Joe The Plumber: 'Your Dead Kids Don't Trump My Constitutional Rights' To Have Guns

[Old Fart]

Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, insisted the deaths of innocent people "don't trump" his constitutional rights in an open letter to the families of victims in Friday's shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Wurzelbacher's letter was published on Barbwire Monday, days after one shooting victim's father blamed "craven, irresponsible politicians" and the National Rifle Association for his son's death.

Wurzelbacher said the words of Richard Martinez, whose son Christopher Martinez was a victim in Friday's incident, "will be exploited by gun-grab extremists as are all tragedies involving gun violence and the mentally ill by the anti-Second Amendment Left." The former Congressional candidate told Martinez to "back off."

Wurzelbacher said his letter is directed "only to the families of the gunshot victims in Santa Barbara" and not to the families of three who were stabbed ahead of the shooting spree.

"I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But: As harsh as this sounds -- your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights," Wurzelbacher wrote.

Wurzelbacher acknowledged his comments are "harsh" but claimed pro-gun control activists "don't care about your family or your dead children at all."

"They sound like they do, whereas I sound uncaring and like I say, harsh," Wurzelbacher wrote. "Don’t be fooled – I care about your family and mine. The future of our very liberty lies in the balance of this fight."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/joe-the-plumber-guns_n_5397981.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

 

[Defnestor]

Well, that's gonna be a little unpopular. True, but in this age of no personal responsibility, few will want to understand.

 

[Brandi]

Not sure I would have used that exact wording but he's right. Take a look at Canada, they have no guns (for the most part) and the criminals are still armed. They work very hard to keep that out of the media but it's true. The anti's will argue that the crime rate is much lower in Canada and that's true but it's not low because of guns. The demographics and culture in Canada is much, much different than the US which lends itself to lower crime rates. They don't have the gang problems that we have, they don't have issue of having an almost third world country as a neighbor but what crime they do have is still violent and involves guns. The only difference is most honest citizens don't have their own guns to defend themselves. History has proven that bad people will do bad things with whatever means necessary.

If a bad person wants to kill a group of people and they don't have a gun, they use a knife, a machete, a bomb or drive through them. They don't say "darn it...I don't have a gun...guess I'll just go watch a movie instead of killing those people that I want to kill".

 

[CHenry]

Wow

Sent from outer space or somewhere from my mobile device

 

[subprep]

I don't have a problem with his statement. So what if he worded it harshly, it seems like that is the only language that people can comprehend anymore.

 

[nofearfactor]

^^^ +1...

 

[WessonOil]

Wonder how many of those parents of the dead kids send money to the tobacco companies on a daily basis....

480,000 die each year in the U.S., about 5 million a year worldwide.

http://www.cdc.gov/Tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm

 

[michaeld]

It's true but insensitive the way he did it.

 

[MCVetSteve]

Insensitive? Yes. Necessary? Perhaps.

 

[tulsanewb]

Decorum counts for something in my opinion. No one on the fence or the other side is going to read that and say "you know what, that's a good argument, I had been looking at it all wrong". All this did was make all the gun rights people look cold and uncaring and give the news another sound bite to run with. Regardless of stance, the victims and their families should be shown both empathy and sympathy; that doesn't mean we have to agree and it does not make their stance anymore right or wrong. More and more lately it seems that SOME of the people who say they care the most about the 2nd Amendment are also inadvertantly doing the most damage to its advancement.