Tonight, I watched a lovely tribute to Joan Baez on PBS. Joan is a pacifist, a wonderful human being, and a great singer. She is also very courageous. She put herself in mortal danger as a fighter for human right.
Minutes after turning off the television, I received this email. It upset me. I thought I would share it with you. My reply is at the end of he letter.
On Jan 11, 2013, at 10:03 PM, “Dick Brauer, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)” wrote:
We’re calling for Gun Appreciation Day
on the eve of Obama’s Inauguration
Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights
Go to our Facebook page and like us
Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day
Then invite your friends to join!
President Barack Obama and his sycophants aren’t pulling any punches while they attack our Second Amendment rights.
It’s about time we started fighting back and playing for keeps.
Liberals have cowed down too many of our supposedly conservative leaders. Instead of standing strong for our right to bear arms, they’re giving into the emotional whirlwind of the leftist PR storm for gun control.
It’s abundantly clear by now that it’s up to We the People to stand up and make our elected officials do their duty, and protect the Constitution.
That’s why we’ve brought together a broad coalition of grassroots conservative groups who are ready and willing to take on the Obama Machine, go toe-to-toe with establishment “moderates,” and repudiate the lies and misinformation spread by the liberal media.
FOUR EASY STEPS TO DEFEND GUN RIGHTS:
1- Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights
2- Go to our Facebook page and like us
3- Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day
4- Then invite your friends to join!
We at Political Media, along with coalition members the Second Amendment Foundation, Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Special Operations Speaks, Revolution SuperPAC, Citizens and Country, Social Security Institute, Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano, Conservative Action Alerts, Women Warriors PAC, and Conservative Action Fund are joining together to make a clear statement against the gun grabbing schemes of the left.
We’ve declared January 19th – two days before Obama’s Inauguration – to be Gun Appreciation Day. And we’re urging Americans nationwide to show their support for gun ownership.
We need every patriotic American to turn out en masse at gun stores, gun ranges, and gun shows from coast to coast.
The Obama Administration has shown that it is more than willing to trample the Constitution to impose its dictates upon the American people. If the American people don’t fight back now, Obama will gut our Second Amendment rights – just as he deviously gutted the First with Obamacare.
Make sure that the crooks in this Administration know that we won’t take this laying down. If you are at all able, block off some time on the 19th and take part in Gun Appreciation Day. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors, too – anyone who believes in our Founders’ views on the Second Amendment needs to be there. I hope you’ll join the movement as people form lines “around the block” at gun stores, gun counters, gun shows, and gun ranges to protest the Obama administration’s assault on gun rights.
FOUR EASY STEPS TO DEFEND GUN RIGHTS:
1- Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights
2- Go to our Facebook page and like us
3- Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day
4- Then invite your friends to join!
We have never had a president who so callously disregards the Constitution, Congress, the courts, and the will of the American people.
And that’s why this outpouring of public support is so important for our constitutional safeguards to keep and bear arms. If, as this president claims, the American people are at risk from murderous rampagers, the logical solution is to extend our rights to protect ourselves with guns, not present a docile target.
Will you commit to standing up for the founding principles of our nation?
Are you willing to take action for the sake of our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution?
Now more than ever, America needs dedicated patriots like you. For the sake of our Republic, please don’t leave the call unanswered.
Sincerely,
Dick Brauer, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
Co-founder, Special Operations Speaks
HERE WAS MY REPLY:
What about the murdered babies of Newtown?
Don’t you feel bad about what happened?
Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Arranged to coincide with “Robert E. Lee Day” in parts of Dixie and “Confederate Heroes Day” in Texas.
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I get stuff like this forwarded to me all the time by relatives in Arizona who have gone off the deep end. They feel threatened by the fact that there is an intelligent black man in the White House. They feel threatened by the fact that the younger generation believes two people who love each other should be able to get married if they want to, regardless of race or gender. They watch Faux News and listen to Rush and his ilk, and believe the hatred and lies spewed from those odious nincompoops – including that Obama is coming for their guns – and they seize upon that tangible improbability as their proof of all things unconstitutional and that Obama is ruining the country. The more guns they have, the more in control they feel. I feel sorry for them at times, but then I see the statistics on gun deaths, gun ownership, and the amount of money the NRA gets from weapons production and from scared little people such as them, and that pity fades quickly.
