We lived through the “Bible thumping self-Righteous” to be hit with “Constitution Thumpers and misquoters“. Some of them have merged into one group, “Bible thumping Constitutional II Amendment waving zealots“. What mental midget follows the Bible and the NRA at the same time? At last recall, neither group can put a roof over your head, food on the table, send your child to college, pay your monthly overhead, and welcome you into a country club–should you care to join. Not in the North possibly there are exclusive NRA run country clubs in the South and North West where golf is the only reason to put down their rifles and shot guns, temporarily.
The GOP have embraced the hopes of failure of POTUS 44 at any cost. 200 days in office and the only thing the GOP and their followers can agree on is that they want to disempower POTUS 44 at all costs. I think they call that treason.
The Amendment II to the Constitution of the U.S.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
As a critical thinker this statement is so broadly written that people who want to buy guns for whatever reason are going to buy them. The problem is that not every person is interested in owning a gun. Also, self-protection is statistically not the best reason for carrying a weapon. Gun owners suffer family or friend fatalities while non gun owners are victims of crimes or accidents not related to guns–as a rule.
The Militia is mentioned first, therefore; I, a critical thinker, interpret it to mean thusly:
Those of the Militia are necessary gun owners to protect the freedoms of [the] State. Therefore; the right of the people (the free Militia) to bear Arms shall not be infringed (upon). Remember the Militia was a voluntary group of citizens, as no police and military had then been established. Thus, all (males) were compelled to be available when called upon to defend the State, which was an obligation. Well times they have changed and the NRA has become nearly as powerful a lobbing force as the Pharmaceutical Companies.
I recall when Charlton Heston became president of the NRA I was shocked and lost all interest for the man. Here was a man who stated several times that he looked at life much differently after filming the movie “Ten Commandments” (1956) unfortunately the only commandment he found worthy of holding dear was committing adultery and none of the others like Thou shall not kill! While he freely gave support to the anti-segregation and picketed segregated restaurants, accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington, (1963) joined other actors supporting a statement for Pres. Johnson’s Gun Control Act (1968) he openly opposed the Vietnam War then he changed 180 degrees.
“Rank-and-file Americans wake up every morning, increasingly bewildered and confused at why their views make them lesser citizens. The message gets through; Heaven help the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owing-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?
That is why you didn’t raise your hand. That’s how cultural war works. That’s what happens when a generation of media, educators, entertainers, and politicians-led by a willing President-decide the America they were born into isn’t good enough anymore. So, they contrive to change it through cultural warfare of class distinction! Ask the Romans if powerful nations have ever fallen as a result of cultural division. There are ruins around the world that were once the smug centers of small-minded, arrogant elitism. It appears that, rather than evaporate in the flash of a split atom, we may succumb to a divided culture!
The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of wise old dead white guys who invented our country! Now some flinch when I say that. Why! It’s true-they were white guys! So were most of the guys that died in Lincoln’s name opposing slavery in the 1860’s. So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is “Hispanic Pride” or “Black Pride” a good thing, while “White Pride” conjures shaven heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated by many as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I’ll tell you why, Cultural warfare!”
Fighting the Culture War in America
By Charlton Heston
“Heston was the president and spokesman of the NRA from 1998 until he resigned in 2003. At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a rifle over his head and declared that a potential Al Gore administration would take away his Second Amendment rights “from my cold, dead hands.”
Variety, June 13, 2000: “Gore fires back after Heston tirade”
Well his hands are cold and quite dead now.
Gun laws remain an issue and States are not unified in how to limit or access guns in their respective States. New York is one State supporting gun control, I support gun control. There could be a perfect world if there were no humans, the reversal of that is our option, yet humans continue to destroy at whim.
If we consider that the Earth is an organism upon which parasites are feeding and in the process destroys, then we can have more respect for all things living and that means not shooting anything living.
Hunters who choose to kill for a food supply rather than pre-packaged foods might consider gun rental to avoid providing access to a gun by unauthorized persons and or unsupervised children. Once England police carried no guns, I am not certain that this situation continues today, yet social order is maintained without the use or possession of a gun.
Clearly, some gun regulation is warranted in the U.S. just how this will transpire and conform to the Constitution is unclear and it will require the political population to disregard the public and consider the overall good. They can act as they do when exercising ‘eminent domain’ of property/land, guns are also property and unlike Real estate, guns can be lost and found like cash, wallets, or any of our personal possessions.
Spencer, I really like the concept of gun rental and return after a hunt. A license would be required for the gun and the hunt. The owner/renter would own the gun usage not the gun itself. The government and citizens would know who is in possession of a gun, for what purpose, when and for how long, No government politician will, in the present consider this approach yet the future is unstable and I have no vision of what we as human may evolve. , from behavior or civility and being in my mid 60‘s I have little hope.
I realize there will be an assault on my views –so do not think for a second that I will read it or care. My father carried a gun and had a shooting range in the basement, when he tried to teach me about guns, I could not touch the weapon and then fainted.
