Rand Paul Points Out Hypocrisy of Rich and Powerful People with Armed Guards Trying to Restrict Gun Ownership for the Rest of Us

Dianne Feinstein’s ill-fated assault weapons ban

included an exemption for government officials, law enforcement
and former law enforcement. Few (if any) gun control advocates
support getting guns out of the hand of government, and no anti-gun
celebrity that I know of has publicly eschewed armed guards. Gun
control laws are almost always discriminatory; in New Jersey, where
I live, a grocery store can hire an armed guard who can open-carry
to protect the store, but I’m not allowed to open-carry to protect
my family at the store, or anywhere else for that matter. These
kind of laws arguably transform the right to bear arms into a
privilege.  Those who advocate gun control but believe in a

well-armed government (most of them) and those who push to
restrict private gun ownership while enjoying private armed
security themselves (like
Jim Carrey or
Piers Morgan) are promoting a profoundly unequal system, one
that subordinates the autonomy and rights of the people in favor of
the whims of an elite.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul hit the nail on the head last night
on Fox News’ Hannity show.
Via Politico:

Sen. Rand Paul says there’s “a certain amount of hypocrisy” that
the same Hollywood celebrities and prominent politicians —
including President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg — who are calling for gun control are also benefiting
from armed protection themselves.

“I don’t begrudge any famous person like Mayor Bloomberg, or the
president or the president’s family for having protection — I think
they all should. There’s enough crazy people out there that would
attack on the right or the left. But I think when you are being
protected by people who have weapons by responsible people, I can’t
see why you would be opposed to that for other people,” Paul, a
Kentucky Republican, said Thursday on Fox News’s “Hannity” to
guest-host Eric Bolling.

He continued: “Many rich Hollywood celebrities have armed guards
with them at all times and many regular people who live in a poor
neighborhood, who have a business in a poor neighborhood and a
neighborhood that may have higher crime — those people have to
suffer the vicissitudes of violent crime without protection
sometimes because of gun control laws. So, yes, I think there is a
certain amount of hypocrisy.”

Opposing for other people what you enjoy yourself is elitism and
anathema to American principles of equality under the law,
something the left tries at least to pay lip service to on other
issues.