"Dead Kids Don't Trump Gun Rights" - News - Akron Beacon Journal - Akron, OH
Another mass shooting, this time in California. Another semi-automatic gun was used. Another tragic situation with lots of dead victims. Another senseless slaughter which, sadly, will surely be followed by even more senseless slaughters. But hey, no matter how many "dead kids" stack up, alleged constitutional rights trump them all.....
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, insisted the deaths of innocent people "don't trump" his constitutional rights in an open letter to the families of victims in Friday's shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But: As harsh as this sounds -- ," Wurzelbacher wrote.
The 2nd amendment to the Constitution does not give each U.S. citizen the right to own a gun for self-defense purposes. Yes, yes, I know that the current Supreme Court disagrees with that assertion.....but it is true, nevertheless.
How one can separate "Militia" out of the 2nd amendment and pretend it doesn't exist is beyond my comprehension.....but that is where we stand in 2014. However dishonest Supreme Court Justices desire to be about the 2nd, the right to bear arms in the U.S. cannot be detached from the notion of State militias......the words are right there, you know, in the text.
But somehow, strict constructionist judges, originalists, refuse to acknowledge the....umm....original text.
And don't give me that "everyone is a militia member" nonsense either. That's just being ignorant. The closest match today to the Founder's State militias.....are the State National Guards.
But it's worse than just being dishonest about the original text of the 2nd amendment. Gun-enthusiasts tell us that the 2nd also includes their right to own military-style, semi and fully automatic weaponry.
All of this is evidence of a national form of insanity.....but we're told continually, after every slaughter, that nothing much can be done......hands are tied and so forth.....because of .....the 2nd amendment.
In the 90's, the nation of Australia had a similar problem to the one the U.S. still has. A conservative government there finally got sick enough of the mass killings happening in Australia that they strictly regulated guns....
....homicides by firearm plunged 59 percent between 1995 and 2006, with no corresponding increase in non-firearm-related homicides. The drop in suicides by gun was even steeper: 65 percent. Studies found a close correlation between the sharp declines and the gun buybacks. Robberies involving a firearm also dropped significantly. Meanwhile, home invasions did not increase, contrary to fears that firearm ownership is needed to deter such crimes. But here�s the most stunning statistic. In the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there had been 11 mass shootings in the country. There hasn�t been a single one in Australia since.
If America really wanted to reduce mass shootings, we could do so. Other than just shooting a semi or fully automatic weapon at, say, a shooting range......just for the fun of it.....there is no reason or justification for American citizens to own a military style weapon.
A sensible nation, one whose government wasn't as dismissive and callous as "your dead kids don�t trump my Constitutional rights" Plumber Guy, one where the safety of Americans was of supreme importance.......would not hesitate to pass sensible background check laws for all gun purchases. A sensible nation's representative government would see the results, and the wisdom, of Australia's stricter gun regulations.....and move to implement similar regulations in America in order to keep Americans safe.
That is.....if we lived in a country where representative government.....really cared about the safety of citizens.
"Dead Kids Don't Trump Gun Rights" - News - Akron Beacon Journal - Akron, OH
Another mass shooting, this time in California. Another semi-automatic gun was used. Another tragic situation with lots of dead victims. Another senseless slaughter which, sadly, will surely be followed by even more senseless slaughters. But hey, no matter how many "dead kids" stack up, alleged constitutional rights trump them all.....
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, insisted the deaths of innocent people "don't trump" his constitutional rights in an open letter to the families of victims in Friday's shooting rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But: As harsh as this sounds -- ," Wurzelbacher wrote.
The 2nd amendment to the Constitution does not give each U.S. citizen the right to own a gun for self-defense purposes. Yes, yes, I know that the current Supreme Court disagrees with that assertion.....but it is true, nevertheless.
How one can separate "Militia" out of the 2nd amendment and pretend it doesn't exist is beyond my comprehension.....but that is where we stand in 2014. However dishonest Supreme Court Justices desire to be about the 2nd, the right to bear arms in the U.S. cannot be detached from the notion of State militias......the words are right there, you know, in the text.
But somehow, strict constructionist judges, originalists, refuse to acknowledge the....umm....original text.
And don't give me that "everyone is a militia member" nonsense either. That's just being ignorant. The closest match today to the Founder's State militias.....are the State National Guards.
But it's worse than just being dishonest about the original text of the 2nd amendment. Gun-enthusiasts tell us that the 2nd also includes their right to own military-style, semi and fully automatic weapo
nry.
All of this is evidence of a national form of insanity.....but we're told continually, after every slaughter, that nothing much can be done......hands are tied and so forth.....because of .....the 2nd amendment.
In the 90's, the nation of Australia had a similar problem to the one the U.S. still has. A conservative government there finally got sick enough of the mass killings happening in Australia that they strictly regulated guns....
....homicides by firearm plunged 59 percent between 1995 and 2006, with no corresponding increase in non-firearm-related homicides. The drop in suicides by gun was even steeper: 65 percent. Studies found a close correlation between the sharp declines and the gun buybacks. Robberies involving a firearm also dropped significantly. Meanwhile, home invasions did not increase, contrary to fears that firearm ownership is needed to deter such crimes. But here�s the most stunning statistic. In the decade before the Port Arthur massacre, there had been 11 mass shootings in the country. There hasn�t been a single one in Australia since.
If America really wanted to reduce mass shootings, we could do so. Other than just shooting a semi or fully automatic weapon at, say, a shooting range......just for the fun of it.....there is no reason or justification for American citizens to own a military style weapon.
A sensible nation, one whose government wasn't as dismissive and callous as "your dead kids don�t trump my Constitutional rights" Plumber Guy, one where the safety of Americans was of supreme importance.......would not hesitate to pass sensible background check laws for all gun purchases. A sensible nation's representative government would see the results, and the wisdom, of Australia's stricter gun regulations.....and move to implement similar regulations in America in order to keep Americans safe.
That is.....if we lived in a country where representative government.....really cared about the safety of citizens.