Posted on 07/28/2023 8:32:06 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Most of us drive cars or small trucks or motorcycles. To enjoy this privilege, we must do numerous things, some of which cost money. We need to be of a responsible age, get training and earn a license. We also must register our vehicles with their serial numbers and display license plates that identify us.
Why? Because motor vehicles are inherently dangerous and a major cause of death and injury. Accordingly, certain restrictions are deemed necessary to minimize harm. The restrictions include prohibiting driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and enforcement of applicable laws have dramatically reduced death and injury over the past half century.
Additionally, there are restrictions on the type of vehicles allowed to civilians: We are not allowed to own or drive tanks or heavy military vehicles, and semitrucks are carefully regulated. No significant group appears to have issues with these restrictions, or with the courts and law enforcement authorities that enforce them. This is common sense.
But when it comes to firearms, common sense seems to go out the window, particularly with ill-informed legislators who bemoan the threat to our supposedly sacrosanct and holy Second Amendment. They have managed to force stupid open-carry or stand-your-ground laws in multiple states, with the equally stupid argument that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
I assume that the good guys will be the ones in the white hats? Otherwise, who can tell which is the good guy?
What we need are rules and regulations like those we apply to motor vehicles: minimum age limits, effective training and licensing, uniform registration and licensing of firearms, along with laws requiring their proper safe storage. Improper use, handling or storage of guns (including the threat of bodily harm to others) would be subject to confiscation and possible legal action against the owner.
Obviously, anyone who harms or kills another with a firearm without a valid self-defense argument is subject to criminal prosecution.
As for assault weapons such as the AR-15 and 50-caliber guns, these have no legitimate use in the civilian world, any more than tanks do. They need to be restricted to the military alone.
Some have argued that vehicles are not protected by the Constitution, whereas firearms are. This is a bogus argument. Just as the framers of the Constitution did not foresee the ubiquity of motor vehicles, neither did they anticipate the technological revolution in firearms that makes mass shootings so much a part of our reality today.
John Paul Stevens, a former Supreme Court justice, argued in 2018 that we should repeal the Second Amendment with these words:
“Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.
“That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.
“Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that ‘a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.’ Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century.”
It is worth noting that a “well-regulated militia” is what we today call the National Guard. The so-called militias that claim that title are unregulated and rabidly political, contrary to the tradition that the military or militia be above partisanship.
The solution? It’s easy, both in Kansas and the United States. Elected officials from both parties should embrace commonsense gun reform, the same way they support basic traffic safety measures.
Doug McGaw is a military veteran of Vietnam with a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge. He is a former professor of sociology at Emporia State University
“The 2nd does no such thing. It protects our unalienable right.”
You’re right...I wasn’t sure how to word my response, but regardless, the Left knows they cannot overturn the Second Amendment, so they do the next best thing, which is to ignore it...and that generally worked, until Trump put some people on the Courts.
I really hate academic midgets lecturing me.
So how to tell the good with gun; the good guy is shooting at the other guy with a gun who is shooting at innocent unarmed people. What an effing moron.
I really hate academic midgets lecturing me.
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Nice Shot. I think I’ll steal that
In return:
Industrial. Strength. Stupid.
German Jews were loyal soldiers in WWI for their country. They fought for the Kaiser and their country. They were German first and Jews second. Hitler in the late 30s used gun control acts. Click on link for information about this. https://wyoleg.gov/InterimCommittee/2019/01-201910313-04Handout.pdf
Gun control for Jews was death. They could not defend themselves. It is really that simple.
He also got the Yellow Stripe.
At about 50 billion dollars a year on private vehicle registration fees, and I am being conservative, government isnt going to do that anytime soon.
After all cops lose their pretext to harass you if you dont have your registration. Even though they can pull it up on their squad systems running your plates.
The 2nd Amendment is an 18th century relic. Kansas and US lawmakers need to repeal itThere's already a movement to do just that. Except the people behind the movement are too stupid to know what their movement would really do.
The movement? COS AKA Convention Of States.
COS agenda item #1: 2nd amendment.
COS agenda item #2 First Amendment.
The first mass killings of children in schools was with tomahawks. (Including scalpings).
It’s not our guns:
It’s your sons...
“As for assault weapons such as the AR-15 and 50-caliber guns, these have no legitimate use in the civilian world, any more than tanks do. They need to be restricted to the military alone.”
The 2nd amendment is about the people’s protection against a tyrannical govt. Takeover!
Why would you allow a potential enemy of the people to pick what you may and may not defend yourself with?
The guys an idiot!
You have your opinion and I have mine. Needless to say, I disagree. Fortunately for me, the Founding Fathers included express protections of American’s rights to keep and bear arms in the Bill of Rights.
To overcome that you just need to convince enough of your fellow citizens to get 2/3s of each house of Congress to repeal the 2nd amendment. Then you need to get 3/4s of the states to agree to it.
Until then, its all just a bunch of hot air.
“We have freedom to assemble (and therefore travel) in the constitution.”
You have the freedom to travel anywhere you like at anytime you like without paying a dime. By walking.
Driving a vehicle on publicly owned and built roads is a privilege not a right.
Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, Cuba, Venezuela, Chile what do they all have in common and what did that commonality lead to?
“But when it comes to firearms, common sense seems to go out the window,..’
Common sense was in play when the 2nd was written. If you can throw up obstacles to the keeping and bearing of arms you can ban them overnight.
I was with 1st ID in the 90s and went to KU. They have some stupid laws. I couldn’t bring my NFA firearms into KS...had to store them in MO. At least you can travel/have Title 2 firearms in KS now. ...oh and in the 90s, no CCW in KS or MO.
Dear Mr. McGaw,
1. Thank you for your service.
2. Go entertain yourself.
I don’t think this guy has ever heard of the ATF. 😆
I don’t recall that driving a vehicle is a Constitutional Right meant to maintain our form of government and our Rights.
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