Condi: Gun Rights As Important as Free Speech
Written by Mark Harris on May 12th, 2005Can I get an Amen! We’ll see how mushy/maliable she is, but the one thing is now that she’s talking issues I would say she’s considering running for President. In a race between her and Giulani, ack. I just hope someone gets to her about the life issue, if she was pro-life then this might be feasible, but still I am with Alex on pulling for Mike Pence (or Herman Cain or Pat Toomey).
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South, said Wednesday the constitutional right of Americans to own guns is as important as their rights to free speech and religion.
In an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Rice said she came to that view from personal experience. She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defended the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.
Birmingham, where Rice was born in 1954, was a focal point of racial tension. Four black girls were killed when a bomb exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963, a galvanizing moment in the fight for civil rights.
Rice said she favored background checks and controls at gun shows. However, she added, “we have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that the Founding Fathers thought very important.”
Rice said the Founding Fathers understood “there might be circumstances that people like my father experienced in Birmingham, Ala., when, in fact, the police weren’t going to protect you.”
“I also don’t think we get to pick and choose from the Constitution,” she said in the interview, which was taped for airing Wednesday night. “The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment.”
The First Amendment protects religious, press and speech freedoms as well as the rights to assemble and petition the government. The Second Amendment guarantees “a well-regulated militia” and “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Gun-rights supporters and those who favor gun control disagree over whether the amendment guarantees individual gun ownership.
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I’d also like to have her take an explained position on where she stands on the abortion issue. But in light of a judge overturning Nebraska’s ban on same-sex marriage, there’s a host of issues I’d like to see her take a stance on.
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As I recall, Condi said she’s “mildy pro-choice.” She supports the laws President Bush signed on abortion restrictions and protecting the unborn and also believes taxpayers, out of respect for personal views, should not be forced to have their tax dollars spent on abortion. However, she says she’s ultimately pro-choice, but believes strongly women should pursue all the other alternatives to abortion.
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I commend her for not being one of those abortion-on-demand wackos, but still would be very reluctant to support her candidacy for president for being pro-choice.
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Hasn’t she basically said the only job she wants after Bush is out of office is to serve as NFL Commissioner?
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Peter,
That mildly pro-choice shtick is in fact a reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that have given us abortion on demand we have today: kill during all nine months for any “health” (i.e. emotional, financial, psychological, familial “health”) reason.
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Yes, Andrew that is correct. I think we see Condi head up the NFL after her stint with Bush ends in ‘08. Paul T. can’t last that long can he?
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Good point John.
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Might one say, ironically, that being mildly pro-choice is like being mildly pregnant?
As my high school math teacher used to say: close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and pregnancy….
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