CDC Adds One More Freedom Control

In Gun Talk articles, I have written about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is adding ways to control firearms. Now it’s free speech.

CDC has come out with a guide for how we are all to speak and write. Find this on the website titled, “Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups & Communities.” Take a look to be sure you do not offend anyone with how you should speak and write. Unfortunately, I did not find a “preferred term” for “gun owner” or “firearms enthusiast.”

I read George Orwell’s book, 1984, years ago and found the term “newspeak” interesting. I also watched the movie several times.

One definition of the term is:

“Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian super state that is the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. In the novel, the Party created Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements of Ingsoc (English Socialism) in Oceania.

Newspeak is a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual's ability to think and articulate "subversive" concepts such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will. The word Newspeak is sometimes used in contemporary political debate as an allegation that one tries to introduce new meanings of words to suit one's agenda.”

Keep in mind CDC’s primary mission on its website is:

“CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.”

As the arm of the U.S. government tasked with disease control and prevention, CDC seems now to have its focus placed on wrong-speak as it discourages the use of some words believed to hurt people’s feelings.

CDC’s latest move goes right along with federal and military efforts to force the use of gender pronouns to be “woke,” politically correct, and not offend anyone. Sorry, but telling me what words I can use defeats the purpose of the First Amendment, and that offends me. But as we have seen, both the First and Second Amendment are current targets.

So what does all this mean for gun owners and Gun Talk readers?

CDC tells us terms like “prisoner,” “inmate,” “criminal,” “parolee,” “detainee,” “convict,” or “ex-convict’” can wreak mental havoc on people who are incarcerated. Instead, it recommends longer versions of the terms like “people/persons who are incarcerated or detained,” “persons in pre-trial or with charge,” “persons on parole or probation,” or “people who were formerly incarcerated.”

Having worked in law enforcement, I’ve never been worried about creating mental havoc on a criminal. The Cornell Legal Information Institute defines “criminal” as “a popular term used for a person who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime. Criminal also means being connected with a crime.”

Apparently CDC’s newspeak is reworking our “acceptable” vocabulary. But as one article pointed out:

“The CDC’s focus on political correctness begs questions of whether the organization is attempting to regain the credibility it lost to communication failures and more consequential errors during the pandemic.”

My current worry is that I am stigmatized already being "a gun owner," thanks to the CDC, politicians, multiple agencies and organizations. And I know many liberals probably despise me, making me feel unhappy and guilty of “stigmatizing” them. Oh yeah.

I hope some Gun Talk readers will share my stigmatized feelings, and perhaps my guilt. But to describe the importance of the Second-Amendment in America (this also is not an acceptable word now), we do at times have to offend someone.

Colorado State University, where I worked in the late ‘60s, in its Inclusive Language Guide, instructed students in 2019 to avoid using the words “America” and “American” because doing so “erases other cultures.” This goes on everywhere it seems. Isn’t renaming military forts and facilities to be “politically correct” and removing historical statues erasing culture and history as well?

Sadly, today we see gun control and speech control similarly working to restrict our rights, and too many governmental agencies, including the CDC, support this trend.

And to stay on top of gun-control news, on Jan. 10, Illinois became the ninth U.S. state to ban the sale or possession of assault weapons, including some semiautomatic firearms, along with high-capacity magazines and rapid-firing devices. Owners of now-restricted weapons must register with state police. Are there any Gun Talk readers in Illinois who just became “criminals?”

As a follow-up note to my Jan. 12 article on “Will 2023 Be a Happy New Year?” and the Omnibus Bill, I did receive replies from two of my Congressmen’s legislative aides.

One U.S. senator’s aide wrote: “However, I am pleased this deal restrains federal spending well below demands from the Biden Administration while blocking far-left policies, such as those that would restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.” Too bad the senator apparently did not see the 12 anti-Second Amendment measures in the bill he voted to pass.

My U.S. representative’s aide did not bother to address the Second-Amendment, but did add “When the Third District first elected me to serve in Congress, I promised to be a fiscally conservative lawmaker – and I have upheld that promise.” I guess spending another $1.7 trillion taxpayer dollars is “fiscally conservative.”

I do wonder if the CDC’s “preferred terms” address “politician?”  I am offended by the replies I received from mine.

To help us Stay safe, be prepared, in future Gun Talk articles I may, or may not, exercise due care not to stigmatize or offend any woke folk with my “subversive” pro-gun writing. ~ Mike

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Mike Sampson
Mike now calls Northwestern Arkansas home, but has lived and worked in several states and internationally. He has been an independent contractor and consultant since 2006 specializing in risk management, emergency management and training. In addition to work as a law-enforcement planner and technical writer with the Boise, Idaho, Police Department, he has experience in journalism, crop and animal agriculture, dryland farming for 20 years in western Kansas, plant and animal diseases, pandemic influenza, agroterrorism, bioterrorism, food safety and healthcare marketing.

He has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri and has newspaper and agency writing and editing experience. At Washington State University in Pullman, he earned a master’s degree emphasizing adult education and communications.

While living in Lander, WY, Mike provided photographic coverage of the One-Shot Antelope Hunt for three years, and got to meet and accompany folks such as Chuck Yeager, Carroll Shelby, Buzz Aldrin, Dale Robertson and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf on their hunts. He also worked as an outfitter’s guide.

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