Gun con-troll

“(I've signed on to this patriotic open letter I found on the internet)

I can't believe what a bunch of passivist, pantywaist, crypto-liberal wimps you National Rifle Association members are.

You claim to be such staunch supporters of the Second Amendment, and yet your rights under this amendment have been spat upon by the mean ol' government for better than a half a century. You see, since the first atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, not a single one of you has been allowed to own any sort of nuclear weapon.

And yet there you sit, claiming to enjoy Second Amendment rights while this national disgrace
continues unchallenged by the NRA.

Just for background purposes, let's take a look at the
Second Amendment. Here it is:

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.

There. That's the whole thing. Let's skip the "well regulated militia" part and concentrate on the rest. What part of the phrase "the right of the people to
keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." does the NRA not understand? Let's see: "The people" are us. You and me. Decent folks, kids, mental cases, mass-murderers, all of us whether or not the folks in Washington approve of us. Nuclear weapons are clearly "arms." The fact that the government recognizes this is borne out by its recognition of the START II Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)signed by President Bush in '93 and later ratified by Congress. And yet the NRA has not once taken the government to task for this clear and blatant restriction of the Second Amendment. I mean, what if
Russia were to launch an all-out nuclear strike at the United States right now? How would the average patriotic citizen be expected to defend his family with
nothing more that a few hundred semi-automatic hunting sticks under his mattress? We can't possibly expect help from the same government that didn't even have the stomach to drop the big one in Grenada back when the Gipper was in charge. To really deter nuclear war, the Russians would have to know damn well that any nuclear first strike would be met with American citizens throwing their atomic weapons in the back of their '76 Chevy pickups, driving to
Moscow, and slugging it out with Ivan, toe-to-toe. Right now, the sissy Republican-controlled House of Representatives is not even discussing this issue. The NRA should put its foot down: Either its Republican lackeys in Congress begin a REAL defense of the Second Amendment, or the money that props up these creeps at election time stops cold. Let's see these guys
try to get elected with just the support of a few rich people and religious nuts!
In short, America is on the brink of catastrophe. By restricting the ownership of nuclear weapons, the
Second Amendment is teetering on a slippery slope that, if unchallenged, could lead to the NRA's worst nightmare: The citizens of the United States could
someday decide that the second amendment no longer applies to a any modern weaponry. Let us stop this now! All real American patriots will not rest until the Second Amendment promise of nuclear weapon ownership for
all citizens, including mass-murders, the mentally ill is a reality. Our forefathers wouldhave wanted it that way.”

“Crypto-liberals!? <YIKES>

Call the National Guard!”

“Good one, Ped!

I love the fact that, when faced with absolutism, most extremists get reeeeal quiet.

The NRA's charter should read "We like guns. We want guns, whether or not we need guns. We will buy any political favors we possibly can to keep guns. Give us your money if you like guns too."”

“Its the damned crypto liberal gun lobby... they subtly hijacked and manipulated the NRA into focusing only on rifles and hand-guns. The second amendment doesn't say guns, "or portable weapons carried by individuals" or even "conventional weapons" it says arms. Ain't no state where even decent folks are allowed to bring anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons home, let alone missles, tanks or other arms. Probably they think such weapons in the hands of individual people would endanger our collective security! Another case of collectivism over individualism!
The NRA wimps might as well have pocket protectors and ACLU cards!”

“I give money to the ACLU, I don't give money to the NRA. The NRA doesn't really represent most gunowners. I'm a gun-owner and proud to live in a country where the government doesn't try to prevent lawful ownership of firearms.

The NRA purports to represent responsible gunowners. But they never said word one when thousands of patently unsafe Jennings and Raven autopistols were being dumped onto the street for $85 to $150 each. Cheap, dangerous firearms that no one--be they survivalist, hunter, enthusiast or collector--should want to have on the property. The NRA also hasn't done much to support the American firearms industry.

Another sin of the NRA, in my book, is its insistance in blaming "the media" for their woes. This, at a time, when the Wall Street Journal (one of the most influential newspapers in the nation) is rabidly pro-gun. They use "the media" argument to stir up the yahoos and little more.

I'm a gunowner and the NRA doesn't speak for me.”

“ACLU = A$$hole Communist-Lovers Union.”

“Very Clever, Gordon.”

“I am a member of the ACLU. In a large part, it is the ACLU that ensures you can say things like that gordon.”

“1. Sierra Club
2. Army National Guard
3. Labor Union

It is okay to have an opinion about anything that you want. You can even share with other people as long as they want to hear it. If you want to share your opinion with folks who don't want to hear it you should consider politics. Just because you are part of an organization, it does not mean that you have to believe and support every thing they represent.”

“ Just because you are part of an organization, it does not mean that you have to believe and support every thing they represent.

True, but when you fund a group, you fund everything they do. Once they have your money, they generally don't come back to ask you how to spend it. I give to very specific charities, but the only group along the line of the NRA or Sierra Club I belong to is Amnesty International. They do better work than I could in researching the issues surrounding human rights in the world at large, so I fund it.

I disagree too often with most other groups.”

“"the right of the people to
keep Bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

I should hope not. I'm keepin the rest of any bear I shoot with by gun that I take hiking.”

“The good thing about the Constitution is that it can be amended. The constitution in not a sacred/holy document. I hope they amend it so that arms become illegal. Durring the 18th and 19th century I believe that the right to bare arms was something important for the average citizen. Today it's a different situation. The government has much higher powered arms then any average person. We have already lost the ability to defend ourselves against any invasionary force with the average gun and these guns we have too often fall into the hands of criminals and get used against us.”

