Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

Much has been made in the mainstream media the past few days, of an exchange between Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Texas' new U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
The exchange was during a committee hearing regarding Feinstein's proposal to ban certain firearms and high capacity magazines.

To those who haven't seen the exchange, here it is in a nutshell: Cruz asked Feinstein if she would make exceptions to other amendments in the Bill of Rights, like limiting which books we can read under free speech regulations. Feinstein replied that she was "not a sixth grader" and that, while not a lawyer, she understood the Constitution and didn't need a lecture from Cruz. She feigned being offended to the max, all while never addressing Cruz's legitimate question.

Feinstein's hissy fit made for good television and thus, predictably, the media focused solely on that exchange. There was another moment however, while quieter and gentler, screamed much louder and speaks many more volumes.

Towards the end of the exchange, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pipes up and says "none of these rights are absolute."

Wow.

Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote our nation's Declaration of Indepen-dence, thought otherwise. He declared in that document that there are certain inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that are only endowed by our Creator. In other words, those rights are natural and absolute – not given by man or governments, but rather we are born with them.

He also stated that: "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated, but with his wrath?"

Other's have said that there are no absolute rights and they even point to a Jefferson quote as proof, when he said: "All natural rights may be abridged or modified in their exercise by law." They use this quote to justify laws that trample individual freedoms, or limit those freedoms. They are wrong.

I believe what Jefferson meant was that when one's exercise of their natural rights tramples basic human morals, or the natural and absolute rights of others (i.e. murder, rape, pillage, etc.) then the people as a whole (government) has a right to step in and take that offenders rights away via prison, death sentence and other means. What it does not mean is that government has a right to limit other citizens rights, merely because someone may or may not do something in the future.

To say something as Durbin did either shows a complete lack of judgment, or a lack of common sense – neither of which is needed in the upper chamber of our legislative body.

The belief that no rights are absolute, is a belief that leads to tyranny.

Many folks will pass that statement off as paranoia, or as hysteria. However, while it is my belief that many who come down on the side of Feinstein's bill, or that discounted Rand Paul's fillibuster are wrong, I do not doubt their sincerity, their passion or their belief that these measures will keep others safe. I do, however, doubt those that will come later and still have these powers and I am not willing to sacrifice this nation's ideals or principles in the name of a little safety and security now.

It's too big of a slippery slope. After all, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry expressed outrage Wednesday at the president's plan to curb gun violence, saying he's "disgusted" by the "political left" using the Connecticut school massacre to push for greater restrictions on guns and that the Second Amendment trumps Barack Obama or any other president.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Magnolia High School's Ben Hudson (left) and Jacquline Mears(right) took part in a national discussion on gun control, moderated by Hari Sreenivasan of the PBS show Newshour. They are two of eight students selected nationally to take part in the discussion. The report is expected to air on PBS sometime next week.

My father would have celebrated his 59th birthday Feb. 7. I have been trying to think of a way to honor him in these pages, to a group of readers that didn't know him at all. How do I explain a man that still means everything to his family, even though he has been gone for nearly a decade?

Then it occurred to me. I could have been Adam Lanza, had it not been for my father.

I don't write that for shock value, nor do I write that to draw attention. I write that because it is true.

You see, I was a lot like Adam growing up, kind of an outcast – the kid with the brains, but scrawny and awkward. The kid that had glasses as big as his head and big dumbo ears. The kid that got straight A's without even trying.

I was picked on, made fun of, pushed, punched, kicked and laughed at from the time I started kindergarten. I never pushed back, never lashed out – I just quietly performed in school and even got into the gifted kids class.

Yeah, the bullying bothered me, but I tried not to let it show. I still had friends, rode bikes, played baseball and basketball and had a typical early childhood. I had a family that loved each other and parents who saw something special in me.

Did I get upset? Of course. I even remember a time in elementary a kid brought a gun to school, because he was being picked on. I remember understanding why he did it, but the thought never crossed my mind to do it as well.

Then something changed. Something happened inside of me. I started talking back to nearly every adult, my grades started slipping and I became bitter. I lashed out at my parents. I closed off from other kids and kind of withdrew into my own world. I now know that part of it was because we all were changing. Hormones and liking girls replaced riding bikes and throwing rocks into the woods. I was that nerdy, awkward kid that none of the girls liked. I was alone.

I very easily could have spiraled out of control, but I didn't. My father was a big, strong guy that was the cool kid in school, yet he always told me I was better than him, smarter than him and could do whatever I wanted in life.

Both of my parents continued to push right and wrong in me. They encouraged me to get involved in debate and the school newspaper. With their help and encouragement I eventually regained some of that confidence and started to do better, started to become me.

I also grew up in a household that had a lot of guns. My father was a self-taught gunsmith. He taught me to respect what these weapons can do in the wrong hands and raised me to be a person that never had those kind of hands. I don't ever remember thinking about grabbing one of those guns and getting revenge on those that tormented me.
I very easily could have though, had it not been for my father teaching me that vengeance doesn't equate to justice - that my justice would come at the end of my life. The end of my father's earthly life reinforced that. He had hundreds of people show up to both his visitation/wake and his funeral. The county courthouse closed and flew its flags at half staff (he was the county's clerk of the circuit court).

My father was my hero. He loved guns. He loved his wife. He loved his daughter. He loved his son. He loved people.

The talk about gun violence following the Newtown shooting is justified, but my father would have been upset with the tone and direction. He would have said something that people have ridiculed as ignorant bumper sticker talk – that it wasn't the guns that killed, it was a sick, broken and troubled young man that did.

He would have said that the talk needs to be about parenting, bullying and mental health – all of which are lagging or downright broken in today's society.

He would have said to fix the real problems, without blaming the tools used.

He would have been right and I am living proof.

Dear Editor,

Please allow me to give the counter to Professor Kyle Scott's view on stopping gun control.
We all have to hear the "Wild West" appeal that if we are all armed with guns we'll be safe. If the deranged person isn't armed with a gun, he'll just use a knife, as we have seen at Lone Star College. And yet, most knifes are legally carried most anywhere, just as the perpetrator of the stabbings did. But there was no one stopping him with their "legitimate" knife. Fourteen people were injured, not killed and I bet he could have shot faster than he stabbed.
Yes, it does seem odd that one must employ terrible pictures and bereaved parents for building support for gun control. But watch and see for yourself as conservative legislatures act as if they are having some kind of epiphany.
Thank God the Lone Star stabber didn't have a gun, or the Batman theatre shooter didn't have a bazooka, or Timothy McVey didn't have a nuclear device. Addressing the limits of our constitutional rights and freedoms is a "Slippery slope" that must be accepted.
Finally, pretending that you would defend your home and family with anything other than a shotgun is as misinformed as Professor Kyle Scott's idea that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

Bill Myers
Tomball