YU News
Ted Kennedy, Gun Control: What Chris Matthews Doesn't Understand
By Richard J. Bishirjian
Aug 26, 2009, 11:36

News of the demise of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was the only topic on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning. 

I keep MSNBC on most of the day because programming begins with an interesting mix of former Congressman Joe Scarbrough (R-FL), former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, and an array of New York liberal talking heads, journalists and media executives.  Hosted by Joe and Mika Brezinski, daughter of President Carterï's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brezinski, Morning Joe opens a window into New York City salons and media elites not otherwise visible in three hour daily televised programming.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that Morning Joe begins at 6:00 am Eastern or 4:00 am Mountain time and only insomniacs living past the Ohio River watch the program.  I watch it because the personalities of Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarbrough are forced into a programming mold that requires they be nice to everyone--even those they despise.

"We love" is the common phrase used to introduce obnoxious liberals like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), or windbags like Dan Rather, and once a week Mika and Joe express great excitement as the editor of Time Magazine reveals next week's Time magazine cover.  Such tripe is endured by professional political scientists watching Morning Joe because the program reveals the folkways of a New Class that now commands the heights of corporate America (MSNBC is owned 50/50 by Microsoft and General Electric and Morning Joe is sponsored by Starbucks), cable and network television, print media, book publishing and the near bankrupt New York Times.

At 9:00 am Morning Joe and its entourage of East Side literati is followed by Chris Matthews, which brings me to today's topic, "Ted Kennedy, Gun Control: What Chris Matthews Doesn't Understand."  Matthews, former press secretary to Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil (D-MA), is a partisan loud mouth who is frequently mocked by cartoonists for his slobbering promotion of the Obama candidacy and Administration.  One cartoon featured Matthews hugging President Obama and saying "I want to have your baby."

The cartoonist got the emotion right.  Chris Matthews is a stereotypical liberal Democrat, Irish Catholic, pro abortion, politician with tears and emotions pouring out of every orifice of his body.  Today's emotional rant argued that we must learn from the demise of Sen. Ted Kennedy--referred to throughout MSNBC coverage as "the greatest Senator in the history of the U.S. Senate"--to control hand guns.

Well, that's an interesting theme to raise when the White House pitch for the day is "Pass healthcare legislation to honor Ted Kennedy."  It's also interesting in light of the rush to purchase guns and ammunition by Americans immediately after the election of President Obama.

What's to fear? 

I'm not sure since I haven't owned a gun since I acquired a .22 caliber target rifle when I was thirteen years old.  But, I grew up in a family where my Uncles hunted squirrel, rabbit and deer and brought them home for family meals.

In Colorado per capita gun ownership is very high which caused me to wonder why the Ward Churchill problem wasn't settled long before with a single rifle shot. 

The reason is that in Colorado gun ownership, love of freedom and personal responsibility go together.  Take away a Coloradan's gun and you take away an important part of his citizenship. 

First of all, the Constitution's Second Amendment made gun ownership a civil liberty, so removal of gun ownership is a violation of the Constitution of the United States.  Second, with gun ownership comes responsibility across a range of civic virtues.  Beginning at the store where guns are purchased there is an unwritten rule of civic responsibility that the purchaser will not shoot the merchant who sold him a gun.  When the gun is taken home it is stored in a place where it cannot be reached by children, and it remains empty of ammunition until used.  And the levels of responsibility rise as the gun is carried near others or taken into a public space.

Chris Matthews feels that carrying a gun to a Townhall where Congressmen and Presidents are present is a violation of civic responsibility and common sense.

He has a point.  But ask yourself why is the National Rifle Association popular and why are otherwise normal Americans rushing to buy hand guns, stockpile ammunition and obtaining licenses to carry guns in public?

Does it have anything to do with the rapid change for the worse in the American economy, reckless spending by Republicans and Democrats, the imminent collapse of government entitlement programs, and expectations of historic unemployment and inflation?