Posted on 03/08/2007 3:44:45 AM PST by OrthodoxPresbyterian
Congressional battle lines drawn on U.S. civil right to bear arms, notes American gun law expert in Washington, D.C.
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
"While we have not yet reached even the 90-day mark since the inauguration of the 110th Congress in early January, legislative battle lines on Capitol Hill already are forming on a number of matters regarding the individual Second Amendment civil right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms," gun rights expert John M. Snyder noted here in a statement today.
The statement continues:
One of the most important elements in the entire controversy involves the right to self-defense as an underlying reason for the right to keep and bear arms.
From a philosophic perspective, the right to keep and bear arms is a guarantor of the right to self-defense, of the right to life itself. This is probably the major reason defenders of the right to keep and bear arms regard the Second Amendment as so significant. It is a guarantor of other human rights, especially the right to self-defense, of the very right to life itself.
In recent years, opponents of the individual right to keep and bear arms have attempted to ignore this philosophic, and often very practical rationale for Americans’ gun rights. They have introduced the concept of "sporting use" or "sporting purpose" as a substitute for the right to self-defense rationale for the right to bear arms. Under this substitution, the right to keep and bear arms somehow depends on whether or not there is "a sporting purpose for a firearm," rather than on whether or not an individual’s right to self-defense in and of itself is sufficient reason for a right to keep and bear arms.
In addition to the philosophic obtuseness of the argument, on a practical note it simply ignores the millions of times guns of various types are used each year in the United States for legitimate defensive purposes.
To combat directly this erroneous "sporting purpose" legislative approach, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas just a few weeks ago introduced a measure which would, among other things, repeal provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and the federal criminal code distinguishing firearms used or suitable for sporting purposes from firearms generally.
The Paul bill would do much to eliminate the "sporting purpose" rationale from the equation and restore the right to self-defense rationale to its rightful place.
Titled the Second Amendment Protection Act of 2007, the bill, H.R. 1096, has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee and in addition to the House Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be determined subsequently by the Speaker of the House, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Even though the powers that be in the U.S. House of Representatives at the present time are not favorably disposed towards the right of self-defense rationale for the right to bear arms, House leaders should realize that tens of millions of law-abiding American gun owners see matters from the same perspective as that contemplated by the Paul bill.
Just a couple of days before Rep. Paul introduced H.R. 1096, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of New York proposed a measure that not only would resurrect the Clinton era ban on semiautomatic firearms, which expired a couple of years ago, but actually would expand the ban and, among other things, authorize the U.S. Justice Department to add any other rifle or shotgun to the list of banned firearms that the government deems not to be a "sporting" weapon.
In this way, the McCarthy bill would set up a system according to which the federal government could state simply that a particular firearm did not have a so-called "sporting purpose." It could prevent that gun from being manufactured or sold by federal firearms licensees. By degrees, then, the government, under the McCarthy bill, could eliminate an untold number of firearms from manufacture and sale to law-abiding citizens. In time, then, the government could practically eliminate the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear many firearms for self-defense or for any other truly legitimate purpose.
This McCarthy bill, H.R. 1022, also has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
With the introduction of just these two diametrically opposed legislative measures, then, we can see that the legislative battle for the individual Second Amendment right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms continues unabated and without let-up.
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Won't be long before the armchair warriors show up deriding him for not being pro-war.
My "favorite part" of HR1022 is where the bill pretty much says, "Just because a weapon is used in sporting events, doesn't mean that it's a 'sporting weapon,'" effectively outlawing NRA and CMP high power rifle competition. There's something else in it which says that if a weapons was designed for the military, it's outlawed. Of course, that would get rid of just about EVERY semi-auto, but the wording doesn't exclude other firearms, so technically, it could outlaw bolt action 1903 Springfields, Mausers, etc...
Mark
(shrugs). Cool, they can keep the thread bumped. ;-)
Oh, that's cute.
So, in other words, unless a firearm is specifically designed as a squirrel gun... it's illegal.
Sheesh.
This bill alone would be enough for me to vote for Ron P.
I've said this before, but the anti-gunners want them all. It's jihad to them as much as it is to bin Laden. The anti-gunners like McCarty, Schumer, Feinsten, etc. are not moved by logic, because it isn't a logic based desire. It's their religion. You cannot reason with them. You cannot appeal to their view of the constitution. They are relentless. Every new gun control law that passes is "a good first step" toward the next gun control law. They are never satisfied. They will not stop until one of three conditions is met
The republicans had since 1994 to repeal gun control but the so-called "leadership" showed no interest in taking the fight to the enemy and removing previous restrictions. The Democrats weren't in power a month before this monstrosity was introduced by that human cockroach, McCarthy. It's time we had some real conservative leadership.
Democrats have shown over and opver again that the Constitution is only a piece of paper to them.
And compared to men like Rep. Paul, so have most Republicans....
Yeah, the perforated kind that comes on rolls.
I believe it was upChuckie Schemer who said something to the effect that the constitution was meaningless and irrelevant. And the Republicans and King George II have done nothing to show that they feel otherwise. That's why I'm pleased to see Ron Paul stepping up. At least we real conservatives will have a horse in the race even if he doesn't win. We've been totally shut out for years.
Joe, could you hit the banglist with this one?
Gun grabbers have no regard for the constitution, they'll have no regard for acts like this either.
I don't think Paul's bill has a hope in hell of being passed. Which is a shame.
But I think that we could accomplish much the same by simply modifying the definition of "sporting use" - to reverse the provision that the Dems have offered.
Declare that any firearm used in organized competition is "suitable for a sporting use".
Virtually all "sporting" firearm design has been taken or is taken from military weapons. How can anyone prove that a weapon has only a "sporting" purpose or "sporting" inspired design? Big game hunting rifles sure do make excellent sniper rifles! Ask our military, they use Remington's model 700 hunting rifle for sniping.
To me the rats definition of "sporting weapons" means bb, pellet guns and .22 target models.
That is surendering before the battle. This bill might not pass, but it provides opposition to the McCarthy bill which this one, if enough people write their kongressthieves, can mess up McCarthy (did I say that right?)
I will comply with no more laws stripping me of my Rights. This is AMERICA dammit. Past due time we started acting like it.
Do NOT limit it to "self-defense", or any other rationale. (And let's not forget the ability to overthrow an abusive govnerment, if we are listing reasons.) Once you do, it can be chipped away, as with all of the other freedoms we used to enjoy.
Thanks for the flag.
Fixed it.
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