are worth implementing.

Gerard Valentino is the Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair, BuckeyeFirearms.org, and writes for the ValentinoChronicle.com