The Right To Bear Arms
Just because I have a right, does it always make sense to exercise that right?
Here is what I do understand.
1. Owning a gun to kill Chip, Dale, and Bambi-- so long as you eat them.
2. Owning guns as part of an antique collection.
3. Owning a gun as a tribal statement. Just as Indians used to carry tomahawks and Sikhs today carry daggers, neo-nazis and hillbillies may own guns as a statement of affiliation. I get that.
4. Owning a gun as a professional requirement, for example, as an abortion provider.
5. Owning a gun for sentimental reasons-- to bring back fond memories of storming the beaches of Normardy.
I understand all of that. I also don't dispute the traditional right to bear arms under the constitution.
But what I don't understand is the need to own a gun on the premise that you will need it to protect yourself or your family.
When you do that, you firstly surrender to fear and often bigotry. You secondly assume that you have the clarity of mind to not mistake a halloween prankster or a tardy mailman for a murderer. You thirdly assume that a jury of your peers will exonerate you should you make a mistake that leads to manslaughter and that you won't be charged by the estate for civil remedies, as happened to OJ-- to say nothing about the $200-$400 per hour lawyers now charge. You finally assume that a curious or a a suicidal youngster won't blow her head off, or that such rationality prevails in your household to the extent that you in a moment of passion won't blow off their heads.
These are a lot of dubious assumptions that make it not worthwhile for me to pack heat. There are better ways.
Just kooking around.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/294774.php
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/06/21/20090621shoot0621-ON.html
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/98554_shot05.shtml
My family owns guns -
Because it is their second amendment right granted by the Bill of rights -
http://www.2asisters.org/"
The Bill of Rights grants you the right to march through Skokie carrying a Nazi flag. The Bill of Rights also grants you the right to drink Jonestown joy juice if that is your religious bliss. But it doesn't follow that the exercise of these rights are wise. So, yes, you have the right to be stupid-- and silent forever.
They'll have to pry my gun from my cold, dead, stiff fingers.
Quoted from Men in Black. Your proposal is acceptable.
Because of Obie.
Because of ACORN.
Because of lesser criminals.
PEOPLE ASK WHY I CARRY A GUN~~ author unknown
My old grandpa said to me son, "There comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin."
I don't carry a gun to kill people.I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don't carry a gun to impress women. I carry a gun to protect my woman.
I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared, including from angry people seeking to harm.
I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.
I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.
I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.
I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.
Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'.
if you break into my house in the middle of the night, you'll know for sure. or if you try to hijack my car. plus i like the feeling i get when i shoot at targets, power.
I'm thinking Viagara is cheaper.
You might look at Zero's latest Czar, the Czar of Social Philosophy, then go read 1984 by George Orwell. A gun is to protect oneself's personal liberty, this takeover will be stopped.
Come the the end of days, I would rather be rampaging with the mob than huddled in a bomb shelter. Takeover will bes topped? if there was a real civil emergency, the first thing the government will confiscate is the NRA's membership list. The second thing will be all those "private militia" guns. We saw this after Katrina struck.
I assume nothing, dead people tell nothing.
I can assure you that you are making a mistake that could put you behind bars. I speak from some experience, as we had a break in while we slept at night in our home. I once heard G. Gordon Liddy, the conservative commentator say that if you encounter a burgler in your home, you should blow his head off as you can always claim imminent harm. The policeman I talked to said this was terrible advice. You will be sued by both the state and the presumed criminal's estate, and there will be plenty of motivation to challenge your account/lies. What if, Iasked the policeman, I saw the burgler with my things in my child's room-- could I go with him with a knife or a gun? What if I saw him running out of my house with my stuff? Could I run him down with my car? Absolutely not to any of that, he said. There needs to be a demonstrable threat to your life or someone in your home-- he is lunging at you or your child, for example. And if he is unarmed, it is almost certain that you would be convicted of manslaughter. You don't have the right to act as an executioner no matter what the provocation.
But, as I said before, you can certainly test your legal theory for tens of thousands of dollars by the time litigation wraps up.
Damn! Where do you live? It's sure not around here! Here, we take a more enlightened view of criminal vs. homeowner. If the DA wants to be re-elected, he won't try to indict you for killing some scumbag who breaks into your home. We kinda figure that anyone breaking into a home is looking to commit violence and that should be stopped -- permanently.
But the mere commission of a felony isn't reason enough for you to execute someone else. Depending on what state you live in, even pulling a gun on you is not enough for you to fire at the criminal.
The bigger point I'm trying to make is that there is a gap between what we think are our rights and what are our rights-- and it is a distinction that can get you killed. It is certainly your constitutional right to own a gun just as it is your right to walk any street you choose to walk in Chicago or New York City. But it doesn't mean it is the smart thing to do in either case. And nor is it the law that your home is your castle, as Harvard professor Gates found out last week, who was arrested for so far as I can tell for being mouthy while black in his own home.
I had a newborn baby, and the two of us were sleeping in the bedroom.I woke up to see flashlights scanning the living room, and heard two men walking about. I was terrified. I stayed as quiet as I could and hoped the baby didn't wake up.
The footsteps came closer and the flashlights shone into the bedroom. I was sure I was going to die.
Then I noticed their police uniforms. Only then did they apologise and explain.
Prowlers with guns in your home? A lot of folks on this thread would have had no probem shooting these cops dead. Sometimes we don't know intentions until it is too late. The other day, someone knocked on my front door at three in the morning. It turned out he had the wrong address. But again, some people would have killed him for his crime of confusion.
