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To: Jeff Head
Flawed. Read it and you'll find "The founders of this nation understood that the citizens individual right to self-defense was paramount to liberty itself, and clearly worded the 2nd amendment to the constittuion [sic] which enumerated this fundamental right for every law abiding citizen."

Ahem. That is not in the constitution. The rights enumerated in the constitution, particularly the Bil of Rights, are not conditionally granted. Or any other verb you care to apply. Nor were they until the 20th century when the gun grabs began.

This group just wants to make the same mistake over again, leaving in the place the mechanisms by which our rights are being eroded, so that they can be eroded again.

A lot of good principles proposed here, but all it will do is rewind the clock a few years.

I propose the group follows their own logic: "Having been convicted of a felony, you no longer have a Second Amendment right." (Quite a 'right', no?):
- You may lose your First Amendment right (we don't want ex-cons assembling with their own, or possible predators going to church, or DUIs in bars).
- You may lose your Fourth Amendment right (druggies in particular profit from this, as do pornmeisters, and we cannot allow that).
- You should lose your Fifth Amendment right, particularly when the government doesn't like the outcome (remember the LA cops? Apply this especially to sex offenders who get acquitted at trial).
- You will lose your Eight Amendment right (especially for heinous crimes for which you really, really, to "have the punishment fit the crime").

But let's make things easy for the bureaucrats. Once convicted of *any* crime, you lose all these rights. And you may have them taken away if you're under suspicion. Or if you're a liberal.

13 posted on 10/17/2009 10:05:09 AM PDT by Clint Williams (Read Roto-Reuters -- we're the spinmeisters | America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
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To: Clint Williams

I agree. Once convicted and sentenced for a crime, you would most surely have certain rights SUSPENDED for the duration of your imprisonment, but once your sentence is COMPLETED, the suspension must be lifted IMMEDIATELY. And if you are such a threat to society when you are released, WHY ARE YOU BEING LET GO? Why isn’t your sentence LIFE then? No, I have long thought that the ‘68 GCA which did this abomination went way overboard - in EVERY WAY - by causing such issues to surface. Even a felon who’s “paid his debt to society” has a right to protect himself... and, by the way, why wasn’t that “debt” paid to his VICTIM, in the form of restitution to make the victim whole again?


20 posted on 10/17/2009 10:18:14 AM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
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To: Clint Williams
Actually, the notion of a formally stratified society as proposed by this group ("law-abidiing citizens" being Tier 1 and the rest Tier 2) is an intriguing and useful one. Let's construct one using the principles of this organization, and cribbing a little:
Tier 1: Full grant of ALL rights, enumerated or otherwise. This is an earned tier, available only to those of Tier 2 who have completed honorable terms of service to the state, in particular the armed forces in defense of this country. (Exceptions may be made for such as the Amish.)
Tier 2: All rights except national elections. (Cribbing from R.A. Heinlein here and Tier 1.) Must be natural-born citizens with at least one U.S. national as a birth-parent.
Tier 3: Same rights as Tier 2. Nationalized immigrants.
Tier 4: Denied 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th Amendment and all voting rights. Membership in this tier adheres to those who have ever committed any crime or misdemeanor and once a member of this tier no subsequent action may elevate one to a higher tier. (This is in accordance with many FReepers' and others' desires -- sorry about that, Mr. Colson.)
Tier 5: Right? What's a right? Baddest of the bad, scum of society. Selected out of Tier 4 by popular vote. (All sex offenders likely to wind up here.)

Stratified societies work. Just ask the Brahmins. Sucks to be a dalit, but we have to have *somebody* to stomp on. Today it's registered sex offenders, but that's not really enough. Other folks belong down there too.

Sooo... from their stated principle a whole new society.

35 posted on 10/17/2009 10:36:15 AM PDT by Clint Williams (Read Roto-Reuters -- we're the spinmeisters | America -- a great idea, didn't last.)
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