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It’s appalling, disgusting, angering, sickening and infernally frustrating. Obama did nothing about guns in his first term except to expand so called gun rights. He signed the bills allowing conceal and carry in national parks and on trains. He in no way “infringed” upon the precious rights of these gun maniacs. It’s not just the NRA, it’s not just the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists, it’s obviously millions of Americans who have become brain dead zombies for gun love and an obsessive-compulsive preoccupation with guns, guns and more guns. I wonder what percentage of the population they actually represent? They have these infuriating talking points that they bring up over and over: Hitler took the guns when he got into power. Not true, the Weimar Republic had already instituted strict gun laws because of all the private armies and the violence between the Nazis, communists and socialists. Another favorite one is that there are 20,000 gun laws, so we don’t need any more gun laws; this is total BS, I won’t take up any more space debunking this old diversion. They have hundreds of red herrings, straw men, half truths, misdirections, cherry picked and doctored quotes and outright fabrications. Bottom line: they will not compromise one iota, not one nanometer from their hidebound position. At this point, I am so sick of the second amendment which is used as a club to kill debate and any chance at sane gun laws.
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Joe,
you do realize the constitution does NOT give him the authority to change the constitution ..right? I mean you do understand how the constitution gets amended right, congress cant do it either. A Constitutional Convention must be conviened to change the constittution. Staes hold the convention not the president, Guess what the states dont support it. The majority of Governors are PRO GUN…by FAR. You have zero chance ..unless…Obama violates the constittuion
So then he can ignore the constitution, and then he cuts his own throat, because only enemies of the state have tried to openly break the constitution. If he does he will be brought up for trial for breaking his oath to preserve, protect and defend the US Constitution…the penalty for which is still execution…FACTS Joe…FACTS.
Joe the fact is MILLIONS died to ensure youas a citizen were to be armed, read the founders discussions on the 2nd amendment, it wasnt put in the constitution for hunting..it was for every citizen to be armed so that the same horrific war our founders had to fight against a tyrannical king didnt happen to future generations…you do the research look at their actual writings and you will see, the media and Government has concealed from the low information voter, like yourself, the reality behind why the 2nd Amendment was in the constitution.
Also be aware the 2nd amendment has been challanged many times at the Supreme Court, and the problem is the writings were so extensive by our founders as to why we citizens needed to be armed, they were so adamant that EVERY citizen should be armed at all times , to ensure the Gov’t feared the people and not the other way around…seee the reality is Joe, they had been murdered and abused by Government and they gave us provisions to ensure iut never happened again…only a fool would allow it to happen again.
So isnt it the slightest bit ironic that Government and media arent discussing what our founders actually said about why its there, instead the media and Govt talk about hunting, our founders never did, our Govt talk about sportsmanship use of guns, our founders never did…it was all about keeping GOVERNMENT in check PERIOD.
Thse are facts Joe, it stads to reason that someone who is on the otherside of this issue is not aligned with the foundation of the United States of America and its principles of freedom and liberty…that would make those people traitors. Whic are you Joe?
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The President can’t change the Constitution. But Congress has the constitutional authority to enact legislation, including a complete ban on “assault weapons.” The Supreme Court will tell us if that law violates the Constitution. This is how the Constitution set our government up. Thus far, no court has ever found that a federal ban on assault weapons is unconstitutional.
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At he time of the Founding Fathers, there were no assault weapons.
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Tom is the poster boy for the far right wing pro gun blather. Obnoxious, arrogant, paranoid and a supposed constitutional expert. He accuses me of things which I did not even say. He spews the new big talking point of the gunlovers, i.e., the 2nd Amendment wasn’t written for hunting but to take down some future tyrant or US version of Hitler. Who gets to decide who is an actual tyrant or not? Some far right wing rabid gun lover? Some future John Wilkes Booth will decide to assassinate a president that he deems a tyrant. Booth thought that Lincoln was a tyrant and felt that he had the God given right to assassinate him. Will Tom be the new John Wilkes Booth? We have far right wing militias that hate government, will people like this get to decide who is the tyrant or not?
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Tom, where the heck did I say that Obama could change the Constitution all on his own? I said he signed some bills expanding gun rights in his first term which he did. The bills went through the whole legislative process before coming to his desk. Tom, are you saying that only gun owners are true Americans, only gun owners love freedom and liberty? So if I don’t agree with Mr. Tom, I’m a traitor??? Wow, that’s a level of arrogance and hubris on par with his holiness, Wayne LaPierre.
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Tom said: “it [2nd A] was all about keeping GOVERNMENT in check PERIOD.” That is your biased interpretation, that is your opinion. You can cherry pick some out of context citations from history but that is just pure speculation. No where in the actual 2nd amendment is there mention of keeping the government in check. So some crazy like John Wilkes Booth will decide to keep the government in check by assassinating a president. The 2nd amendment says nothing about keeping the government in check or about allowing some far right wing gun lovers decide that a given president is a tyrant.
