From the Great North Wet
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Open Letter to the Washington State Delegation on Gun Control Legislation,
Open Letter to the Washington State Delegation on Gun Control Legislation,
The cause de jour in politics is to
enact some form of new gun legislation.
This is both unwise and unnecessary,
all of the propose legislation will only infringe upon the
inalienable rights of law abiding individuals, will not produce any
increase in children's safety, and is based on untruths, about the
extent of the problem, and about firearms themselves.
First it is the Right of The People to
keep and bear arms. This right is to defend our lives and our liberty
with arms when and if necessary. This is an inalienable right, and
our government is proscribed in the Constitution from infringing on
this Right.
For a complete discussion of our
inalienable liberties I refer you to It
Is Not About Guns... It Is About Liberty –
http://correspondencecommittee.com/Entry.aspx?ID=7329.
Joe Biden has said gun legislation is
necessary if it will “save one child” this is hyperbole at best,
and blatant lie at worst.
I refer you to the CDC data for 2010
Deaths:
Final Data for 2010, table 10 -
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/deaths_2010_release.pdf
Some numbers from the CDC:
219 children died from firearms in
homicides.
62 children died from accident
discharge of firearms.
17 children died from undetermined
intent, by firearm.
CDC puts the ages 15-24 years into one
group. This grouping is highly problematic, and often the victims in
this group are included as “the children” a 19 year old is not a
child, nor is a 21 year old bank robber shot and killed by police.
This age group is heavily weighted by gang activities. The majority
of firearm homicides occurs between 15-34 years of age, a total of
7,220, 65% of all homicides occurs in this age group. In urban areas
the FBI estimates 63% of homicides are gang related. Measuring
the Extent of Gang Problems -
http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Survey-Analysis/Measuring-the-Extent-of-Gang-Problems
Looking at the CDC data further.
738 children died from homicidal
violence other than by firearms, the majority of this category is
abuse by a parent or care giver.
4,147 children died from other types of
accidents.
Disease kills far more children than
anything else.
All of this is to show that if the goal
is to save the lives of children there are other, more effective ways
to accomplish that goal without trampling The Rights of law abiding
citizens by passing new legislation turning them into criminals.
I would think better enforcement and
application of existing laws in the area of gang activities would
have better results sooner in reducing the numbers of young adults and
children dying by homicidal violence.
The event of Sandy Hook is what
prompted the current hysterical push for new gun control legislation.
20 children and 6 adults; teachers and
staff died in a hail of bullets, at the hands of a deranged mentally
ill individual who broke multiple laws BEFORE he even got to Sandy
Hook.
When the shooter broke into Sandy Hook
the question I keep asking and so far have not received an answer to,
is this:
Why were the teachers and staff at
Sandy Hook DENIED BY LAW the means and ability to exercise the
INALIENABLE RIGHT to defend their lives and the lives children in their
care?
In the 20 minutes it took law
enforcement to arrive, during that 20 minutes the teachers and staff
were PROHIBITED BY LAW the one TOOL that could have made a
difference.
In the last 50 years, every mass
shooting save the Giffords shooting occurred in an area called a “gun
free zone”. A place where individuals are DENIED BY LAW the tools
to mount an effective defense against a deranged shooter.
Instead of denying more people, MORE
CHILDREN their RIGHT to be defended. Let the parents and school
districts decide the best means. Instead of declaring to all deranged
shooters, there are defenseless children here, take down the gun free
zone signs, and let it be known “there may be armed defenders here”.
It may be trite, but it is true. It
takes an armed good person to stop and armed bad person.
It is simply magical thinking that a
“gun free zone” sign will protect our, my children.
I would now like to turn my attention
to the mythical beast, the “Assault Weapon”.
That term is merely a scare tactic,
with no basis in reality.
In 2010 the FBI says of all firearm
homicides 358 were committed with rifles, “assault weapons” are a
sub set of rifles. 17 times the number of homicides were committed
with handguns.
Furthermore what defined “Assault
Weapon” in the 1994 ban legislation, in Diane Feinstein's bill, in
any of the proposed legislation is merely cosmetic. None of the
defined features affect the rate of fire, the velocity or size of
projectiles fires, cosmetic features have absolutely zero effect on
the lethality of a firearm.
The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) had
no effect, during its tenure homicides did not drop, Columbine
occurred while the AWB was in effect. In fact after the AWB expired in
2004 crime did drop.