“Whether you have the right to bare arms or not depends on what your arms look like.”

“The 2nd Amendment wasn't just about invasionary forces, but the government itself (just like when someone swears to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. Better a deer rifle against an Abrams tank or Bradley fighting machine than nothing at all. Ask the Viet Cong. (Ooops, now I must be a Commie lover AND a gun nut!)

BTW, I think my First Need filter is effective at removing crypto-liberals, at least if they get in the water supply.”

“"Fear the government that fears your gun." I like this one too. "Guns cause crime like spoons caused Rosie O'Donnel to become fat".”

“Politicians would legislate the fun out of sex if they could. Leave guns alone and go after dumbass gun owners... guns really don't do anything”

“"Let... others call me a hypocrite because I fired a gun in a moment of personal peril. I shall still be for strict gun control. But as long as authorities leave this society awash in drugs and guns, I will protect my family."
-- Carl T. Rowan, Jr. (b.1925)

Couldn't say it better.”

“How is a deer rifle going to be better against a tank than nothing? Most likely the tank will blow the crap out of you for carrying the rifle, rather than if you had none. Thus carrying the rifle caused more damage to you than the enemy.”

“tactics, thinair, tactics.”

“"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"
- The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”

“Excellent quote, Violin!”

“Phaedrus, very good point about funding vs. actual use.

I really do want my own tank, a big mobile rifle. Wouldn't that be cool? As for overthrowing the government, I don't want any part of that. Could you imagine the amount of red tape involved in a coup? "Please sign the assumption of leadership document in triplicate, after that there is the property book to sign." LOL!!”

“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.

Children are "people" also. So are unborn fetuses accoring to the nuts. Why aren't these NRA nuts demanding every child and fetus in America be given unfettered access to firearms?”

“TBP: Today, you are slime. Actually, when something like you gets on slime, the slime is grossed out and has to wipe it off. If you fell into a toxic waste pit, the owners should clean the waste.

That said, its a kewl proposal. Stop abortion by arming fetuses! Wait a second:

If a woman bears children, it means she gives birth to them. Maybe, the second amendment guarantees our right to give birth to weaponry!

BTW TBP: You stooped very low today. I hope living with yourself turns out to be appropriate punishment. I am assuming you are incapable of an apology.”

“Imagine,taking over this country,then realizing the debt your in.My ,guess is, it would be hard to give away.I carry all my contraband in a gun,then the NRA will bail me out when I'm busted. still can't find that pipe.”

“regarding what, pedexing?”

“--"This Year Will Go Down In History. For The First Time, A Civilized Nation Has Full Gun Registration! Our Streets Will Be Safer, Our Police More Efficient, And The World Will Follow Our Lead Into The Future!"
— Adolph Hitler 1935 'Berlin Daily' (Loose English Translation) April 15th, 1935 Page 3 Article 2 by Einleitung Von Eberhard Beckmann "Abschied vom Hessenland!"”

“-- "Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the constitution they don't like." ~~ Alan Dershowitz”

“Oh, that's it! Wow, so simple! All this time, people were wondering why world war 2 and the holocaust happened, and - wow - there was the answer all along!”

“--The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
    Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States”

“--"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press."
— 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 Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)”

“--If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
    Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States, 1816”

“-- Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. – Barry Goldwater (1964)”

“"To quote Barry Goldwater takes a man of severely limited historical intellect"
-- Newt Parsival (1989)”

“--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!
    Charles Schumer, United States Congressman
    On NBC Nightly News, November 30, 1993”

“--A government that intended to protect the liberty of the people would not disarm them. A government planning the opposite most certainly and logically would disarm them. And so it has been in this century. Check out the history of Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, China and Cambodia.
    Charlie Reese, Syndicated Columnist”

“I have guns and he!! will freeze before I give mine up!

8|”

“"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
-- William Adams”

“""To quote Barry Goldwater takes a man of severely limited historical intellect"
-- Newt Parsival (1989)"
Phaedrus

“The left wing has no monopoly on intelligence or righteousness! They seek only to change the status quo so they can control our lives.”

Tommy Gun, Life NRA member”

“""If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
-- William Adams"
Phaedrus”

“Yeah, okay, I made up the Newt Parsival quote. It was funny, though!

Would it surprise you to know that I'm not in favor of most gun control, but I dislike the NRA so much that it's pushing me that way?”

“--"I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." ~~ George Mason, Virginia’s U.S. Constitution Ratification Convention, 1788”

“Today consist of wacko white supremacists.

Hey... LETS ARM EM!!!


Goooood idea.”

“"Yeah, okay, I made up the Newt Parsival quote. It was funny, though!

Would it surprise you to know that I'm not in favor of most gun control, but I dislike the NRA so much that it's pushing me that way?"
Phaedrus

The NRA is one of the most influencial political organisations in America. This must be the reason for your ill feelings. Sorry but they serve my purpose in more ways then one. The NRA is "the" athority on firearms and their use in the world. They train the police and the military............. I am sorry you do not relate but the NRA is a fine organisation wethere you like them or not....”

“--The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power Power is not a means; it is an end not power over things, but over men In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever.
    George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949”

“I have over 5000 rounds of ammunition stored in my bedroom. I don't fear an invasion. I worry about a house fire.”

“Thats is getting way out of my leage!

8|”

“-- "That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there." ~~ George Orwell”