Posted on 02/08/2015 8:31:55 AM PST by Q-ManRN
Like almost every Democrat, I also support the Second Amendment and the fundamental right to bear arms. At the same time, I also believe in common sense legislation to restrict felons and the mentally ill from possessing firearms. I support laws that require background checks and limit access to high explosives.
For the last thirty years, Democrats have allowed the NRA and the Republican Party to define us as people who want to take your guns away. It is time for the Democratic Party to define its own position rather than allowing others that privilege.
Surely, responsible gun owners like myself can see that a gun in every car, guns in every bar, guns in every business parking lot, guns in every church, guns at little league ball games, and guns at political rallies create a dangerous and unstable situation.
I firmly believe that we, the responsible gun owners of Tennessee of every political persuasion, can come together and find a way to possess guns for protection and sport and still severely limit the abilities of criminals, terrorists, and crazy people to possess the killing machine of their choice.
No one in America has or will “come to take it away from you.” Not Democrats, not Republicans. That’s a fantasy concocted by the NRA and dishonest politicians to scare you into voting their way.
(Excerpt) Read more at democratgunownersofamerica.org ...
We begin our examination with the statement “Like almost every Democrat, I also support the Second Amendment and the fundamental right to bear arms.” The fact is that most Democrats staunchly believe that only law enforcement officers or soldiers on the battlefield should be legally allowed to carry guns. The author of the article above affirms this very idea rhetorically asking “Isn’t it just possible that we would be better served by training and hiring more police officers to ensure our domestic tranquility than by each house in America becoming an armed fortress?”
Next we are told that “I also believe in common sense legislation to restrict felons and the mentally ill from possessing firearms.” There is a liberal buzz phrase “common sense”. Yet, it is common sense that we already have laws that make it illegal for felons and the dangerously deranged to possess or use firearms. Nevertheless, it is obvious that some of those folks disobey those laws and get guns by criminal means for criminal purposes.
Then, we move on to “I support laws that require background checks and limit access to high explosives.” Once more, we already have laws requiring background checks and we still have criminals with guns because those guns are obtained through illegal means. I also know many reasonable people with common sense and none of them are trying to obtain explosives.
We could look at the so-called “War on Drugs” when discussing the idea that “common sense legislation” will keep criminals from getting guns. Every day people are arrested for possessing or distributing dangerous drugs that are commonly known to be illegal; however, those same laws have not kept illegal drugs out of the hands of criminals. Here is something to consider: laws do not stop people who choose to disobey the law. For example, how many of us can honestly say that we have never exceeded the legal speed limit? Exceeding the speed limit has certainly led to frequent tragedy. And as anyone who has driven a car can tell you, there is no shortage of willful speeders on the road.
We are reassured with “Surely, responsible gun owners like myself can see that a gun in every car, guns in every bar, guns in every business parking lot, guns in every church, guns at little league ball games, and guns at political rallies create a dangerous and unstable situation.” If the gun owners in these settings are truly responsible people, then their presence should not “create a dangerous and unstable situation.” Responsible hard-working decent people do not have shootouts in crowded bars or little league ball games or in churches.
These statements also include the obligatory rant against the NRA and the Republican Party who are referred to as villains that falsely label Democrats as gun grabbers. The fact that Democrat-run states like New York, Connecticut and California have seized guns from lawful gun owners like veterans simply never gets mentioned. Nor is there any mention of the fact that Democrat-run cities like Chicago work tirelessly to restrict law-abiding citizens from getting or using guns while criminals are gunning people down on a daily basis.
Or we could look at the Democrat-led city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Those residents that stayed to protect their homes discovered that the police would readily confiscate their firearms during the day, but the police pulled out of the city at night while criminal gangs robbed and terrorized the city.
The article’s author tells us that “I firmly believe that we, the responsible gun owners of Tennessee of every political persuasion, can come together and find a way to possess guns for protection and sport and still severely limit the abilities of criminals, terrorists, and crazy people to possess the killing machine of their choice.” Responsible gun owners can come together, but only if we are free from oppressive government legislation that limits only those people who obey the law. Criminals, terrorists and crazy people do not concern themselves with the law; thus, more laws do not limit them because they choose to act outside the confines of the law as demonstrated recently by the recent terrorist attack on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
France has very strict gun control laws, but those laws did not stop the terrorists from obtaining and using machine guns in the street and in the newspaper’s office. Those gun control laws did leave the staff of Charlie Hebdo, nearby citizens and even an unarmed police officer completely unable to defend themselves.
