Posted on 12/30/2014 3:19:55 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
What country fetishizes, lionizes, valorizes, idolizes, and sacralizes guns as much as does our United States? OK, possibly Mozambique — the only country with an AK47 on its flag, but really, it's long past time to end this obsessive "My Precious" attachment of Americans to instruments of death.
This morning of Dec. 25, 2014, of the nine top stories from US Reuters, six were about shootings — four new ones and two about the national movement against shootings of citizens by police. This pandemic of sick violence, punctuated by mass killings of children, has gone on far, far too long. It is long past time to repeal the stupid Second Amendment.
The fate of the Second Amendment should have been sealed when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that past rulings by their predecessors were wrong, that in fact the amendment that provided for a "well regulated militia" really guaranteed every individual the right to own a gun. Wow. That is an interesting reading of the English language. What the Supremes have done is to not only warp the meaning and make it into twisted law, but to further prohibit states and local governments from declaring their places free of legal guns. The conservative court once again rules against the power of states, a principle that used to be associated with darn liberals who wanted to make sure everyone had the right to vote, for example, even though they weren't properly white enough. Now when a city or state wants to outlaw firearms, too bad. The conservatives took away their powers and rights in favor of Big Brother.
The only logical path, given the clearly decided role of the Second Amendment, is to repeal it. American people are tired of mass shootings and police shootings and family feud shootings and sibling shootings and accidental toddler shootings and teen suicide by gun (highly popular).We are exhausted by the proliferation of death, of threats, of bloodshed, and by the NRA/gun industry moral garbage spewing forth every time someone challenges the ubiquity of guns.
Repeal the Stupid Second Amendment. Surround it, grab it, bring it in the back room, pull down the shades, and end it. OK, petition for it, get it on the ballot, and get it done by enough of the US populace, by enough people in enough states, to get it consigned to the dustbin of history.
*******
Tom H. Hastings is PeaceVoice Director and teaches in the Conflict Resolution program at Portland State University in Oregon.
“I have a pony tail.”
So did Patrick Henry and many other Patriots.
Places...NOT to go!
WORLD MURDER STATISTICS
From the World Health Organization
The latest Murder Statistics for the world:
Murders per 100,000 citizens per year.
Honduras 91.6 (WOW!!)
El Salvador 69.2
Cote d’lvoire 56.9
Jamaica 52.2
Venezuela 45.1
Belize 41.4
US Virgin Islands 39.2
Guatemala 38.5
Saint Kitts and Nevis 38.2
Zambia 38.0
Uganda 36.3
Malawi 36.0
Lesotho 35.2
Trinidad and Tobago 35.2
Colombia 33.4
South Africa 31.8
Congo 30.8
Central African Republic 29.3
Bahamas 27.4
Puerto Rico 26.2
Saint Lucia 25.2
Dominican Republic 25.0
Tanzania 24.5
Sudan 24.2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 22.9
Ethiopia 22.5
Guinea 22.5
Dominica 22.1
Burundi 21.7
Democratic Republic of the Congo 21.7
Panama 21.6
Brazil 21.0
Equatorial Guinea 20.7
Guinea-Bissau 20.2
Kenya 20.1
Kyrgyzstan 20.1
Cameroon 19.7
Montserrat 19.7
Greenland 19.2
Angola 19.0
Guyana 18.6
Burkina Faso 18.0
Eritrea 17.8
Namibia 17.2
Rwanda 17.1
Mexico 16.9
Chad 15.8
Ghana 15.7
Ecuador 15.2
North Korea 15.2
Benin 15.1
Sierra Leone 14.9
Mauritania 14.7
Botswana 14.5
Zimbabwe 14.3
Gabon 13.8
Nicaragua 13.6
French Guiana 13.3
Papua New Guinea 13.0
Swaziland 12.9
Bermuda 12.3
Comoros 12.2
Nigeria 12.2
Cape Verde 11.6
Grenada 11.5
Paraguay 11.5
Barbados 11.3
Togo 10.9
Gambia 10.8
Peru 10.8
Myanmar 10.2
Russia 10.2
Liberia 10.1
Costa Rica 10.0
Nauru 9.8
Bolivia 8.9
Mozambique 8.8
Kazakhstan 8.8
Senegal 8.7
Turks and Caicos Islands 8.7
Mongolia 8.7
British Virgin Islands 8.6
Cayman Islands 8.4
Seychelles 8.3
Madagascar 8.1
Indonesia 8.1
Mali 8.0
Pakistan 7.8
Moldova 7.5
Kiribati 7.3
Guadeloupe 7.0
Haiti 6.9
Timor-Leste 6.9
Anguilla 6.8
Antigua and Barbuda 6.8
Lithuania 6.6
Uruguay 5.9
Philippines 5.4
Ukraine 5.2
Estonia 5.2
Cuba 5.0
Belarus 4.9
Thailand 4.8
Suriname 4.6
Laos 4.6
Georgia 4.3
Martinique 4.2
And .........