Here is what I do understand.
1. Owning a gun to kill Chip, Dale, and Bambi-- so long as you eat them.
2. Owning guns as part of an antique collection.
3. Owning a gun as a tribal statement. Just as Indians used to carry tomahawks and Sikhs today carry daggers, neo-nazis and hillbillies may own guns as a statement of affiliation. I get that.
4. Owning a gun as a professional requirement, for example, as an abortion provider.
5. Owning a gun for sentimental reasons-- to bring back fond memories of storming the beaches of Normardy.
I understand all of that. I also don't dispute the traditional right to bear arms under the constitution.
But what I don't understand is the need to own a gun on the premise that you will need it to protect yourself or your family.
When you do that, you firstly surrender to fear and often bigotry. You secondly assume that you have the clarity of mind to not mistake a halloween prankster or a tardy mailman for a murderer. You thirdly assume that a jury of your peers will exonerate you should you make a mistake that leads to manslaughter and that you won't be charged by the estate for civil remedies, as happened to OJ-- to say nothing about the $200-$400 per hour lawyers now charge. You finally assume that a curious or a a suicidal youngster won't blow her head off, or that such rationality prevails in your household to the extent that you in a moment of passion won't blow off their heads.
These are a lot of dubious assumptions that make it not worthwhile for me to pack heat. There are better ways.
Just kooking around.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/294774.php
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/06/21/20090621shoot0621-ON.html
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/98554_shot05.shtml
My family owns guns -
Because it is their second amendment right granted by the Bill of rights -
http://www.2asisters.org/"
The Bill of Rights grants you the right to march through Skokie carrying a Nazi flag. The Bill of Rights also grants you the right to drink Jonestown joy juice if that is your religious bliss. But it doesn't follow that the exercise of these rights are wise. So, yes, you have the right to be stupid-- and silent forever.
They'll have to pry my gun from my cold, dead, stiff fingers.
Quoted from Men in Black. Your proposal is acceptable.
Because of Obie.
Because of ACORN.
Because of lesser criminals.
PEOPLE ASK WHY I CARRY A GUN~~ author unknown
My old grandpa said to me son, "There comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin."
I don't carry a gun to kill people.I carry a gun to keep from being killed.
I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.
I don't carry a gun to impress women. I carry a gun to protect my woman.
I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.
I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.
I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared, including from angry people seeking to harm.
I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.
I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.
I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.
I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.
I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.
Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'.
if you break into my house in the middle of the night, you'll know for sure. or if you try to hijack my car. plus i like the feeling i get when i shoot at targets, power.
I'm thinking Viagara is cheaper.
You might look at Zero's latest Czar, the Czar of Social Philosophy, then go read 1984 by George Orwell. A gun is to protect oneself's personal liberty, this takeover will be stopped.
Come the the end of days, I would rather be rampaging with the mob than huddled in a bomb shelter. Takeover will bes topped? if there was a real civil emergency, the first thing the government will confiscate is the NRA's membership list. The second thing will be all those "private militia" guns. We saw this after Katrina struck.
I assume nothing, dead people tell nothing.
I can assure you that you are making a mistake that could put you behind bars. I speak from some experience, as we had a break in while we slept at night in our home. I once heard G. Gordon Liddy, the conservative commentator say that if you encounter a burgler in your home, you should blow his head off as you can always claim imminent harm. The policeman I talked to said this was terrible advice. You will be sued by both the state and the presumed criminal's estate, and there will be plenty of motivation to challenge your account/lies. What if, Iasked the policeman, I saw the burgler with my things in my child's room-- could I go with him with a knife or a gun? What if I saw him running out of my house with my stuff? Could I run him down with my car? Absolutely not to any of that, he said. There needs to be a demonstrable threat to your life or someone in your home-- he is lunging at you or your child, for example. And if he is unarmed, it is almost certain that you would be convicted of manslaughter. You don't have the right to act as an executioner no matter what the provocation.
But, as I said before, you can certainly test your legal theory for tens of thousands of dollars by the time litigation wraps up.
Damn! Where do you live? It's sure not around here! Here, we take a more enlightened view of criminal vs. homeowner. If the DA wants to be re-elected, he won't try to indict you for killing some scumbag who breaks into your home. We kinda figure that anyone breaking into a home is looking to commit violence and that should be stopped -- permanently.
But the mere commission of a felony isn't reason enough for you to execute someone else. Depending on what state you live in, even pulling a gun on you is not enough for you to fire at the criminal.
The bigger point I'm trying to make is that there is a gap between what we think are our rights and what are our rights-- and it is a distinction that can get you killed. It is certainly your constitutional right to own a gun just as it is your right to walk any street you choose to walk in Chicago or New York City. But it doesn't mean it is the smart thing to do in either case. And nor is it the law that your home is your castle, as Harvard professor Gates found out last week, who was arrested for so far as I can tell for being mouthy while black in his own home.
I had a newborn baby, and the two of us were sleeping in the bedroom.I woke up to see flashlights scanning the living room, and heard two men walking about. I was terrified. I stayed as quiet as I could and hoped the baby didn't wake up.
The footsteps came closer and the flashlights shone into the bedroom. I was sure I was going to die.
Then I noticed their police uniforms. Only then did they apologise and explain.
Prowlers with guns in your home? A lot of folks on this thread would have had no probem shooting these cops dead. Sometimes we don't know intentions until it is too late. The other day, someone knocked on my front door at three in the morning. It turned out he had the wrong address. But again, some people would have killed him for his crime of confusion.
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