Assault is defined in the dictionary as
an action by person or persons against other people. Assault is not
an attribute of an object. This extends in principle to all firearms,
a firearm is a tool, an object, it has no intrinsic morality. It is
the individual who picks up a firearm, who uses it one for good or
for ill that has morality. A firearm can be use to facilitate a rape,
or a murder. A firearm can also be just as easily be use to stop a rape
or murder. The most conservative estimates available tell us that
firearms are more often used to STOP CRIMES than commit them.
All the proposed gun control
legislation is based on false definitions of weapons, aimed a
controlling a vastly overstated problem which does not, will not, can
not address the real problems, and while the legislation misses the
mark it will infringe on the inalienable rights of millions of law
abiding, responsible gun owning American citizens.
You as legislators, can do better, your
constituents expect better than false, misleading, misdirected
legislation that will disproportionately and Unconstitutionally
impact the citizen.
I believe your time and efforts should
be concentrated on an areas that effects all children, in this
generation and for generations to come. The debt, deficits and
uncontrolled governmental spending.
Sincerely,
Thursday, January 10, 2013
It Is Not About Guns...
It Is About Liberty
Originally posted at Correspondence Committee.
Since the horror of Sandy Hook politicians especially liberal politicians have been in an up roar about the “gun issue”. The first day of the 113th Congress 10 new gun control measures were introduced. Obama has indulged in magical thinking with “never again” statements. Statements from the White House indicate the possibility of Executive Orders with firearm regulations. All this is to be expected from the left.
Wayne
LaPierre of the NRA came out and gave a very defensive “gun rights”
speech, and offered some proposals, mainly putting police officers in
schools.
They all are off target, the liberals in going after the guns, and the right in being defensive and apologetic about the guns.
What we are really talking about is our Liberty.
The
left is trying to steal from us our Liberty, and many on the right
being far too defensive and apologetic about our asserting our Rights,
our Liberty.
The gun is an extrinsic, inert, object incapable of doing anything at all with out a person to willfully put it into use.
Liberty on the other hand is an intrinsic, vital, an organic aspect of our being as individual persons.
Our
Founders, and the Framers of our founding documents based the concepts
of Liberty from Locke, Burke, Montesquieu and others. That an individual
intrinsically possesses a Right to their life and to live that life
free of encumbrances imposed by a government or other persons. This
Liberty is not infinite, it is bounded by the liberty of other
individuals. To manage the confluence of liberties between individuals,
the individual can and should consent to a form of governance that both
respects and protects the individual's Liberty. These concepts of
individual liberty, ordered society, and consent of the governed are
defined in the concepts of Natural Law. While the Founders and Framers
deemed our Rights to be endowed by our Creator, recognizing Rights under
the concept of Natural Law only requires that individuals are
intrinsically, by existence of being, imbued with these Rights. That an
individual's Rights are not bestowed or granted by any man, human agency
or potentate. Individual Rights exist, because the individual exists.
The
Right for an individual to resist the taking of their life, to defend
their own life, even to defend the life of another has long be
recognized, even enshrined in laws. Self defense is no crime, even
lethal self defense in the face of a deadly threat is justified.
Locke
and others justified defending life, liberty and property. They in fact
defined “life” as the most intrinsic “property” an individual could
possess, that we have property in our life, we have property in our
Liberty. Property to them was not just the proceeds of a person's life,
lived freely, producing goods. Property broadly defined was life,
liberty and then all that an individual created and produced.
This
broadly defined property, is therefore as righteously defensible as
life itself. An individual not only has the right, they have a duty to
defend their property, all of it. Individuals unwilling to defend all
their property only give encouragement to the tyrants, both small and
large, and put everyone's property at risk.
Defending
all of an individual's life, liberty and property was not only
understood and embraced by our Founders it was in fact most emphatically
employed. This defense of Life, Liberty and Property was the core of
our Revolution. The Revolution was nothing less than this Right of
Defense of individual Liberty in action against a tyrannical government.
Once
our Liberty was secured, the Founders and Framers further placed the
defense and maintenance of this Liberty in the hands of The People. This
is evident in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence:
That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness.
