Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO of Facebook. Facebook has been very anti firearm and by extension anti Second Amendment for some time. Zuckerberg has made several anti firearms statements on his own and his company has instituted policies and procedures to limit “gun posts” on his website.

I have a small (intentionally) Facebook account under my real name. In addition EMS Blogs has its blogs set up to post to Facebook under the umbrella of the account. At first I was not a big fan, but it does drive some readership to the site, which is good for me.

That is all in the form of disclosure, I guess. The point of this post is to point out a bit of hypocrisy on the part of Mr. Zuckerberg.

It cost Facebook $22 million to keep Mark Zuckerberg safe last year

San Francisco (CNN Business)Keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe is expensive. Facebook paid its CEO an additional $13 million for his personal security and travel costs in 2018, according to a proxy filing on Friday. That included a new $10 million pre-tax allowance for additional security costs such as security guards, equipment, services and residential improvements.”He is synonymous with Facebook and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,” said the filing.Like many wealthy CEOs, Zuckerberg receives an official salary of $1 a year. He also did not receive bonuses or stock awards in 2018. However, Zuckerberg’s total compensation jumped from $9.1 million in 2017 to $22.6 million in 2018 in order to cover the increase in security costs for the high-profile CEO.

That’s a lot of security and a lot of money. It includes a private plane so that Zuckerberg doesn’t have to sit among the unwashed. To be fair, if I had enough money, I’d fly private as well. Still, the plane is part of his security package, so it’s fair game for comment.

A couple of other articles from 2016 say that he has Sixteen body guards at his residence. Probably not all at the same time, but split up to provide 24/7 security to him and his wife.

When the media says “security guards” I don’t think they mean Paul Blart type mall cops. I’d expect that they are ex military or maybe former police officers. Real security and unless I miss my guess, ARMED.

Again to go with the private plane, if I were worth the billions that Zuckerberg is, I’d have a secure house and body guards traveling with me as well. That’s not the problem.

Here is the problem, as I see it. Zuckerberg, with his anti Second Amendment stance is saying that he’s worth protecting, but you, I, and our families are not.

Think about that. You and I are not valuable enough to be able to protect ourselves. That’s because the only way to protect ourselves is to be able to be armed. “Armed” doesn’t necessarily mean a firearm. The Second Amendment in it’s plain text and by Common Law protects the right to bear “arms.” In addition to firearms, knives, chemical sprays, electrical weapons, clubs, even a bow and arrow if one chooses, are all considered arms. They are all “in common use” for self defense. Well, except for a bow and arrow, which once was very commonly in use for self defense.

Since most of us can’t afford to hire Sixteen body guards we generally only have one we can depend on. Ourselves.

I have a lot of respect for law enforcement officers, who have a very tough job. One of the tough parts is that there just aren’t enough of them. I live in a suburban town that once was pretty safe. As demographics and society have changed in recent years that’s changed. Two weeks ago, there was a shooting on the other side of town. Weekly, the police are arresting people for selling drugs, committing assaults, or breaking into houses.

There is no guarantee that when I need the police they will be there in time to help. As they saying goes, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.” Minutes might be too long.

In areas more rural than mine, the wait can be longer, sometimes an hour or so waiting for the police or sheriff to come and help.

Zuckerberg doesn’t have to worry about that as his “police” are with him all the time. You and I, dear reader, are not that lucky.

Which is why Mr. Zuckerberg is a hypocrite of the first ranking.