Author Topic: A recent response re: gun control  (Read 3745 times)

Offline backupr9

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A recent response re: gun control
« on: August 01, 2012, 09:59:29 PM »
  Email in response to my discussion of the theater shooting: "Okay.  The first point is that he shouldn't have any guns in the first place because he is being treated for a severe mental illness. And the second point point is that nobody needs to have an AK47 except the military and the police".

My response:


I agree that he should not have had a gun...he was clearly psychotic.  The public, if not constrained by the disease spread by the politically correct liberal, should be allowed to enforce the laws that currently exist in that regard.  As to the AK47, I would suggest you reread my previous.  I would also suggest that all sane and able citizens of Switzerland have by law been trained in the use of such weapons and are furthermore required to have them in their homes.  There are almost no reported home invasions in Switzerland.   An armed society is indeed a polite one.

The AK is NOT a fully automatic "assault weapon"...it is simply a semi-automatic rifle similar to many hunting rifles.  The much larger magazine would seem unnecessary unless your rulers would try to prevent your ownership of a weapon, at which time that weapon might well have its proper use.  It is entirely reasonable to assume that the public should have the right to protect itself from the military and/or the police when necessary (as it was in the War of American Independence). Here I quote Thomas Jefferson:   "The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- (Thomas Jefferson)

And others:

"...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." (George Mason)

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest. – Mahatma Gandhi, in Gandhi, An Autobiography,

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." (Tench Coxe in 'Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym 'A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

So, let us not make general laws to the detriment of society as a whole based on the relatively infrequent aberrations that occur, particularly since those are usually caused by lack of diligence on the part of the very authorities that are tasked to prevent them.
John
"Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little order, will lose both, and deserve neither." 
Thomas Jefferson

Endur Fortis

Offline tracker

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Re: A recent response re: gun control
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2012, 10:16:34 PM »
John,

I am on your side but the Swiss analogy doesn't quite hold up because comparing our country and Switzerland is like chalk and cheese in our differences and laws. For example, ammunition is quite restricted and if you buy ammo at a range it must all be used there. Additionally, it appears that hand gun ownership is much more restrictive than ours and will be approved on as required basis. In short, Switzerland is like a small island and their freedoms are under tight control


http://www.ehow.com/facts_6766770_switzerland-gun-safety.html
« Last Edit: August 01, 2012, 11:04:45 PM by tracker »

Offline backupr9

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Re: A recent response re: gun control
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2012, 11:11:18 PM »
Good points all Tracker.  To be fair, a small and  homogenous society is likely to be much safer and thus will have less of a criminal element.  Also in all fairness, there is less need to allow CCW since the likelihood of violent crime is less (hence the acceptance of the populace there?) unless and until that situation changes, as it did during the Nazi occupations in WWII of many of the European countries.   

Nevertheless, the quotes of the founding fathers (and there are many that I did not reproduce here) of this country make it clear that an "armed militia" was another term for an armed populace, and is thus to be differentiated from a standing army, which was thought to have the potential to enforce government tyranny.  A person with an automatic weapon but no access to ammunition is clearly not armed, except perhaps with an unwieldy club.  Now that home grown and imported terrorists are becoming a distinct threat, there would seem to be an even greater reason to have an armed citizenry. 

I do, however feel that all who buy or own firearms should be required to pass a firearms use and safety course of much greater difficulty than the usual encountered now, whether or not concealed carry is requested and that background checks and a waiting period should be required.  I hope I don't come across as a nutcase, but I just can't understand limiting the rights of the many because of the transgressions of the few.
John
ps:  Google "Of Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs" by Lt. Col Dave Grossman for an interesting read.  I couldn't get a link to post it here.
"Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little order, will lose both, and deserve neither." 
Thomas Jefferson

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Offline thor447

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Re: A recent response re: gun control
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2012, 02:00:07 AM »
John, I enjoyed reading your post.  It is refreshing to see an intelligent approach to the issue of gun control rather than most of the emotional / hysterical responses we all hear lately.

Thanks for posting,

-Adam
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
- George Washington

Offline Richard S

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Re: A recent response re: gun control
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2012, 08:24:25 AM »
* * *

ps:  Google "Of Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs" by Lt. Col Dave Grossman for an interesting read.  I couldn't get a link to post it here.

Here is one link:

http://forums.officer.com/t36187/
(1963-1967) "GO ARMY!"