Like the one below?
Larger image here
Posted on 11/27/2006 12:06:02 PM PST by neverdem
As a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party of Lane County, I enjoyed Michael Moore's "A liberal pledge" (Register-Guard, Nov. 22). He had some good tongue-in-cheek thoughts on how disheartened conservatives can rest assured that the new government will not harm them. However, I take exception to Moore's flippant comments regarding our Second Amendment right:
"We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, take up another sport. In the meantime, we will arm the deer to make it a fairer fight."
I agree with Moore quite often, but he sometimes makes us look silly to outsiders. He apparently doesn't realize that you are a superstar marksman hunting god or a stalking savant if you can kill a bird or a deer with a handgun.
Without tons of practice, I can hardly hit a target 20 feet away with a handgun. However, I could shoot my 30.06 once a year and hit the same target 100 percent of the time.
Other than alienating virtually every rural Democrat, there is no practical reason to ban handguns. We cannot take handguns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens when criminals would still buy them illegally or steal them.
Besides, handguns are a tool for a specific job. For instance, they are smaller than rifles and shotguns. I'd be happy to walk into Market of Choice with a shotgun over my shoulder, but that tends to freak people out. Discrete, concealed handguns are a little more inconspicuous and safer; there's no point of advertising that you carry.
Furthermore, handguns are often the best tool for home defense. A lot of people find handguns easier to handle; comfort with a firearm is 90 percent of the battle. At 6-1 and 205 pounds, I prefer my 12-gauge, but many women prefer smaller, longer-barreled handguns.
When I do my farm chores, I prefer my handgun on my hip as opposed to a bulky rifle or shotgun on my shoulder. I don't want to be running back to the house for the rifle while an animal suffers or a dog-at-large threatens livestock.
Most importantly, gun ownership, including handguns, is the biggest deterrent to a totalitarian government or military coup. If the neoconservatives use the next terrorist attack to set aside more of our rights, we'll eventually run out of them. I'll be thankful that our "well regulated [neighborhood citizen] militia" has a "right to bear arms" that is not "infringed." Those are quotes from the Constitution. I wish gun banners and neocons would read it and love it.
Several years ago when I successfully moved to strike the gun control plank from the Democratic Party of Lane County's platform, no rural Democrats vocalized support. That wasn't surprising, because no rural Democrats were present. We certainly have been rectifying that, as our recent gains have illustrated.
Nonetheless, I recently saw the gun banners' threat to rural Dems first hand, when my union Democrat mother-in-law and my Democrat farmer father-in-law were contemplating a vote for Republican Jim Talent for Missouri senator, solely because of Democrat Claire McCaskill's alleged views on gun control. Thankfully my wife talked them down.
My wife practices in some of the most dangerous areas of law (child custody, divorce and termination of parental rights), and our lives have been threatened more than once. I can watch out for those people; it's the ones who don't vocalize their intentions that worry me.
You are welcome to rely on the government to cover 100 percent of your life, but I plan on exercising a little personal responsibility.
Going after handguns has no chance of success anyway. You would have trouble taking my handgun away, and would have zero percent chance of taking any of my neighbors' handguns. If you want to do something about handgun violence, fund crime prevention and Eddie Eagle gun safety programs at our schools, and vote Democratic (as fiscal responsibility increases, the economy improves and crime decreases).
I respect Moore's opinion, and I don't find him to be a traitor or unpatriotic for it. But it is my quest to not alienate my neighbors from our party. It's sometimes tough being a Democrat outside of Eugene. However, I consistently and proudly tell my neighbors that they are wrong about Lane County Democrats being "spooky south Eugene dirty hippy wack jobs" (their words, not mine, cleaned up a bit for viewing by children) who are out to take their guns and make them drive Volvos. And then they share their venison with us. Yum.
For now, I think I'm going to feed my hog, shoot my grandfather's World War II-era semi-automatic .22 pistol, drive my SUV to town, and then have a glass of pinot noir to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs' win over the Broncos as I read the new Mother Earth News.
C. Michael Arnold (mike@ arnoldlawfirm.com) is a city prosecutor, a Creswell School Board member, a Democrat, a farmer, a civil litigator and a member of the National Rifle Association.
Well it would be a bit more exciting then some of the snore fest hunting trips I have been on.
Dude should consider abandoning the democrat party since they are abandoning him.
Mr. Arnold is a fool. Anyone who cares about only one issue is a lousy citizen. Arnold cares about other issues too, but either doesn't care about them very much or fails to see how closely they are connected to guns even if they don't seem to be. The main problem is not a leftist hatred of guns, but a leftist tendency to tell others what to do, and to oppose self-defense (at home and abroad). Rather than try to talk sense into the Democratic party at this late date, Arnold should join the Republican party and keep it straight on guns, and improve its positions on related issues.
