Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The end of the 2nd Amendment?
Townhall.com ^ | August 17, 2006 | Cam Edwards

Posted on 08/18/2006 12:24:13 PM PDT by neverdem

Ngoc Le heard his wife’s screams and ran from the back of the wireless store he owns in Camden, New Jersey. His wife was behind the counter, as was a masked man wielding a knife. The man brandished the blade, herding the couple into a back room. Once there, he tied the 28-year old businessman to a chair, then proceeded to rape 22-year old Kelly Le. Once the brutal rape had finished, he slit the couple’s throats, then ran away. There was no 2nd Amendment, no right to own a gun, and Antonio Diaz Reyes got away with murder.

That isn’t actually how the events of December 31st, 2004 played out. We do have a 2nd Amendment in this country, after all. So when Antonio Reyes held Kelly Le at knifepoint, Ngoc Le was able to shoot and kill the attacker with his legally owned firearm. DNA tests later determined that Reyes was responsible for a string of rapes in downtown Camden that had terrorized the city for months. The Le’s were shaken by what happened, but there were no regrets.

I was reminded of this armed citizen story when I read Tom Derby’s recent piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Derby, an English and reading teacher in Camden, New Jersey, says it’s time for the 2nd Amendment to go away. In fact, he says, “The premise of the Second Amendment, the need for minutemen, no longer exists. In a free society we must rely on the police. We have more important rights to fight for than the right to bear arms.”

Mr. Derby is an English teacher, so perhaps he can be forgiven for not knowing that the U.S. government has said our individual security and safety is not guaranteed by the law enforcement in this country. There are several Supreme Court decisions that hold citizens have no constitutional guarantee of protection by police (South v. Maryland and Castle Rock v. Gonzalez come immediately to mind), and many more decisions have been made at lower levels (in the case of Warren v. District of Columbia, for example, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that “a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen.”). Despite what Mr. Derby says, we are responsible for our individual safety. The law enforcement community performs a valuable service each and every day, but any cop will tell you that they can’t be your personal bodyguard.

Tom Derby also says, “When wolves and human predators roamed freely Northeast, one was entitled to defend one’s family and property with firearms. Circumstances have changed; we need to reconsider that entitlement.” How have circumstances changed? Derby has taught in Camden, New Jersey for 18 years. He should be all too familiar with the human predators that still roam the streets. Camden, after all, was named the most dangerous city in America for the second year in a row last year, and has been in the top ten each of the past eight years, according to Morgan Quinto, the company that ranks cities on their crime rates. In 2004 the city’s murder rate was 60.8 per 100,000 residents, more than 11 times the national average. Its robbery rate was almost 8 times the national average, and its rate of aggravated assaults were more than 4 times the national average. Yet Derby says we should no longer be entitled to defend ourselves?

Derby seems to think that if we scrapped the 2nd Amendment, all the criminals in this country would lay down their weapons. Yet the criminal element doesn’t rely on the 2nd Amendment any more than child pornographers rely on the 1st Amendment. Get rid of the right to legally own firearms, and the gang members and street thugs plaguing Camden won’t even blink. But the legal gun owners, like Ngoc Le, will pay the price.

Tom Derby appears to be a teacher who cares a great deal about his students, and he should be commended for that. In his piece, he writes about several who have fallen victim to violence. One of the students he mentions, a boy named Len, was an “A” student who eventually joined a gang. Derby writes, “I lost track of Len, and a colleague brought me the bad news before the papers got it: He had become a professional assassin, and his own gang killed him and set his body on fire in a football field in North Camden.”

But Derby seems to be blaming Len’s death on an inanimate object, rather than the human beings who took Len’s life. Nothing is said about Len’s choices in life that placed him directly in the path of violence. In the end, Derby says it’s not a person responsible for Len’s death, but a thing.

It’s easy to take this approach. We don’t have to think ill of the dead, wondering why they chose a life of crime instead of a life inside the boundaries of the law. We don’t have to be angry with them for inflicting violence on others, because it’s not their fault. The devil didn’t make them do it, the gun did. But if we’re going to make excuses for the criminal behavior of those we love, we can’t expect them to change their ways.

My wife lived in Camden for nine years, and if she and I had never met, there’s a good chance that my 15-year old stepson would have been in Mr. Derby’s class. I know my wife would be glad that he had a teacher who cared about him, but she’d be livid knowing that his teacher thought she should be disarmed so she couldn’t protect her family from the wolves roaming the streets. I don’t think Mr. Derby is a bad man, just horribly misguided.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: New Jersey; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: 2a; 2ndamendment; bang; banglist; camden; crime; criminality; hiphop; hiphopcommunity; justice; justicesystem; legal; murder; newjersey; nj; race; racial; rape; rkba; secondamendment; thuglife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-171 next last
Stuck in the 1700s Tom Derby's idiotic barf alert
1 posted on 08/18/2006 12:24:14 PM PDT by neverdem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: neverdem
We have more important rights to fight for than the right to bear arms.

If we don't have this right, the rest of them do no good.