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The key to the Court’s analysis may ultimately be whether “assault rifles” are weapons that are commonly owned by Americans for non-criminal purposes. I’ve never looked at this in detail, but I recall Scalia using that analysis in dicta to justify Congress’s power to ban, as an example, sawed-off shotguns. There is probably a very good arguments that high-capacity rifles like the one used in Newton are common (there certainly seem to be a lot of them) and are overwhelmingly used for non-criminal purposes, unfortunately, so I wouldn’t take it as a given that the Court would uphold an assault weapons ban. Political concerns are always a factor, though, and there’s no guarantee that a majority of the Court would use that analysis, especially given how divided it is on this issue.
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It is unbelievable as to how many people do not have the intelligence to understand the simple words that made, and keep us, the nation that we are. These people should study how countries get over run by governments, and become a “Third world nation”. Our forefathers fought hard and long to get us to the top, and now they want to throw it all away, IDIOTs!!!!
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Did our founding fathers have Bushmasters? Did the citizenry?
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No they didn’t, BUT they did have whatever was available at the time. Remember any wound inflicted in that time period would be disastourous from the lack of medicine and time frame in which it could be gotten. So, I’m sure they took weapons just as serious as we do today, maybe more so. Fear is usually caused by the lack of knowledge. Most of the anti-gun group have never held one, yet if they have a problem they call someone who has one. Our military is in foreign countries with guns to “get the bad guy’s”, (by the direction of our President) well who is at home ready to protect the families of our troups should the ‘bad guy’s” come here.. That is an unknown thought to some, the answer is simple, people like me. It has been said that the reason we have not been invaded is “the enemy knows that there is an American citizen with a gun behind every blade of grass”. Anyone anti-gunner think about that, they should. Take our guns away and what would stop them.
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Well, it was creative to start an appreciation day for an inanimate object. Call me when it’s spatula appreciation day and I will celebrate by flipping a pancake.
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I love this response. Will let you know when Spatula Appreciation Day is announced. Then you can start flipping pancakes.
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Does this qualify?
Spatula Day
1) The greatest day of all time! An affront to all other lesser days ie: Christmas, Easter, Lent etc, A fist in the face of Commercial gift culture.
A Celebration of the Spatula!
2) A celebration invented in Perth, Western Australia, in 1993, by B.Lombardo, A.Raspa, P.Parkinson, R Cechner, B.Nelson and others as an excuse to have a party.
Highly influenced by the movie “Vidiot from UHF”
Is celebrated on the 3rd day of September every year or on the closest weekend after the date.
The only enforced rule is that spatulas (also falsely refereed to as egg-flips) are given as gifts and all who wish to attend must possess at least one spatula at all times during the event.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Spatula%20Day
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It sounds a bit like Festivus!
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Like I tell my girlfriends, guns stop rape! I live alone, I am woman, I need protection. A kitchen knife can be grabbed away, pepper spray with a ceiling fan going is not a good idea, but a gun with bullets can protect you. My best friend who is an officer, made it a priority for me to buy a gun, when I moved into my own apartment.
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Nice that your boyfriend gave you a gun. What if the rapist is carrying a Bushmaster? Maybe your boyfriend should give you a bazooka.
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No one in the government is talking about banning all guns, the Brady Campaign is not talking about banning all guns, so I don’t see the point of your comment. You have the right to buy a gun for protection but you don’t have the right to buy a machine gun for protection. Machine guns are banned in many places and are otherwise very heavily restricted and regulated. A gun can be grabbed away, too. A gun can be stolen from your home when you are away.
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Guns stop…rape? Murder? Really?
Remember, the first person killed in Newtown was the OWNER of the gun.
So tell me, exactly, how owning a gun stops anything, John Wayne?
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The will of the American people is for gun control. And this time I think we will prevail.
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No, the will of the American people isn’t for gun control, at least not in this neck of the woods. Unless you mean that gun “control” means being able to hit the target at which one is shooting.
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Althought the majority support the Second Amendment, most Americans want some form of gun control.
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Of course we already have “some form of gun control,” so if that’s all the will of the American people is for, the American people can rest easy.
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We want a lot more gun control than we have. Of course, that’s what I meant to say.
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The responsibility and solution to school violence is systemic and it belongs to all of us,
Elected officials, national organizations, parents, towns and villages, schools, community agencies, classmates, police and the media – we all share the responsibility for systemic changes to eliminate tragedies that range from the fight that involves a weapon to the terrorist acts witnessed recently, We get that.
