Did you hear about the hunter with a popular TV show who loves guns and lives in the sticks? He said something that pissed off some intolerant people and then there was a big outcry about his controversial comments and then he was fired from his TV show and lost all his sponsorships?!? Just for having an opinion! But unlike that other hunter with a popular TV show who loves guns and lives in the sticks, no one on the right is coming to this guy's defense. Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and homocons aren't screaming about his 1st Amendment rights or about how every American has a sacred right to their beliefs and a popular TV show too. Because this guy didn't say insulting, demeaning, ignorant things about black people under Jim Crow or gay people and our anuses or Japanese and Muslim people and their faiths. He said this:

In the column that led to his dismissal, [Dick Metcalf] said that too many gun owners believed that the constitution prohibits any regulation of firearms. He noted that all rights are regulated, like freedom of speech. “You cannot falsely and deliberately shout, ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater,” he wrote. “The question is, when does regulation become infringement?” he continued. Mr. Metcalf ended the column arguing that requiring 16 hours of training to qualify for a concealed carry license was not an infringement.

The reaction was swift:

Just days after the column appeared, Mr. Metcalf said, his editor called to tell him that two major gun manufacturers had said “in no uncertain terms” that they could no longer do business with InterMedia Outdoors, the company that publishes Guns & Ammo and co-produces his TV show, if he continued to work there. He was let go immediately.

So Dick Metcalf, "one of the country’s pre-eminent gun journalists," lost his column and his TV show because he believes that asking someone to get 16 hours of firearm training before allowing him to carry a concealed weapon onto a playground isn't an infringement on that gun lover's sacred constitutional right to bear arms under our sacred 2nd Amendment. And there's no outcry from the right... because I guess the 2nd Amendment trumps the 1st in the exact same way that the 2nd trumps reason, rationality, common sense, and basic human decency.

Of course... this could just be rightwing absolutism where constitutionally protected rights are concerned. Phil Robertson has an absolute right to his offensive opinions (and a TV show!) under the 1st Amendment. Guns, gun nuts, and gun manufacturers have an absolute right to be protected from Dick Metcalf and his fascist ideas about firearm safety training under the 2nd Amendment. And American women have an absolute right to obtain an abortion under the 14 Amendment. That's why you would never see conservatives trying to place limits on free speech, gun ownership, or access to abortion... right?

[Jesus—sorry about all the typos. Never blog before you've had your second cup of tea.]