Blog: Bang-Bang. You're Dead!
Times have certainly evolved since us kids played Cops and Robbers and Cowboys and Injuns, using sticks and broom handles as make-believe guns, to today’s military-type assault weapons used all-too frequently in mass massacres, like the indiscriminate shooting of those in the audience of a movie theater in Colorado, who were mowed down by a demented individual armed with a semi-automatic gun capable of spitting out fifty bullets a minutes with a high-capacity ammunition magazine.
And that the NRA and its supporters in Congress were no more aghast over the fact that he was armed to the teeth with weapons purchased legally from local gun dealers, along with 10,000 bullets he obtained over the interne, than they were when similar slaughters had occurred in the recent past.
That, it was just another example, however horrifying, of the price we must pay in order to preserve the sanctity of the Second Amendment, appears to be the basic argument of the anti-gun control lobby, who contend that it, too, will have a short attention span in the public’s minds.
And they have every reason to believe so, given that whereas twenty years ago polls showed that a substantial majority favored stricter gun controls, Americans now appear to be evenly divided on it.
That while both President Obama and Romney are of the same mindset-to leave well enough alone, and to rely on the existing gun controls to stem the problem-there’s no doubt they’d be committing political suicide, were they to come out four-square for reinstituting the 1994 ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004.
So, the overriding question is, how do we go about dealing with the mass killings of hapless people with assault weapons?
Do we stop them from being bought, and in any number, at gun shows and stores, legally or illegally?
Should we require a longer waiting period and more extensive background checks on would-be buyers than the one that was conducted on the perpetrator of that massacre in Aurora?
Or, do we just throw our hands up in despair, and resign ourselves to the hopelessness of ever being able to effectively cope with that bane of our society; and thus relegate it to the list of other divisive social issues-a la abortion rights-that will, as it now stands, forever remain unresolved?
Those are questions each and every one of us must search their souls in answering.
Quote of the week: “Any SOB who can’t kill a deer with one bullet shouldn’t be allowed to hunt.” Former senator Barry Goldwater commenting on assault weapons.
Native
9:31 pm on Friday, July 27, 2012
You make some good points David. That Obama & Romney would be commiting political suicide for suggesting more regulations is true. And that is because the majority of voters still believe there are enough gun control laws on the books already. Goldwater was wrong. Yes, anyone that hunts should be reasonably proficient with his weapon. But hunting is not the main reason for owning firearms. Especially according to the founding fathers. Their reason was (and everybody knows this), to keep government & the bad guys in check. This right has been affirmed by the courts & is Godgiven. If not for the NRA (THE nation's oldest civil right's organization), the slippery slope of illegal government intervention would've occured long ago. As far as those idiots & their mass killings, if the guns had not been available they would've used another method of murder. The Colorado murderer had gasoline bombs in his apartment he could've used. Remember the murders in the nightclub in New Orleans where a firebomb was used? Guns are just a tool, used by humans to do good & bad things. But vastly more good things. No one hears about the times when guns are used to stop a crime by a citizen, that's not PC.
Kathy
1:25 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
The right to bear arms is in the Constitution, and has been affirmed by the Courts. But God-given? Where in the Bible is the right to bear arms?
Native
11:26 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Kathy, the founders considered rights (Bill of Rights for example), to be "God-given" or "natural".
Buck Harmon
7:57 pm on Saturday, July 28, 2012
Free human beings have a natural right to do as they please as long as they do no harm to others....owning and carrying a gun included.... I make this statement with my hands thrown to the air.
Kathy
1:59 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
So do you believe that marijuana and other currently illegal drugs should be legal? (Assuming the human beings taking them can afford them and are not committing crimes or harming anyone else to get them?) Should gay adult citizens be allowed to marry? Should people from other countries be permitted to come and go freely across our borders to work? I am just wondering how far you believe these natural rights should be extended.
Buck Harmon
2:21 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
Kathy, I believe that legal drugs have done more damage to this country than illegal drugs ever will. This blog is about guns. I believe that alcohol does more damage to society than marijuana ever could and that perceived government control has a history of not working very well....like most things that the government tries to control.
As long as I am not harming someone else I am free to do what I choose...it's that simple Kathy. You can attempt to complicate that kind of freedom if you choose, but I choose to live without fear of government control or to allow law to guide my life in any way that I do not choose. Natural rights are instinctive and can't be regulated by government. A dumbed down society abides out of fear more than anything.
I you do no harm what is the need of understanding the tits for tats of law?
Our country began with human beings from other countries...they wiped out most Native Americans kinda like Hitler wiped out the Jews after he had complete control of their lives and guns.
Currently, the government has too much perceived control over the lives of the citizens. It's up to each individual to provide their own family protection, not the government. Fighting for freedom is a responsibility that most neglect. Defending freedom is never ending when dealing with a tyrant government.
You seem to function only under the rule of government Kathy, spread your wings, it might just feel refreshing.
Buck Harmon
2:24 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
Oh, and natural rights are extended until death...
Kathy
2:33 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
You don't know me, so I don't know why you seem to believe that I "function only under the rule of government" (whatever the hell that even means). I do believe in the rule of law. I believe that WE are the government, in that we elect them (and therefore deserve what we get). I believe that an individual's rights are extremely important, but that they stop cold at the point at which they infringe upon another's rights. I believe that our government is not a tyrant, just because I don't get my own way about everything. I believe that my taxes are too high, but that taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society (and I recognize that they are only high because I am very privileged in that society). I don't ask the government for anything--I have never been on public assistance (except for 6 months of unemployment in the 1980s), but I am happy to support that government.
I would love to live in a society where everyone always does what is right and good for other people and our country as a whole, but so far I see very little evidence that such a society currently exists. Until that day occurs, I prefer for people to operate under the rule of law.
Buck Harmon
3:44 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
Thank you for that response Kathy, you look like a lawyer in the photo, that's why I would have to assume that you are stuck within the mold of law...there is very little escape for most lawyers, they earn fruitful livings as a result of too many rules and laws. Not to say that you do.. but I would hardly consider that our courts protect personal freedom at a fair dollar value. Lawyers seem to naturally charge people in desperate situations extraordinarily high fees to make deals with Judges. They get away with this because the Courts have been corrupted. I don't ask anything of the government except that they stay out of my life. More citizens will begin to do the right thing as the government , if possible begins to do the right thing. The grey zones created by bad law and over reaching government breed bad things...just by their example.
Can you tell me that there is nothing seriously wrong with the law and our government Kathy?
Buck Harmon
3:45 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
When you take the BAR exam what does the word BAR stand for?