SECOND AMENDMENT WALKED ON AGAIN (Lonsberry)

boblonsberry.com ^ | 06/07/07 | Bob Lonsberry

[shortstop]

Hey, there was great news out of Washington, D.C. yesterday.

The federal government announced that it had posted the entire National Firearms Act Handbook on the Internet. Now, this 10 megabyte document is there for you to read any time you want.

Send your Thank You cards to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

On a government website yesterday, we learned – and I quote – “The Handbook is an essential document for understanding and complying with the National Firearms Act.”

Well, aren’t we some lucky people. The overseer has decided to post the rules of the plantation right there on the front door of the big house.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a good citizen. I obey the law, and I specifically obey the National Firearms Act.

But I also denounce it, and I look forward to a day when its artificial and un-American constraint on my Second Amendment rights is gone.

The National Firearms Act – as you probably know – was passed in 1934 and has grown like a cancer since. It led to the horrific Supreme Court ruling found in the case of United States versus Miller, a decision that said the Second Amendment gives rights to the government, but not to you and me.

That decision, of course, was wrong. But it has hung like a millstone around the neck of the Second Amendment for almost 70 years.

And so the National Firearms Act Handbook – so thoughtfully available on the Internet – is not a convenience, it is a constraint. It is a reminder that civil liberty can be restricted by government, that constitutional guarantees aren’t so guaranteed after all, and that we are not as free as the Founding Fathers intended us to be.

Could you imagine the federal government issuing a handbook outlining the rules for exercising free speech, or freedom of religion? Can you imagine the uproar if a reporter had to get a license from the government before he could exercise freedom of the press?

And yet the Second Amendment, with its liberties, is routinely restricted and extinguished, and this new online handbook is nothing but an irksome reminder of that fact.

As a citizen, I will obey this law. But I will also work and fight the rest of my life to change it.

Because it is wrong. And no amount of lawyers or politicians or reporters is ever going to convince me of anything different.

A chained man is not free.

And a limited freedom is not a freedom.

The National Firearms Act is now on the Internet, which is ironic because, from where I stand, it shouldn’t even be on the books.

[Smokin' Joe]

Now I am getting not found on this server. The full page came up before, but I had to move my computer (laptop) across the location here before I could download the handbook.

I'll try linking in from a search engine and see what I get...

[Smokin' Joe]

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/nfa/nfa_handbook/index.htm works, but the first try gives a 404 error. Hit refresh and you should get the page. I just downloaded the whole handbook. (link on the left side under the image)

this direct link may work: http://www.atf.gov/firearms/nfa/nfa_handbook/0507nfa_handbook.pdf

Try right clicking on the link and clicking on 'save target as' to get the file (10.14 MB).

[tiger-one]

I’ll read it, thanks

[beltfed308]

Thanks! Got it.

[Smokin' Joe]

You’re welcome!

[stevie_d_64]

Wonder how long it’ll be before clicking on the website gives your computer a virus???

I’m certainly in no need to go look at an infringing document, much less anti-gun pornography...

[Ancesthntr]

It will be interesting (to say the least) to see if DC actually does appeal Parker and, if so, what the USSC decides. The '86 FOPA ban on new registrations of full autos for civilians should be next on the chopping block if Parker is upheld - because the fact pattern is almost identical, with the only difference as to the banned item being pistols vs. full autos.

Also interesting is that the '86 FOPA prevents the government from collecting the $200 tax mandated in the '34 NFA on full autos. For YEARS the government has argued that the '34 NFA is constitutional because it was a taxing provision, not a ban on a class of guns. Well, the FOPA makes a BIG STEAMING LIE out of that arguement - and if I had the skill, time and money to bring that case to court (i.e. have someone apply for BATFE permission to obtain a post-'86 full auto, and let them deny based on FOPA) and challenge it on this basis alone.

Its going to get interesting in the next couple of years. Let's hope that the USSC agrees with the DC Circuit that the 2nd protects a fundamental right, and that this then leads to the repeal of at least the FOPA, if not the whole '34 NFA.

[Ancesthntr]

Wonder how long it’ll be before clicking on the website gives your computer a virus???

Or a visit from the bat phockers. Oops, my bad, its the same thing.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

If the First Amendment was so infringed as they would the Second Amendment, would we have to read their drivel?

Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns and the truth. NRA KMA$$