Maryville, Tennessee, Saturday, February 9, 2013. What a great day to celebrate liberty and attend a pro Second Amendment rally. The crowd of folks converged on the old Blount County Courthouse at High Noon, some packin' heat! (more photos here)
The signs really tell the story. One sign read LUKE 22:36. another read, "Our forefathers would be shooting by now." One of my favorites was, "GUN CONTROL IS AN ELITIST EFFORT AT PEOPLE CONTROL."
Randy Ailey, of the Blount County Sheriffs Office gets the credit for organizing and promoting the event. County Mayor Ed Mitchell reminded us that the Second Amendment was written soon after we had won our independence from England. He reminded us that the Second Amendment was not about hunting, but about defense against oppressive rule.
I purposely walked around, looking for the opposing viewpoint. I found one lady, B. B. Alley (h/t to Lance Coleman, Knoxville News-Sentinel), with a sign that read,
DO YOU REALLY NEED
ARMOR PIERCING BULLETS
HIGH CAPACITY CLIPS and
ASSAULT WEAPONS
REALLY?!
These rhetorical questions, and the way they are asked, usually mean that the questioner's mind is already made up. However, if you, the reader, have seriously wondered about those questions, I will give you a few answers.
- At any given moment, I might not need anything except my next breath, my next meal, or a place to call home. I may not truly need more than the 640 square foot hovel that my family lived in while serving in the military overseas. My friends may not need the Cadillac's, BMW's, or Volvo's they drive. They could probably get by with a small rice burner with a 40 horsepower engine. But, this is the United States. Our national philosophy has been historically based on unalienable rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. NOT the Marxist philosophy, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
- As to armor piercing bullets, these have been banned in handgun ammunition since 1986. Rifle ammunition available for more than a century, on the other hand, is going to have enough power to penetrate some body armor. This is just a throw away Goldilocks idea. Gun Banners never find a bullet that is just right. If it expands, it damages too much tissue, if it doesn't expand, it's armor piercing.What we need, according to Jocelyn Elders, former Surgeon General, is Safer Guns and Safer Bullets. What they really mean is there is no good bullet, ergo, all bullets should be banned.
- High capacity clips (magazines) - these are magazines with capacities greater what the Gun Banner thinks a citizen should have. There is no real meaning to the term. In New York, capacities greater than seven have been recently banned. This indicates the Gun Banners' true colors and their ultimate goal of citizen disarmament. In their rush, they have apparently outlawed M-1 Garand 8 round clips, thus rendering these WWII battle rifles single shots, at best . . . This begs a question for my liberal friends, "Do you REALLY want to see your neighbors imprisoned for a year for possession of a little metal or plastic box with a spring, that was perfectly legal on December 31, 2012."
- The so called assault weapon shares the same technology as the self-loading rifle of 1885. It has been updated with ergonomic features that make it easier to handle. It (the AR-15) is also one of the most popular firearms in history. And, besides, this is precisely the type firearm (equivalent to the military issue small arm) that the Founding Fathers had in mind. They feared, as you should, concentration of power in the hands of the few (the Government), and wanted the people to retain power to oppose tyranny. I didn't really need an assault weapon today, but neither you nor I have a crystal ball, and we can't predict whether or not that need will be made manifest tomorrow. REALLY!!
Ally was certainly within her 1st Amendment rights to hold up her poster, she is simply dead wrong in her thinking on the 2nd.
One last thing, universal background checks, aka universal gun registration was of great help to 20th Century Despot's pogroms, and have no significant upside. These should be opposed at all levels.
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A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 22:3 (NLT)
Disclaimer: The information and ideas presented in this column are provided for informational purposes only. Firearms, like cars, kitchen knives and life itself all can be dangerous. You should get professional training as part of any plan to use firearms for any purpose. I have made a reasonable, good-faith effort to assure that the content of this column is accurate. I have no control over what you do, and specifically accept no responsibility for anything you do as a result of reading my columns. Any action or lack of action on your part is strictly your responsibility.
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