There are things that I don't think you should do, even if I'll defend your right to do them. I don't see this as a contradiction, either. To me, it's simply a matter of there being a difference between "should" and "can." When you start regulating what people can do, that's a slippery slope that doesn't stop easily. Saying people shouldn't do something is different.
That matters because a case of people doing what they can do, but maybe not what they should do, has people at the University of Florida freaking out.
Editor’s note: This story contains mentions of gun violence.
Yael Weinfeld was in sixth grade when a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, right across the street from her middle school.
Less than a decade later, the 20-year-old UF public relations major was once again within a mile of an automatic rifle.
Earlier this month, two men were seen walking along University Avenue beside UF campus, openly carrying rifles to raise awareness about gun rights in Florida.
Weinfeld said she couldn’t help but feel anxious when she heard the news.
“You're immediately thinking of what your next steps would be and how you could be safe and make sure that your loved ones are safe,” Weinfeld said.
After graduating middle school, Weinfeld attended Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, and after growing up in a community heavily impacted by gun violence, she found the Sept. 9 demonstration distasteful.
“I just thought it was not appropriate, especially considering that at UF, there are so many people who are from Parkland,” she said
So someone who wasn't even enrolled at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High at the time of the shooting is pretending that her attendance at that school somehow means she's suffered trauma and the entire state of Florida should just bend the knee? Really?
Look, walking with long guns on the sidewalk beside the school is probably not the best way to win friends and influence people. I've never been a fan of this kind of performative activism.
However, I also need to tell people, including Weinfeld, to grow up and accept that people can do all kinds of things you think are awful. They're not.
See, guns are a part of the world. Here in the United States, we have a right to keep and bear arms. Bearing arms means carrying them, including the public sidewalk next to a university, where a lot of people seem to think they shouldn't be permitted.
I don't generally agree with the whole idea of "auditing" by going somewhere that you know will create a stir, even if it's technically legal. There's a place for it, though. In this case, if it's done nothing else, it's managed to expose just how irrational people are about seeing a firearm. Again, there were no aggressive actions reported, and while I get maybe keeping an eye on someone like that, it's well past time for alleged adults to grow the hell up if they want to be taken seriously.
That includes not acting like a victim simply because something awful happened at your high school years before you were a student.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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