The 2nd Amendment should protect the internet, not your AK47.
Here is the 2nd Amendment, it’s pretty short.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Most gun owners I have talked to usually leave off the first part and invoke the 2nd Amendment as a “right to defend oneself” which is not the case. But that is understandable. Who wants to put in the work of joining a militia these days… all those meetings.
But the well researched and educated gun owners I talk to also are missing the point. Taking it one step back, the intent of the 2nd Amendment is to allow the citizenry to be a check on the other branches of government. In 1791, that check meant arming the citizens with rifles and muskets. Those were the effective tools of the revolution back then. But since we started rolling tanks, bombers, and aircraft carries off the assembly lines, the citizens ability to match power with our potentially “tyrannical” government is nil. With a literal reading of the 2nd Amendment, it’s clear it has lost it’s teeth.
But “arms” can mean many things. Today, in 2012 we have much more effective weapons against our government. The internet. In 2012 our government tried to pass some “tyrannical” legislation in SOPA and PIPA. Did the government listen to us because we have fully loaded assault rifles? No. It was because the citizenry used the internet to lobby and shame the government, and it worked.
The internet is the greatest “arms” we US citizens have and should the Founding Fathers be around today, I think they would recognize this an opt to protect a free internet over guns, which haven’t been effective tools against our government since the Civil War. And in a twisted irony, gun owners are currently using the internet as their most effective weapon in defending their right to own guns. Think of the power our populace would have if these patriots embraced their greatest weapon and we refused to give up our internet until you pry it from our cold, dead hands.
The gun control we can agree on
So this graphic I did was initiated by Ron Conway and then swept up a whole bunch of other people, mainly Bloomberg and the gun policy folks at the mayors office. They had some interesting data and the narrative fell into place from there. A bit of a different style for me as I would normally use photos to depict people but I felt that the sketch/watercolor has more gravitas.
What do you think?
Thanks Wikipedia
At a sauna, he rests his head on a man’s shoulder, dressed in blue, while another man covered in tattoos is stretching. He sings in front of two men playing chess, dances with a woman at a tennis court, and bounces around on a tour bus of seniors. There is an explosion at the chess players. Psy walks towards the camera, shouting “Oppan Gangnam style”. He and some dancers perform at a horse stable. He dances as two women walk backwards. He dances at the tennis court, a carousel, and the tour bus. He shuffles into an outdoor yoga session. He dances on a boat. The camera zooms on a woman’s butt, then shows Psy “yelling” at it
Animation: GMO labeling?
So my first ever animation was just released.
I am pretty jazzed because I literally opened After Effects for the first time last Monday and completed this on the Friday. So it’s not quite pixar quality yet but by keeping it simple, I think I can tell some good stories in this medium.
If you dig the video or the message, please share it around.
Ballot Prop Round-Up: California
Rushed this one off the presses this morning. Really interesting to see how much money it takes to defeat a popular idea (prop 37) and how much is hugely wasted pushing an unpopular one (prop 38).
charts/graphs, comparison, design, infographics, journalism, visually
