A Scarlet Letter for Gun Owners

Imagine being a grandfather seeking custody of his grandson. The state says that will be okay, but you'll have to give us the serial numbers of all your guns. A caseworker says, “If you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights.”

You appeal to a court of law, and the judge says, "We know we are violating numerous constitutional rights here, but if you do not comply, we will remove the boy from your home."

That's what happened in Michigan, and it is why the Second Amendment Foundation has filed suit against that state's Department of Health and Human Services. The state prohibits foster parents and adoptive parents from having guns -- a clear violation of constitutional rights -- fully acknowledged by the judge. (Hear from attorney David Sigale this Sunday on Tom Gresham's Gun Talk Radio!)

This kind of branding gun owners as less desirable is part of a larger pattern, where zoning laws treat gun stores as though they were sex shops, and won't allow them near schools. Responsible gun owners and shooters are treated, by law, in ways that other identifiable groups would never stand for. Get a permit for free speech? Have financial services denied through a government program (Operation Choke Point)? Be required to be photographed, fingerprinted, and have a mandatory background check to exercise what clearly is a fundamental right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights?

We simply must challenge every single one of these blatant discriminatory laws and practices, and it takes all of us. It takes the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation, state groups, and individuals -- you and me. It's why I created the Gun Talk Truth Squad more than a decade ago -- so we can challenge each one of these. So we WILL challenge every media slight, smear, and lie. Every. Single. Time.  

A lie left unchallenged becomes the truth.

~Tom

Author, outdoorsman, gun rights activist, and firearms enthusiast for more than five decades, Tom Gresham hosts Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, the first nationally-syndicated radio show about guns and the shooting sports, and is also the producer and co-host of the Guns & Gear, GunVenture and First Person Defender television series.