Yes. This guy seems to be an example of what I call a "Democratic party addict." A person who is hooked on the Rat party even though he knows on some level that it's bad for him.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Schizoid. Politically bisexual. `Crunchy conservative.'
Or maybe he's a Nazi Quaker. Once a week he declares war and then refuses to go.
A roving ambassador between the majority and the wackjobs.
An airplane with a propeller at both ends.
Well, I took a look at her campaign website, the only mention of "gun control" was :
When's the last time a Democrat knocked on anybody's door to take away their guns" Ms. McCaskill said. "It's hogwash, and you have to start speaking up about it."
I'm sure many here can think of lots of cases of Democrats supporting gun control, even to the point of confiscation. IIRC, the Mayor of New Orleans is a Dem, and his Chief of Police ordered just that, confiscation. Furthermore he refuses to return most of those confiscated, after first denying that any were... in spite of the video of police (some out of state, but working to his orders) body slamming a frail little old lady in order to grab her gun.
Then there's the Democratic Mayors (and city councils) of Chicago and Washington DC.
There was certainly nothing on her site about protecting the RKBA.
OTOH, I found this site, Gun Law News with extensive documentation showing that she personally supports gun control. Including the following statement published in Time
Unlike Talent, and the majority of Missourians, McCaskill is pro-choice, supports gun control and has opposed banning gay marriage
And the Kansas City Star reported
Still, McCaskill is no friend of the NRA. She opposed the right to carry concealed weapons in Missouri and lobbied against it as Jackson County prosecutor. “More guns will mean more deaths,” she said in 1996. “This country continues to pay a tremendous price for its love affair with guns.”.
An article in Human Events states:
Yet she has accepted campaign contributions from anti-gun organizations and earned an “F” rating from the NRA. She’s a hunter who is “not interested in taking away anyone's guns," despite the fact that she supported the ineffectual Clinton gun ban of 1994, legislation that outlawed firearms based on their appearance. And as for the concealed carry rights of law-abiding Missourians, legislation that eventually passed despite her vehement opposition, McCaskill now tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she is pleasantly surprised by the effects.
Liberals lie, liberals are not to be trusted. Michael Moore was one of the whimps who believed if we left these guys alone we would be left alone.
NOT!
We cannot stand by waiting for peace to happen. We have to commit to a course of action, and hope for the best. The Muslim vermin in the middle east want EVERYONE to bow to their requirements.
NO! Ain't happenin'. I have a way with dealing in those sorts of arenas. The liberal viewpoint is the wrong viewpoint.
This country was not formed by gutless wonders. this country was put together with people of backbone, who stood for what they believed, and at times put their very lives on the line for what they believed paying in turn the ultimate price.
I did not serve 20 years of military service so some clown can now ask me for change. Many of us ex military guys have the same opinion - all we want is competant leadership, not guidance from some midlevel supervisor, who is only interested in being politically correct.
I would sooner follow Toby Keith into hell, then share a glass of water with some liberal dweeb.
SS.
And a lot of them were lying. They'll knuckle under when Pelosi, Rangle, Schummer, and Ted the Body Kennedy come calling.
I use a form of my middle name, It's even on my company badge. I sign my name with my given first name and my middle initial.
Neither my father nor I ever liked my first name. One set of cousins made it worse by adding "ey" to the end of it. My least favorite elementary teacher, Miss Holt in 5th grade, called me by my first name, and not only would not call me by my preferred name, but wouldn't even use my correct middle name, which I've never used, even when I asked her to, as an alternative when she said there already was someone with my preferred name in the class. She was a dried up old biddy anyway. She had to have the principal come in to do her science demonstrations, none of which involved messy or smelly chemicals. :)
Uh, no, I was recalling National Lampoon's Failed Airplane Designs in History, featuring a WWII Italian Air Force prototype that could fly in either direction, depending on which side was winning the war. It was called the Savoia-Marchetti SM-156 `Turncoat'.
Anyway, you get the idea, related to this thread. I mean, you do, don't you?
;^)
"Democrats?... (Eddie Murphy laugh)..."
Yes, as a matter of fact.
"I wonder how many gun grabbing laws the neocons have proposed? Say, as opposed to Democrats?"
Neoconservatives? Very few.
Republicans? Lots and lots.
"I have a hard time believing this guy is NRA."
I don't. As compared to other gun rights organizations, the NRA is fairly liberal.
"I honestly hope the dems decide to push a big gun control bill now; the bigger the better."
Ain't gonna happen. It might when/if the Democrats win the Presidency in 2008, but you can bet "gun control" won't be touched with a 10 foot pole at this point. Which is a great reason why gunnies should be pushing hard for better gun laws right now. (Which is what we should always be doing anyway.)
I hope and pray that Michael Moore will someday cross my threshold without being invited so I can show him why I have automatic weapons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
