I realize that InterMedia Outdoors, the company that publishes Guns & Ammo and co-produced Dick Metcalf's TV show, can censor anything they wish. They have the right to determine what appears in their magazine. But, in this case, it appears that the editors are not the ones determining the content for their readers, it is the gun lobby. It's hard to believe that this is the country we live in. A country espousing democracy, free speech, divergent opinions, and the right to express one's own opinion. Dick Metcalf was simply trying to "work across the aisle" as we want our Congress members to do, and try to come to some sort of rational compromise on the issue of guns in America. For that, he got fired.
"The byline of Dick Metcalf, one of the country’s pre-eminent gun journalists, has gone missing. It has been removed from Guns & Ammo magazine, where his widely-read column once ran on the back page. He no longer stars on a popular television show about firearms. Gun companies have stopped flying him around the world and sending him the latest weapons to review.
In late October, Mr. Metcalf wrote a column that the magazine titled “Let’s Talk Limits,” which debated gun laws. “The fact is,” wrote Mr. Metcalf, who has taught history at Cornell and Yale, “all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be.”
In the column that led to his dismissal, he said that too many gun owners believed that the constitution prohibits any regulation of firearms. He noted that all rights are regulated, like freedom of speech. “You cannot falsely and deliberately shout, ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater,” he wrote.
“The question is, when does regulation become infringement?” he continued. Mr. Metcalf ended the column arguing that requiring 16 hours of training to qualify for a concealed carry license was not an infringement."
No comments:
Post a Comment