Second Amendment

The Gun Holocaust Going On In America: Some Sort Of Control Of Assault Weapons Essential!

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America is in the midst of a holocaust, caused by gun violence!

Not only have we witnessed the horrors of the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wounding of 13 people, and the murder of six victims, including a nine year old girl.

We have also seen the growing violence against police officers, with just about a dozen attacked and a few killed across the country just in the past 24 hours!

We have seen the heated rhetoric, particularly of talk show host Glenn Beck, who is ratcheting up the talk of gun violence, promoting images of shooting people in the head constantly in recent days, as he condemns those who he sees as trying to threaten Americans’ rights to the Second Amendment! 🙁

Also, the statistic that on the average, 34 Americans are killed by gun violence in each 24 hour period, makes it clear that we are in the midst of a gun holocaust!

Cannot something be done to crack down on assault weapons, magazines that allow multiple bullets in the dozens in a short time, the ability to prevent mentally ill people from gaining the ability to purchase weapons, and other tactics to lower the gun violence without taking away a person’s right to hunt or to protect oneself with a hand gun?

If we cannot do something to control and limit gun violence, then everyone of us is in constant danger, and why would anyone wish to be a police officer when the threats are so great against their longevity?

It is essential that President Obama call for some reasonable controls on guns, while not taking away the rights of law abiding Americans. If he does not do so in some form tomorrow night, then we face more tragedies like Tucson, and more police victims, and all of us are in a growing dangerous position as we go about living our lives! 🙁

The Urgent Need For Some Limits On The Second Amendment!

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In the wake of the Tucson disaster last weekend, there is an urgent need for reasonable limits on who purchases guns, and the ability to acquire extended magazines for weapons, such as the one that allowed the perpetrator to fire 33 rounds without reloading. New York Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed on the Long Island Railroad, and whose son was wounded, in an incident in 1993, which led to her election to Congress in 1996, is proposing such a bill about the magazines.

A background check, which was part of the former Brady bill, which was the law from 1994 to 2004, needs to be reinstated.

Also, the need to ban weapons within 1,000 feet of a federal official, including members of Congress, is being proposed by Congressman Peter King, a Republican, who thinks he can get this through the House of Representatives, after this horrible tragedy in Tucson. Right now, there is legislation on the books preventing a firearm within 1,000 feet of any school.

At the same time, the thought that members of Congress might carry firearms at public events for self protection, as suggested by two members of Congress, is pure insanity, and sets a bad standard.

And the idea that universities and colleges should allow staff and faculty and students to carry firearms to prevent another incident equivalent of Virginia Tech in 2007, is also a terrible idea, and is sure to lead to more bloodshed and violence, as guns do not belong in an educational environment! 🙁

Clear And Present Danger: Sharron Angle, Stephen Broden, Allen West! :(

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Sharron Angle is the controversial GOP Senate nominee in Nevada against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Stephen Broden is the Republican nominee in the 30th Congressional District of Texas against Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Allen West is the Republican nominee in the 22nd Congressional District of Florida against Congressman Ron Klein.

What is in common among these three candidates?

All three have advocated using the Second Amendment as an alternative if the Republicans do not gain control of the government by the ballot, as they see the Obama Administration as a danger to the country that should be removed by revolutionary means if necessary! 🙁

All three have made such statements in public gatherings, and yet the Republican party supports them financially, despite their dangerous and reckless rhetoric! 🙁

These people are not conservatives; they are fascist oriented, willing to advocate violence and use of force to accomplish their means! 🙁

It is NOT acceptable speech to advocate armed overthrow of the US government because one is unhappy with the administration that is in power! 🙁

If an extreme leftist radical advocated armed insurrection against a conservative Republican President, Fox News Channel and radio talk show hosts would rightfully condemn them and call for their repudiation!

But, interestingly, we have a great silence from such sources, as well as the Republican party leadership, who seem to think that these Tea Party backed candidates should not be renounced for their extremist rhetoric! 🙁

Words are not just words–they are weapons which can tip unstable people toward the use of violence, and can lead to political assassinations! 🙁

These people need to be repudiated and defeated for the mental health of the nation! 🙁

The Supreme Court And Gun Rights: An Activist Conservative Court! :(

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The Supreme Court yesterday, in its final day of decisions before the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, dealt a blow to sanity by extending gun rights beyond the Washington DC case of two years ago to Chicago, and by implication, to other big cities where gun violence is widespread and frequent!

The National Rifle Association hailed the ruling as a winner for gun owners, but it is actually a victory for more extensive death by gun fire than it is a victory for individual rights to own a gun! 🙁

This activist conservative Supreme Court has distorted the meaning of the Second Amendment which was meant to cover militias in the states, not the right of citizens to own an unlimited number of handguns, leading now to over 275 million handguns in private hands!