It’s just sick. Everyone else is willing to step up and say, “What part can I play in this?” We identify and support kids who have potential for violence. Most parents know to lock up or get rid of the guns and shut off the video games. Students even step up and report if a classmate may be in a state to do harm.
Even the media has stopped reporting suicides because they “get” the copy cat issue. But…
Reality is four things have changed in recent decades.
1) Most Everyone has owned up to their responsibility.from parents to school folks to friends to… the entire support system for kids.
2) Military-like magnitude of weapons and increased ease of availability of them has skyrocketed.
3) The second amendment zealots and the NRA – along with the Obama haters -absolutely refuse to be a part of any solution
4) Many legislators have NO courage.
Just sick. No one is blaming the NRA or guns or elected folks as the sole reason for any of this. But everyone else is stepping up to own their part except them.
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Yes, violence is endemic to this country. The US is the leading purveyor of violence in the world and has been for at least 50 years. When the society is built on the premise that we can kill anyone anytime anywhere as a solution to international problems, or even to local (highly militarized swat teams) problems then one should expect violence to erupt periodically in that society as that is the norm.
Yes, it is systemic.
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America was a violent society long before it became an international military power. Slavery, the Civil War, vigilanteeism, lynch mobs. I don’t see U.S. military policy driving violence in our society. Although it is noteworthy that many of the same corporations manufacture the technology that makes mass shootings (still a peculiar type of violence in the U.S.) possible in Newtown and Afghanistan alike.
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wow four whole libtards responded…now lets see..
Obama has anarmy of ARMED Guards with guns.
The police are armed with military weapons and shotguns
but in your minds…the citizens shouldnt have them? Our founders disagreed. They were colonists in a new land, having fled their own land in peace to find a new home where they could live at peace, rather than wage war at home against their king. But that King followed them to the new land, imposed unfair taxes, went house to house to disarm the colonists so the King could exact his tyranny against the colonists unfettered.
But the colonists had had enough. Thats how the American Revolution started. They fought one of the bloodiest wars against the King and eventually prevailed. The drew up the Declaration of Independence (note: they didnt sign a declaration of DEPENDENCE on their Government…big hint) and then with all they had gone through, having been oppressed by their own Government, the wrote the US Constitution…In that constitution they pointed out all mans rights come from their creator, and not from men/Government. So they wrote restrictions on Government the first restriction recognized every citizens right to freely practice their religion, and the constitution prevent Government from writing any laws preventing it. The same held true for expression or discussion of politics, with the same restriction on Government that they could not make any laws forbidding the free exercise there of. That was the First Amendment. Next they recognozed thattheir king had tried to confiscate their guns to make them defenseless against him, so they gave us the second amendment to protect future Governments from “infringing on the rights of all humans to protect themselves…especially from Government. see they had suffered at the hands of an unjust King, innocent men, women and children were defenseless and executed. The Constitution allowed the Government to set up an Army, and the citizens to setr up Militias…again, it times when the Government is good it was to support the Army, however in times if the Govt was to go rogue, it was the Militia who was to stand between the Army of thre Govt and innocent men women nd children.
Ok so nowhere in their debate on these topics did they talk about hunting with respect to guns…it was all about …National Security, not the Governments National Security…but yours as a citizen! You are the “WE” in “We the people”, not the Government!
Now you can google all of this, its all a matter of factual history and is the only reason you are able to live the life you live today, because brave men and women gave their lives to stop the tyranny, and prevent that same tyranny from happening here again..even though they made it clear, they believed one day the people would vote themselves in men and women who would steal their liberty…are you that person?,
James Madison authored the second amendment, and several leaders debated it as they do today in congress, you can read those debates right now if you want, they are online, or in your local library. Also look up Thomas Jefferson he had much to say about citizens protecting themselves from Government. Also look up Thomas Paine, he had much to say and warn about a future Government coming in to disarm the people..the only purpose to do so is so they can enslave the people to the Government agenda…duh. Also look up George Mason he too warned of this very thing, stating you can tell you have tyrannical Government when they try to disarm the people…what is going on right now?
Were you aware of the history?
