Senator Chris Murphy, What Is This 'Other Second Amendment' Of Which You Speak?

'Neil and I are supporters of the real Second Amendment, not the imaginary Second Amendment....And this idea that the Second Amendment was put in there in order to allow citizens to fight their government is insane....'

- United States Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), 39.5 years-old

THE ONE, ONLY AND REAL SECOND AMENDMENT:

Now, let's look at the argument that you and Senators Leahy, Feinstein and Durbin made that rights are not absolute.  First, no one has argued that the Second Amendment stands for the proposition that people can have any type of arm on the planet.  "Bear arms" had a specific meaning in English common law before the founding of the United States and the drafting/ratification of the Bill of Rights, namely, it referred to a firearm that could be carried easily by one individual.  So, no one, except those lacking historical knowledge of the term and the reasons the Second Amendment was drafted, would conceivably argue, however implausibly, that private citizens or organisations have an unqualified right to own tanks, cannons, biological weapons, or nuclear weapons.  We recognise that, like the First Amendment (human sacrifice, snuff films, incitement to riot, defamation, obscene materials, threats, etc), the Second Amendment can reasonably be read not to confer the "right to bear" an armed drone or weaponised botulinum toxin.

Secondly, although the Second Amendment may seem to be the one amendment that specifically envisions some sort of regulation on its face, it is actually the opposite.

 

While common law has long maintained the position that "punctuation is no part of statute," Hammock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Co, 105 U.S. 77, (1881), citing references from the late 18th and early 19th century), it does help us in two ways:  1) It helps divine intent; and 2) it shows how those with agendas are willing to even change the actual punctuation of the Constitution to further their agenda.  It is important to pay attention to punctuation because the version that was ratified wis not actually the version frequently quoted today. 

The Second Amendment, as oft-stated today:

'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.'

This formulation makes it appear that only those people in a "well-regulated" Militia (you'll also notice that milita is capitalised meaning that it must be a state-sponsored "Militia" like the National Guard) have the right to keep and bear arms - a right, which shall not be infringed.  With regard to "the people," "shall not be infringed" almost becomes an afterthought in this version.   But, about whom are we talking?  Who would infringe upon the "right" of the people in the "Militia"?  

Since it would be state-sponsored, that would have to be the Federal government.  Yet, such an answer only raises another question.  Why would the Framers have given the states a specific right in the Second when they intended that the states have all "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States...reserved...by the people"?  Nowhere in the Bill of Rights are the states given specific rights.  Indeed, states are given no rights in the first nine whatsoever.  In the first nine amendments to the Constitution- even if we ignore the Second for the sake of argument - the rights recognised belong not to a government, but to citizens or people.

Apart from being grammatically incorrect, this version simply doesn't make any sense.  Either people have a right, which shall not be infringed, or they do not.  

 

According to both the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office, the Second Amendment, as ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, only had one comma and reads as follows:

'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.'

'Well-regulated' modifies the word 'militia.' It doesn’t apply to arms. The 'right' of people to keep and bear arms 'shall not be infringed.'

The Framers were giving a reason why people should have a right to bear arms, i.e., the security of a free state relied on a 'well-regulated militia.' If they had wanted to do so – and, perhaps, they should have – they could have easily have dropped the modifying clause 'a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.' Now, I do understand why the states or even corporate (not necessarily in the way that the word is defined today) entities may have wanted a defined right to bear arms and have a well-regulated - meaning well-equipped, well-disciplined, well-organised - militia considering the recent history at the time of the Second Amendment's drafting.  So, the incorporation of the 'well-regulated militia' clause in the amendment certainly has a solid legal and historical basis, but it has no bearing on the right of people, as individuals, to bear arms.  The Tenth Amendment could certainly have protected the states' rights to have 'well-regulated militias' and the Second Amendment would have still protected the rights of "corporate entities" to bear arms, along with the assemblage protection of the First. Nevertheless, the intent of the Founders was clear, if one reads the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and the correspondence and other writings of the Framers.  They intended for a free people's natural right to bear arms to not be infringed upon by government.

The Heller decision said that 'dangerous and unusual weapons which are not in the common usage' can be regulated or banned by the government. It said that there was an individual right to bear arms; the Second Amendment 'extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,' (p 8); the handgun bans 'amounted to a prohibition of an ENTIRE CLASS OF ‘ARMS’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for that lawful purpose.'

