-
- I don't get it.
-
- In the 19th century south, playing the drums or learning
to read or write were punishable by whipping and even death if you were
a slave. I can only imagine what would have happened to any black man who
dared to own a weapon.
-
- In Nazi Germany, handguns were banned except for Nazi
party members in good standing. Jews were forbidden from operating firearms
businesses or owning guns. The very next day after "Crystal Night",
the ban was extended to Jews possessing clubs and knives.
-
- This is history folks whether it fits in with the anti-gun
religion or not.
-
- The first thing the tyrannical impulse does when it wants
to control people is take away their weapons. "Weapons" include,
but are not limited to, things like:
-
- 1) an independent press (long gone in this country);
2) the ability to transact business privately and own property (banking
surveillance and property seizure are now common); and 3) the ability to
know real history, real cause and effect, and think clearly (schools seem
to teach the opposite of these things)
-
- Forget, for a moment, all the supposed perils of private
gun ownership. Can anyone point out to me a *single* instance in history,
anywhere, in any time, in which weapons were taken away from the people
for any reason other than to weaken them? What makes some people so certain
that Americans are immune from the law of history which states that tyranny
unopposed grows?
-
- I have to wonder what some people think I produce Brasscheck
for. To play "gotcha" with the powers that be? No. For defense,
self defense, the defense of my friends and family, and the defence of
what I perhaps archaically consider my countrymen and women. Just because
the hammer has not fallen on your privileged head doesn't mean you aren't
living in a tyranny. The bad times are already here and very real for millions.
-
- Somehow huge numbers of people in this country believe
that human rights violations are things that only take place overseas.
That somehow 2,000,000+ in jail; 2,000,000+ children on school mandated
psychoactive drugs; 30,0000 military-style SWAT teams, and plainclothes
police harassing, intimidating, assaulting, and sometimes murdering innocent
people, usually minorities, does not constitute a major human right crisis
in this country. Are we waiting for the TV to tell us to get upset?
-
- No, instead we focus on the bandwagon "du jour"
which is to demonize private gun ownership which happens to be the very
cause that the mentality responsible for the crimes in the above paragraph
hold closest to its heart these days.
-
- I don't get it.
-
- There are already hundreds of gun control laws. They
are not being enforced and not one of the new laws being proposed would
have prevented any of the headline crimes that are being used to promote
them. What are being proposed now are NOT gun control laws, they are calculated
intrusions that are a prelude to criminalizing private gun ownership. In
fact, many of the proponents of these laws make no bones about it. That
is what they are after.
-
- The very same people who were quick to smear people who
were opposed to the assault on Yugoslavia, the assault on the Branch Davidians,
the assault on WTO protestors, the assault on civil liberties in the guise
of various anti-terrorism bills are working overtime to smear anyone who
dares to question the anti-gun crusade.
-
- Today's New York Times calls the arguments of those opposed
to the latest wave or gun regulations "the corrupted logic and bizarre
exaggeration associated with the doomsday cults, the Montana Freemen, Aryan
Nation types and other single-issue anti-government crazies."
-
- Yet the proponents of Clinton's gun laws literally fly
into rages against anyone who dares question their motivation. They show
no interest in a discussion of the facts and frequently resort to misrepresenting
the facts of the case.
-
- And many good people are going along with it.
-
- I don't get it.
-
- Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but please don't
present your subjective impressions as well researched, carefully reasoned
positions or the moral high ground. Until you have the facts, what you
possess is a subjective impression infused with high emotion.
-
- The impulse to be repulsed by firearms is an entirely
natural and normal response. The idea behind firearms *is* repulsive. And
some of the people who are most ardent in expressing their opposition to
proposed bans and restrictions are not the most sympathy- inspiring people
in the world.
-
- But that does not make them automatically wrong.
-
- They are entitled to have their arguments heard. They
are entitled to demand that the objective facts of the situation be aired.
And they are entitled to be regarded as human beings who have a viewpoint.
-
- The precursor to ALL violence is the demonization of
the other. The police officer who murdered another innocent man in cold
blood last week in New York had made up his mind that any black man on
the streets late at night was probably a dangerous criminal and deserved
to be treated as such. And the many, many people who cheered NATO's bombing
of Yugoslavia had made up their minds that the 'Serbs' were evil and deserved
to be punished, and if possible, destroyed.
-
- And on and on it goes.
-
- What is more dangerous? The impulse to mindlessly join
in the demonization of others or weapons like firearms and knives?
-
- I beseech all people of good conscience to familiarize
themselves with the arguments of those who are opposed to the Clinton-era
regulation of firearms. And to look at the facts, not the emotion-laden
demagoguery of people who, in fact, DO have blood on their hands. Withhold
your judgement until you have the facts. And if you discover that there
is more to this than you previously realized, don't be afraid to speak
out about what you've learned.
