At Guns & Ammo, No Room for Mild Deviation
National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke takes Guns & Ammo and its readers to task for their refusal to accept any disagreement:
Thus does the New York Times’ weekend piece on the crucifixion of Dick Metcalf serve as a salutary lesson to us all. Metcalf, a journalist who was summarily dismissed from Guns & Ammo for the high crime of writing an op-ed that deviated mildly from the status quo, was by no means a heretic to his magazine’s cause, nor did he step so far out of line as to render himself incompatible with the movement that the publication represents. A veteran of the gun industry, to which, the Times noted, he “devoted nearly his entire adult life,” Metcalf describes himself as a “Second Amendment fundamentalist.” The man had earned some latitude — a little breathing room in which, his bona fides having been established, he could talk freely. He didn’t get it.
In a piece called “Let’s Talk About Limits,” published in December last year, Metcalf struck a moderate tone, establishing that with the Second Amendment, “the question is, when does regulation become infringement” (it is, regardless of where you come down); observing that “all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be” (the first two assertions are certainly true; I’m not so sure about the lattermost); and suggesting specifically that Illinois’s requirement that concealed-carry applicants take a 16-hour class was not only legal but potentially even a good idea (it might be legal, but it’s not a wise idea). For this, he was excommunicated by Guns & Ammo, slammed by large swaths of the Right, and had both his expertise and his intelligence called into question. He now lives in exile from the camarilla that he loves.
Guns & Ammo is a private outfit, and it can employ whom it wishes. There being no constitutional right to a platform, this is not a First Amendment issue, nor should it be. Nevertheless, it is a cultural issue — and an important one at that. If Guns & Ammo’s business model cannot sustain the publication of a column that mildly deviates from the hardline norm, then its business model is rotten. If the coalition that Guns & Ammo represents is so nervous that it cannot tolerate the expression of an opinion that until 25 years ago was normal even for hardliners, then it is rotten, too. Have it whichever way you like: Either the magazine has an editorial board that makes ugly decisions — firing a man for an article that it elected to publish — or its readers and advertisers are so trigger-happy that the board had no choice but to indulge them. Neither alternative is pretty, and conservatives considering the case might stop and ask themselves whether they are prepared to welcome only absolutists such as myself into their ranks.
Read the whole thing. Comments are as always welcome, especially about where you think limits regarding firearms should be drawn.