Thus it ruled invalid the District’s requirement 'that firearms in the home be rendered and kept inoperable at all times,' noting that doing so 'makes it impossible for citizens to use them for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.' (The holding in Heller was applied to the states in McDonald v City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 3025 (2010).)

DANGEROUS:

 

The AR-15 is the #1 rifle sold in the United States. It is no more dangerous than handguns. In fact, it kills FAR less. In 2011, 72.5% of all gun-related homicides were committed using handguns. In 2011, 3.8% (323) of ALL gun-related homicides in 2011 committed with rifles of ALL KINDS, INCLUDING 'ASSAULT RIFLES' LIKE AR-15s.

UNUSUAL:

There is NOTHING unusual about AR-15-style rifles…unless one is afraid of black, skeery, plastic thingies.

Don’t believe me? Then, look at the pictures of these two guns and ask yourself, 'Does one really look that much more ‘dangerous, unusual and uncommon’ than the other?

Not banned under the 1994 AWB
 

Banned under the 1994 AWB

Both are AR-15-pattern rifles that came off the same assembly line, fire the exact same ammunition, and use the same magazines....BUT the rifle on the bottom has a small bit of metal under the front sight to which a bayonet could attach and a small vented tube on the end of the barrel that redirects unburned gases.
 

UNCOMMON: 

Really? AR-15s are uncommon? Since when? 

In 2009, it was estimated that there were 3,261,725 of AR-15s – alone, not just AR-15-style – in the United States…and the homicide rate was 5.0. 

In contrast, in 1994 when the original Assault Weapons Ban went into effect, there were approximately 1.5 million AR-15s in the United States and the homicide rate was 9.0.  

Murphy, Feinstein, Scarborough, and Mitchell should really go back and read the Heller decision. Cruz knows it…since he was one of the attorneys that won it before the Supreme Court.

NOW, WHAT DID THE FOUNDING FATHERS SAY:

'I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.'

- George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788

'A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …'

- Richard Henry Lee, writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic, Letter XVIII, May, 1788.

 'The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them.'

- Zachariah Johnson, Elliot's Debates, Vol. 3 ‘The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution.’

'… the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms'

- Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 18 June 1789, Pg. 2, Col. 2 Article on the Bill of Rights

‘And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms;’

- Samuel Adams, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 20 August 1789, ‘Propositions submitted to the Convention of this State’

"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.'

- George Washington, First President of the United States

'To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.'

- Richard Henry Lee, American Statesman, 1788

'The great object is that every man be armed' and 'Everyone who is able may have a gun.'

- Patrick Henry, American Patriot

'Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?'

- Patrick Henry, American Patriot

'Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not.'

- Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

'The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that … it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;'

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Justice John Cartwright, 5 June 1824. ME 16:45

'The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.'

- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8

‘A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.'    

- Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1785, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

'One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.'

- Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

'We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles. The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.'

- Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

'No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.'

- Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776

 'The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside … Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.'

- Thomas Paine

Gun control advocates always point to the word "militia" in the Second Amendment as proof that the Founders would support gun control laws.  That contention is not supported by the historical documents.  As the Founders continually acknowledged, A MILITIA IS THE WHOLE OF THE PEOPLE.  In fact, in the Second MILITIA Act of 1792, ALL able-bodied, white men over the age of 18 were required to possess a gun.

On 18 June 1789, Pg 2, Col 2, the Philadelphia Federal Gazette reported:

'… the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.'

William Rawle, authored "A View of the Constitution of the United States of America" in 1829. His work was adopted as a constitutional law textbook at West Point and other institutions. In Chapter 10, he describes the scope of the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms:

'THE PROHIBITION IS GENERAL.  NO CLAUSE IN THE CONSTITUTION COULD BY ANY RULE OF CONSTRUCTION BE CONCEIVED TO GIVE CONGRESS A POWER TO DISARM THE PEOPLE.  Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretence by a state legislature. BUT IF ANY BLIND PURSUIT OF INORDINATE POWER, EITHER SHOULD ATTEMPT IT, THIS AMENDMENT MAY BE APPEALED TO AS A RESTRAINT ON BOTH.'

Chief Justice Story (appointed to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice by James Madison in 1811), wrote a constitutional commentary in 1833 ("Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States"). Regarding the Second Amendment, he wrote:

'The next amendment is: "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."

The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.'

