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Gun Rights in the Age of Feelings

Written by Philip Mulivor
Sunday, 19 February 2012 09:04

Afterthoughts on the Starbucks Buy-cott

I just looked all through the Constitution—again—and I couldn't find anything that says people have a right to "feel safe."

That's why I'm sick of those smirking gun prohibitionists who, like naughty schoolboys, keep trying to sneak the "right to feel safe" up alongside the Second Amendment. We saw a lot of this foolishness during the recent Starbucks Buy-cott. But no matter what kind of costume and makeup you put on the "right to feel safe" argument, you can't push it out on the same stage as the U.S. Constitution and modern Second Amendment jurisprudence.

Of course, that didn't stop the gun-phobic media from using this tired template in their Starbucks stories:

As a policy, Starbucks does not impose restrictions beyond the gun laws in effect at their various stores. If the law permits concealed carry, that's the rule in Starbucks.

"That's crazy," said Grabby Flincher, a regular customer at the Big Mall Starbucks in Townsville. "I have a right to feel safe while I sit and drink my coffee."

Well, no, you don't. No such right, no such law. It's just something you made up, because you've been taught that your feelings are what count the most, at all times and in all places.

Look—it's not our fault that your teachers never corrected your work with a red pen, and that every kid on your soccer team, including the one that sat out the season with a leg cast, got a "most valuable player" certificate. It's also not our fault that you've been taught to "follow your heart," and "obey your feelings."

We're sorry that you internalized all that public-school nonsense and that your parents never managed to straighten it out.

But don't make it our problem. Once and for all, Grabby: You have no right to "feel safe," just as you have no right to "feel happy." (The Declaration of Independence did, however, mention your right to pursue happiness. Maybe you should also pursue safety and carry a gun.)

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Philip Mulivor is a coordinator for Ohioans for Concealed Carry and author of Proclaiming Liberty: What Patriots and Heroes Really Said about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.



Uploaded: 2/26/2012