Ok so thats the historical, but today lets put this into practica use, nevermind whether you belive the or not that the Government is trying to disarm the people (clearly they are) rather lets look at the self protection aspect..even the national security issue is a self protection reason isnt it…ok so in your world three men bust into your apartment for a robbery, At least that is what they first intended…But they saw you were a female, attractive..and..well here are the three possible responses from you; IN WHICH ONE do YOU WIN?
a. you snap your fingers and magically three heavily armed policemen step out from behinfd your couch to save you from robbery rape or murder…phew good thing you had that magic snapping finger to whip up those magical INSTANT policemen, remeber you can always call the POLICE, but you will always be calling them (if able) after the crime is over, and the damage is done; or
b. you draw your Smith and Wesson 45 ACP semi auto pistol with 15 rounds in magazine and send these three scumbags to their maker, thus saving other innocent women from such a disasterous fate that you were fortunate to have protected yourself against; or
c. you do nothing, because you dont believe in violence or owning a gun (and thats fine, but there is a consequence) so you give them everything they want, you appease them the best you know how , hoping, no praying they will leave with what they took. But one or more of them finds you somewhat attractive, especially when you cry, or try to hide your fear, because they see they have power OVER you, so they start brutally stripping you naked so they can fulfill their ominous desire to overpower and rape you, they do, they rape you brutally, beating you all the while to keep you quiet and submissive. After they are done, one realizes he has left behind DNA, he cant have that, he must kill you and somehow dispose of the body so he wont get caught, it doesnt matter how much you plead, he doesnt want jail, he’s watched CSI he knows he must get rid of you…and ypu are totally defenseless to street thugs.
as the husband of a woman that happened to, I can say first hand, man that sucks, but do you have any idea how many times that scenario has really occurred…you would be startled. But at the same time you would be foolish and unnatural not to want to protect yourself
As I said, I respect your desire to be peaceful, I really do, but the fact is you do not live in a peaceful world, nor has it ever been peaceful. Sorry.
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How many more mass murders should there be in schools, churches, movie theaters, and shopping malls before you change your mind? Or do you value your Bushmaster over the lives of others? WWJD?
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So, do we decry all the innocent deaths from the mass murders that are committed by our government in the illegal wars of aggression in which we are involved? Do we mourn those innocents killed, all 178 of them just for Pakistan and Yemen??? See Glen Greenwald at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/19/newtown-drones-children-deaths
And we wonder why violence occurs so frequently in this country. It’s not because of the “guns”. We are a violent society.
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I find only one thing wrong in your statement. “no praying they will leave with what they took.” You are assuming the person believes that there is a God.
I would also like to add a part d. You ask in a non threatening manner for the person (s) to leave your house because you are a good person and don’t believe that individuals should own guns. So you will not find any here to sell or use for illegial purposes.
I really think the robbers would just walk away with their heads hanging down apologizing for busting such an attractive woman’s door down.
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“wow four whole libtards responded…now lets see..”
First sign of no real point..begin by calling people names.
Tired, overused , clichés, offensive (form retarded…) name calling.
Wow.
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Where are all the history professors?
1. The British figured that maybe the colonists should help pay for the French and Indian War. After all it had cost the British a pretty penny to protect these British subjects. Just like today, the colonists, especially the wealthy merchant class, screamed when someone tried to raise their taxes. Not that the British were totally innocent but our birth as a nation was not born in some noble cause.
2. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”? I have great difficulty squaring this sentence with the situation today. I see no evidence that gun owners are capable of being magically transformed into a well regulated militia.
Please could someone who has the credentials take up this debate. I have exhausted my meager “at your fingertips” historical background.
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Sounds like all they’re really interested in is racking up hits on their social media. May be some commerce involved there. lol
Anyway, I have curiosity of how an email like this would wind up being sent to you. I don’t get emails like that! (Fortunately!)
Not that I’m accusing you of having been registering at gun porn web sites or anything. LOL 😉
Because honestly, “gun appreciation day”??? Sounds a bit lurid. Or like gun worship or something. (Or as my spouse calls it, “gun fetish”.)
I have to believe that most responsible gun owners, hunters, & such, are not like these hysterical rabble-rousers. And that if it were not for the internet, they would be seen as the minority they are… they would be nothing more than the odd kook of their communities. Sadly, while the internet allows people to come together to accomplish good things… it also allows nutty fringe minorities to try & get other people riled up about all the wrong things with misinformation.
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Wish I knew how I got on the mailing list. Maybe they sent it to people who subscribe to the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and The New Republic? Or maybe they bought the mailing list from LL Bean or Lands End?
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Thanks. As a woman who wants to exercise my right to defend myself, I appreciate the information on how to join gun appreciation day. As far as murdered babies, I feel bad that the school didn’t care enough about their children to protect them by arming their personnel or hiring an armed guard (since they weren’t allowed to protect themselves under the law). I don’t want to be the woman on the sidewalk raped and strangled by my own panty because I didn’t know how (or wasn’t allowed) to protect myself. Do you know that your country has armed an entire army with guns, and some of those military people are not mentally stable and might shoot someone (you know it has already happened). So, we need to take away all the guns from the military also. We will be much safer if the military people don’t carry guns because guns kill (and so do people in the military). (And that is a sarcastic remark, in case you think I’m serious).