THE PURPOSE OF THE MILITIA CLAUSE:

'Collective rights theorists argue that addition of the subordinate clause qualifies the rest of the amendment by placing a limitation on the people's right to bear arms. However, if the amendment truly meant what collective rights advocates propose, then the text would read "[a] well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the States to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." However, that is not what the framers of the amendment drafted. THE PLAIN LANGUAGE OF THE AMENDMENT, WITHOUT ATTENUATE INFERENCES THEREFROM, SHOWS THAT THE FUNCTION OF THE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE WAS NOT TO QUALIFY THE RIGHT, BUT INSTEAD TO SHOW WHY IT MUST BE PROTECTED. The right exists independent of the existence of the militia. If this right were not protected, the existence of the militia, and consequently the security of the state, would be jeopardized.' (U.S. v Emerson, 46 F.Supp.2d 598 (N.D.Tex. 1999)).

THE FOUNDING FATHERS ON MAINTAINING FREEDOM

'The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution.'

- Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States 

'There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.'
 

- Noah Webster, American Lexicographer

'The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.'

- Edmund Burke, British Statesman, 1784

'What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.'
 

- Thomas Jefferson, to James Madison

'They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.'

- Ben Franklin, American Statesman

BECAUSE WE DIDN'T GET ENOUGH JEFFERSON:

'My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 'Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

'A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

'Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

'Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.'

 - Thomas Jefferson

'Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

 

   

 'The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.'

 - Thomas Jefferson

 'To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.'

- Thomas Jefferson

‘In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.'

- Thomas Jefferson


 'For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organised and armed militia is their best security.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

'A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.'

- Thomas Jefferson

  

'Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

 

'Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was and never will be.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

'None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

'The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.'

 - Thomas Jefferson

 

 'As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.'

 

- Thomas Jefferson 

 'The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

 'It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.'

- Thomas Jefferson

 

'The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.'

- Thomas Jefferson 

'It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.'

 - Thomas Jefferson 

'Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.'

 - Thomas Jefferson

 'The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.'

- Thomas Jefferson  

'When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'

 - Thomas Jefferson

'Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.'

- Thomas Jefferson

'One man with courage is a majority.'

- Thomas Jefferson

LATER QUOTES ON GUN RIGHTS:

'The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake.'

- Senator Malcolm Wallop, former U.S. Senator (R-WY) 

'Gun bans don’t disarm criminals, gun bans attract them.'

- Senator Walter Mondale , one-time Democratic nominee for President and the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 20 April 1994

  

'Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. … The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be possible.'

- Vice-President Hubert H Humphrey, two-term Democratic Senator and one-time Democratic nominee for President, 1960

 

'I sympathize with people who want to ban guns, but I can’t agree with them. We have to be careful in our zeal to abolish guns that we don’t wind up with counter-productive legislation that will leave armed only the people most likely to do harm with them.'

  
- Hugh Downs, veteran ABC newsman
 

'Prohibiting law-abiding people from owning guns because they might be stolen by criminals is like prohibiting women from going out at night because they might be raped.'

 – Unknown

'If the Government doesn’t trust us with our guns, why should we trust them with theirs?'

– Unknown

'Firearms have been around for over 400 years, yet it is only in the last 20 years that people have begun shouting “gun control”. Why then, only recently, has this become such an issue? Moreover, why are there more mass-murderers than at any other time in our known history?   It is not because weapons are more powerful — 200-year-old muzzleloaders have a much greater force-per-round than today’s 'assault rifles.'   It is not because weapons are semi- or fully-automatic — rapid-fire weapons have been available for most of the last century.  It is not due to a lack of laws — we have more 'gun control' laws than ever.  It IS, however, because we have chosen to focus on “gun control” instead of crime control or “thug control.” It IS because only recently has the public become complacent enough to accept, by inaction, the violence present in our society.'

- Kevin Langston, 29 October 1991 

'These Sarah Brady types must be educated to understand that because we have an armed citizenry, a dictatorship has not happened in America. These anti-gun fools are more dangerous to liberty than street criminals or foreign spies.'

- Theodore Haas, Dachau Survivor

'How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.'

- Dr Suzanna Gratia Hupp, who lost both parents in the 1991 Luby’s cafeteria massacre

'We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.'

– Ronald Reagan

'To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow. ... For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding.'

– Jeff Snyder, author
 

'If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.'

- Winston Churchill

'An armed man is a citizen. A disarmed man is a subject.'
 