Consider the concept of defending yourself while reading the following excerpt, “Isn’t it just possible that we would be better served by training and hiring more police officers to ensure our domestic tranquility than by each house in America becoming an armed fortress? Responsible gun owners recognize that law enforcement by our police is better than vigilante actions by individuals.” The statement above reflects the Democrats answer to every problem: more government to do for you so that you do not have to do for yourself. If the government just had more police, every family and every household in America would be perfectly safe! Bull! No government in the history of the world has successfully defended every citizen or eradicated crime.
Finally, the Democrat author calls the act of defending yourself with a firearm a “vigilante action” because the police can defend you better. Try telling that to the staff of Charlie Hebdo. Liberal Democrats have never grasped that law enforcement in a free society takes place after laws have already been broken by arresting criminals and getting them off the streets. While this service is vital to protecting society, it does not help to protect victims of crime.
Therefore, the person who is best equipped to defend you is you, not the government. Beware of these Democrat supposedly pro-gun groups whose real purpose is to push more gun control by appearing to be on both sides of the debate.
Is this a joke?
““Like almost every Democrat, I also support the Second Amendment”
Almost? Stopped reading there..
restrict felons and the mentally ill from possessing firearms.”
If the author was serious, he would be calling for the mass disarmament of Hollywood, Liberals, Democrats, and Public Servants. since Habitual LYING and LIBERALISM is a Mental Illness.
Last time I went into a restaurant, there were several knives lying on every table. Funny, the situation wasn't unstable at all.
Beware Democrat groups that say that they are pro-Second Amendment. Ping.
“Infringe”. Look it up in your funk’n wagnells mr.dems for responsible gun ownership. Simple yes or no.
Do tell Jim, what ideas do you have for accomplishing that exactly? That issue is at the heart of the conflict between responsible gun owners and the hoplophobic, gun grabbing Leftists who are doing all the screaming. Please...just one idea.
Or does Mr. Lewis simply wish to raise the topic for discussion and sit quietly while everyone else fights it out?
How someone can support 2A and be a dem escapes me.
“Getting rid of the gun-show loophole” is code for gun registration.
Starts with a lie, two provisos, and a red herring. Seems legit.
“I firmly believe that we can...find a way to possess guns for protection...”
Except in bars, business parking lots, churches, little league games, and political rallies. I guess those people are on their own.
“No one in America has or will “come to take it away from you.”
But we WILL make it impossible to buy a new one, and we’ll brainwash kids in school to cower at the word “gun”, and refuse to print stories about recreational firearms use, and never publicize citizens using guns for self defense.
When confronted with an easily provable lie, don't waste any of your life reading further.
And confiscation always follows registration. Always.
akalinin said “Is this a joke?”
I wish it was a joke. What this is a slick con job using phrases like “reasonable people” & “common sense” to target people who take both sides on issues trying to appear moderate for the purpose of wooing them into the gun control movement.
Well, you know, the, ahh, knives were probably, ahh, maybe not very sharp, and anyway they only had like one blade per knife, and not, like, you know, thirty blades in one handle, so you couldn’t, like, cut a bunch of people at one time, and anyway, they probably needed them because they were eating steaks so, they must all be, like, old, white, male, and Republicans, so...
‘Rats do want to take your guns. It’s in their DNA - hysterical emotional thinking.
No not everyone agrees with you.
I firmly believe that we, the responsible gun owners of Tennessee of every political persuasion, can come together and find a way to possess guns for protection and sport and still severely limit the abilities of criminals, terrorists, and crazy people to possess the killing machine of their choice.
Gee, maybe we should have a law that prohibits criminals, terrorists and crazy people from even owning a gun [/sarc}
“I firmly believe that we, the responsible gun owners of Tennessee of every political persuasion, can come together and find a way to possess guns for protection and sport and still severely limit the abilities of criminals, terrorists, and crazy people to possess the killing machine of their choice.”
Their ‘way’ always requires me to jump through hoops to prove to some bureaucrat that I’m qualified by their arbitrary measures.
The so called solution to the problem of illegal aliens in the 80’s was to have all citizens submit an I9 form to prove their eligibility for employment.
Reasonable gun control is reasonably stupid.
No law however strict is ever going to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.
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