Annie, get your gun!

So, what to do? You’re at a BBQ with a mixed bag of friends, some liberal, others conservative, and the conversations are beginning to drag. What to do? Well, you could suggest a game of “pictionary” or some lawn bowling. Or you could just stand in the middle of the patio and loudly make this statement:

“I am a Democrat and I believe in gun control!”

Suddenly, your dull, lifeless BBQ will come to life! Maybe not in a good way, but it will be much more lively.

I am a confirmed liberal Democrat and I earned my bona fides long ago. That having been said, I am a firm defender of the Second Amendment. There are several reasons for this.

One, is that I support the Constitution of the United States. We are to be a “nation of laws” and the COTUS is the supreme law of the land. There are reasons that it is so difficult to amend the Constitution.

Two, virtually every legal gun owner is a law abiding citizen that respects firearms and uses them properly.

Three, gun control laws do little or nothing to reduce gun violence. In some studies, the legal carrying of a firearm has been shown to actually reduce some crimes.

I am a legal gun owner and a legal carrier of a firearm, even though I choose not to carry most of the time.

Truthfully, guns are not the cause of violent crime in America. The high murder rate is due to a “culture of violence” not the “gun culture.”

Guns are tools, examples of fine craftsmanship and even works of art. They are only dangerous when used in an improper manner. Responsible gun owners keep their weapons from the reach of children and teach their children gun safety.

The focus on reducing gun violence should not be on the gun it’s self, but on the culture that breeds gun violence. Gangs, drug trafficking and poverty are the reasons for gun injuries and deaths, for the most part.

Gun control laws generally just become a nuisance to law abiding gun owners. Certainly I am for background checks, but much beyond that, gun control laws are mostly “feel good” laws that do little to achieve their well intentioned objectives.

Cain killed Abel with a club. Today, perhaps he would have capped him with a 9mm. Regardless, he would still be dead. Throughout history, be it a club, spear, sword or a gun, man has figured out a way to kill his fellow man.

Banning guns will do nothing to change that.

Now, the patio is open for discussion………………………………….

William Stephenson Clark

Bring Your Guns To Washington Rally! April 19, 2010

Supreme Court To Debate Local, State Handgun Laws

Well, well, this will give the gun nuts some more fuel for their fires!  Should keep them busy with all kinds of conspiracy theories — the case won’t be argued until next year.

The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to decide whether strict local and state gun control laws violate the Second Amendment, ensuring another high-profile battle over the rights of gun owners.

The court said it will review a lower court ruling that upheld a handgun ban in Chicago. Gun rights supporters challenged gun laws in Chicago and some suburbs immediately following the high court’s decision in June 2008 that struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, a federal enclave.

The new case tests whether last year’s ruling applies as well to local and state laws.

fnord

GUNS CAN SAVE OUR ECONOMY –- by William A. Collins

Business booms,

And all have fun;   

When everybody’s

Got a gun.

 

  Now that America’s banking, real estate, stock market, insurance and automobile bubbles have all burst, what’s a hard-working, God-fearing citizen supposed to do for a job? Can you believe that even the casino industry is laying off? Fortunately alcohol is still stable, but prostitution futures have tanked. Curses, if the sin market is sinking, we’re in more trouble than we thought.

  But one industry has heroically come to our rescue – yes, guns. Firearm sales are through the roof. Gun makers are adding shifts and gun stores are adding clerks. They’re sparking the whole economy. Researchers have identified several reasons: Barack Obama, the recession, and self-defense.

It’s not that they fear Mr. Obama will come after them physically. Rather they see him as a strident gun control zealot who will soon make gun sales illegal. Thus we had better buy now. The recession in turn provokes fears of unemployed armed mobs roving the streets looking for any wealth they can grab. If you happen to have some, you’d better be ready to mount a show of force in response. And nowadays, it’s also critical to be armed and ready when screwballs at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Binghamton and North Carolina show up and start shooting. Who let those nuts have guns anyway? But since they do, we’d better too.

Thus you’ll be pleased to learn that Connecticut has just taken a solid step to end this insanity. Thanks to its valiant legislature, it is now illegal to hand a machine gun to anyone under age 16. Seems last year an eight-year-old at a local range got hold of an Uzi, lost control of it, and shot his head off. Brave pols thought that was wrong and responded fast.