NRA President Addresses Stanford Community
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In her speech on Monday, February 12th, Sandy Froman ‘71 spoke to a crowd of students, faculty, and neighborhood residents advocating the protection of the First and Second Amendments. She made a point of emphasizing the strong connections between the two, and linked the current assaults against them. Indeed, a major point of her speech was that an open market of ideas—where no ideas are censored—is critical to the survival of a free society. She noted that political correctness in all its forms limits societal growth by repressing thoughts deemed unacceptable by many: “The fact is by seeking to silence those [ideas] it doesn’t want to hear society is also silencing those [ideas] it needs to hear.”
Under the guise of political correctness, simply mentioning the differences between sexes, cultures, and religions has become taboo. The PC campaign has led us to a point where there are “no differences anymore, including the difference between right and wrong; everything was just relative.” This is a particular sticking point, because on all sides of the gun debate there are clear ideas of right and wrong, evil and good, righteous and immoral. Mrs. Froman continued, noting that people began to twist words as weapons, creating conditions where “careers were built by the shrewd and the quick [by] ending the careers of those with loose lips.”
Today, these factors have led us to a situation where people are silenced by societal gag rules and must censor themselves to avoid confrontation and shunning. Froman felt that people should fight against such conformity and self-censorship. It is important to stand up for what you believe in, especially if it isn’t the popular view. She related this to her experience as a pro-gun woman in a law firm where she was ostracized for her views. She realized, however, that “by speaking up back then and telling others that I owned a gun and that I liked to shoot, I probably helped them to consider exercising that freedom, an option that they might not have thought of before.”
When discussing the Second Amendment in particular, Froman described it as the Amendment that protects all the others. “Tyranny thrives best when government need not fear the wrath of an armed people” She quoted Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who described the Second Amendment as the “Doomsday Provision” that acts as a failsafe in the rare case that all other rights fail. Facing the unlikely rise of tyranny unprepared is a “mistake a free people get to make only once.”
Sandy reflected on her days at Stanford in the late 60’s and early 70’s and ended her speech with a question, wondering if the Stanford campus today is as open to discourse and ideas as it was in her days. She asked whether students would feel comfortable here speaking out against global warming, in favor of intelligent design, or in opposition to abortion; she also wondered if the campus would allow for such discussion without writing off these unpopular beliefs. She hoped that we would live up to our motto, “The wind of freedom blows.”
During the Q&A section, many people asked difficult questions about the NRA’s positions. Froman supported the basics of the Second Amendment, noting that making gun ownership illegal would not stop crime; in fact, it would probably increase it, as would-be criminals would no longer be deterred by the risk of armed targets. When asked about the NRA’s support of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons, Froman said that the Constitution supports bearing arms and mustering militia, and the Continental militia even had military cannon. Thus, more powerful weapons should still be protected under the Second Amendment today.
Mrs. Froman delivered a powerful speech and provided interesting insights in favor of the Second Amendment.
