This past week my friend Melissa told me her blog was not as “intellectual” as mine, which, needless to say, made me chuckle. To prove her wrong I had intended to write about something mindless like sports or reality television this week, but March Madness does not start for a few more days and The Bachelor made it in last week’s entry. So this morning, as usual, I browsed the news columns on Matt Drudge’s right leaning site, The Drudge Report. There were of course plenty of highly intellectual stories to comment on, and just when I was about to click on Mr. Drudge's breaking story about a German company producing Obama Chicken Fingers with a Curry Dipping sauce I was distracted by a flashing web-banner. There were eagles whooshing past, some scripty type, and a wavy American flag. It was an NRA advertisement that read:
Special Offer for Drudge Report Readers:
What's happening RIGHT NOW in Washington, D.C. could spell disaster for YOUR guns and YOUR Second Amendment rights!
Hundreds of gun-ban politicians, political appointees and bureaucrats are now writing regulations, casting votes and passing laws that could all but eliminate your right to own a gun. Their agenda starts with licensing, registering, fingerprinting, inspecting and cataloging every firearm, firearm owner and firearm transfer in the United States...
What's happening RIGHT NOW in Washington, D.C. could spell disaster for YOUR guns and YOUR Second Amendment rights!
Hundreds of gun-ban politicians, political appointees and bureaucrats are now writing regulations, casting votes and passing laws that could all but eliminate your right to own a gun. Their agenda starts with licensing, registering, fingerprinting, inspecting and cataloging every firearm, firearm owner and firearm transfer in the United States...
“Their agenda?” You mean the United States Government? I think it’s high time for the NRA to check itself. I understand that the NRA has never had any qualms about being completely audacious when it comes to insulting families that have recently endured the shooting of a loved one, or fighting to keep the ridiculous firearms like the AR-15, or the M-16 on the streets, but…
“Their agenda starts with licensing, registering, fingerprinting, inspecting and cataloging every firearm, firearm owner and firearm transfer in the United States...”
I find it unbelievably interesting that this is the kind of ruse that the NRA has turned into an ad campaign. If the NRA was really concerned about an infringement of their rights, should they have not been the first ones to storm the capital with their assault rifles the day Georgie and his band of power-hungry assholes signed into law the catchy and contrived Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, or P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act of 2001? The irony of this act’s acronym is still overwhelming.
Defending the second amendment is like being a Yankee fan, or rooting for Manchester United. It’s easy. You can start every argument with the words, “The founding fathers believed….” Blah. Blah. Blah. James Madison and his homeboy T.J. may have, at least in spirit, been with the NRA on the second amendment, but the fourth has gone down right down the crapper. The Patriot Act maybe old news, but every time I see the NRA tell me they are the only ones defending the Bill of Rights, I cringe.
Last week two young men, in separate countries, took the lives of over twenty people with firearms. Now I have no idea how the founding fathers would have reacted to this, but I can assure you that if semi-automatic hand guns and rifles had existed in their day they would have made laws that helped protect the innocent instead of letting another senseless massacre to occur. Maybe I am not getting out enough, but are there roving bands of marauders in the streets that require me to own an assault rifle? Are people still going out and hunting down their dinner every night? Is there a local militia that needs a hand? I just don’t understand.
Mr. Wayne LaPierre, the president of the NRA, continues to believe “that the guys with the guns make the rules.” And that “freedom always rides with a firearm by it side.” What a bunch of bullshit. Who is this guy talking to? Our elected government officials make the rules, and my freedom is protected by laws, the police, and the military. Not by people like Michael McLendon of Alabama or Tim Kretschmer of Stuttgart, running around shooting everything that moves.
I am sure I have many friends that are members of the NRA, but I myself would have trouble sleeping at night knowing I am a member of such unrelenting, unapologetic, and sadistic organization. By adorning itself with the American flag, swooping eagles, and the Bill of Rights, the NRA is nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Mr. LaPierre is no patriot. He is not standing on his bully pulpit to keep secure the rights of the American citizen. He is the president of a large and inane organization that pays him an exorbitant and undisclosed salary.
Lets just hope it’s not enough for him to buy his soul back.
I've read Obama's policies and proposed policies and can tell you the only guns he wants to even regulate are the kind that shoot kids and innocent bystanders in South Central LA seemingly every week.
ReplyDeleteMost guns do no harm to anyone but the people who own them and don't know how to use them. Win-win, if you ask me.
Truth is, if you live in a red state, your guns are fine. It's those of us in the blue cities that (much like terrorism) actually deal with automatic assault rifles and rampant handgun violence.
Them NRA folks just need to chill the fuck out.