With the growing diversity of our population, and the tensions that grow between people based on race, ethnicity and religion, gun violence will grow! 🙁

One of the biggest groups that will suffer from this are the youth of America in the cities, with Chicago an excellent example of the dangers of being minority youth in that city, with 258 shot last year, and 32 dying! 🙁

Chief Justice John Roberts led the traditional 5-4 majority, including Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Anthony Kennedy. It is ironic that Roberts, in his confirmation hearings five years ago, talked about a Justice being an “umpire” calling balls and strikes, rather than hitting or pitching, and yet this Court has become the most activist in a conservative direction since the 1920s and early 1930s! They are doing extremist things, of the kind that if activist liberals did so, the Republicans in the Senate would condemn them!

Conservatives love to talk against activism on the Court, but it is conservative activism that is harming democracy and stability in this nation!

This is important to consider as the Republicans set out to attack nominee Elena Kagan as too activist! If Kagan’s record is called activist, then we need more of that to balance off the extremists in charge of the Supreme Court in a very difficult economic time, too reminiscent of the Great Depression! 🙁

What Sharron Angle And Rick Barber Share: Belief In Armed Insurrection! :(

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Sharron Angle is the GOP nominee for Senator in Nevada, but who is Rick Barber?

It turns out that he is in a runoff for the Republican nomination for a Congressional seat in the Second District of Alabama.

So you might say, why is his name being brought up alongside Senate nominee Sharron Angle?

It turns out both of them have advocated armed insurrection, using the Second Amendment, with Angle stating such in January, and Rick Barber stating it this week in a commercial, appealing to the voters of his congressional district, using actors dressed up as the Founding Fathers to make his point! 🙁

Is this acceptable speech and advocacy, to promote an armed insurrection against our government? 🙁

Is our government a threat such as that under Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao, or Fidel Castro? 🙁

If one thinks that, then that person should be committed to a mental institution as a dangerous lunatic, as that is certainly NOT the case! 🙁

Unfortunately, there may be a small percentage of our nation which actually believes this drivel! 🙁

One thing is clear: It is necessary for the media to report this nutty and dangerous advocacy, and for the people who are sane and rational to make certain such characters as Sharron Angle and Rick Barber are defeated in their quest to become part of our government! 🙁

The Incongruity Of Terrorists And Gun Rights Versus “Miranda Rights”!

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Everyone is in agreement that terrorists are “terrible” people who must be kept track of so they cannot get on planes, but if the suggestion is made that such people on a “watch list” should not have the right to buy arms or weapons, forbid the thought, as it means the loss of “gun rights”! 🙁

How could anyone in their right mind think it is alright for people being tracked by the FBI to have the ability to buy weapons and explosives that could be used to attack Americans on the streets of our cities? What is it about “gun nuts” that they cannot see the craziness of unwillingness to limit ability of such people to buy arms, when it is for no good purpose? 🙁

That is exactly what Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, often quite reasonable on many issues, has declared! Don’t dare touch the Second Amendment, even for dangerous people, who are being tracked because they are thought to be a threat to all of us! 🙁

But at the same time, if terrorists are American citizens, as the Times Square terrorist is, Graham says that they should not be read their “Miranda rights”, and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut wants to strip citizens who commit terror of basic citizen rights after the fact! 🙁

How loony these senators are, and how inconsistent they are! 🙁 Rather than use common sense, and stop angling for votes and to please extremist constituencies on the right, they use irrational thoughts which do great harm to our Constitution and Bill of Rights and national security! 🙁

Arizona And Gun Rights Gone Mad! :(

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Arizona is trying to promote itself as the “Wild, Wild West”, based on its latest state legislative action!

Already allowing a person with a permit to take a gun into a restaurant or bar serving alcohol as long as the establishment doesn’t prohibit it and the person is not drinking alcohol, now the governor, Jan Brewer, the successor to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, has signed a bill making Arizona the third state allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without requiring a permit. Napolitano had vetoed similar gun legislation when she was Governor until 2008.

Governor Brewer is, seemingly, more concerned about a person’s gun rights under the Second Amendment than concern over gun safety. Only Alaska and Vermont allow the same thing as this legislation in Arizona.

The problem is that people over the age of 21 will not have to undergo background checks and take classes, as are now required under the present law. Are people at that young age really mature enough and responsible enough to have no controls or checks on their ownership of guns?

There is concern that there will be more gun violence, and that people will accidentally discharge guns because of lack of education on firearm safety. Also, people under stress will be more likely to fire weapons and injure bystanders with stray bullets.

Can the average 21 year old be trusted to know how to use a weapon safely? Many have doubts about this. And with more than 150,000 people having permits now to carry concealed weapons, it is thought many more will now have it without the need for a permit.

Forty five states require permits for concealed weapons, with only two–Illinois and Wisconsin–completely banning hidden guns.

Arizona received public attention last year when a citizen carried a weapon openly at a protest in Phoenix near where President Obama was speaking to a gathering.

On this, the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, this new legislation signed a few days ago is alarming, and portends violence on the level of the Columbine Massacre or the Virginia Tech Massacre.

When gun rights are more significant than public safety, we are playing literally, with a “loaded weapon”. God help us as we face an era of growing gun violence, including against our own government! 🙁