Posted on 12/17/2012 6:07:10 AM PST by scottfactor
“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.” Those words, more than any other part of our Nation’s Constitution, have been the most contested. Keeping in mind that this writer is no lawyer, those words really seem simplistic to me. I think they would seem simplistic to Supreme Court Justice Scalia, also. He, of all the members of the Court, seems to have the clearest vision of how to interpret the Constitution…as it was written.
Liberals and self-described scholars seem to have a different view. They believe that the Constitution is a “living document”, one that is fluid and changes with time. Of course, these people only see the changes that benefit them and refuse to open their eyes to those which don’t. A shining example of this is our "press". The First Amendment says, in part, that “Congress shall make no law….abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” This is freely interpreted by the press as a license to lie to their heart’s desire to accomplish whatever agenda the editorial staff has chosen. I’m not sure that’s what the writers of the Constitution had in mind.
Looking at the language of both amendments, they both seem clear. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, and no laws shall be made to abridge the freedom of the press. Simple…to me. But there are those who like to make mountains out of molehills. So, I will try to understand some their arguments here on this page.
Some argue that the Second Amendment was created back when cap and ball muskets were the norm; That the framers couldn’t have anticipated the complex military weaponry available to the masses in this modern era. It’s a good point and deserves some consideration. The only problem is that people arguing this point are the same ones that fail to recognize that the press was a single page letterpress when the Constitution was framed. The framers couldn’t have imagined computers, the internet, podcasts, etc., when they crafted the First Amendment. While the “press” continues to argue for more gun control, noting that the framers couldn’t have anticipated the power of modern weapons to maim and kill, they fail to mention the power of the internet and pod casts to spread their lies and distortions and the damage that can be done to society with such.
I’m willing to compromise. I’m a compromising kind of guy! I’m willing to discuss limits on my firearms if and when the “press” is willing to discuss more liability for those things printed that are not proven to be true. This includes the responsibility to pay for all legal fees for people who challenge…and win…in lawsuits against the “press” for lies and distortions. This includes elimination of the limitations imposed by the definitions of slander and libel. Simple and provable lies, to be determined by a jury, should be punishable in civil court.
I won’t hold my breath on that happening. In the meantime, the “press” and gun control advocates will argue that my right to keep and bear arms CAN and WILL be infringed by laws against open carry, concealed carry, carry in government buildings, bars, schools, sporting events…not to mention restrictions on magazines and round capacity, registration of my weapons, a ban on certain types of weapons, and the requirement that I no longer consider inspection of every area of my life…commonly called a “background check”… as unreasonable search and seizure.
While I am forced to accept all of that for the sake of a false sense of security for the “press”, they continue to degrade our national security by printing classified information, distributing false truths, and supporting political candidates by printing lies and distortions about the challengers of those candidates.
The “press” is currently gearing up for the lies that will encompass the debate on gun control that has been promised by the President. After all, the press is a master of it. The press has coined such terms as “assault weapon” to define any long gun that holds more than 5 rounds of ammunition, “hi capacity clips”, which are magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and “Saturday night special”, which is…well, I’m not really sure of what that is other than an attempt to label inexpensive handguns to sound sinister. All of these terms will be hammered home by the “press”, as they exercise their free speech in an attempt to suppress my right to bear arms.
Ladies and gentlemen, the tragedy at Newton was committed by a mentally damaged young man who illegally possessed firearms that were illegally taken from his mother, illegally carried those arms onto a school campus, illegally carried those arms concealed, and murdered innocent children. Gun control people will tell you that a total ban on all guns for all people would have prevented this. Would it? Cocaine, heroin, and many other drugs have been contraband for years, yet millions of pounds of these substances enter the country every year. Do you really think banning all guns would stop guns from being acquired by bad guys?
Little by little, piece by piece, your gun rights will be chipped away until you can’t own any. This is the end goal of the liberals and the press. It’s time to turn the tables on them. It’s time to start chipping away at the rights of the “free press”. It’s time for reform of libel and slander laws. Time to shut down the National Enquirer, the Poynter Institute, and other lying liberal rags that are working to erode your rights. It’s time for a serious, damaging, all-encompassing boycott of any company that sponsors, advertises, or otherwise supports any form of gun control or the media that supports it. Sure, you may have to give up your Ben and Jerry’s ice cream or stop watching Matt Damon movies. You’ll have to give up a lot. Your other choice is giving up your Constitutional rights.
Which do you prefer?
“That the framers couldn’t have anticipated the complex military weaponry available to the masses in this modern era. It’s a good point and deserves some consideration.”