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How about if only the military and police carried guns? You would be safer then. I read that some gun fanatic Keith Ratliff in Georgia was found murdered in his shop. Shot in the head. He had lots of guns.
Read this about him: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/keith-ratliff-fpsrussia-dead_n_2439284.html?ir=Crime
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To answer your question, NO.
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Red: It is absolutely disgusting that you would blame those heroes at Sandy Hook for the attack.
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Red, what a despicable swipe at the heroic school and staff at Sandy Hook. Columbine had an armed guard who actually shot at one of the homicidal teens. The recent shooting at Taft Union High School in CA had an armed guard but was absent that day. A brave teacher talked the shooter into putting his gun down. Thankfully, the shooter did not have a semi-automatic with high capacity magazines. He had a shot gun and did not kill anyone by some miracle but one student was seriously injured. What happens when the armed teacher is absent, will the substitutes be armed, too? This is insanity, teachers have enough to deal with without packing a gun in school with 7 year old kids.
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Sick puppy!
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A great editorial from the San Jose Mercury News:
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_22240508/mercury-news-editorial?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
“If we allow this moment to pass without insisting on common-sense restrictions on weapons designed for war, we will be saying that what happened in Newtown is an acceptable price to pay for the Second Amendment.”
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If you think ALEC has written horrible education legislation, you should see what they’ve done in conjunction with the NRA. Stand Your Ground and Castle Laws play on people’s fears and are contributing to gun purchases and the logic that “good guys with guns” are needed to “take out” shooters— real or imagined. We read a lot about heroism when a teacher stops a mass murder… but there are many instances where a teacher or counselor quietly intervenes to prevent tragedies that never get reported and– sadly– many instances where a teacher, counselor, or Principal will find guns in a school and deal with it WITHOUT being armed or WITHOUT a confrontation. We could do a lot more with more counseling services in schools than we could with “a good guy with a gun”.
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You are so right. Well said.
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“Dick’s approach to life as an intriguing adventure is reflected in his approach to art. As much as he appreciates Rembrandt and other old masters, Dick also enjoys modern art for its “power to find out new things for today . . . to explore what it means to live today.”
http://www.pinesvillage.org/profiles/DickBrauer.php
Oh wait, maybe this is a different Dick Brauer….
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I want my children to have security in their school. I want gun control but know that having a gun is part of our constitution. Ban assault weapons like the Bush….master. I wonder if our kids in poor communities know about illegal gun use?
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Let’s ask politicians why they have religiously cut funding for security, mental health and poverty? But they care? How many shooting happen in schools every year? How many shootings happen in inner cities? Our schools will not be safe if we continue to ignore the real problem: FUNDING
I bet politicians are not talking about the cuts they proposed before the tradegy.
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Yep my 1st year in inner city school, a 2nd grader came into school with a gun, threatening to shoot and kill someone. A 2nd grader with a gun? Oh, yes, he got it from the gangster who dealt him marijuana since kindergarten.
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http://www.theonion.com/articles/gorilla-sales-skyrocket-after-latest-gorilla-attac,30860/
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I have asked many of my gun-wise friends exactly why one feels the need for these assault-like weapons. I’ve gotten many lectures like some of the responses here…about add-ons and intent of weapons. But, the only answer to my direct question about WHY boils down to this: 1. I need to protect my home from bad guys; and 2. The South may rise again.
I would LOVE for a Constitutional expert to truly parse the Amendment (maybe David Coleman??) and explain why so many supporters skim right over ‘A well-regulated.”
What about expecting owners of weapons whose full intent is to kill people to have added responsibility for their weapons, how they’re used, where they’re used, where they’re stored, who is around them?
I keep searching for common ground, and finding precious little.
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My response to “Gun Appreciation Day” would be “Social Contract Education Day.”
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Or, Public School Appreciation Day!
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We should declare January 19th a day to remember those who have been devastated by gun violence day.
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That’d be a hell of a lot of people whose names we can’t pronounce as the vast majority of deaths caused by “American” gun violence have been foreigners.
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The idea that armed guards in schools means we are protecting children is crazy. Who will these guards be? Volunteers? Teachers? Obsessed vigilante “stand your ground” types? Police officers? National Guard, military personnel, or veterans? Hunters? Who will screen and train these people?
