ISRA Asks: 'Is Gun Control Worth Dying For?'

U.S. Newswire ^ | April 22, 2004 | NA

[Wilhelm Tell]

The politicians say: MY support of gun control is worth YOUR dying!

[paleocon patriarch]

You have a keen eye for a misquote. Actually it was Pompey who was sent by Sulla to quell the disgruntled merchants of Sicily that said
"Cease quoting laws to us that have swords girt about us!"
So the quote should be properly attributed to Pompey, rather than Sulla who sent him.

The quote is from Plutarch - The life of Pompey

[paleocon patriarch]

"Cease quoting laws to us that have swords girt about us!"

Pompey (GNAEUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS 106-47 BC )

[neverdem]

I just like the thrust of the statement. I wonder if Mao Tse Tung read Plutarch. Didn't Mao say "all power comes from the barrel of a gun", or something to that effect?

[DuncanWaring]

That's gotta be the line of the week! Very, very funny!

Thank you.

I was amazed, though, that no-one beat me to it.

[DuncanWaring]

Here's a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the Arizona Republic a few years ago. I called the author, who said he'd gotten quite a few supportive phone calls on it.

With all of the hysteria of late, we seem to be forgetting that the entire Bill of Rights is under assault, not just the Second Amendment.

On the positive side, a federal judge in Texas has just ruled the Clinton-Gore crime bill in violation of both the Second and Fifth amendments to the Constitution. The government has appealed, and the case may now go before the Supreme Court. The entire issue stems from what "the people" means in the context of the Second Amendment.

In a 32-page argument going back as far as A. D. 690 in English law, the judge argued that "the people" has an identical and consistent meaning in the preamble of the Constitution and in all of the amendments in which it is used. It means "the peaceable citizens" in every case, not the states or the federal government.

The Bill of Rights is not a "Bill of Privileges" that an administration, or special-interest group can alter, limit or take away with impunity. They are rights that people have fought and died for, and presumably are willing to fight and die for again. Infringing on any of these rights makes the infringer a "domestic enemy of the Constitution," and there are literally millions of Americans who have sworn a sacred oath to defend the Constitution (note that - not the government, but the Constitution) of the United States from "all enemies, both foreign and domestic."

More than a million of them are currently in uniform, and pretty much despise their commander-in- chief as a liar, philanderer and military bungler. A crime bill is one thing - but if we don't all tread carefully here, we could be looking at another civil war. In the face of so much hostility to our nation abroad, that would be tantamount to national suicide. Are we that scared of crime?