Thoughts, re-wordings, slings and arrows are all welcome.
As Rush said today, I will give up my firearms when you can absolutely guarantee I will never face an attacker for the rest of my life.
Until then, I will defend myself and my family until help can arrive.
Here’s your answer.
The constitution allows for gun ownership. The SC recently confirmed it. Until the constitution is amended, there is no argument required.
Let them argue that.
Great Britain’s gun crime rate has doubled since it outlawed handguns after the Dunblane massacre.
Tens of Millions of Americans own firearms, are law abiding citizens, and do not run around committing murder with those firearms.
Self defense is my right, and our government has no right to ban the sale of a firearm that will provide that defense.
You want concise wording for gun control.....
Second Amendment
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.
Ratified on December 17, 1791
The American Revolution began when the British tried to disarm the Colonists. (In Massachusetts of all places!)
It would be fitting if the Revolution ended with the Colonists demanding to be disarmed.
Government does not grant rights, it can only recognize rights given by God. We have a natural right to keep and bear arms for defense of our life and liberty and property.
He had no retort to my angle.
Only the 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendments contain the phrase "The right of the people".
I applied the logic of the gungrabber to the other amendments..."So you mean the 1st amendment only applies to Government approved journalism groups ?"...."So that would mean that only government employees are safe from unreasonable search and seizure ?"...
This method has no defendable ground.
When he went into the predictable "The founding fathers never foresaw assault weapons" I responded with "neither did they foresee internet pornography or surveilance cameras".
Stay away from the standard "militia" definitions, the word has been over demonized. Thank God for us that our founders used the phrase "The right of the People". Use it.
Also know that in the end, no debate won or lost will amount to a hill of beans. Sooner or later this will turn into a civil war.
Criminals prefer unarmed victims, especially when said criminals hold public office.
Then you could run the same comparisons of various right leaning dictatorships in Latin America and come up with approximately the same results.
The two sides of the aisle should blunt most counter arguments.
Then toss in Lott's book as the cherry on top.
(1) Man has an inherent right to self defense, either from lone threats or organized ones.
(2) Guns aren’t for hunting animals; they’re for hunting tyrants. The Founders were armed revolutionaries who rebelled against the superpower of their era. The Right to Bear Arms ain’t for hunting geese; it’s for hunting armed men who wish to subjugate you.
(3) Criminals, lunatics and governments have zero respect for targets that have no ability to resist. They never have, and they never will. Imagine what America would look like today if the native Americans had machine guns? It wouldn’t be America at all. Even here in peaceful, liberal California, we wiped out the native tribes so thoroughly we don’t even know what most of their names were, and then built prison camps for the Japanese on top of that land. Human nature is what it is, and will never change. The weak will always be prey for the strong. Always.
(4) The military doesn’t ‘protect your freedoms’. That’s a pleasant fiction. Individuals standing for their own rights protect their freedoms. Individuals that refuse to stand for their own rights cannot be kept free by the arms of others forever.
(5) All these ‘Western democracies and industrialized nations that don’t have private firearm ownership and work just fine’ were either Axis powers or conquered lands until we forced them to be otherwise, and we continue to occupy them with U.S. troops. Their freedom and social stability is exists at the behest of the U.S. Department of Defense. Once we pull out and Pax Americana ends, these nations will revert back to collectivism and tyranny.
(6) Why does anyone need an ‘assault rifle’? Because the government has them. In 1790, private citizens not only owned ‘military grade rifles’, but cannons and warships. Private citizens may not need rockets and nuclear weapons, but they do need individual weaponry on par with the government’s individual weaponry.
(7) But what about the children? They live in a world where guns will either cause the occasional shooting spree, or the occasional genocide. And so do you. There is no other option. Unarmed men are prey, who live in the shadow of their masters. At best, you can hope for kind ones, but masters never stay kind forever.
And that’s that.
It’s in the Bill of Rights. If you want to ban gun ownership, change the constitution or go live somewhere else.
So, don't hide. Be loud and proud. "Yes, I own guns. Handguns. Assault rifles. Shotguns. What of it?"
Strip this 'boating accident' nonsense out of your vocabulary. This is the language of fear. Don't be afraid. Society is more support of gun rights now than at any time in the last 30 years. Take advantage of that. Make it known you aren't ashamed or afraid to admit you own weapons. You can't hide, and you shouldn't have to, so instead, help make firearms more socially acceptable.