" I DO believe in our 2nd amendment rights, the right to self defense, and the right to bear arms to overcome tyranny...but"
No sooner than Jimbob mentions it, then someone posts it: the appearance of the current Leftist talking point. While you're smacking your lips and savoring the taste of the Kool-aid, pay attention...
The Left does not want "assault weapons" banned, they want ALL weapons banned. They want the citizenry disarmed, which is what the 2AM was designed to prevent. This is what Fast & Furious was all about: the government arming criminals with weapons to gin up hysteria and support for a universal weapons ban. Haven't you been paying attention since your sign-up date??
Tell me again, how criminals will comply with a weapons ban - out of their sense of patriotism? That's what criminals do; they break the laws of society and the nation. When the Trayvons and Tawannas come boiling out of the ghettos like fire ants, better armed than the police, will you appeal to their sense of community to lay down their arms and sing kumbaya?
Now, let's turn the clock back 236 years. The principal weapon of the British military at the time was Brown Bess, a .75 caliber monster that was still in service during the US Civil War; considerably larger and more powerful than modern arms. With modern ammunition like the .22, 5.56mm, and even the 9mm, a single hit is survivable with medical care. When Brown Bess hit you, you died - or you wished you had.
This musket was also in the hands of the citizenry who were part of the unorganized militia, which still exists today: all able-bodied males between the ages of 17 and 45(Title 10 USC Sec 311), and all military vets up to age 65 (Title 32 USC Sec. 313). The unorganized militia must maintain its own arms and arsenal, and that is partly what the 2AM is all about - the right of the people to keep arms.
And if one wants to argue contemporary law, let's go to D.C. v. Heller where the SCOTUS ruled that banning an entire class of weapons is unconstitutional. The Left wants a ban on an entire class of weapons, and demands that so many weapons be included in the banned class that ANY weapon used for defense is illegal.
Now please, not for our sakes, but for your own, reconsider your position. You are falling into the Leftist mindtrap of agenda couched as "reasonable" requests. I do not apologize for the length of this post; it's meant to give you better ammunition and insight. Take it, and go forth.
I appreciate your in depth response and that of others and thank you for taking the time, and I just laugh off those piling on. We have a First Amendment, too, which promises free speech, mine, and that of everyone else (unfortunately). Maybe I’m apprehensive coz’ I only have a .22 pea shooter and know if things do go bad I’ll be outgunned, most certainly by all the respondents to my comments. More fearful of my fellow citizens armed to the teeth with bazookas, than most other threats on the horizon. Puleeze allow me my freedom of speech when I differ from the group think.