Democrats want longer waiting periods to buy a gun, a limit on gun magazines, a ban on “assault weapons” (though most have trouble describing them), a limit on the number of firearms you can own, etc. Second Amendment supporters staunchly oppose all of those things.uh huh.
Like that's gonna happen!
Bunch of know-nothing libtards who are willing to give up ANY Constitutional Rights that they're not currently using. Wait until their FIRST Amendment Rights are infringed!
Blessed are the peace-makers?
More like "Damned if they do/Dammed if they don't"!
For the Liberal anti-gunners, Vegas is just another talking point. The rest of us damn the asshole with a gun all to hell. He killed good people and at the same time provided yet another excuse for "Gun Control" (hiss!)
As if laws are going to stop an outlaw.
The Second Amendment is, always has been, always will be the most tendentious/controversial part of the Constitution ... and for good reason.
People who own guns are for it; people who don't own guns are against it.
Both sides have their reasons, present their arguments (sometimes reasonably; more often emotionally) and "... never the twain shall meet".
People who are determined to kill innocents won't be deterred by any law; that's why they're called OUTLAWS!
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There are many interpretations of "The Law", but perhaps the most profound (and most problematic) is this:
The jocular saying is that, in England, "everything which is not forbidden is allowed", while, in Germany, the opposite applies, so "everything which is not allowed is forbidden". This may be extended to France—"everything is allowed even if it is forbidden"[5]—and Russia where "everything is forbidden, even that which is expressly allowed".[While in North Korea it is said that "everything that is not forbidden is compulsory"This is a typical (if unreasonably reasonable) statement which has generated a TON of controversy; none of which leads to either side yielding an inch. Because ... they can't. It's an emotional issue, not necessarily a logical issue.
It's not about laws; it's about FREEDOM! It's about people deciding their own future, instead of their government telling them what the may or may not do.
It's about AMERICA, and the American Ideal.
And that's why in America we take the Jeffersonian Interpretation ... anything not illegal, is legal.
(You can write that down; It's in the book ... look it up)
Legal Firearm Ownership is protected by the Constitution, but a lot of people think it shouldn't be. Those are the people who don't own guns (and usually can't imagine a reason why anyone "should" (let alone "needs to"), have a gun.
The people who support the Constitutional acknowledgement of their rights to 'keep and bear arms" can't imagine a reason why they should not do so.
But you who are reading this (both of you) already know that.
3 ways to find common ground on guns:
When a mass shooting takes place like last week’s awful killing of 58 in Las Vegas, political reaction is both quick and utterly predictable: Democrats want longer waiting periods to buy a gun, a limit on gun magazines, a ban on “assault weapons” (though most have trouble describing them), a limit on the number of firearms you can own, etc. Second Amendment supporters staunchly oppose all of those things, partly because they wouldn’t have stopped the carnage in Vegas (or in Newtown, Aurora, Tucson or Virginia Tech) and partly because they see these restrictions as an attempt by the government to limit the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizensThomas Jefferson would find himself in a moral quandary today, because his writings suggest that 'if we didn't want you to do that, we would write a law against it' (a paraphrase, not a direct quoted). which is why we shall think of this attitude as a "Jeffersonian Decision". And that's just another way of saying 'that which is not expressly forbidden is permitted'.
And that, children, is why we have so much controversy about such social issues as capital punishment, abortion, mixed-race marriages, gun control, homosexuality, and having to pay both STATE and FEDERAL income taxes!
(If it needs to be said, I'm not dramatically "pro" nor "anti" any of the above except for the taxes thingie; everything else doesn't directly concern my day-to-day life no matter how I "feel" about it. "Live and let live ... or not"; if it's not my family, I don't care enough to make an issue of it.)
SO ... when we're talking about Gun Control it directly affects me (because I love shooting although I'm not very good at it), and I have "strong feelings" about it.
The thing about "strong feelings" is that it's an emotional issue.
I want to play gun games (IPSC/USPSA competition, etc.) and although I no longer hunt, I've enjoyed it in the past: when you kill a deer, you rip its guts out ("field dressing") then take the disemboweled carcass home and cut it into steaks, which you later feed to your family (who eventually decide that the dead cow they have been eating at dinner has no character ... they come to prefer Venison! So I guess "emotions" are a matter of taste, no?)
Okay, back to what is legal and what is not.
What is legal, is that which does no harm. To anybody, if God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.
But some things (most things of any import) are more complicated than that. Abortion, etc. are part of what we choose to call our "moral character". Some people love venison; others are vegetarian; most are somewhere in between as long as they don't have to kill and gut the cow.
Most of my friends WILL kill and gut their own dinner, because it's part of being responsible.
City folks, generally speaking, don't get any closer to the cow than the meat department of the Kroger's store nearest them. So they might be forgiven for having a more ... sanitary ... viewpoint than the guy who is up to his elbows (literally) in the guts of Bambi's daddy.
(I think the Walt Disney movie mentioned the name of Bambi's mom ... cruelly slain by an evil hunter ... but not Bambi's daddy. Well, he was a noble creature in God's Universe, and he tastes just dandy if gutted and washed from my canteen immediately after the slaughter and the carcass hung in a meat-locker for a few days to 'cure' before being cut into yummy steaks, chops, the few small roasts and a lot of hamburger.)Sorry ... I was salivating a bit there. I think a little drool ran down my chin; but I do that a lot now that I'm getting t too old to be worth the effort.
So, the folks who think guns are only for hunting, and are proud of their moral stance, don't know what the
(five exclamation points .. go ahead, count 'em)
The facts are, if you take those Chicago folks who have never been inside one of the slaughter-houses for which Chicago is justly famous and put him/her in the field at a deer hunt (BAMBI's DADDY!) they would puke their guts out as soon as you offered them the first bit of the still-warm liver.
Okay, I never ate liver. but I ripped a few livers out in my day. I tried it once, didn't like the taste. It's like eating warm tin. Except ... yucky gooshy. Yech!
Where was I?
Oh, right. Hunting as a justification for firearms ownership.
There are other reasons why people own guns.
One of the primary reasons is "self defense" (also defense of family, home, possessions ... all the stuff that Bad Guys want to take from you ... and did I mention that the Bad Guys either DO or PROBABLY have guns?)
In the Big City, folks tell each other: "Always carry $15 in your wallet, so when you get mugged it's enough to satisfy the mugger but not so much you can't afford to lose it".
I read that somewhere, probably in a Chicago newspaper. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
Around here, folks tell each other: "keep your pistol loaded, in your pocket, and take it to the range at least once a month so when you get mugged you can shoot the asshole in the balls and let HIM deal with the loss!"
Personally, I can't afford to lose $15; but I can afford thirty-five cents for a bullet and I don't mind spending the evening in the police station explaining how I was fearful of my life because the mugger had a knife/gun/baseball bat. Cops are 'good people' generally, and they don't like being mugged either.
And they ALL carry guns.
And they all believe in the Second Amendment ... except for the muggers.
Well .. it's an imperfect world.
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