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rnershigh -> RE: D.C.'s Gun Ban Gets Day in Court (3/18/2008 2:38:13 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: mapachito13
quote:
ORIGINAL: SteveSund
an individual right to bear arms.
I'll exercise my individual right not to bear arms. You can have your guns but I want them registered so when they get stolen or misplaced and a criminal gets ahold of them there is some sort of traceability.
Our cars are registered and no one whines about that but try to make someone register their precious little gun and you have a bunch of crybabies shouting "2nd Amendment". What does a Christian person need a gun for anyway (unless they are in law enforcement or the armed forces)?
Okay, please you just did not say such an arrogant statement as that![8D]
I find it interesting that so many opposed to firearms because of crime with firearms and the fear of what guns can do. Look, the basics of the 2nd amendment is not hard to figure out. It's just so many anti-firearm people are intent on saying it means only a militia should be armed and not the people. If we just read the 2nd amendment by itself, yes you could say it says that, but when you look at what some of our founding fathers have stated about 2nd amendment rights they did not include or favor this amendment because they thought people would need protection against a petty and armed criminal from invading their person or property. The whole purpose of the 2nd amendment was in case the government ever got tyrannical and despotic, the people would have the means to arm themselves and overthrow such a government. An unarmed populace is less difficult to quell and put down than an armed populace. The founding fathers and early Americans realized this. They knew that one step toward a tyrannical government (not that I"m saying we're heading in that direction, but they were dealing with what if's and wanted to cover every possible scenario that could occur into posterity) is disarming the people by the government.
Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.
--Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774_1776
"Americans [have] the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust their people with arms.
--James Madison
"When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually...I ask, who are the militia? They consist of now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor..."
--George Mason, Virginia Constitution Convention
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
--George Mason
Co-author of the Second Amendment
during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American...[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.
---Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788
"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside … Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
--Thomas Paine
"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."
--George Washington
First President of the United States
There is nothing to fear from guns. Law-abiding citizens will uphold and obey the law when it comes to gun bans, but criminals have no thought in regard to obeying the law. After all, they are a criminals and breaking the law is nothing to them so why should they care about a gun ban? I live outside DC and I've heard all the arguments of those who are in favor of the gun ban. When the former police chief of DC, Ramsey, still had that position, he toed the government response to the gun ban which was, he was in favor of it and he believed it deterred crime. When the gun ban was going to be re-visited and it was found to go to the Supreme Court he was interviewed again after he resigned his position as police chief and he admitted the gun ban did NOTHING to deter crime in DC or to decrease crime with guns.
It's clear all this gun ban is doing is preventing citizens from owning a handgun, while criminals have no care at all about whether this ban affects them because it doesn't. They'll just go and get a gun anyways, they don't care.
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