We
determine our government, The People have a government, in our system
the government does not rule the people. Abolish does not necessarily
mean by force of arms, by revolution. It can and does mean by elections,
sending to all the offices individuals who know, understand, and will
support and protect the founding principles, and removing those who will
not, or do not honor the oath of office. That is preferable in all
regards, yet WHENEVER it becomes necessary, not for light or transient
causes, it becomes NECESSARY to maintain our Liberties then it is within
the power of The People to affect such a change.
Then in the preamble to the Constitution.
We
the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
Our
government's express purpose is to “secure the Blessings of Liberty”,
We the People, form a government to SECURE LIBERTY that we already have,
the Liberty we possess. The government does not have a people, it does
not not provide liberty to the people. The People Secure our own
Liberty.
The Second Amendment lays out the means for this defense.
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
Militia is necessary for a free State, the RIGHT to keep and bear arms
belongs not to the militia, but to The People. The militia in the
supporting writings of the Founders is in fact the body of armed
citizens, not any State or Federal military unit.
The Fifth Amendment says that property cannot be confiscated without just cause, or compensation.
No
person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in
actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be
subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or
limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use,
without just compensation.
Since
Liberty is intangible property, and Liberty is a foremost protected
Right and The People's liberty in no way, shape or form affects the
ability of the limited and Constitutional government from conducting
business there is therefore no possible justification for confiscation
of Liberty. Furthermore what would be just compensation? What price
would you put on your Liberty?
The Ninth Amendment further enforces the rights of The People.
The
enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Individual
Rights don't have to be expressly enumerated, even if a Right is not
expressly shielded from the government, it still cannot be infringed.
The Tenth Amendment then states than unless a power for the Federal Government is limited.
The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.
If
the power is not enumerated in the Constitution it belongs to the
States. Unless I missed the enumerated power for the regulation,
restriction, or confiscation of Liberty or firearms there is no such
enumerated power.
What
of the States power to regulate? If you take the Bill of Rights to be
broad and incorporated, as I do, and such a view is supported in the
Heller and McDonald decisions. Then a Right of the Individual is still
protected at the State level from the States. Incorporated Rights means a
State or Local government is barred from interfering with, or
infringing upon the Right of an individual to defend Life and Liberty,
or any Rights of an individual.
All
of the power, all of the control belongs in the hands of The People.
Government, especially the Federal Government ought to be and by law is
very limited. Those limits are widely violated, those violations are a
whole other discussion. However violation, denial, infringement,
restrictions or any form of regulations upon the Right of The People,
individually or as the citizenry that would diminish the ability to
defend Liberty is a line which cannot be crossed. We The People cannot
allow it to be crossed.
Our
Life, our Liberty, our Property are all inalienable Rights of the
Individual, this is the clear intent and very purpose of the founding of
this Nation. When you take the totality of the philosophy, writings and
very founding documents it is absolutely unquestionable that all an
individual has, can be rightfully defended. No property can be
confiscated, especially property which the government would have no
interest in, or use for, especially the property we have in our Liberty.
This property, this Liberty can be defended, individually or as The
People. This Right of defense includes the right to disband or dissolve
the government should the government violate these Rights.
When
taken in full context, the philosophical underpinnings the Founders and
Framers used to craft our founding documents,the notes from the
Constitutional Convention, the letters and arguments they put forth in
writing, all the communication with each other. The clear intent was to
put all means necessary for the defense of Liberty in the hands of The
People.
Our
Liberty is sacrosanct, put outside of the realm of governmental
jurisdiction for all time, these Rights are protected from restriction
and infringement in our highest laws. No method for such restrictions
are enumerated. Confiscation, limitation or infringement is expressly
forbidden. Where there is no enumeration, there is no authority to act.
When government does attempt such actions, our Right to speak out is
guaranteed in the First Amendment, and as a last resort the means to
resist tyranny and restore Liberty is preserved in the Second Amendment.
The
debate is not about guns, the debate is about the preservation of the
Liberties of The People, and the ability and means for the People to
restrain, and limit the government.
We
do not need to be defensive or justify our Right to Keep and bare arms.
We need to be affirmative and aggressive in asserting our inalienable
Right to Liberty. Defend our Liberty, when we do that the right to keep
and bear arms naturally follows.
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
“How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”
Ronald Wilson Reagan
“It is a worthy thing to fight for one’s freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man’s”
Mark Twain
“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY, to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ben Franklin, the correct citation.