Stay safe !
Posted on 09/09/2004 10:26:29 PM PDT by risk
Ken Schram's Commentary: The NRA And Political Weasels
September 9, 2004
By Ken Schram
SEATTLE - Face it, if the NRA had its way, people would be able to own machine guns.
And the more fanatical NRA members would be yammering about how the 2nd Amendment allows it.
At the moment however, all the NRA can do is kill an assault weapons ban that a vast majority of Americans think is necessary and worthwhile.
In fact, most congressional Republicans and Democrats also believe the weapons ban should be extended, but they're political weasels.
They've allowed the NRA to intimidate them into ignoring what the nation needs, in favor of what the NRA wants.
Contrary to popular belief, I support the 2nd Amendment.
What I don't support is the NRA's iron-fisted labeling of every reasonable effort to curb gun violence as a diabolical plot to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
By any and all measures, the ban on semi-automatic assault rifles -- along with magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition -- has had a positive impact in the 10 years since it was passed.
But the NRA doesn't care.
The NRA's fantasy is that extending this particular ban would lead to bans on other guns -- "The Boogeyman will getcha" argument.
The NRA has gone from influencing government, to controlling it.
Some say they can live with that.
But how many others will die because of it?
Want to share your thoughts with Ken Schram? You can e-mail him at kenschram@komo4news.com
>>One day my friend, one day. Molon Labe!<<
I'm hoping to avoid it even though I don't think we'll be able to. It's time to fill up the tool boxes and sharpen our skills with them.
Not when one of its essential clauses opens us up for direct violations of the first amendment.
Why are we losing America?
This legislation does nothing to fight the root causes of our trouble. But it does give some nasty people a few clauses they might be able to use to bring a different sort of tyranny upon us in the name of cultural security and safety. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said about them!
We must. It's one of several elements of our twilight defense of the Republic. We are very strong, as I've said before. But Goliath took of his helmet right before David slew him with a tiny stone...
I can't repeat the clause word for word but I'll never forget the intention behind it.
Free men must always fight to be be free, security is for slaves.
Yes.
I lived in Calgary a few years back, where they are more conservative than their eastern cousins. On talk radio, a guy called in to discuss the immigration issue, and had a one-liner I remember: "Canada is no longer a country, it is simply a place on the map." Meaning that their lax immigration policies, diversity and political correctness, had watered down the concept of "Canadian" that they had no commonality of purpose. Sort of like where the USA is headed.
Hey, I agree with Ken Schram! Now that his precious "Ban" has expired, we need to immediately start working on repealing the ban on the sale of machine guns to private individuals!!
In fact, I was having exactly that conversation with somebody at the gun show yesterday. Instead of either (1) crowing over our success, or (2) worrying about whether "They" will try to re-enact the "Ban" later, or (3) responding to the howls and wails from bereaved Lieberals, we should instead immediately start focusing on our next objective.
In fact, when dealing with Lieberals on the issue, we should respond to the howling and wailing only by redirecting the conversation toward what stupid gun legislation we plan to destroy next. THAT ought to *really* demoralize the poor dears...
38 Reasons For Gun Control
Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed
1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, & Chicago cops need guns.
2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.
3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."
4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.
5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.
6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.
7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.
8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense -- give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p.125).
10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.
11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seatbelts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.
12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.
13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.
14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arm" refers to the state.
15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.
16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.
17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons", but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles", because they are military weapons.
18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, finger printing, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.
19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.
20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.
21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.
22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."
23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.
24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.
25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.
26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."
27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.
28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.
29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self-defense only justifies bare hands.
30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.
31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.
32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.
33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.
34. Private citizens don't need a gun for self-protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.
35. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.
36. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.
37. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.
38. Handgun Control, Inc. says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.
Stay safe !
Shooting sprees of all kinds were almost nonexistent before the Texas Tower campus killing in 1966. What's changed since then?
In the Miami-Dade Public Schools, if a kid is attacked and fights back, he still gets suspended as a matter of policy. This teaches submission to government authority and servility.
The surprise for me is that schools are as safe as they are.
They're not. You just don't get to see the violence or hear the reports because they're suppressed also as a matter of policy. I see the violence every day. Last year we had four gun incidents including a teacher who had a gun shoved in his face.
OTOH, I also know of more than a few teachers who keep guns in their cars as a matter of course. They know the value of being armed in an emergency. Colombine and Pearl Mississippi being seared into their psyches. Now the terror attack in Russia. It wouldn't surprise me if the incidence of armed (covertly or stored in an auto) teachers doesn't rise rather dramatically. I'd rather risk my job than the lives of my students.
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Bingo! And, as Jefferson and Franklin made perfectly clear in the Declaration of Independence, no one in their right mind pushes that button unless they just can't take it any more.
Well put. The Declaration of Independence is an exercise in describing how every other solution besides violence should be tried before resorting to revolt.
Face it, if the NRA had its way, people would be able to own machine guns.
OK Ken-boy, this would be bad because?
And the more fanatical NRA members would be yammering about how the 2nd Amendment allows it.
The 2nd Amendment doesn't allow it just like the 1st amendment doesn't allow Schram to spew forth this pack of lies
At the moment however, all the NRA can do is kill an assault weapons ban that a vast majority of Americans think is necessary and worthwhile.
I alwasy love it when the anti-gun fanatics always try to marginalize those of us who are intelligent enough to understand our fundamental rights by saying it only the NRA who wants this.
In fact, most congressional Republicans and Democrats also believe the weapons ban should be extended, but they're political weasels.
My God! He accidentally injected a bit of truth here - two true statements. He's used up his truth quote for the week.
Contrary to popular belief, I support the 2nd Amendment.
Yeah right, and Hitler, Himmler, and Eichman loved Jews almost as much as this do.ch bag supports the 2nd amend.
What I don't support is the NRA's iron-fisted labeling of every reasonable effort to curb gun violence as a diabolical plot to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
I love the sound of liberals screeching and bloviating when they don't get their way. It's music to my ears. From Atlanta's own lying SOS police chief, Richard Pennington to NPR to this a$$hole their outraged braying is amusing.
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