The United States 4.2 !!!!!
ALL (109) of the countries above America,
HAVE 100% gun bans.
It might be of interest to note that SWITZERLAND is not shown on this list, because it has...NO MURDER OCCURRENCE!
However, SWITZERLAND’S law requires that EVERYONE:
1. Own a gun.
2. Maintain Marksman qualifications ... regularly .
Did you learn anything from this??
I think the message is - loud and clear...
GUN bans and restrictions...
DO NOT work!
Be careful what you wish for Tom Hastings!
He he he GOOD ONE!
Lol...it’s ok for a 5am effort. I need to proof read next time. : )
Well, it's easy to see how he resolves conflict. Just agree with him...no conflict.
This idiot is the definition of the lefty version of logic and reason.
A mish-mosh of words and at the end of his diatribe, it comes down to one thing, he's right you're wrong, because that's how he wants it to be...so there.
“Whitefeather House”
Nice of them to name it after Carlos Hathcock.
You also need to include "banned from access to the protection of 'hired guns', i.e., police, private security guards, military personnel.
"NO VIOLENCE" means no violence, Tommy boy.
Idiots like him need to have their citizenship revoked and then ship him on a slow boat to North Korea, where his communist views will be appreciated!
In town after town, city after city, county after county, state after state... the more legal gun owners there are in a community the fewer gun deaths there are in that community.
So the leftists aren’t really out to eliminate gun deaths. So what are they out to eliminate?
Oh, I know... freedom.
Very good post.
That is exactly why he wants to ban guns.
Well said. And as you point out, well documented by history.
Thank you.
I actually RESPECT people that are willing to respect our CONSTITUTION enough to agree that it is the LAW OF THE LAND and if you don’t like, you change it - instead of IGNORING it, or even worse, writing executive orders or court opinions that go directly against it.
So, if he can get the votes in Congress and the state legislatures to repeal the Second Amendment, then I would agree that is what the country wants, and it should be repealed.
...but, of course, good luck with that, as just the South, being SOLID REPUBLICAN at all levels of government can easily stop him...and there are plenty of other states will also help stop him. So nothing will happen, but at least this leftist PLAYS BY THE RULES and we should shove him IN THE FACE of gun-grabbing Democrats that insist the Second Amendment already doesn’t exist.
Watched a movie once where citizens couldn’t own guns and the government had all the weapons. It was called Schindler’s List “!
Maybe the death toll from mass shootings, labor camps, forced exile, deliberate famine and misguided economies policies--estimated by some scholars to be as high as 150 MILLION during the rule of Mao and Stalin--might convince you otherwise.
Thanks for the info. I just sent it to Dufus in an E-Mail. Let’s see if We get a reply...
I sent him an e-mail.
I asked him why he did not move to North Korea or Communists China if he did not like our right to keep and bear arms.
I actually appreciate that this guy is at least willing to play by the rules. Most lefties prefer to use enforcement of the rules against US, but ignore them when it suits them. He thinks Americans are “sick of shootings” and therefore would be willing to abridge the Bill of Rights? Fine. He is trying to get the ball rolling to prove his point. If it gets to the point where a repeal to the Second Amendment was about to be successful, we wopuld have resorted to exercising it in a more robust manner already, anyway.
‘zackly.
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.