Posted on 03/16/2013 3:53:24 AM PDT by LD Jackson
I can't help but wonder if some of our politicians are simply lacking knowledge, or if they are willfully ignorant about the implications of the legislation they pass through their chambers. Let's look at a case in point and see if we can come up with an answer. The state of Colorado is as good a place to start as any.
Colorado is a state that should epitomize the American West. It is as rugged as any state in America, with the Rocky Mountains raising their jagged tops into the sky. One would think the state would seek to protect and defend the 2nd Amendment, but it has been in the news lately because of its attacks on the one amendment that serves to help protect our Constitution. I can give them a bit of a pass (not much) because of the shooting at the theater in Aurora, but what we have seen coming out of the Colorado State Legislature leads me to believe liberals really have taken over the state.
Consider this for a moment. The knee-jerk reaction to the shootings in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT has been to pass legislation that will ban something the shooters used. The easiest targets have been the AR-15 and any magazine that is capable of holding more than a certain number of bullets. The most common numbers we have seen are 10, which is in the bill about to be debated in the United States Senate, and 15, which is in the bill that has passed in Colorado and is awaiting Governor John Hickenlooper’s signature. He is expected to sign it into law. It is troubling enough that this legislation was passed, but it is even more so, considering the way it is worded.
(The Daily Caller) Colorado Democratic Rep. Rhonda Fields, whose bill to ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds ignited an ongoing firestorm of protest and which could cost the state jobs if a manufacturer of such equipment makes good on its promise to move to another state, didn’t realize that her bill would outlaw practically every magazine currently for sale in the state.Isn't it strange how this wording always seems to find itself into legislation such as this? Does anyone really believe Representative Fields didn't know her legislation contained wording that would effectively ban every magazine in Colorado? If she is telling the truth, then she is an incompetent legislator who hasn't done her job. If she is lying when she says she didn't know how her legislation was worded, then she is just that; a liar out to push her own liberal agenda of gun control.That’s because the bill specifies that magazines that can be “readily converted” to hold more than 15 bullets will also be outlawed.
Practically every magazine on the market can be easily converted with readily available extenders, as demonstrated in a video posted by John Caldera, the president of the libertarian Independence Institute.
Fields told 9News that she had no idea her bill would effectively ban nearly all magazines with removable base plates for which extenders are made.
“I’m just hearing about that now,” she told the news station. “Our focus was on the number of bullets you can put in a magazine.”
She said still supports the bill as drafted.
“I’m not envisioning changing that because of a little plate that you can pull out,” she said. “I’m hoping that people will just comply with the law.”
How many times do we have to go through this before we realize these things have consequences? Mary Katherine Ham said it best at Hot Air.
So, you know, we like to keep our eyes on the actual language of legislation, not just Feeling Good about Doing Something, as the liberal approach to legislating dictates.
Oh, you make some good points, FRiend. But I believe that if our heritage of liberty is to be recovered it won’t be under a cloud of gunsmoke. The guns, ammunition and magazines ‘they’ seek to prohibit, like morality itself, are the tokens and substrata of a free and ethical people. When liberty is displaced, other creative means of recovery will appear.
I’ll provide an example. In the novel “Foreign Enemies and Traitors” by Matthew Bracken, the heroic fictional character Boone Vikerson, and several others, use such alternative means to displace the tyrants. No shots are fired, in that part of the story.
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