my dear santa letter this year
Dear Sirs,
Please
cancel my membership in the National Rifle Association. I am
embarrassed and appalled with Mr. LaPierre's comments this past week,
and resolutely opposed to the proposal to dramatically increase the
number of firearms around our children. Columbine High School had an
armed guard. Fort Hood is the most populous army base in the United
States. Neither were made safe by those weapons.
Among
other further concerns, I neither trust the government to administer
such a program, nor the NRA. NRA members are regularly injured and
killed cleaning their own weapons. How are we to expect carrying them
loaded in the presence of school children is likely to end? Are we
further to presume to luck that we won't be adding armed pedophiles to
the proximity of our playgrounds as well?
I
passionately support the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution, and
originally joined the NRA to support its advocacy. I will not have my
resources diverted to poorly-conceived and dangerous proposals that
place further schoolchildren into harms way.
Please cancel my membership in the National Rifle Association.
Sincerely,
posted by kad barma at 9:40 AM
4 Comments:
I was going to pass this by, since I think nothing being said at this time is very useful and a lot of it is self-serving or agenda-serving. I appreciate Kad's outrage against the NRA President. I wish Mr LaP had kept his thoughts to himself. I mean, this might work in Israel, but how could it work in the town of Monroe, Orange County, New York?
All that said, there is pushback by Law Professor and Lawyer Ann Althouse at her eponymously named blog—Althouse. "Scenery chewing in the Theater of Outrage over Wayne LaPierre's unremarkable news conference".
In this heated period the odds against getting a decent conclusion? Twenty to one against.
Regards — Cliff
PS: We are back to the old preview and it is just as bad as it used to be.
This from a friend via Facebook:
2 firefighters shot dead while battling a blaze in NY. Awaiting NRA statement:
A. Post armed guards next to all firefighters.
B. If everyone had guns we wouldn't have these problems.
C. Too bad, that's the price you pay for the freedom of the 2nd amendment
I don't have any answers. What is our goal? Let us assume that we repeal the Second Amendment (any major reduction of ownership rights without repeal would undermine our Constitution and it's ability to provide a believable and reliable framework—what other parts of the Constitution could Congress or the Executive then abrogate?).
What is the criteria for success with repeal? I would asset that the criteria for success should be that five years after repeal, state and local police will go about routine police duties without firearms on their hips or in their trunks—like the police in Britain. Likewise, Federal Departments and Agencies with armed members should be shrunk down to half a dozen. If the police aren't confident, why should the rest of us be confident?
The flip side of this discussion is an assertion I saw today to the effect that violent crime statistics for the District of Columbia fell after SCOTUS delivered up the Heller decision. Heller held that the Second Amendment does provide an individual right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home, within federal enclaves (e.g., DC).
Regards — Cliff
Like I said, I'm a 2nd amendment guy. It's the nonsense from the NRA that I'm on about here. Advocating for the 2nd amendment is a worthwhile goal, and I used to support the NRA when that was their business. Now that they've become an activist outfit pumping for paramilitary goon squads for our schools, I'm less enthused. I'm certainly not going to support the idea by remaining a member.
Ironically, I don't read the 2nd amendment as in any way interested in home or self-defense. I am with George Washington when he said: "A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government".
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