Posted on 05/13/2003 8:11:58 AM PDT by Remedy
Leftists loathe National Rifle Association and everyone associated with it. They loathe NRA leaders Wayne LaPierre and former president Charlton Heston. They hate the thousands of political leaders who support the NRA, the four million NRA members, the tens of millions of American gun owners, and the tens of millions of Americans who support our Second Amendment rights (all of whom really should belong to the NRA). They hate us all.
And with good reason. The NRA and its members and supporters fight for everything leftists fight against. Who are those vindictive leftist folks? Among them are the leftist judiciary, media, Hollywood celebrities, and gun control groups and their supporters.
They especially hate the NRA's support for a strong Constitution and the sacred intent of our Founders. They fancy a "living" Constitution reinterpreted monthly by loony judges in California. The leftist Ninth Circuit Court recently ruled that the Second Amendment now gives only state militias, not individual Americans, a right to bear arms. That ruling not only conflicts with the policy of Attorney General John Ashcroft, it even runs counter to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled just weeks before that the Second Amendment does confer on individuals a constitutional right "to privately possess and bear their own firearms."
The issue now goes to the U. S. Supreme Court. USA Today noted that the court hasn't reviewed a Second Amendment case in 70 years. "If the Supreme Court were so inclined, it could easily render a strong individual-rights interpretation of the Second Amendment. There is a mountain of impressive scholarship supporting that view, some of it produced by mainstream and even liberal constitutional law theorists."
Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman, in a review of John Lott's excellent book, More Guns, less Crime, wrote: "This sophisticated analysis yields a well established conclusion that supports the wisdom of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution rather than of those who would limit the right of law-abiding citizens to own and carry guns."
Gun grabbers would have it otherwise. New Jersey recently became the first state to pass a futuristic "smart gun" law that will require new handguns to contain mechanisms that permit only their owners to fire them. "The law will not go into effect immediately because the technology is still under development and it could be years before it becomes a reality," Associated Press reports. "The owner would have his grip programmed at a gun shop or police range by practice-firing the weapon. A microchip in the weapon would remember the grip and determine in an instant whether the authorized user was holding the weapon. If not, the gun would not fire."
The Leftist State of Maryland has also imposed a new gun law on its citizens. The Baltimore Sun reports: "Starting today [January 1st], gun buyers and dealers in Maryland will face a restriction not shared by their counterparts anywhere else in the country: a ban on the sale of newly made handguns that lack internal safety locks."
The NRA has successfully contested another of the gun controllers' main weapon against private gun ownership: a government registry of every gun in America, with a dossier of who owns it, where they live, and any other personal data the gun grabbers deem useful for their agendas. The purpose isn't to fight crime. (Do they really think the criminals will register their guns or the "hot" guns floating around our streets?) When the inevitable gun confiscation order goes out, they want a record so the authorities can efficiently round up the guns of law-abiding citizens.
It happened in Great Britain and Australia, where confiscation followed registration. The crime rate in both countries headed skyward and is far higher than that of the United States. According to the International Crime Victimization Survey, Australia, England, and Wales top the list with more than one in four citizens being a victim of crime. The U. S. isn't even in the top ten.
Canada banned many handguns years ago. The 1995 Canadian Firearms Act launched a registration of the guns of law-abiding citizens. (Who else would comply? Criminals aren't noted for their adherence to the law.) Canada's crime rate now ranks fifth in the ICVS.
I lived in the Philippines when President Marcos seized power as dictator. Among his first orders was for citizens to turn in their guns. America will be next. As columnist Paul Craig Roberts notes: "The people most dangerous to the public are not on the FBI's 'Most Wanted List.' Far more dangerous to our safety than criminals are gun-control extremists like Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sarah Brady of Handgun Control. These are the people who will leave us defenseless as they abrogate the Constitution and destroy respect for law, while promising an end to 'gun violence.'"
The NRA has been successful in promoting concealed-carry laws. John Lott noted during an interview: "Murder rates decline when either more women or more men carry concealed handguns, but a gun represents a much larger change in a woman's ability to defend herself than it does for a man. An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about 3 to 4 times more than an additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men." That's true gender equity.
Leftists hate the NRA leadership and its members and supporters for protecting our Second Amendment rights. Leftists especially hate the NRA's hard-working leaders. Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, even took time to review my novel (The Evil Ones) for its Second-Amendment issues.
Yes, the NRA has made some enemies, but those enemies are leftists more concerned with their agendas than they are our safety or Constitutional rights. I'll stick with the NRA and its members every time.
Project FREEDOM: Official Web Site of US Rep. Ron Paul More importantly, however, the debate about certain types of weapons ignores the fundamental purpose of the Second amendment. The Second amendment is not about hunting deer or keeping a pistol in your nightstand. It is not about protecting oneself against common criminals. It is about preventing tyranny. The Founders knew that unarmed citizens would never be able to overthrow a tyrannical government as they did. They envisioned government as a servant, not a master, of the American people. The muskets they used against the British Army were the assault rifles of the time. It is practical, rather than alarmist, to understand that unarmed citizens cannot be secure in their freedoms. It’s convenient for gun banners to dismiss this argument by saying "That could never happen here, this is America"- but history shows that only vigilant people can keep government under control. By banning certain weapons today, we may plant the seeds for tyranny to flourish ten, thirty, or fifty years from now.
GOV : Basics of the Second Amendment
GOV : Break Up 9th Circuit Appeals Court
Do Laws and Standards Evolve? Douglas W. Phillips, Esq. Holmes and his contemporaries laid the foundation for legalized abortion, no-fault divorce, the legalization of homosexuality, and the rejection of the Framers' vision for Constitutional interpretation. Today, most courts have embraced an evolving standard for Constitutional interpretation, rejecting the notion that the Constitution must be interpreted in light of the meanings intended by the Framers.
WallBuilders | Resources | Evolution and the Law:"A Death ... Perhaps the first individual successfully to champion this belief was Christopher Columbus Langdell (1826-1906), dean of the Harvard Law School. Langdell reasoned that since man evolved, then his laws must also evolve; and deciding that judges should guide the evolution of the Constitution, Langdell introduced the case law study method under which students would study the wording of judges' decisions rather than the wording of the Constitution.
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