Posted on 07/17/2005 12:53:19 AM PDT by RightDemocrat
My background is probably atypical for a somewhat high-profile supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. I am black and grew up in Manhattan’s East Harlem, far removed from the great American gun culture of rural, white America. Although my voting patterns have become somewhat more conservative in recent years, I remain in my heart of hearts a 1960s Humphrey Democrat concerned with the plight of those most vulnerable in American society—minorities, the poor, the elderly, and single women—groups whose day-to-day realities are often overlooked in our public policy debates, people whose lives too often go unnoticed by our intellectually timid chattering classes. This is happening in the public debate over the right to bear arms.
For the nation’s elites, the Second Amendment has become the Rodney Dangerfield of the Bill of Rights, constantly attacked by editorial writers, police chiefs seeking scapegoats, demagoging politicians, and most recently even by Rosie O’Donnell, no less. It is threatened by opportunistic legislative efforts, even when sponsors acknowledge their proposed legislation would have little impact on crime and violence.
Professional champions of civil rights and civil liberties have been unwilling to defend the underlying principle of the right to arms. Even the conservative defense has been timid and often inept, tied less, one suspects, to abiding principle and more to the dynamics of contemporary Republican politics.
(Excerpt) Read more at constitution.org ...
Good read, Thanks for posting this view into the depths of Liberalism, when they genuinely find themselves conflicted with the reality of thw
Is this writer kidding?
Our entire government is geared toward helping the poor, the elderly, the single women groups.
From HUD, to Medicare, SBA (small business), Medicade, Welfare, to the Dept of Education, our government pays a great deal of attention toward helping these groups.
The problem is that these groups have the perception that the govt. is supposed to set up the 'disadvantaged' in luxury digs, complete with a big house, a great job, and a never-ending bank account.
Research by Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck and others indicate between two and three million cases of self-defense per year. Overwhelmingly these incidents involve not firing the weapon at the attacker, but simply brandishing it and thereby causing the attacker’s withdrawal.
Over 1 million Americans have licenses to carry firearms, but firearms misuse by this group has been utterly negligible. Criminologists now debate not how much harm has been caused by concealed-carry laws, but how much good.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
From HUD, to Medicare, SBA (small business), Medicade, Welfare, to the Dept of Education, our government pays a great deal of attention toward helping these groups.
That must be what our new member (Sign in date - today) says he is for on his "about" page.
economic populism and traditional social values within the Democratic Party.
If the Left ever figures out that gun control laws do nothing but cost them votes and empower criminals their electoral success might change.
If the left could ever figure anything out, 80% of welfare programs would be eliminated, Social Security would have been reformed 30 years ago, and Kennedy would either be in prison or passed out in a Boston gutter and living in a cardboard box....
What the Democratic Party used to be before it was hijacked by the barking moonbats. If he really is a Hubert Humphrey and maybe even Henry Jackson Democrat, maybe let him stick around, not so fast with the ZOT.
I'm just more than a little tired of paying for socialistic programs and even though democrats of the Scoop Jackson persuasion are strong on national defense they are still socialists when it comes to domestic policy.
No argument and I agree on policy but at least the Jacksons and Humphreys of the world could be talked to and debated reasonably. I don't mind disagreement (there is plenty of that on this forum) but a party typified by unreasonable and slanderous rage, such as we see from today's democrats, is not a party that can be trusted with national defense.
The only reason the dem party may abandon gun control is to get into office. Thirty seconds after being elected, they would be confiscating everything you have.
Because it's all about their power. It's the same as the middle east hating us because we're successful. We do something with our lives. We take charge of our lives in a way the dems can never understand.
Seems dated. When was this first published?
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