Last week Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman wrote a guest commentary for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch titled \u201cLet\u2019s Talk About Guns.\u201d\u00a0 Fed up with ongoing massacres such as those that have occurred at Columbine, Tucson, Virginia Tech, and Aurora, Rep. Newman described the influence of the NRA in Jefferson City and called for sensible gun control legislation, which she has worked for since the Million Mom March in 2000.<\/p>\n

Her commentary was posted in the online version of the Post Dispatch.\u00a0 As is customary these days, people posted their comments on the piece.\u00a0 The first comment was supportive of Rep. Newman\u2019s efforts and mentioned that the vague language of the second amendment made it difficult for us to understand what our Founding Fathers would have wanted in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

I have made it a practice to never, ever, comment on stories posted online.\u00a0 But this time, caution and common sense deserted me.\u00a0 I posted a couple of sentences relating to the comment about the Founding Fathers.\u00a0 \u201cThey didn\u2019t know about assault weapons,\u201d I wrote.\u00a0 \u201cThey had no idea about the incredible array of weapons we would develop in order to kill each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then came the comment directed toward me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be silenced, Barbara Finch,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>one of the Post\u2019s \u201ctop commenters\u201d wrote.<\/p>\n

I must admit that a frisson of fear crawled up my spine when I read these words. Was this a threat?\u00a0 Or was the writer attempting to be clever with a play on words…silencing opposing thoughts in the manner of gun silencers?<\/p>\n

First came the fear, and then came the fury.\u00a0 As one of the founders of Women\u2019s Voices Raised for Social Justice, I have spent the past seven years speaking out on issues that concern me.\u00a0 I have encouraged other women to stand up and speak out.\u00a0 We will not be silenced….not by bigots, or lobbyists, or corporate movers and shakers, and certainly not by a \u201ctop commenter\u201d at the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Voices has a position paper on guns.\u00a0 It is a thoughtful, sensitive commentary that reflects on the need for guns in our society and balances that with the need for common-sense control.\u00a0 No one could accuse us of wanting to wrest guns out of anyone\u2019s \u201ccold, dead hands.\u201d\u00a0 What we would like is to inject some common sense into thinking and legislating about these deadly weapons.<\/p>\n

And speaking of common sense (sometimes known as intelligence),\u00a0 here is the rest of the posting from the top commenter, after his line about silencing me:\u00a0 …\u201dour founding fathers didn\u2019t know about iPhones and computers and the incredible array of communications devices we would develop in order to participate in free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huh?\u00a0 Have you ever heard of an iPhone or a computer killing anyone?<\/p>\n

Me neither.\u00a0 But iPhones and computers will help us from being silenced.\u00a0 Please join me by refusing to shut up.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM: \u00a0At my request, the Post-Dispatch removed the offensive posting from the comment thread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman wrote a guest commentary for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch titled \u201cLet\u2019s Talk About Guns.\u201d\u00a0 Fed up with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":17225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,843,128,119,1528,834],"tags":[31],"yoast_head":"\n