Grant,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do when the bad guys break the laws and police aren't around? Now if carrying a gun isn't for you that's fine, but passing laws(which the criminals don't follow anyway)on law abiding citizins, I believe, is the wrong thing to do. I for one am thankful for the NRA, if it wasn't for this group, who knows where we would be.
Donny
The "bad guys" defense is right out of the Lapierre handbook. If you look at the statistical data you will find that the US homicide rate is higher than other countries because guns are everywhere and makes it easy for cowardly thugs to obtain them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when is the last time we saw a citizen carrying a firearm save the lives of many by gunning down a supposed "bad guy?" This is the real world. Donny, I think you and the NRA have watched one too many Clint Eastwood movies and think that every citizen with gun will save the day. That's just bull honky. I don't think criminals are going to stop committing crimes because everyone is carrying a pistol. That's not how our justice system works.
And besides the Supreme court has sadly agreed that firearms for self defense is allowed, so no one should be getting their panties in a bunch just yet.
You have to look at where those homicides were commited. There a great many more homicides in states with stricter gun laws than in states with less gun laws, why is that? All the data I found on the US homicide rate has the US in the lower half per captia, so I am not sure where you are getting your stats from.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not about a citizen carrying a firearm saving a bunch of lives, it's about protecting himself and his family. I think that criminals may think twice about commiting crimes where the normal citizen may be more likely to be carrying a gun.
Again, what do you do if the cops aren't around... you become a victim. I for one would rather be safe than sorry.
What would have happened if the Supreme court ruled the other way? The only ones without the guns would have been the average Joe. Just more sheep for the wolf to pick off.
What will stricter gun laws do? Only take guns away from the people who follow the laws.
I'm curious to understand why you think the 2nd amendment was put into the Bill of Rights?
It's smarter laws that are needed so there are less guns. If you get rid of guns, deadly crime rates go down. It's a fact. Stricter laws work.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS251399+24-Apr-2008+PRN20080424
http://www.vpc.org/fadeathchart.htm
Look at Richmond VA, once the murder capital (per capita) of America. They had the "Exile Law" that sent people away for 5 years if caught with a illegal firearm and deadly crimes sunk by 40%.
Guns make it easy for would be murderers of this country to kill. What ever happened to fist fights? Or God forbid talking things out? When you pull the trigger, or even flash a piece, you automatically threaten a life, which means I will have to then try and kill you first. "The great equalizer" eliminates response options. I don't know Donny. I understand that this is America and we have been trained to love guns since we were old enough to hold them, but they just piss me off. Yesterday, in between our posts, I read about the three cops who were shot dead in Oakland. That gun gave that thug the ability to quickly assault two highly trained men during a traffic stop. I say if you make handguns illegal there would be less of a chance of that guy having one. Maybe I am wrong? Maybe I just hate reading about cops dying like that. Or perhaps you’re just better at turning a deaf ear to these kinds of stories?
The 2nd amendment was put in there because the guys who wrote the Bill of Rights were still scared they might accidentally be instating another monarchy. But they didn’t. Those old boys had a hell of a lot of foresight, but unfortunately they just didn't see high school shootings and cop murder sprees.
Standing behind the second amendment is lame. It’s like a comfy leather perch gun lovers can sit in while other lay dead in the streets. It’s always so ironic to me that a vast majority of social conservatives - and this is not a prejudgment about you Donny - are pro-life, pro-gun and pro-capital punishment. To me it just does not add up.
A lovely discussion to be sure, but no one's mentioned the fact that the second amendment isn't in question. Or did I miss something?
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ReplyDeleteMy question is simple. How does making semi-automatic, or automatic, guns illegal, help solve any problems? Criminals, by the very definition of their moniker, will break the law and carry them anyway. The only people who will disarm, will be the law abiding citizens. Now, this leaves us in a pretty little pickle. Now we have fully armed criminals, and fully disarmed citizens. This only makes the problem worse. As for the NRA protecting the bill of rights, I don't believe they ever claimed they were the only ones doing so. The NRA is there to protect the 2nd Amendment, and nothing else. As for our founding fathers, I doubt any of them would have seen these weapons as anything other then weapons, only evil in the hands of evil people. They wouldn't have legislated the weapons, but outlawed the criminals.
ReplyDeleteYou misplace your rage. You should support the NRA, focus your rage on the government that tries to disarm the innocent, lessen the punishments for the guilty, and empower the criminal (that would be barry's white house in case you didn't know.)
As for your PATRIOT Act rant, well, if you actually READ the document, it's not as bad as you think it is. To use a phrase that liberalterrorists use a lot, "Just read the bill, and you will see how good it is for the American people." (as said to support the Socialist Healthcare Reform Bill.