Where will the weapons be stored? I work in a middle school. Sadly, some middle and high school students have successfully broken into locked cabinets to steal money or electronics. What safe storage options are there that would guarantee no young people would get their hands on these guns?
If the guards are carrying at all times, what happens if a scuffle occurs among students? Should the armed guard intervene? What happens if the weapon is wrested away and used?
Another question occurs to me. Shootings have occurred in many public venues where children may be present. Do we now move to stationing armed guards in all such places? Let’s ponder that sickening list: armed guards at every movie theater, religious service, playground, shopping mall, library, grocery store, little league game, dance recital, public beach, sports stadium, zoo, art museum, town hall meeting, gym, McDonalds, and Dairy Queen. Shall we get guns into pediatricians’ offices and hospital maternity wards? And let’s not forget theme parks like Disneyland (lots of kids to “protect” there, right?)
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Here is a link to an opinion piece on school safety by a retired Connecticut police chief.
http://www.thehour.com/opinion/commentary/act-now-on-gun-control/article_054adb20-1f8c-51be-a321-894d2b9c62ba.html
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Good article. At least it’s a place to start the discussion. Before hunters start shrieking, perhaps we could have different classes of licenses.
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I’ve noticed here and other places that so many pro-gun advocates are screaming at the top of their CAPITAL LETTERS about Pres. Obama ignoring the Constitution and the 2nd amendment and that he is the worst president of all time about taking our rights away. Those same fine folks must have very short memories, or they completely ignore the Patriot Act of 2001 and the other related pieces of legislation promoted and signed by Pres. Bush that eroded the privacy rights as well as the guarantees of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th amendments.
That being said, it seems to me that fear is what drives this debate. Fear of guns, fear of insane people and what they can do with guns, fear of “the government,” which I guess translates into fear of your fellow Americans. We have to get past the fear that drives this issue on all sides, and look at rational ways of dealing with guns, the types of guns available, who can get those guns, and how and where those guns can be used. We must also address the issues related to mass-shootings, such as access to mental health treatment, the violence that floods the media, and the problems with a system that seems such a threat to so many.
I admit to having fears about this whole issue. As a teacher, I was devastated by the Newtown shootings and my initial reaction was to say, yes, let’s arm ourselves. But as my immediate fears calmed and reason returned, I considered the possible consequences of such a solution, and just as quickly reconsidered.
There are no quick or easy answers, which so many Americans seem to demand these days, for any of these problems. These issues need thorough, well-considered solutions, and those solutions may need to be set aside to find others that work. This problem did not develop overnight. It won’t be fixed by one single, magical rule. We, each and every one of us, have to face our fears about this issue. We have to remain calm and rational, and let clear-headed thinking, on all sides, prevail. Otherwise, this is just another thing leading us down the path to destruction.
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At least they are coming out from under their rocks.
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Consider me one of the “they” as an owner of more than one hunting weapon that is if the “they” you are talking about are those of us who strongly believe in our 2nd amendment right to have guns/weapons. Does my bow count???
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and back to the original post…
It’s just the blind obedience and arrogance.
Instead of coming out and saying, “We agree, no one needs an assault rifle” and we will work with all the others who ALSO have a responsibility to end these school and mall and movie attacks (and there ARE others responsible, not just the NRA), the NRA chooses to rub everyone’s nose in it, blame the media and video games, and suggest arming teachers. Ask any policeman what s/he thinks about that idea.
And, now, another “rub your nose in it” event in January – ironically before the swearing in of the President with the worst record on gun control of any politician for years.
As I have asked before, what are they really afraid of?
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A couple of background pieces on the Second Amendment and its Authors’ Intentions —
• The Wait-Just-a-Goddam-Second Amendment
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• Element Order and the Grammar of the Second Amendment
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An interesting read. Thanks!
However, I doubt that the author (or anyone on whatever side of this debate) can definitively say what the founders meant by the wording. His linguistic analysis of all well and good but all language usages are context contingent and we cannot be put into that time/context to “really know” what was meant. Therefore the arguments about the meaning will continue.
Be that as it may, I still believe that since its inception this country is one that has structural violence built in. Any actions that exclude a group, class, race, etc. . . from the protections that are afforded in the Constitution (and there have been many, see Zinn’s “A Peoples HIstory of America) should rightly be viewed as violence against a fellow human being.
And our educational policies of sorting and separating students through grading and standards and standardized testing are some of the most egregious that commit violence against innocent children.
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From the article: “To comply with the Second Amendment we must end federal control over the National Guard, regulate such state militias and police forces well, regulate their weapons well, and deny such weapons to all others and for any other use.”
