[philetus]

Great post I found at Government Monkey

http://www2.trettel.net:8080/mt/archives/000223.html

No one here but us politicians...

Pandering away as usual, Kathleen Townsend on Monday called for new restrictions on scary looking guns as the proper response to the .223 shootings (I ain't gonna call the guy a sniper, sorry). Never mind the fact that the Bushmaster used in the shooting wasn't bought in Maryland, or that it was secured illegally in Washington State, or that Mr. Muhammed wasn't allowed to own a gun in the first place, or that he broke a myriad collection of laws by transporting it to Maryland and shooting people with it, and also let's not mind the fact that his youthful sidekick Mr. Malvo was in the country illegally, and that he also wasn't legally allowed to have a gun, and yadda yadda yadda. Let's pass yet more laws instead! Screw enforcing the one's we've got!

If anyone wants to know what's wrong with the Democratic Party, well I'll point to this as just one instance. The proper response to a tragedy such as this should be a sober and introspective analysis of what happened, not a knee jerk attempt to shift the blame to an innocent party by coming up with yet more laws. Let's be clear about this, because that's what's going on here. Here's MoCo's Supreme Leader on who to blame:

"Gunmakers are making a mockery of our gun laws," said Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), who appeared with Townsend.


That's right-the nerve of those gunmakers to sell guns that are in reality fully compliant with the laws on the books! They should know that the actual intent is to shut them down, and to simply do so. Here's a free clue for Duncan and Townsend-the Bushmaster company did not send a factory representative down to Maryland to shoot the place up. Nor did Bushmaster produce a rifle that was actually any more deadly than any other common bolt action rifle-it just happens to look scary. What did happen was that two criminals named Muhammed and Malvo shot the place up with an illegally purchased gun, and also performed multiple acts of violence in the states of Alabama and Virginia. Perhaps we might want to look at these two people instead, since they seem to bear the brunt of the blame and responsibility. I would hope that this is an easy concept to grasp, although perhaps I'm asking a bit too much of our selected leaders.

To be fair the reason why Townsend made this proposition is because her opponent Bob Ehrlich had just secured the endorsement of the Montgomery Country Fraternal Order of Police. It was her way of stealing attention back to her campaign, and the comment was clearly intended to serve as a rallying point for her followers in Montgomery County. Also, to be fair the Post story actually included some balance in it by quoting a gun rights supporter:


"She keeps calling for common-sense gun laws, but we've already got 350 laws on the books. Isn't that enough?" said Sanford Abrams of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association. "There's no other reason for this pronouncement of hers except to get votes in Montgomery and Prince George's counties."


The reality is that there is damn little any laws could do to stop this type of violence in the USA. Without even getting into the merits of the 2nd Amendment as it applies today, the plain fact is that there's some 200 million guns in circulation in this country. It would be simply impossible to remove all these guns from circulation short of making the USA a police state-Americans have a long and noble history of ignoring laws they don't like. What Muhammed and Malvo did could have been done with almost any common rifle that could be had in any pawn shop, garage sale, black market sale, or burglery in the USA. There's no way to get around that fact-so the best thing to do here is to give these two men their fair trial (hopefully in Prince Williams County, VA) and move along. Posted by mtrettel at October 30, 2002 08:59 AM

[philetus]

[joesnuffy]

Even the social liberal-fiscal conservatives are pretty much hard core pro gunners....

The Republicans cant hide forever on this issue.....those who vote for renewel will be hurt at the polls...and they know it...

imo

[Destructor]

As the old saying goes, "Keep your powder dry." In other words, be ready in the event that more drastic measures are needed in the future.

Last weekend I went out to the range with some friends to break in my new "Yugo" (Yugoslavian SKS that is).

[Trailerpark Badass]

It's almost like they're daring me not to vote for them.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Warner's email site: http://warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme.htm

[Indie]

Between allowing mass illegal immigration, banning semi-automatic rifles with pistol grips, the patriot act, free trade and jobs flowing overseas...what the hell good are Republicans? It's getting very hard to tell the difference...and the Constitution is dead.

[TigersEye]

A clean bill or a Republican wipeout in November!

[Boiling point]

All we have to do is get a good pro Rtkba congressman to add an amendment like a complete ban on abortion and maybe that would do the trick.

[jwalsh07]

Stupid party getting stupider. Why not wait until October to piss off 50 million gun owners?

[cruiserman]

"Although I voted against the ban a decade ago, over the past 10 years it has reduced crime dramatically and has made our streets safer," Warner said. "The legislation also has protected the rights of gun owners better than many of us predicted."

Did anyone notice if he said this with a straight face?

[Djarum]

"Although I voted against the ban a decade ago, over the past 10 years it has reduced crime dramatically and has made our streets safer," Warner said.

Name one studying proving so, you lying scum.

"The legislation also has protected the rights of gun owners better than many of us predicted."

Just like CFR protects the right of free speech? Outrageous.