- Anonymous

'As a long-time gun owner, I believe the right to keep and bear arms should not be dependent on the city in which you live. The provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply to all Americans, regardless of geography......As a gun owner, I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. In February, I was proud to sign the Amicus Brief in District of Columbia v. Heller asking the Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling that overturned the long standing DC gun ban.  We have a long tradition of gun ownership in the United States. … It is a tradition which every law-abiding citizen should be able to enjoy.'

- Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

'Government cannot mandate morality or instill hope in troubled individuals...Internal self-governance, by contrast, is a much more powerful regulator of human behavior than any law. This self-governance must be developed from birth, first by parents but later also through the positive influence of relatives and adult role models. Beyond childhood, character development can occur through religious, civic, and social institutions.'

- Ron Paul

'If somebody wants to kill people, they don’t need a gun to do it...you can strap explosives on your body. They do that all the time. As a nation we were built on guns, but that right is, Not to hunt. It’s to protect yourself  from the police.'

- Ice-T, Rapper

‘Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.  This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite safety rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be possible.'

- Senator Hubert H Humphrey

'Like the millions of law abiding gun owners in America, I am a peace loving person. I OWN FIREARMS SO THAT I CAN DEFEND MYSELF AND MY FAMILY, SHOULD THAT NEED ARISE. While I sincerely hope that I am never in the position of having to fire a gun in self defense, I rest easier at night knowing that I could stop an armed robber, racist attacker, terrorist, or home invader if the need arose. I also rest easier knowing that my wife could stop a rapist or murderer, rather than becoming a victim. THE SIMPLE FACT IS THAT GUN CONTROL LAWS DON’T STOP CRIMINALS FROM GETTING GUNS, AND INSTEAD ONLY DISARM THE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS, MAKING THEM EASIER TARGETS FOR THE CRIMINALS. Nor is it justifiable to deprive law abiding citizens of their constitutional right to keep and bear arms for self defense, just because criminals misuse guns, just as criminals misuse other tools...GIVEN THOSE FACTS, I WOULD ENCOURAGE MY FELLOW LAW ABIDING CITIZENS WHO DO NOT YET OWN A GUN TO DO THE FOLLOWING: GO SHOOTING FOR THE FIRST TIME, CHOOSE THE PROPER GUN FOR SELF DEFENSE, PURCHASE THAT GUN, STORE THE GUN IN A RESPONSIBLE MANNER, AND BECOME PROFICIENT AT SAFELY USING THAT GUN. NEXT, JOIN THE NRA TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO HAVE A GUN FOR SELF DEFENSE. DOING SO MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE ONE DAY, AND CAN ALSO BENEFIT SOCIETY AS A WHOLE.'

- Otis McDonald, former sharecropper, veteran, retired maintenance engineer, patriot, plaintiff in the landmark case Chicago v McDonald...and an African-American

'Cities with the largest gun crime problems are New York City, Chicago and Washington DC all have one thing in common- the strictest gun laws.  This is not a gun issue, it’s a mental health issue.'

- Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu

PRO-GUN CONTROL:

'Banning guns is an idea whose time has come.'

  
- Senator Joseph Biden, Associated Press, 18 November 1993

 

'I think he just made an admission against self-interest. I don’t know that he is mentally qualified to own that gun (because the questioner – an American citizen referred to his once-banned gun as his “baby”). I’m being serious. Look, we should be working with law enforcement, right now, to make sure that we protect people against people who don’t — are not capable of knowing what to do with a gun because they’re either mentally imbalanced and/or because they have a criminal record, and…I hope he doesn’t come looking for me.'

- Senator Joe Biden, Democratic Presidential debate, July 2007

'Our main agenda is to have all guns banned. We must use whatever means possible. It doesn't matter if you have to distort the facts or even lie. Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed.'

- Sara Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control Inc, to Senator Howard Metzenbaum, The National Educator, January 1994, Page 3

'Confiscation could be an option…mandatory sale to the state could be an option.'

- Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York 

'We want everything on the table. This is a moment of opportunity… Background checks. We’re not going to be able to win that (restricting handguns). Not now.  Background checks I think are going to… address any kind of weapon.  We’re going to push as hard as we can as far as we can.  So, the Assault Weapons Ban is just the beginning? Oh, absolutely. I’m against handguns…. so, absolutely.'

- Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky

'If I could have banned them all – ‘Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns’ – I would have!'

