If you equate gun ownership with First Amendment rights, then a man who knocked over a liquor store with a sawed-off shotgun, after he’s done hid 15 to 20, has a right to own a gun in the same way.

No law will stop this man from getting a gun. But, the fifth amendment already spells this out. The felon can be deprived of life, liberty, or property after due process of law. I mean, he already can’t vote in many areas.

After all, the second amendment doesn’t spell out any limitations on “arms”.

I insist on my right to bear nuclear arms — or if they happen to be too heavy for that (I wouldn’t know, having never seem one) at least to pull a nuke behind me on a little red wagon whenever I’m in a dubious neighborhood. Betcha no one would mess with me then!

And Alejandro: the First Ameendment talks about not making any law in restriction of speech, press, assembly, or religion–while the Second Amendment speaks about bearing arms in the context of regulation.

And yet there are many many many laws that restrict speech, assembly, religion, and press.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to find the nearest free speech zone.

Do you really think that if the government wants to come for you, that having a gun will keep you free? From a government with Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Apache attack helicopters?

So far it’s working in Iraq.

f you feel that it’s a gun that makes you free, then you have an insufficient appreciation for the Constitution and the generations of people–like Tom Paine, like Thomas Jefferson, like Frederick Douglass, like Abraham Lincoln, like Susan B. Anthony, like Maartin Luher King Jr., and like Russ Feingold, who are fighting for your actual freedoms.

Wake up, my friend. Your freedom is under attack, and if you think your gun will save you, you’re wrong.

So George Bush is fighting for my rights by violating them?
Can you fight for my freedom while taking it away?

Alejandro, you really think that? That having a gun makes you feel free?

Sure.

Free from what?

The inability to own a gun.

Free to do what?

Free to own a gun.

Freedom from anybody giving you any lip?

Freedom from being owned by someone who breaks into my house with a weapon.

Freedom to shoot–what?

Someone breaking into my home and threatening me.

it’s about the ONLY constitutional right he seems to support…but when Big Brother comes a-calling, you know that this quote will be thrown out the window…

civilians are the unorganized militia

That doesn’t sound like a “Well regulated Militia” to me. They had better turn in their guns.

Evil Spaniard Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
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dim wit Says:

Evil,

First of all, DC is not a state.

second, this argument has to be one of the weakest arguments i have ever seen on TP:

Therefore, I have no right to own a gun freely, because I harm the right of my neighbour to live without the fear of a gun owner at the next door, who can discharge his weapon, even by mistake, and hit me or my relatives.

Automobiles are far deadlier than guns. By your notion automobiles should be illegal because they cause a “fear” in some people and that “fear” harms their rights. A plane could fall out of the sky and hit my house. Should planes be illegal too?

June 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pm Recommend (1) | Report Abuse

Sorry, but yours is the weakest one I’ve heard. Weapons are designed for kill and maim. Automobiles are designed to transport people and goods. The correspondence weapon-tool is the more laughable I read in the gun threads.

If you feel that it’s a gun that makes you free, then you have an insufficient appreciation for the Constitution and the generations of people–like Tom Paine, like Thomas Jefferson, like Frederick Douglass, like Abraham Lincoln, like Susan B. Anthony, like Maartin Luher King Jr., and like Russ Feingold, who are fighting for your actual freedoms.

Wake up, my friend. Your freedom is under attack, and if you think your gun will save you, you’re wrong.

We Americans like guns. Where are you guys from?

Why aren’t you in Iraq, where you cvan play with your gun all day and all night?

And, I am from Colorado, remember a place called Columbine? One of the NRA’s prouder moments, right?

it has to do with feeling like a nobleman

It has to do with feeling like a free man.
FTFY

After getting these aristocratic privileges, we’re supposed to give them up after a couple hundred years just because of some worry warts?

Gun ownership has nothing to do with feeling safe, or defending against government tyranny (like that would work)–it has todo with feeling like a nobleman. No wonder it’s so intense, or has little to do with the facts on the ground.

But that’s also why it’s crazy. And it’s why ‘cowboy’ is a term of revulsion and derision in the rest of the world.

June 26th, 2008 at 1:46 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse

Is awaiting moderation. Don’t know why. I’ve seen many posts far harder and/or insulting, including cuss words, than mine.

OK, TP, do what you want with your board but, at least, include a short text to explain why (more than generical “Not allowed by the Terms of Use). As of now I don’t know if some word is automatically blocked, or the post sounded specially offensive, or what.

June 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse

I knew it! At last, the demonstration! :D

That may be true, and it may be poetic, but it has no practical application to our law and our society. The Declaration of Independence is not the source of our law. It was just that — a declaration of independence from the British crown.

And the God “endorsement” was common in the legal documents of that era. Therefore, to add force against the King’s wishes, who was King “by God’s graciousness”, Founding Fathers had to give the Constituion an “equal standing” to King’s edicts.

And Michael Moore had another point along with that, which he stressed even more than the gun control argument. He compared our homicide statistics with those of Canada right next door. Canada has far fewer homicides than we do proportionate to the population, yet they have about as many guns.

Why?

Moore made the argument that we have a lot more FEAR on this side of the border. It’s not the guns, it’s the fear that’s turning us into crazed trigger-happy vessels of volatility. Canadians enjoy their guns for hunting and sporting purposes, but they don’t feel the need to own them to protect themselves from other people who have them. Heck — Moore illustrated that many Canadians don’t even lock their doors.

So why are we afraid? Basically, we are told to be. From politicians trying to control us to marketers trying to sell us a home security system. And everybody in between who has something to gain from our fear.

you’re right:

It should be cleear to a fifth grader that gun registration, safetry standards for guns, mandatory safety training and/or restrictions on carrying them concealed in public are not in violation of the spirit OR the letter of the highest law of the land.

the problem with DC’s law was it outright banned the ownership of handguns. DC residents could own other types of guns (rifles, shotguns) provided they followed certain regulations. Hence the difference between a ban and a regulation.