Posted on 04/27/2006 3:48:57 PM PDT by neverdem
Much ink has been spent lately in an ongoing debate about gun rights versus gun control in the wake of the tragic shootings on Seattle's Capitol Hill a few weeks ago.
While the gun-control crowd has, by its own admission, tried to capitalize on the incident for its own purposes, the gun-rights community has been digging in and defending an individual civil right that is part of both our federal and state constitutions.
Lest anyone be misled, both the Second Amendment and Article 1, Section 24 of the Washington Constitution protect and affirm an individual right to keep and bear arms.
In 1982, the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution determined that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. Last year, Congress reaffirmed that finding in legislation that states, "The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the rights of individuals, including those who are not members of a militia or engaged in military service or training, to keep and bear arms."
Our state constitutional provision is far more specific than the Second Amendment: "The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired ... ."
Another admission from Washington CeaseFire and other gun-control proponents is that no gun-control law could have prevented the Capitol Hill incident. On that point, we all agree.
But what to do about gun accidents and gun violence? The National Rifle Association has had in effect, for years, successful firearm-safety programs that have taught millions of adults and children how to safely handle and use guns for recreation, hunting and personal protection.
Two effective laws, "three strikes, you're out" and "hard time for armed crime," were the brainchild of a former staffer at Bellevue's Second Amendment Foundation. The NRA and other gun-rights groups, including Bellevue's...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
This article must be causing convulsions in Seattle right now. Thousands of drug addicted hippies are rushing to Starbucks to console each other.
Logic - the gun control crowd will never pay any attention to this on what is for them a matter of religion rather than common sense. The Brady bunch wants a country where only the police and military have arms. No exceptions. They see how well this has worked in other countries (like Cambodia, Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia) and want the same benefits here in the USA.
You know, I really did read that one wrong--I need to get a better pair of glasses!
No..! You're right!
The gungrabber's name really is "Fascist-tell-'ee".
I agree,It all leads to the ultimate disarmament of society. We'll end up like britain of Australia where you can't even legally defend yourself in your own home.
As someone who has lived 14 years in the Seattle area, I am shocked that The Seattle Times had the nerve to publish this. It flies in the face of their usual, left-wing propogandist tendancies. Maybe their plumetting sales have had an effect on their editorial staff.
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