- Senator Dianne Feinstein

'We want to have as part of the anti-gun initiative bill an informational campaign to really change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, DC., and in particular our young people.  They are saturated in the media and in entertainment or by the entertainment industry with violence and I think that too many of our young people, particularly our young men, are fascinated with violence and, in particular, fascinated with guns.

What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes.   When I was growing up, people smoked all of the time -- both my parents did -- but over time, we changed the way people thought about smoking and now we have people, who cower outside of buildings, smoke in private and don't want to admit it.  Um, and that's what I think that we need to with guns...really change the way people think about guns.

Now, this is not something that's going to be very easy to do because we are fighting something, quite frankly, that appears every day on the television, on the radio, in our popular music, in movies that these kids are exposed to.  It will be an effort that will entail this that I am not familiar with.  I think that I am a pretty good lawyer, but I, we need to get innovative, creative things that are going to grab the attention of these kids and really change the way, as I said, that they think about guns.  So, what I've asked is that the creative communities in Washington, the ad agencies that create these snappy ads that make me buy things that I don't really need to devote that talent in a more constructive way so that we can get at the minds of these young people.

In this informational campaign, I've also called upon newspapers and the television stations to devote to us time and space so that we can get these ads and so that we can use these spots and not to give us 1, 2 o'clock in the morning when no one is watching, but to give us time when people, particularly young people, are watching television so that when they are watching The Fresh Prince of Bel Air or Martin or whatever else they watch...and, yeah, I watch them every once in a while...so that they will see these ads and be grabbed by these ads.

I've also asked people, who have influence over youngsters, entertainers, athletes, to be involved in this programme, as well, nut not only them, community leaders, Jesse Jackson, Mayor Marion Barry, people with credibility with young people should be on the television, on the radio, and telling these youngsters that it is wrong to carry a gun and that if you have information about people who are carrying guns that you need to share that with Chief Thomas and his people, as well.

I've also asked the school board to make a anti-gun message a part of every day some kind of anti-violence, anti-gun message.  Every day, every school, and every level.    One thing that I think is clear with young people, and with adults as well, is that we have to be repetitive about this.  It is not enough to simply have a catchy ad on a Monday and then only do it every Monday.  We need to do it every day of the week and brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.

We also want to have a hotline that we will set up and have the number of that hotline emblazoned in their minds so that when they see a gun or become familiar with the facts of a gun crime, they would call that hotline and pass that information on.’

- Eric Holder, Women's National Democratic Club, 1995

At a fundraiser in San Francisco, President Barack Obama said that the Newtown killer gunned down 20 children using a "fully automatic weapon." From the official transcript, provided by the White House:

Now, over the next couple of months, we’ve got a couple of issues:  gun control.  (Applause.)  I just came from Denver, where the issue of gun violence is something that has haunted families for way too long, and it is possible for us to create common-sense gun safety measures that respect the traditions of gun ownership in this country and hunters and sportsmen, but also make sure that we don’t have another 20 children in a classroom gunned down by a semiautomatic weapon -- by a fully automatic weapon in that case, sadly.

 According to the prosecutor, Stephen J. Sedensky III, the killer, Adam Lanza, "killed all 26 victims inside Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle before taking his own life with a Glock 10 mm handgun.

He says Lanza had another loaded handgun with him inside the school as well as three, 30-round magazines for the Bushmaster," ABC previously reported.

Each of the guns used is a semi-automatic weapon, and not one is an automatic weapon.'

Once again, I have to ask:

Who wants to ratify my proposed 28th Amendment, also to be known as ‘The ‘So Stupid It Makes My Hair Hurt’ Amendment’?

No member of the Federal government may opine or draft legislation on a subject on which s/he cannot pass a basic competency test on the fundamentals of the issues involved provided by the Congressional Research Service, Government Accountability Office and independent organisations. To the extent that this amendment conflicts with the First Amendment, this article shall control.

Did you know that collapsible stocks make guns 'fully-automatic'? According to DiFi, they do…

‘These are weapons that are made to kill large numbers of people in close combat, and what we have found that now with the AR 15, they have a slide stock which you put in. It’s legal, and it makes the gun act fully automatic.’

- Senator Dianne Feinstein, Face the Nation, 27 January 2013

 

A 6th grader knows better.

'I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them. So if you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time, because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.'

- Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), lead sponsor of legislation banning high-capacity magazines

http://tinyurl.com/nyrjccz