Pry It From My Cold Dead Fingers
When the Founders of this country declared its independence in 1776, nearly 232 years ago, most people here had some sort of firearm and knew how to use it. It was those armed men who decided that this was a free new nation and not the property of Spain, England or France.
Because being and staying free obviously required a well-armed populace, an Amendment was added to our Constitution which says “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”.
All these years, no one has doubted the meaning of those words, that we as individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. Individual states have tried to usurp those rights, particularly in the case of those who’ve been convicted of crimes. Some states take away the right to bear arms forever, while others restore it entirely on completion of a persons sentence. Montana does this. Regardless of state intrusion on this basic right, the Federal right remains as stated in our Constitution.
Yet now our Supreme Court is batting the old ball around again over whether it only means “state-run militias only” or whether the 2nd Amendment covers all of us, in spite of over 200 years of tradition. While it now appears that the Supreme Court is leaning toward the right of all of us, that really isn’t the point.
This should not even be being discussed. After 200 plus years of knowing how things are in this country, some things become givens and the Right To Bear Arms is one of them. Just like Freedom of Assembly and Free Speech, yet both of those have been whittled away at over the years as well by those who don’t like us rabble having too much power.
Nobody really likes paying taxes but we do so because our government said in 1913 that it needs our money, so we pay it. That’s not paying for Freedom. It’s just paying for the running of government. Many of us join the military but that’s not paying for Freedom either. Paying for Freedom is a Special Tax, and we pay it only when we stand up en masse like a good rabble should and do what we know is right in spite of what our government tells us, and not because of what it tells us.
Never forget that our government is composed of a bunch of self-concerned individuals who are all just as much in pursuit of their own personal gain as the rest of us are, and probably a lot less worthy of our trust than the clerk at the hardware store. It’s up to us to protect our Freedoms by the out-front act of taking them, and if that lands us in jail then that’s the tax we pay to keep our Freedoms. It’s called Civil Disobedience. You don’t have to shoot them. Just ignore them when they tell you to stop doing what you know is your American right.
The Supreme Court is not my God. Don’t let it be yours.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Staying free? What use would a handgun or even an assault rifle be against the state with all the enormous resources?
This is purely a matter for you yanks, nobody else’s business really, but one would observe that when those who are obviously antisocial misfits and sometimes not even US citizens can get rifles someone should look at whether the controls are adequate. As far as possible surely only law abiding citizens should be able to get them legally?
March 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
PS Like your hot babes but can we have a few botty shots for us ghastly old perves?
March 25th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Guns in the hands of the people are what helps keep our government in line. They always know that if they go too far, an armed populace might rise up against them. Then there goes their jobs and their happy lifestyle. I know Europeans have a hard time seeing this but it’s our system and it works for us.
More “good citizens” commit violent crimes with or without using guns, than known criminals, and this is true not just here but everywhere. That’s where all the new criminals come from, from the ranks of decent citizens.
This isn’t just about internal threat such as a government gone bad, however. We’re just as vulnerable to invasion as any nation in Europe and all of us being armed virtually turns our entire nation into an enormous army. That makes for a serious deterrent that none of you over there have.
Butt shots? Only if one comes around on the guitar, to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie.