Posted on 05/07/2007 4:20:44 PM PDT by lowbridge
The Need For Gun Control
By Seth Schortz 05/03/2007 3:17 pm The Roundup (Half Hollow Hills High School West)
How many Columbines and Virginia Techs must we endure before Congress becomes serious about gun-control legislation? How often must we listen to those who are opposed to such legislation cry that it is their constitutional right to "bear arms"?
If we actually read the Constitution, it should be apparent that this so-called right is by no means absolute. The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights reads, "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."
During the 18th century an organized militia known as Minutemen stood their ground at the fields of Lexington and Concord. Today, such a militia is most often considered to be our National Guard. Dr. Roger Goldstein, the department chair of political science/international studies at C.W. Post, agrees with this point of view. He says, "Such words utilized in the Second Amendment such as ‘well-regulated’ alludes to an organized group, and the National Guard is our equivalent to a militia."
How often have we heard the expression, "Guns don’t kill people, people kill people"? Although this may be true, all too often a rifle or pistol is the instrument of choice to commit murder, especially when there are multiple killings involved.
Firearms are well ingrained in American culture. However, are our congressional representatives so inept or unimaginative that they cannot enact legislation to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens who wish to own guns while at the same time making it more difficult for criminals and the emotionally unstable to get their hands on such weapons?
A national policy must be enacted while still allowing states and municipalities to maintain stricter standards if they so desire. A national policy is absolutely required to prevent one from purchasing a gun in a state with weak restrictions, such as Virginia, and then having that weapon easily transported to a state like New York, which normally has more stringent regulations.
All rifles and handguns should be registered in a national data bank so that such weapons can be traced. We are required to register our automobiles, so why should the registration of our guns create a problem for any law-abiding citizen? More waiting periods should be required that would allow an adequate amount of time for an applicant for a firearm to be properly screened, to insure that they have no criminal or psychiatric history.
Albert Cover, a professor of American politics at Stony Brook University says, "The National Rifle Association’s stance on this issue has been sustained in recent court cases." It is important to note that a possible explanation is that the judges in these cases are Bush administration appointees, which may explain their conservative interpretation of the Bill of Rights.
Every day, more than 80 Americans die from gun violence, according to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. That fact should be on everyone’s mind when they enter the voter booth in 2008.
Liberals not only want to take our guns away, they also want to weaken and dismantle the US military. Therefore, any protection that we would have against terrorists would be taken away.
So would a well regulated state Militia. The U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the power the call forth the state Militia to "execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions".
"To oblige the great body of the yeomanry and of the other classes of the citizens to be under arms for the purpose of going through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well-regulated militia." Federalist papers 29, Hamilton
Meaning, the National Guard is not the militia, but a standing army.
I dunno. It sure sounds like me. ;-)
Funny, but not surprising that the “discuss” option no longer exists for this article...
hehehe...Don’t they realize the discussion really wasn’t going to be there, but right here!
Oh wait, I forgot...Silly me...
Its snot ewe! I keep tellin’ ya boyo!
Why, oh why, didn’t I take the blue pill today???
You had to go post something like this that was just going to frap my 9 ways to Christmas...
You like doing things like this to me DON’T YOU!!!
One of these days I’m going to quit FR...My BP should go down a few points then...
But then again where would I get my exercize...:-)
Too often.....from the anti-gun side.
Leave it to a liberal to "reason" that car registration shows that we should register guns, rather than that the lack of gun registration shows we don't need to register cars. Two different policies and they assume, without a moment's reflection, that the one involving government review of our lives is the right one and should be copied. I don't think liberals should be allowed to use a pen, typewriter, or computer. See, I can think like a liberal, too.
“A national policy must be enacted...”
There IS one. It’s called the Second Amendment.
However they are pretty liberal. In this weeks issue, in their "The Target" column, they ask why Cheney cant be impeached before he "does any damage".
They would love the impeachement of someone (mainly Republican), without any crime committed.
Spot on. Well said.
There are Democrats who in their own little minds think that Republican Party is hateful, unnecessary. a nuisance and a obstacle to scientific(hah) Socialism. We are seeing this exposure as a number of people are trying to modify the fairness doctrine to make talk radio illegal. Can book burning be far away?
The book burning already happened.
Student protesters have twice publicly burned copies of the Cornell Review, a conservative student newspaper -- in April 1997, protesting a satire in the paper about Ebonics and in November 1998, in reaction to a syndicated political cartoon the paper ran about African-American abortions.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/99/10.14.99/Hentoff.html
http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-44.dir/issue-11.dir/11a00802.htm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.