Posted on 05/02/2012 6:16:57 AM PDT by marktwain
For some time now, particularly after changing their name from Handgun Control, Inc., the Brady Campaign has been assuring Americans they don’t want to ban guns. The idea of a “slippery slope” is something they ridicule as “gun lobby” paranoia. They acknowledge since the Heller decision this will be an unlikely goal (for now), claiming, “Now that the Court has struck down the District’s ban on handguns, while making it clear that the Constitution allows for reasonable restrictions on access to dangerous weapons, this ‘slippery slope’ argument is gone.”
It’s true that a narrow 5-4 decision by the high court makes what once was an openly-stated goal of the gungrabbers unlikely at present. But the composition of the court can change, and prior decisions can be overturned.
That’s why those making the most outrageous demands, while infuriating, are in an unintended way doing gun owners a favor. Take Dan Simpson—please.
We’re not talking about some random anti-gun zealot here, someone who can be just dismissed as an inconsequential kook who doesn’t speak for doctrinaire anti-gunners. He is, according to his newspaper bio, “a retired diplomat [and] a member of the editorial boards of The Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.”
And by “diplomat,” they mean a former United States Ambassador to the Central African Republic, Special Envoy to Somalia, and the Ambassador to the Congo-Kinshasa, as well as Deputy Commandant of the United States Army War College. The guy has political and journalistic “gravitas.”
Pre-Heller Dan Simpson had a laundry list of demands sure to ignite a civil war, including total civilian disarmament. Following a “three month amnesty… Special squads of police would be formed… Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and 1 year in prison for each firearm… On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for ‘carrying.’”
Post-Heller Dan is kinder and gentler—a man who knows his limitations, at least until that pesky 5-4 SCOTUS ruling reverses polarity. His latest missive is endearingly titled “It’s time to end the gun nuttery.”
Fortunately, Dan “see[s] no problem with the hunters.” As long as they know their place and obey him, they “can easily be accommodated,” he says. “They can deposit their weapons in an armory, to be reissued each season.”
As for non-hunters, well, you can have a gun too, in the home and with this caveat: “Each household can possess firearms, but they must be registered with the local police. The registration would be valid for one year and renewable on an annual basis.” And don’t worry if you’re a collector—Dan will let you have as many as you like—provided “they would have to be rendered unfireable.”
And we’re the slippery slope-hallucinating, paranoid nutjobs.
It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system, require everyone to jump though hoops and prove that they are *not* criminals in order to try, ineffectively, to prevent the few individuals who are not responsible, from having legal access to guns. This is a failed paradigm, and it should be abandoned. To accept the idea that the all gun sales should be monitored by the government, and only allowed to those it deems satisfactory is fundamentally wrong.
The entire idea of the enterprise has always been the death of a thousand cuts, where the restrictions on who can buy, and where, and how and what are continually increased until the number of gun owners is reduced to political insignificance.
‘It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system,...’
We have a real life example of how well such a thing works. Just look to the train wreck the registry was in Canada.
If everyone is disarmed exc LE you’ve missed the largest population of criminals. If the general population is disarmed there is NO reason for LE to be armed. They’re civilians after all and if its good for one group it should be equally good for the other. If the govt decides not to disarm them then prepare for genocide aimed by the govt at the general population. I strongly suspect few if any in LE would protest.
It is also by definition, therefore, the single-most annoying, painful, and tortuous thorn in the side of the Progressive Liberal Lunatic Left. If they truly think that anything they do will ever remove this God-given right, or this pandemic precept, from the Pantheon of American liberties, they are certifiable.
Now you know the reason for CISCP with its "kill switch", and NDAA before it.
Even someone a few fries short of a happy meal like myself can see that we're only a brick or two away from a turn key police state. And (R)s and (D)s built it with our taxpayer money.
Now you know the reason for CISPA with its "kill switch", and NDAA before it.
Even someone a few fries short of a happy meal like myself can see that we're only a brick or two away from a turn key police state. And (R)s and (D)s built it with our taxpayer money.
Otherwise known as the Brady law. When this passed the second amendment died. If you have to ask and receive the government's permission to do domething it isn't a right, it's a privilege.
I see dead people.
Not me - I see complacent sheep lining up to put their feet in the shepherds' boots.
Another name for my “If I Get Diagnosed With Pancreatic Cancer” list.
I usually veer toward the scared-s**tless view that the Cass Sunstein types can just wave their manicured fingers and then storms of federal agents will surge out across the heartland, kicking in doors, shooting pets & dragging gunowners out by their hair.
That s**t happens, but it’s local out of control LE for the most part.
Fact is, Ruger & others are cranking up production like there’s no tomorrow (!) and ammo production is surging so fast that IMO Cheaper than Dirt has lowered their prices somewhat on the favorite shoot-or-barter calibers.
Remember, communist Eastern Europe quickly collapsed when somebody made a hole in a fence between Austria & Hungary. If one brave soul stands up to an illegal search & seizure, maybe sacrificing his life, it will go viral in a heartbeat and millions of citizens will decide they might as well fight and maybe even survive afterward.
Would somebody please calculate the numerical ratio between the jackbooted federal doorkickers and the armed citizens standing behind those doors, locked & loaded? And please note, the regime really thinks all that’s needed is for the paid media to say “BOO!” to make the rest of us knuckle under and surrender to the fear of being labeled as racist sexist fascist bigot homophobic bitter gun clingers clutching our Bibles.
BTW, I’m all those things, and more. Take heart, all.
;^)
Oh, I forgot to add, if this “Ambassador” Dan Simpson with all his “gravitas” isn’t ready to go & start banging on homeowners’ doors and shouting “I’m here to take away your guns! Hand them over and I mean RIGHT NOW!!!”, he hasn’t got a hair on his cookiepushing candyass.
(Look up “cookiepusher”. It’s what some of us in the military call those who call themselves diplomats.)
Geez, I just figured it out. Simpson is just a fading liberal who in his aged pride has decided that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all and he might as well foam & lash out before the meds kick in. So why do we even bother?
He thinks he can summon legions of jackboot wearing thugs to go out and kick in doors, I mean read his actual words, this guy is a frustrated control freak who in reality knows he is nothing but a harmless old fogie who couldn’t even lead a fart out of a phone booth.
Pathetic. OBTW I can comment on his age because I am his age. Age doesn’t make one bitter, stupidity does.
;^)
Looking forward to the day when this left wing screed closes it's doors.
As does greed and envy. As for me, I like this quote from John Steinbeck: "Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
At 61, that works for me.
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.