7 Points a Virginia Lawmaker Made in a Speech on Guns That Went Viral

From The Daily Signal.com (Mar. 7):

An Iraq combat veteran is getting attention for a fiery speech to fellow members of the Virginia House of Delegates defending the Second Amendment and its supporters. 

Delegate Nick Freitas, a Republican elected in 2016 to represent Culpeper, Madison, and Orange counties, is a business consultant and former Green Beret who served two combat tours in Iraq.

After asking permission to make remarks on the House floor, Freitas spoke for seven minutes March 2. A video of his speech went viral after the lawmaker shared it on his Facebook page, and now has more than 13 million views.

Here are seven highlights of his points:

1.  Find Out If Gun-Free Zones Work

“Wouldn’t it be reasonable to test whether or not the efficacy of gun-free zones [has] actually achieved what their intended intent is?” Freitas asked.

2. Understand the Second Amendment

The Second Amendment right to bear arms does not come from a “base philosophical conviction,” Freitas said, but instead “is rooted in the idea that while we may be a post-Enlightenment society, the vast majority of horrible atrocities that we’ve seen have happened in those post-Enlightenment societies.”

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3. Make Self-Defense Possible

Guns are a powerful deterrent, Freitas said, and self-defense isn’t limited only to circumstances where a perpetrator ends up killed or wounded.

Americans hold the Second Amendment in “high esteem,” he said, “because we honestly believe that you have an inherent right to defend yourself.”

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4. Consider Arming Teachers

Freitas said he agrees with lawmakers who are pushing for teachers to be armed.

“Not every teacher,” he said. “But a teacher that is comfortable with it, is former law enforcement, is former military, that is now in the classroom.”

5. Stop Calling Him a Nazi and Segregationist

Political opponents have called him a Nazi and a segregationist, Freitas said in his speech.

“It was not our party that supported slavery, that fought women’s suffrage, that rounded up tens of thousands of Asian-Americans and put them in concentration camps, that supported Jim Crow, that supported segregation or supported mass resistance,” Freitas said. “That wasn’t our party. That was the Democrat Party.”

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6. Continue the Dialogue With Mutual Respect

Mutual respect, Freitas said, is key to developing solutions that work and coming to agreements.

“It starts with a certain degree of not assuming that the only reason why we believe in the Second Amendment is because the NRA paid us off, he said, adding:

If that’s the sort of logic you want to use, why don’t you go take a look at how much money the NRA spends and how much money Planned Parenthood spends? When I get here and talk about abortion, I don’t assume that you’re all bought and paid for by Planned Parenthood. I don’t assume you’re horrible people because I disagree with you on a policy position.

7.  Admit Government Failed in Parkland Shooting

In his last point, Freitas reflected on the Feb. 14 massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

“We are going to have a problem with so-called solutions which infringe on people’s liberty under the promise that government will provide for their security,” he said.

“Because ultimately in this last school shooting we had a perfect example of government being engaged over 30 times and still failing to provide security for those students.” [read more]

Good points. I don’t think “Gun free” zones work. It tells would-be killers that everyone in the building is an open target. A sign that says: ‘Guess which school staffers are trained, and carrying concealed weapons.” as a Mallard Fillmore cartoon suggests would be better. Or even “You will not murder.” a sign suggested by the American Family Association. Although this last suggestion would probably be objected to by the ACLU on the separation-of-church-and-state grounds. The far-Left would probably object to the first suggested because it might upset some snowflakes. Who knows.