But Derby seems to be blaming Len’s death on an inanimate object, rather than the human beings who took Len’s life.

Or the choices made by this young man to, first, become a gangbanger and, second, to become a "professional assasin".

2 posted on 08/18/2006 12:28:45 PM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem; Joe Brower
An Armed Citizen, Is A Safe Citizen!

The Second Amendment...
America's Only Homeland Security!

Be Ever Vigilant!

3 posted on 08/18/2006 12:29:53 PM PDT by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

If this idiot thinks America is "the murder capitol of the western world", he hasn't noticed the Mexican murder rate.

I thought the lefties had pretty much given up on gun control as a political issue due to their frequent defeats on the subject.


4 posted on 08/18/2006 12:29:56 PM PDT by ozzymandus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
“The premise of the Second Amendment, the need for minutemen, no longer exists."

WRONG!

5 posted on 08/18/2006 12:31:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
In a free society we must rely on the police.

But, but, but...the courts have found the police can't be held legally liable for failing to protect us.

-----

I don’t think Mr. Derby is a bad man, just horribly misguided.

He is painfully ignorant.

I vote we leave him alone and let Darwin take him out.

6 posted on 08/18/2006 12:31:40 PM PDT by MamaTexan (I am NOT a 'legal entity'...nor am I a *person* as created by law!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

>>In a free society we must rely on the police.

Translation: We need bigger a police force and more taxes to run it


7 posted on 08/18/2006 12:33:18 PM PDT by teacherwoes (To a liberal diversity is finding different people who agree with them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

What do you expect from the same type of people who value the life of a little deer running through the woods more than they do an unborn child ?


8 posted on 08/18/2006 12:33:53 PM PDT by se_ohio_young_conservative (God makes us strong for alittle while so that we can protect the weak.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

I understand that Soviet Russia had a lot of police, and no right to own guns. Boy, look how great that turned out.


9 posted on 08/18/2006 12:34:22 PM PDT by domenad (In all things, in all ways, at all times, let honor guide me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
“I lost track of Len, and a colleague brought me the bad news before the papers got it: He had become a professional assassin, and his own gang killed him and set his body on fire in a football field in North Camden.”

Actions have consequences. What part of "Duh?" doesn't this moron understand?

10 posted on 08/18/2006 12:37:45 PM PDT by upchuck (WHO decided immigration laws should not be enforced? That is NOT a rhetorical question.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
This guy lost most of his arguments before he even started. That is if he had even followed hurricane Katrina last year.

Double bang list bump.

11 posted on 08/18/2006 12:38:15 PM PDT by beltfed308 (Nanny Statists are Ameba's.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; Shooter 2.5; wku man; SLB; ...
"I don’t think Mr. Derby is a bad man, just horribly misguided."

The term "useful idiot" is fully applicable here in regards to Mr. Derby.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

12 posted on 08/18/2006 12:38:34 PM PDT by Joe Brower (The Constitution defines Conservatism. *NRA*)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

How does an idiot like that ever get to teach in public schools?......oops, I answered my own question..........


13 posted on 08/18/2006 12:39:22 PM PDT by Red Badger (Is Castro dead yet?........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The English teacher should take shop. That is to say, the damfool teacher in Camden NJ of all places needs to be a grocer in Camden NJ.


14 posted on 08/18/2006 12:40:39 PM PDT by Graymatter (Don't like the PC, the lies, of the MSM? Don't watch TV.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
The reason we have the right to bear arms is not to shoot wolves as the author suggests, or put meat on the table, or to defend ourselves against predators of the human sort. The real reason we have the right to bear arms is so we can shoot the King.

Jefferson thought a revolution was needed about every generation. You can't have a decent revolution if you can't shoot.


15 posted on 08/18/2006 12:44:06 PM PDT by nathanbedford ("I like to legislate. I feel I've done a lot of good." Sen. Robert Byrd)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

"In a free society we must rely on the police."

Here's a piece of moronic logic. If we must rely on the government, we're anything but free.


16 posted on 08/18/2006 12:44:51 PM PDT by Spok (He who bites the hand that feeds him will also lick the boot that kicks him.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DaveLoneRanger

A "You might be interested in this" ping...


17 posted on 08/18/2006 12:45:03 PM PDT by NonLinear (He's dead, Jim)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
If Tom Derby were raised in the Middle East, this wild eyed idealist would have become an Islamic Extreamist and maybe even a suicide bomber.

The difference between a western flaming liberal and a middle eastern terrorist is a simple matter of education. Their natures are the same.

18 posted on 08/18/2006 12:45:59 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon (Is tractus pro pensio.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Ran across a clip of Larry The Cable Guy last night on tv. My husband and I had a good laugh at his saying "Blaming a gun for killing people is like blaming my pencil for bad spelling."


19 posted on 08/18/2006 12:46:35 PM PDT by Roos_Girl (Help! Help! I'm being repressed!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
We all have the right to bear arms


20 posted on 08/18/2006 12:46:56 PM PDT by LukeL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-171 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson