Court Decides on the Second Amendment

From the March 21, 2008 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0321/p08s01-comv.html

"Trigger happy on gun rights"

"The high court must balance its leaning toward a gun ownership right with society's interest in safety.
During oral arguments March 18 on a historic case, a majority of the Supreme Court indicated it sees gun ownership as a right. Nonetheless, their ruling, due by July 1, will also likely restrain such a right, igniting a critical national debate only four months before the election.
Just on its own, a ruling that the gives Americans the same inalienable right to gun ownership as to freedom of speech could send shock waves into the campaigns for president and Congress – campaigns that have largely dodged talk of gun limits up to now. In a country that sees an average of 80 gun deaths a day and, recently, mass killings by firearms almost once a year, this ruling probably won't settle the debate.
The nation has gnawed on the Second Amendment for two centuries with no clear-cut decision by the high court. Yet a majority of the justices may now claim historical clairvoyance on the framers' intent regarding militias and gun ownership. And they may overreach for grammatical acuity into the amendment's ambiguous, oddly punctuated wording. ("A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
Even as the majority appear poised to assert a right, the justices also seemed eager to explore limits. Chief Justice John Roberts warned against an "all-encompassing" ruling that would apply to every gun law. One reason for such hesitation may be a key argument from the National Rifle Association that an absolute gun right is necessary to allow citizens to rise up against a future "tyranny" in this democracy. That threat of insurrection could even apply against a Supreme Court that denies a right to bear arms.
Such a possibility must give the justices pause and provide a perverse incentive to proclaim a gun right. The court might recall last year's shootings at a Missouri city council by a man out to avenge the perceived wrongs of government. Five officials died.
Recognizing an absolute right to guns could kill other rights and give freedom to deny other freedoms.
The NRA has paid out nearly $20 million in campaign donations since 1990, and Democrats decided after the 2000 election that it's better not to speak strongly for restraints on gun ownership. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have dropped past support for licensing gun owners and registration of new guns. John McCain is the more pro-NRA and says the Second Amendment should be protected from "political vagaries," but even he supports background checks on people who buy weapons at gun shows.
Right or no right, politicians are now more constrained by the political power of the NRA than the courts, but that may soon change. And as Mr. Obama points out: "We essentially have two realities when it comes to guns in this country. You've got the tradition of lawful gun ownership....[A]nd then you've got the reality of public school students who get shot down...."
No constitutional right has a winner-take-all quality to it. The court may now shift the balance toward the interests of gun owners, but it already knows that its primary role is in balancing rights, not sticking the barrel of one right into everyone's face. "

There is a misconception about guns. It really isn't about the availability of guns that causes our streets and schools and homes to be unsafe. If you will look into the school shootings the mall shootings, etc. They were all gun free zones or safe zones. Those places with the toughest gun laws (where guns are illegal) are the most unsafe places in the country. Where ever gun laws are liberalized (where folks aren't restricted by gun laws) crime goes down. People begin to have more courtesy toward one another. There is more respect. Further, the criminal doesn’t like it when folks are armed at least as reported by criminals who are interviewed. Regarding safety over liberty, you know what one of our founding fathers said about that..."if you value safety over liberty you deserve neither" and you will have neither safety nor liberty. It is about defending ourselves against a tyrannical government, against a man or woman who thought they should do what's best for us and tell us how to live. Valuing safety over liberty has been done before. Look at our own history. The 1968 gun control act language is based on language similar to what Hitler used to disarm his own country in the 1930's. Our right to own guns, to speak freely, to drive cars, to marry and pursue happiness and our lives is inalienable. Stop with this ridicules notion that the government or the Christian Science monitor should take care of each of us and that anyone can take care of us better than ourselves. Leave me, my family, my rights (guns included) alone! Get the hell out of my life!

Go ahead make my day!

This weekend I was with a group of men that are my my good friends. On Saturday afternoon we all delighted in gathering at Burro Canyon, a shooting range, and shooting all of our guns. It was a wonderful time of philia (a brotherly or comradeship type love. No, not homosexual). It was just a group of guys gathering together to shoot.

We all had a grand time. We all survived to go down to the house, BBQ, drink adult beverages, smoke cigars, talk, joke and laugh and go home for the night.

After mentioning my weekend to some of the local liberals around here and hearing their responses one would think I barely escaped with my life. We shot lots of guns and black guns too! Surprisingly, no one was injured. Everyone followed the rules of safety. It was truly amazing. Not one man became crazed and picked up guns to shoot everyone else. Even more amazing no guns jumped off the table and massacred everyone there. The guns just lay there until they were picked up by one of us men. They were loaded by men and then shot by men who disengaged safety’s, pulled triggers, engaged slides, pumped chambers close and aimed at paper targets down range. It was incredible. Out of all the guns that were available not one of them took over and went off on their own. There were even black guns that did nothing until the men loaded and shot them. I think by now there are a lot of liberals and anti-gunners scratching their collective little heads wondering if it was some kind of trick. Black guns not killing people and causing havoc????? Oh my.

Slavery

What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment...inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier, January 24, 1786.

So, while we fight to "Free" Iraq and Afghanistan from oppression, we here in the U.S. are imposing more and more laws and oppression on it's citizens. Friday night at 7:30pm on Tustin Ave. right across from the Orange mall, the traffic stopped. My son and I talked about how busy it was around this time of year with everyone out Christmas shopping. then I noticed that the south bound side of this road was the only side that was stopped and we saw cars making "U" turns in the middle of the of the blvd. My son then mentioned it must be some kind of accident. So, as I do when I am stuck in traffic I turned on the radio to an all news all the time station in hopes of hearing some news about what we were in for. I didn't hear any news. I listened all the up to where the traffic jam was created. When I discovered what was going on I was really really pissed. It was a sobriety check point. There were I don't know how many motor cops, auto cops, a trailer that was a make shift office people being breathalyzed and one arrogant sheriff asking me if I had been drinking. It was all I could do to keep my mouth from running and insulting the cop and whatever moron thought of stopping all traffic on a very large thoroughfare in front of a mall at Christmas time. Then I realized its all about control. It's all about power. It's all about oppression...oh ya I know they will argue safety like the anti gun liberal nuts argue. Even when research shows safety has nothing to do with why they do what they do. We are in for it folks. Baton down the hatches. The storm is coming and it's ugly. They will have road blocks asking us for our papers. They will be raiding our houses, taking away our guns and shooting us for using the wrong words.

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal Class shooters are a group of folks who use a bigger caliber gun than the guys who are into the competition just for speed sake. The speed shooters use light load pea shooters for competition. Heavy Metal Class guns are not designed for ultimate speed in shooting. They are designed to be more efficient in killing the enemy. It is a class of shooting competition where folks, that have to go up against evil forces, can compete against one another and hone their battle skills. There are all kinds of shooting classes. This is but one kind of shooting competition.