[SevenDaysInMay]

All who act to subvert our ratified Constitution are enemies of this Constitutional Republic, sworn enemies of tens of millions of armed and trained citizens because they betray their own oaths of office. The federales' profiled "militia movement" is trivial in defense of our Ratified Constitution, THE LAW of our land, not guidelines.

We who have taken sworn oaths before God to defend our (RATIFIED) Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic outnumber those who would be 5th columnists acting under color of law.

Only this islamist Terror War has allowed the FBI-HRT's JBTs minimal goodwill as 9/11 losses exceeded the murders of the Branch Davidians from the BATF full auto assault to 4/19/93. Bill & Hillary only meant to display their new police powers to put us in our place. Any "Christians" will do in matters of State.

Those in high office and their lessers who act to subvert our one and only ratified Constitution derive any and all of their temporary lawful authority from the same ratified Constitution which they attack under color of law.

Our Bill of Rights means what it says; no law and no court can over rule the rights affirming God-given rights.

Our nation is further descending into the fascism designed by the Clintonazis. Their Law of Rule is at war with our Rule of Law.

Fascists in and out of office are taking advantage of our life or death preoccupation with islamists' threats.

The next Congressional or SCOTUS 2nd Amendment RTKABA infringement shall be passed across Concord Bridge. Our government employees including those believing that they are above The Law of OUR Land, need to decide now whether they shall defend our RATIFIED Constitution or simply "follow orders" from Lexington to Nuremberg.

We free American citizens shall prevail against islamism and American fascism.

[philetus]

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out right ban,
picking up every one of them... "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,
"I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here."
--U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), CBS-TV's "60 Minutes," 2/5/95

[philetus]

Gun Grabbers on Self-Defense
Shogun-Era Japan

The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising.

-- Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Shogun of Japan, August 29, 1558.
The Shot Heard Around the World

Disperse you rebels! Damn you, throw down your arms and disperse.

-- British Major John Pitcairn, Lexington, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775.

Nazis on Guns
Germans who wish to use firearms should join the S.S. or the S.A.--ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the state.

-- Heinrich Himmler

Joseph Biden on Gun Control

Banning guns is an idea whose time has come.

- U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in an interview with AP on November 18, 1993.

Jocelyn Elders on Handguns

Handguns are a public health issue.

- then-U.S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders in USA Today, Nov. 9, 1993

Feinstein on Gun Control

Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe.

- Sen. Dianne Feinstein quoted by AP on Nov. 18, 1993

Schumer on Gun Control

We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true! ... We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy. We're going to beat guns into submission!

- Rep. Charles Schumer on NBC Nightly News Nov. 30, 1993.

Hillary Clinton on Guns

I'm personally all for taxing guns to pay for health care coverage.

- Hillary Clinton quoted by the Nov. 4, 1993 New York Times
Michael Gardner on Handguns

There is no reason for anyone in this country -- anyone except a police officer or a military person -- to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun ... The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns. And the only way to do that is to change the Constitution.

- Michael Gardner, president of NBC News, in USA Today, January 16, 1992.

Clinton on Guns

We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles ... that we are unable to think about reality.

- Bill Clinton, President of the United States, March 11, 1993

[ought-six]

The inclusion of Warner on the list surpises me, but not Lincoln Chaffee, who is just James Jeffords redux.

[xsrdx]

NRA Anti-AWB Website

SUNSET THE AW BAN

[Space Wrangler]

Renewal of the AWB results in a Kerry presidency. I will not vote in November if this thing gets passed. Bush and the pubbies will lose way more votes then they can possibly gain. Do they not realize that they could very well lose their base with this move?

[DMZFrank]

The AWB is directly about the RKBA.

Gun grabbers are increasingly trying to separate the right to keep and bear arms from its constitutional underpinnings. To everyone but many liberals and gun grabbers the word militia implies a body organized for military use. The Supreme Court Miller decision of 1939 held that the militia was 'A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.' And further that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time."

To begin with, only the national government was represented at the trial. With nobody arguing to the contrary, the court followed standard court procedure and assumed that the law was constitutional until proven otherwise. If both sides were present, the outcome may have been much different.

However, since only one party showed up, the case will stand in the court records as is. As to the militia, Mr. Justice McReynolds related the beliefs of the Founding Fathers when commenting historically about the Second Amendment. He stated that, ". . .The common view was that adequate defense of country and laws could be secured through the militia- civilians primarily, soldiers on occasion.

"The significance attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.

It is clear that the firearms that are most suited for modern-day militia use are those semi automatic military pattern weapons that the yellow press calls "assault weapons". Since nations such as the Swiss trust their citizenry with true selective fire assault rifles, it seems to me that this country ought to be at least able to trust its law-abiding citizenry with the semi automatic version.

Self-defense is a vital corollary benefit of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. But its primary constitutional reason for being is for service in the well-regulated militia which is necessary to the security of a free state. Don't let the gun grabbers and their politician allies separate us from the constitutional reason for the right to keep and bear arms.

PostScript: In the vernacular of the founders well-regulated meant well drilled and organized.