I agree with ending federal control over the National Guard, i.e. the department of war. But to deny citizens of weapons is to impose tyranny on them.
I have four (five if you count my son’s shotgun which is in my name) hunting weapons and I don’t even hunt that much, more of a fisherman. One with an 18 shell capacity (a .22 caliber small game rifle) would be illegal if a ten round limit for magazines came into play.
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I think much if this piece is right, although it suffers from the modern plague of a cocksure tone, and I believe it ignores that the parallel provisions in some state declarations of rights actually did provide citizens with individual rights to bear arms for self-defense in addition to the defense of the state. The Constitution isn’t a poem, it’s the product of negotiation among the states. So decision to simply say that “the people” have the right to “bear arms,” without specifying for what purpose, arguably indicates a deliberate vagueness.
Also, I don’t see the logic of this at all: “Bearing arms in a well-regulated militia did not mean bearing guns that can reliably shoot well, since such didn’t exist. It certainly didn’t mean bearing guns that can kill entire crowds of people without reloading.”
The Second Amendment says “arms.” It doesn’t say “muskets.” And you can’t interpret the Second Amendment as applying only to militias on the one hand but not permitting militias to use military-grade guns, or any guns more advanced than the best guns available in the 1780s. It’s been noted many times that the Constitution uses broad language precisely because the framers knew that it was a document that would be applied for a long, long time. That’s why the First Amendment applies to the Internet, even though the Internet didn’t exist when the First Amendment was written. It’s “freedom of speech,” not “freedom to speak and communicate through newspapers, leaflets, and handbills.”
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Two things to keep in mind about the Framers when trying to understand their intent —
1. They did speak the English language.
2. They weren’t insane.
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Of course conservatives feel bad about the dead children, but that has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with proper policy of the federal and state governments on guns. The only true test is what are the consequences of a policy. Will it bring about the desired result? Diane ‘s answer is empty politically correct posturing. There wouldn’t even have been this kind of backlash if the President hadn’t cynically used the Newtown deaths as a way of trying to implement his own anti-gun agenda. HE made it an issue, not the NRA which offered a simple, immediate solution, SROs in every school, something many schools already do. It is just possible that that was a sincere, heartfelt, response rather than a promotion of guns in general or a promotion of gun manufacturers. But with the dismissive reaction of that proposal by the left, I suppose others felt more push back was needed. Guns made this country free, and will keep it free. They are the guarantee of free speech, the fundamental freedom of the Republic.
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Thanks as always for epitomizing what makes our latter-day neo-libertarian neo-conservatives so utterly comical if not so tragic — their inability to see that when our freedoms are overthrown, and we’re all but there as we speak, it will be the element Au and not the element Pb that put every nail in the coffin of democracy.
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When people talk about gun control there seems to be major confusion between the criminal element and the law abiding citizen. First and formost, criminals break the law, so what good is any gun laws do for that? Simple, it makes more sheep, and the foxes run wild. Sometimes I wonder which side of the fence our government is on, or who is really running our politics.
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Good Grief, Charlie, does your Mommy know you’re on the Internet?
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Shame on you! Don’t *you* feel ashamed to take the side of political opportunists who bathe in the blood of innocent children to advance a fascist political agenda? Don’t you feel guilty for supporting a policy that has historically led to the domination and murder of minorities at the hands of the KKK, the Stasi, and the NKVD? Don’t you feel ashamed for the role you and your ideological allies have played in securing a world in which genocides of millions of unarmed and defenseless civilians is the rule rather than the exception? Shame on you!
It wasn’t RKBA advocates who insisted on “gun-free zones”–that was you. it wasn’t RKBA advocates who prevented adults from defending themselves, their students, and their community from violent criminals–that was you. *You* are the ones who create circumstances in which a single armed individual is able to run amuck, and you need to accept responsibility for your misguided motivations and actions and make amends immediately by advocating for civil liberties for all human beings.
After all of the genocides that characterized the 20th century (and every century that preceded it, for that matter), what would it take for you to admit that disarming the innocent is a disastrous tactic in this oft-violent and dangerous world? When will you come to your senses and admit that prior restraint is absurd and self-defeating and that every individual has an inalienable right to self-defense? How many more innocents have to die before shameless opportunists, fascists, and the politically naive admit that neither nature nor society is a nursery? How many more innocents have to die before you finally recognize that everyone has a right to protect themselves and their loved ones regardless of your fears and false assumptions?
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John,
I mean this as friendly but serious advice —
Please stop watching Murdoch, Inc. and seek professional help as soon as possible.
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