-
- If, because you deviate from the approved path, you are
declared a right wing kook, you'll be in good company:
-
- * Katha Pollitt in the pages of the Nation recently savaged
Ralph Nader for daring to share an opinion on NAFTA and so called "free
trade" with Patrick Buchanan.
-
- * Will Offley in an article published by the Anti-Fascist
Info Bulletin states that far right zealots are "active in... cannabis
legalization, alternative health, anti-corporate activism, even support
for native sovereignty..."
-
- * The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the protest against
the WTO in Seattle alarming "evidence of a growing convergence of
(hard) right and (hard) left-wing groups."
-
- We are fast approaching the day when opposing corporate
domination of humanity or advocating any number of rational solutions to
social problems will get you branded as a member of the far right. Fifty
years ago, "communist" was the dirty word. The intention today
is identical even if their tactics are somewhat less ham handed: shut down
discussion of certain issues.
-
- Here are some random sites provided to me by a subscriber
that inform the skeptics's side of the gun control story, the one you are
not hearing from the US news industry. Take a look. Use the one weapon
that no one has yet overtly proposed taking away form you - your ability
to reason.
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- Statistics from the DoJ Bureau of Statistics: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
-
- The Journalist's Guide to Gun Policy Scholars and Second
Amendment Scholars http://www.gunscholar.org/
-
- Second Amendment Site http://www.guncite.com/index.html
-
- Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership http://www.jpfo.org/
-
- The organization above has an interesting and plausible
theory on the origin of the concepts behind the current (since 1968) "gun
control" movement in the US (excerpt):
-
- "In 1938, five years after taking power, the Nazis
enhanced the 1928 (gun) law. The Nazi Weapons Law introduced handgun control.
Firearms ownership was restricted to Nazi party members and other "reliable"
people.
-
- The 1938 Nazi law barred Jews from businesses involving
firearms. On November 10. 1938 -- one day after the Nazi party terror squads
(the SS) savaged thousands of Jews, synagogues and Jewish businesses throughout
Germany -- new regulations under the Weapons Law specifically barred Jews
from owning any weapons, even clubs or knives."
-
- Source: http://www.jpfo.org/GCA_68.htm
-
- Women against gun control http://www.wagc.com
-
- Gun Defence Clock http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/
-
-
- Here are some more things to ponder...
-
- Passed along by Sam Smith:
-
- WILD SHOTS
-
- * Recent poll finds only 29% want new gun laws; 68% want
stricter enforcement of existing laws.
-
- * The Columbine murderers violated at least 17 state
and federal weapons control laws, and none of the proposals for trigger
locks, waiting periods or gun show restrictions would have stopped Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold from obtaining either their guns or bomb-making
materials.
-
- * Clinton says, "American children are killed by
gunfire at a rate nine times higher than the combined total of the next
25 top industrial nations." Excluded from the tally: Russia and Brazil,
which have among the toughest gun bans in the world and still have murder
rates four times higher than those in the US.
-
- * "Accidental gun deaths among children are fortunately
much rarer than most people believe. Consider New York, with more than
2.6 million children under the age of 10. From 1993 to 1997, the Centers
for Disease Control report that there were only six accidental gun deaths
in that age range an annual rate of 1.2 deaths. Yet, with over 3.3 million
adult New Yorkers owning at least one gun in 1996, the overwhelming majority
of gun owners must be extremely careful or such gun accidents would be
much more frequent."
-
- * "Guns clearly deter criminals: Americans use guns
defensively around 2 million times each year five times more frequently
than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. And 98
percent of the time, simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop
an attack."
-
- *"Recent research that I have done, examining juvenile
accidental gun deaths or suicides for all the states in the United States
from 1977 to 1996, found that safe-storage laws had no impact on either
type of death. However, what did happen was that law-abiding citizens were
less able to defend themselves against crime. The 15 states that adopted
these laws during this period faced over 300 more murders and 3,860 more
rapes per year. Burglaries also increased dramatically."
-
- [John R. Lott Jr., Yale University Law School, author
of "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws"
in the NY Post and Wall Street Journal]
-
- ======
- Why the push to disarm us Mr. President? "For the
children? If you,re so concerned about "the children, why don't you
enforce the laws you've already put on the books? Why do you shrill for
new laws, laws which would have had no effect on the Michigan shooting,
or the LA day care shooting, or the Columbine shooting Why do you demand
more laws that only serve to punish law-abiding Americans, while turning
a blind eye to the depredations of violent criminals? Do you want criminals
disarmed, Mr. Clinton? Or do you want America disarmed? Because if you
are trying to protect our children, it seems to me that the place to start
is with the people most likely to harm them. But your laws don't keep guns
from criminals; they don't buy their guns at sporting goods stores and
gun shows. They steal them. They buy them from other people who steal them.
But they don't submit to background checks. And any adult who is irresponsible
enough to leave a gun lying where a 6-year-old can find it isn't conscientious
enough to make sure a trigger lock is in place.
-
- Source: John Guthmiller
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