Bison Bud wrote:
While you are correct that the 2nd amendment provides citizens with the right to form a m*****a and to bear arms against a threat and/or a corrupt and oppressive government, the basic principal is the right to own and bear firearms. During the latest test of this in the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia wrote that this also means that the citizens should be allowed to have weapons comparable to those of the military, basically so it doesn't become sticks and stones against machine guns and tanks. While this bothers many these days, we have already infringed on this concept and many apparently wish to take this even farther. In response to this I state that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun and there are no exceptions. Gun regulations have proven time and time again that the bad guys don't obey the rules and they only hurts those of us that do obey the rules. For that matter, anyone that truly thinks that we could ever eliminate guns from our society is indeed naive at best. Guns are tools and very old technology that will be around as long as humans exist. Making criminals out of those that refuse to surrender their guns would be useless and most probably the end of this country as we know it! Therefore, we need to move past blaming the guns for the violence we are experiencing. The guns are simply tools, effective ones of course, but still just tools. We need to find out why people find the need to k**l innocent people and address those issues rather than take foolish steps to control firearms that will never stand anyway.
I personally blame the media as much as anything for their sensationalistic reporting of violent events. They give these depraved losers their "5 minutes of fame" for the sake of ratings and use these events to push their personal agendas whenever possible. Then there's Hollywood's absurd representation of guns in general and all the violence in movies, on TV, and in video games. Geese, what do we expect when we feed our children a constant diet of this rubbish! For that matter, why are past criminals such as Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, and about a thousand others considered folk heros. It's simply wrong and we have to change our ways or things are only going to get worse.
You ask what I have done to help. My wife and I regularly volunteer to help the homeless and with other charities and at nursing homes, etc. However, I carry concealed constantly and feel that it is important to do so not only for my safety, but possibly the safety of others. I will always believe that a good guy with a gun is a good thing and there are literally millions of gun owners that have never shot anyone and never will. As the old saying goes, it only takes one apple to spoil the barrel and we need to develop an whole different attitude about guns. Believe me, guns are here to stay whether legal or illegal, they will be part of our lives and we need to focus on the violence rather than the tools if we are ever to manage this issue. Good luck and good shooting to all.
While you are correct that the 2nd amendment provi... (
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Can you specifically cite where in Heller where Scalia wrote that the citizens have the right to own weapons comparable to the military? Its been a long time since I have read the entire opinion, but I don't recall that. In fact, what I recall is just the opposite--the opinion being abut hand guns and not tanks and machine guns. And Scalia affirmed the rights of states and localities to enact firearm regulation.
Also, a little historical perspective. For the entire nations history, up to Heller, the judicial consensus about Number Two is that it was restricted to the m*****a part and not an individual right.
Going back further to Federalist 29, an individual right is not mentioned, although it is fair to assume that it was understood in that nearly every man in the Colonies had a musket.