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A Threat We Can’t Ignore (gun owners)
New York Times ^ | June 20, 2009 | Bob Herbert

Posted on 06/20/2009 7:38:14 AM PDT by reaganaut1

...

There is no Obama gun ban on the way. Gun control advocates are, frankly, disappointed [so far].

What’s important to grasp here is that this madness has nothing to do with hunting, which the politicians always claim to be defending, and everything to do with the use of firearms to resist policies and lawful government actions that some gun owners don’t like.

In a speech in February to the Conservative Political Action Conference, the executive vice president of the N.R.A., Wayne LaPierre, said: “Our founding fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules.”

A new book by Dennis Henigan, a vice president at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, goes into detail on this point. In “Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths That Paralyze American Gun Policy,” Mr. Henigan refers to a Harvard Law Journal article written by an N.R.A. lawyer titled, “The Second Amendment Ain’t About Hunting.” In the article, the lawyer makes it clear that for the N.R.A., the right to bear arms is “directed at maintaining an armed citizenry. ... to protect against the tyranny of our own government.”

There was a wave of right-wing craziness along those lines during the Clinton administration. Four federal agents were killed and 16 others wounded in 1993 during an attempt to serve a search warrant at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., where a stockpile of illegal machine guns had been amassed. The subsequent siege ended disastrously with a raging fire in which scores of people were killed.

In the aftermath of Waco, the N.R.A. did its typically hysterical, fear-mongering thing. In a fund-raising letter in the spring of 1995, LaPierre wrote: “Jack-booted government thugs [have] more power to take away our Constitutional rights, break in our doors, "

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; bobherbert; guns
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To: flowerplough
There is no Obama gun ban on the way. Bammy's people have learned from the Clintons' experience

The Clinton's weren't particularly hurt. The DemonRat party was, but not the Clintons. But the situation is a mite different now. Their control of Congress is more complete. They will consolidate that control a bit more, by making more people dependent on their largess, with your money of course, or worse your grandkids' money, before they act on guns and other arms.

81 posted on 06/20/2009 8:53:42 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: HighlyOpinionated
Attributed to George Washington: Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon, and citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference; they deserve a place with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes; we need them every hour.

Maybe attributed to GW, but he never said it. The 99 99/100 percent BS is the dead give away. Sound like a '60s Ivory Soap commercial, no one would have said anything like that in the late 18th century.

The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Jefferson never said that either. he did write the part about the Liberty Tree and it's natural manure. He wrote it in opposition to the stronger federal government as laid out in the Constitution. He was speaking of Shay's Rebellion, which was one of the "justifications", the majority of which were economic, for a stronger central government.

82 posted on 06/20/2009 9:26:43 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: familyop
As for ammo, the market should be getting saturated. It’ll be more available before long.

I was at Cabella's today. They had plenty of .223/5.56. 55 gr FMJ was going for just under $11 for a twenty round box. Blacks Hills was $159, IIRC, for 250 rounds, Wolf was 169/500, both loose backed. They had 50 round boxes of Remington and some others for ~$28. They had federal on 10 round clips and in 30 round boxes.

They had a fair amount of 9mm, .40 S&W, and even .45 ACP, but all I saw were JHP, defense rounds, such as Remington Golden Saber, Corbon, etc, , not FMJ.

No .380, no .22 LR, except some federal birdshot.

83 posted on 06/20/2009 9:45:17 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: Kolb
I wouldn’t wipe my backside with that article

I'd like to wipe my butt with Bob Herbert. The downside is that he would like it.

84 posted on 06/21/2009 1:01:30 AM PDT by metalurgist (Want America back? It'll take guns and rope. We're too far gone.)
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To: Erik Latranyi
These are dangerous times, folks.

Yes they are...

Alarm and Muster – The document that started a movement.

Alarm and Muster – The Modern Day Call Tree for Emergency Preparation.

85 posted on 06/21/2009 4:03:32 AM PDT by AvOrdVet ("Put the wagons in a circle for all the good it'll do")
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To: reaganaut1

What a howler!

Anyone who can complete a sentence condemning the NRA or anyone else with the phrase, “.....has relentlessly pounded the bogus theme that Barack Obama is planning to take away people’s guns,” is obviously either insane or a shameless fraud!

I defy the NYT, or its puppeteers, the DNC, to produce a SINGLE example of any Obama action or deed that suggests Obama has any respect for the second amendment, or any other article of the bill of rights.

It is easy to quickly locate over fifty documented examples of extreme opposition to freedom of arms in Obama’s record. Other than obviously disingenuous campaign promise-lies, there is not a single known instance of actual support for that right, or for any other individual right.


86 posted on 06/21/2009 9:25:34 AM PDT by LoneStarC
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
No, and there damn sure was not a “stockpile”.
87 posted on 06/21/2009 9:27:44 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit (Two terms for politicians, one in office, one in jail.))
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To: PLD
Actually 0 reminds me of Koresh. All talk and charisma no substance or as we say in Nevada - big hat no cattle.
88 posted on 06/21/2009 9:33:01 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit (Two terms for politicians, one in office, one in jail.))
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To: El Gato

Thanks. Cabela’s looks pretty good for backordering supplies from the West. Midsouth is a good one for the east.


89 posted on 06/21/2009 1:03:41 PM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-' 96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote)
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To: reaganaut1

If we did not have firearms, we would be exactly like China or Iran where protesters are arrested, given sham trials and then given long prison sentences or executed.


90 posted on 06/22/2009 6:37:04 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)
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To: I Hate Obama

The NYT will soon have a branch office in the WH right next to ABC (Always Been Communists).


91 posted on 06/22/2009 6:38:11 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)
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