Posted on 12/18/2004 10:54:20 AM PST by forest
One useful fact all Americans should keep in mind is that they have no "right" to be protected by the police. American police are reactive, not proactive. They don't usually "prevent" crime. They catch lawbreakers after they have committed a crime.
This was by design of the Founding Fathers. Because, as we see today with the anti-terrorism laws, in order to "prevent" crime, police would need all sorts of obnoxious powers that would trample all over our rights of life, liberty and property.
Instead, Americans were intended to have the means of self defense. Put another way, the Constitution does not grant the federal government the authority to restrict American citizens from keeping and bearing arms. Rather, the Second Amendment clearly instructs those in government that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."
James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers #46: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
Thomas Jefferson also recognized the need for citizens to be armed: "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." (Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318 [Foley, Ed., reissued 1967])
As late as the 1960s, members of Congress agreed that the American people have an inherent right to keep and bear arms. Even the most liberal Democrats recognized that right: "Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of the citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government and one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."
That was Senator Hubert H. Humphrey[1], later to become Vice President under L.B. Johnson.
Even in the 1980s, Senators were grudgingly admitting that a private citizen has the right to own and carry firearms. According to the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman, in the Report of the Subcommittee On The Constitution of the Committee On The Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, second session (February, 1982): "The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner."
So, what happened? If these Senators knew perfectly well that the American people have a Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, why did they turn tail and allow all those unconstitutional gun control laws to be enacted? Or, perhaps we should ask: Why is there no punishment for those lawmakers, judges and bureaucrats who knowingly and intentionally violate the Constitution? Are they now above our Constitution?
Anyway, there is a very interesting story behind the federal gun control scheme. Over the years, some have said that the federal gun control laws smelled a lot like the old Nazi gun control laws. And, maybe they do.
Apparently, the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 has quite a lot in common with the Nazi Weapons Law of 1938.
One popular gun rights group looked up the old Nazi law and compared it with the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968. As they report:
"Members of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) consider 'gun control' to be an aggressive cancer. JPFO has a cure, a way to destroy 'gun control'. JPFO has hard evidence that shows that the Nazi Weapons Law (March 18, 1938) is the source of the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA '68). Adolph Hitler signed the Nazi Weapons Law. The Gestapo (Nazi National Secret Police) enforced it. In 'Gun Control': Gateway to Tyranny we present the official German text of the Nazi Weapons Law and a side-by-side translation into English. Even more deadly: a side-by-side, section-by-section comparison of the GCA '68 with the Nazi Weapons Law. If you have this in your hands, no one can tell you that you're imagining things."
JPFO is hopping mad about this, as we all should be. They present evidence and name the names of those in government who spearheaded this treacherous nonsense. Some people named are still on Capitol Hill.
For a great outline of the story (and names), visit the JPFO web site.[2] If you are interested in Constitutional issues and your right as an American to keep and bear arms, you will find this page very interesting.
Then comes the problem: How do we correct it?
1. "Know Your Lawmakers," Guns Magazine, February 1960
2. <http://www.jpfo.org/GCA_68.htm>
Some interesting points.
Which is why one cannot sue them if they do not arrive in time to prevent a murder, or other bodily harm. Also, it's why your own protection is up to YOU, until such time as the cops can get there, which is usually just in time to tape off the crime scene & photograph the lifeless body.
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!
I think it's more important for cops to carry chalk than for them to carry guns. You know, that yellow chalk they use to draw the outline of the dead person's body on the ground? I'm going to keep carrying my gun so the cops don't run out of chalk on my account. Kinda like a civic duty.
Amen!
"Members of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) consider 'gun control' to be an aggressive cancer. JPFO has a cure, a way to destroy 'gun control'. JPFO has hard evidence that shows that the Nazi Weapons Law (March 18, 1938) is the source of the U.S. Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA '68). Adolph Hitler signed the Nazi Weapons Law. The Gestapo (Nazi National Secret Police) enforced it. In 'Gun Control': Gateway to Tyranny we present the official German text of the Nazi Weapons Law and a side-by-side translation into English. Even more deadly: a side-by-side, section-by-section comparison of the GCA '68 with the Nazi Weapons Law. If you have this in your hands, no one can tell you that you're imagining things."
Better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6
"American police are reactive, not proactive. They don't usually "prevent" crime."
In addition, laws do NOT prevent crime! They merely define a specific act to be a crime (most often already defined in 2-3 other laws). The law also specifies the punishment for the crime. There are an estimated 70,000 laws on the books making it illegal for one person to kill another!
Better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6
Darnit...happened again..
BTTT
bttt!
BUMP!
Richard Millhouse Nixon happened!
In the 70's, the Nixon Administration's DOJ argued before SCOTUS that the 2nd Amendment was to be considered a "Collective Right" and not an Individual Right. Nixon did this in an ill-considered attempt to disarm the militant group "The Black Panthers". Just like Nixon's Affirmative Action, the actions of this moron RINO has proven destructive to the country.
IMHO, the concept "Collective Rights" is an oxymoron and cannot exist in a free society. The use of "Collective" applies to protections and not rights, and to groups of people and not individuals.
I saw an article in NewsMax that Nixon was the originator of H.Clinton's pet project, the National Healthcare, plan too.
Federal gun control is N0T an enumerated power.
Furthermore, Article VI, para 2 bars the state from imposing gun control which forces We the People into a defenseless mode.
Of course, in this day and age, the only one who can protect your life and enforce your right to live is yourself. Carry wisely.
"So, what happened? If these Senators knew perfectly well that the American people have a Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms, why did they turn tail and allow all those unconstitutional gun control laws to be enacted?"
It's called elitism.
Wasn't it progressive liberal democrat United States Senator Thomas Dodd that used the Nazi Weapons Law of 1938 to serve as a guideline for the 1968 gun control law?
Yes, and not only that, a "Minimum Income Plan. That was a plan where if you didn't make enough money, the US Treasury would send you a check to make up the difference.
IMHO, Hugh Hewitt should be made to dig up Nixon from his grave at the Nixon Library and redeposit Nixon's remains, head down, in the tomb for Stalin at the Kremlin in Russia.
I want an AK47 just like Osama has!! Why can he buy one and I cannot.
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