Other ‘complex’ items the framers did not anticipate:
1) The internet
2) Satellites
3) The automobile
4) The assembly line
5) advancing medical methods
All items that made our lives much easier yet still come with some risks. Yet, we accept these risks as liberty abiding people.
Another point besides high capacity clips...
Like all gun control, “Saturday Night Special” comes from very racist origins. Just something to think about concerning the mind set of the anti gun hate groups that are pushing gun control.
Interesting. We could all call for “a balanced approach” to mass murder. We’ll give up some of our second amendment rights, right after you give up your first amendment rights to a free press.
That’ll make their heads explode....
We are already seeing under Obama our Constitutional checks and balances and limited federal government being dismantled. Obama at will bypasses Congress ruling by decree with executive orders, the courts have replaced Congress and elected legislatures and unchecked executive agencies have assumed the power of an elected Congress. What stands in the way of total takeover is the fact that tens of millions of citizens are armed and many could be expected to take up those arms in rebellion if basic freedoms are usurped.
I had hoped (foolishly, as it turned out)that Americans would develop a modicum of common sense about the blessings of this country.
So much for optimism. That oath is becoming more important with each passing day.
After this statement everything you say that follows is suspect. There is only one supreme court justice that is an originalist and the is supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.
It is not a living document.
It is dead.
Before Obama is thru, the Fed will set a precedence where our President can write an executive order, or his cabinet can write "rules" that are enforceable until a lawsuit is filed and makes it's way to the SC. I agree, Congress is being made obsolete. The SC will eventually just be ruling on what powers the President has. In history, several dictators have taken power by rendering a legislative branch of elected government irrelevant.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, all Executive orders went directly to the SC for approval. That way, they can't even be challenged in court as the SC will already have pre-approved them.
Lets have our esteemed legislators, since they love passing laws, pass a law outlawing mental illness.Actually, I prefer a more singular solution that has proven to work. Treat the threat from deranged people retail exactly the same way as we treated the threat from deranged people wholesale in the 50s and 60s. I remember "duck and cover" drills, the mock evacuations to civil defense shelters during class time, the disaster drill I participated in as a Boy Scout (I was a "severe-burn victim"), the instruction on how to be prepared at home for a nuclear event, and so forth. Nobody died from a Dr. Strangelove event, but the "ounce of prevention" didn't affect my rights as a human being or cost an arm and a leg.
(Well, the civil defense shelter did cost the town a bit, but it was pitched as "multi-use" -- the shelter was built into a tunnel that crossed the main drag that split the school campus in half. The tunnel let students change buildings without having to contend with traffic...or the traffic having to contend with them.)
Some of the changes would require a bit of money: solid doors with substantial locks, for example. The teacher training could be included with the existing in-service programs, so the cost there is minimal. There is a *lot* that our schools can do to "be prepared".
Let’s have our esteemed leaders make laws that apply to them equally. They all travel with heavily armed security teams, disarm them first.
Without the 2nd amendment, all other amendments are meaningless and will fall.
The also did not anticipate the increase in the amount of citizens who are mentally ill and the medicines that not only treat them but exacerbate the illness when abused or withdrawn.
That is probably a better answer then my sarcastic solution. But it really doesn’t answer the gun grabbers thirst for total control, nor did mine, and I don’t think in this cash short era it will be done. I guess some form of proactive action by schools will be done. I am not sure they will give up their quest for control though.
I’ll wager that the door in the school, as most other doors in schools and businesses, was very aesthetic and pleasing the to the eye to ensure no feeling of being imprisoned.
were you listening to Mike Church this AM?
The second group believes that government is a god in and of itself, that they themselves control the government.no doubt nourshes their belief. That they should control the lives of the peasants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the time that they are allowed to be born until they decide they are to die. This is evidenced by zoning boards, home owner associations, code enfoecement departments, "environmental protection" agencies of the Government. At this point in time, they have through one means or another , developed a subset group which is dependent upon them for their daily existence to do their bidding, in other words, their slaves. Both the second group and its subset actually depend upon the first group's, which is now in the minority,labor for their existence.
The second group and its subset group, however, envy, and are jealous of the first group. They hate the first group with a bitter hatred and wish to destroy them,
We, Conservatives comprise the first group, and the qusetion we each have to answer is, will we willing allow the second group to destroy us, or will we resist? This question must be answered because they are now making plans for our destruction.
My son who is an Army Special Forces Officer reminded me that Mexico has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. How is that working?
The original .22 rimfire cartridge was considered scary because of the following infection that was almost always fatal after weeks of agony.
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