Fresh ideas: Cliches don't kill truth, people do

"Nice guys finish last." "Don't call us, we'll call you." "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." "A stitch in time saves nine." "What goes around comes around."

Our lives are lived amongst multitudes of sayings - some profoundly wise and some not so wise. Yet, whether they are wise or not, we repeat these sayings and "truths" often.

These bumper sticker comments are tempting to use, since they don't require much thought, and sometimes capture an idea perfectly. They remind me of a propensity for labeling people; for example, "arch conservative," or "liberal/socialist" which are simple, mindless and usually wrong. People are far more complex than that!

The saying, "a stitch in time saves nine" is the perfect way to explain that it's important to catch a rip (or a problem) quickly when it's easily fixed. However, "nice guys finish last" could be considered a myth, since nice guys have really won (in a moral sense) before they start!

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people" is pure mythology, having been disproved by a 1989 study in Denmark (available upon request). This study shows that if guns are NOT present, the victim of a murderous attack is far more likely to survive. Conversely, if guns ARE present, the victim's chances of survival drop dramatically. After all, a gun is usually more deadly than a fist!

The myth that "guns provide protection in the home" has been disproved by a study (also available upon request) showing that guns are 41 times more likely to cause injury to a household member (by children playing, domestic dispute, suicide, other accident) than against an unwelcome intruder.

Thus, the pitch by gun manufacturers that guns can make one safer is so much "snake oil."

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is mostly composed of non-political members who simply love hunting and the outdoors. The NRA provides valuable training classes in gun safety and must be given credit for that. One can hardly be critical of this majority.

However, the political arm of the NRA; i.e., the "gun lobby," while appearing intensely patriotic, is actually based on a myth, an unpatriotic distortion of the Second Amendment! Untutored minds claim an absolute "constitutional right to bear arms." But those who have carefully examined the Second Amendment - the U.S. Supreme Court and every federal court before which it appeared, plus great legal scholars such as Chief Justice Warren Burger (who stated that the NRA has perpetrated a "fraud on the American public") - have unanimously rejected the NRA's view that the Second Amendment grants an unlimited personal right to bear arms.

The "gun lobby" faction of the NRA repeatedly sullies the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights. They literally quote only half of its wording in their literature (the second half) and continue to claim an unlimited personal "right to bear arms," all evidence to the contrary.

Sadly, letters to the editor and other public comments repeatedly "parrot" this Second Amendment mythology. And thus the conspiracy to perpetuate the gun lobby's unpatriotic distortions continues. Hoodwinking their membership and the public, this minority of the NRA are non-patriots with a leader who is no Moses!

Among the labels, myths and simple sayings of our times can be found profound wisdom - "a stitch in time saves nine" - and rank ignorance - "guns don't kill people, people kill people."

The sayings that embody our collective wisdom are wonderful. Let's keep them! But the sayings that lie or distort need to be examined. Certainly our collective integrity and intelligence demands this.

(Susan Paslov is a retired attorney who teaches English as a Second Language. She is married with three children and one grandchild.)