As reported by Politico Sunday, former President Bill Clinton “warned a group of top Democratic donors at a private Saturday meeting not to underestimate the passions that gun control stirs among many Americans.”
“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton cautioned.
A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things. I know because I come from this world.
Recent events give much credence to Clinton’s admonition.
Against President Barack Obama’s effort to push new gun control measures – including a ban on assault weapons and limiting magazines to 10 rounds -- Sunday’s Rasmussen survey showed 57 percent of American adults feel “it is more important for the government to enforce existing gun control laws than to create new ones.”
Despite Obama’s repeated efforts to frame the Second Amendment as the Forefather’s intent to protect “the rights and traditions of sportsmen,” Friday’s Rasmussen poll showed that two-out-of-three believe that “their constitutional right to own a gun was intended to ensure their freedom” and “to make sure that people are able to protect themselves from tyranny.”
More notable -- reflective of Rasmussen’s Jan. 9 survey, which showed that 74 percent of American adults “continue to believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of an average citizen to own a gun” -- thousands of irritated Americans gathered at rallies across the nation on Saturday to make it very clear to Obama that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Associated Press reported 600 attendees in Austin, Texas and 2,000 braved the chilly weather to attend the rally at the New York state capitol in Albany.
Police in Connecticut said about 1,000 people showed up on the capitol grounds in Hartford, about 50 miles from the site of last month's mass shooting at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.
As reported Friday by WND, gun-rights advocates in 47 states planned to simultaneously voice their opposition to Obama’s gun control efforts at noon on Saturday.
Florida’s Bay News 9 reported Saturday that “thousands” attended the rally at the Hernando County Fairgrounds in Brooksville.
“I’m here not only as a political activist,” said Citrus County Republican State Committeewoman Gloria Fisher during her speech at the Brooksville event, “but as a life-member of the NRA and a holder of a conceal-carry permit.”
Fisher -- who won reelection in August -- emphasized the importance of women standing up to protect their Second Amendment rights.
“As women, we are passionate about protecting ourselves and our loved ones,” Fisher said in her speech. “We are, after all, the givers of life. The act of protecting one’s life, and the lives of our families -- when faced with mortal danger -- is not only an inherent, God-given right, it is also a biological characteristic of our human condition.”
It’s important for those who are trying to take away our rights to understand that gun owners do not shoot to kill. We shoot to live.
“I’m a strong proponent of our Second Amendment rights,” Fisher told Examiner after her speech, adding a pointed response to the Democrat’s dull charge of a Republican “war on women.”
I think it’s extremely important for women to be able to defend themselves and their families, and all the current attempts to curb the right for us to defend ourselves is really the true war on women.
To the critics of Florida’s pro-gun laws, Florida Republican State Rep. Jimmie T. Smith cited the fact that Florida -- a state that saw concealed weapons permits exceed the million mark in 2012 -- saw crime go down. He also offered Floridians a response to gun critics who try to use the safety of children as an excuse to restrict the rights of others to bear arms.
"They will prey on your heart strings and say -- 'Well, don't you want to protect the children?’” Smith mocked. "You look at them and tell them -- 'Damn straight I do, and I'll do it myself.’”
It was an eclectic group in Brooksville – from the young to the old and from business suits to biker leathers – but they all shared a common goal. All came with a passionate determination to protect their constitutional right “to keep and bear arms.”
Robbie, who drove from Orlando, finds it ironic that an administration that peddled thousands of semi-automatic weapons to members of Mexican drug cartels in Fast and Furious – one of which was used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry – is trying to restrict the right of Americans to purchase that same weapon.
Tommy Bunyard, 19 years old, drove 3-1/2 hours from Okeechobee County to be there.
“In 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, giving himself the authority to have anyone who is just suspected of terrorism put in jail for an indefinite period of time, without a fair trial. Now he wants to restrict our rights to keep and bear arms. I’m sick and tired of this. I’m tired of my rights as an American citizen being trampled on.”
“It’s important that people get involved,” said Bill Peff, a retiree from Hudson. “This government is going against the intentions of our Forefathers and it’s important that people wake up – now!”
Peff, who served as a police officer in Massachusetts for 32 years, stressed to Examiner that he “never took a report from a victim of a violent crime that was armed.”
“So keep that in the back of your mind, folks. Don’t let go of the Second Amendment. It’s important.”
Aaron Schwarz drove 400 miles from Pensacola to attend the Brooksville rally. Wearing a crisp, white dress shirt, tie and glasses, the clean cut 24-year-old carried a sign bearing a photo of a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic.
“I am an aerospace engineer,” read the hand-written message. “I am a law abiding citizen. I vote. And this is my rifle.”
Schwarz, opposed to Obama’s effort to restrict the sale of his type of weapon and to restrict ammunition clips to ten rounds, said “it’s an infringement on our Second Amendment rights and we should fight it.”
Contact your senators, contact your congressman, contact you governors, contact the White House – be active.
“I’ve traveled the world extensively,” cautioned rally speaker AJ Monte. “I’ve seen countries that don’t have our same freedoms. I’ve seen passive citizens move along when authorities tell them to move along and to remain silent when they are told to remain silent.”
There is a strategy here that you must know about. In order to take over a population of over 300 million Americans you must first divide them. The country must be divided before you can overtake that country.
Using the “slow boiling frog” analogy, Monte warned that – through the media and the political rhetoric flowing from Washington – there is a slow effort to brainwash Americans into a state of apathy that will allow citizens to be dominated by the government. To Monte, the purpose behind Obama’s endeavor to disarm American citizens is clear.
The Second Amendment is what allows Americans to hold on to their freedoms.
Comments