I live in Washington State (the 'Good' WA), or so I thought. Last week a bill was introduced to keep 'assault weapons' in secure lock up. Not noticed was a line that read that the local police could come in your home at any time once a year to inspect that the firearms we locked securely. Talk about a Civil Rights debacle! The writers of the bill, when it was made public by a right minded citizen, said things like "that shouldn't be in there", "I hadn't vetted it corectly", and "that's a mistake". If so, who wrote it? No one will admit to writing it, but that random police search was removed quickly, but not the whole bill. Gun control is the death of a thousand cuts, one or two aren't bad, but eventually they kill you. It started in 1986 with the prohibition of newly manufactured Class 3 weapons (machine guns, which are true 'assault weapons'). Up until that date in May, they were legal to make, after that, no more. 1 cut! Clinton's "Assault weapons" ban (a black look-alike semi-automatic rifle ban), was cut #2. Fortunately the Democrats got burned so badly over that one that it 'sunsetted' in 2004, with NO effect on crime. But he Dems want another failed 'assault weapons ban' to take away every semi-automatic gun in the USA (even though the design is over 100 years old and there are some Winchester and Remingtons that old) - Sen. Feinsteine says "Turn them all in Mr. and Mrs. America". No one looks at this as a Civil Rights case. These gun control people are guilty of conspiracy to obstruct a civil right and treachery in abusing the oath they took to uphold and protect the Constitution of the USA. Those politicians in states where gun laws have passed should be arrested and tried for civil rights obstuction. If not, the next thing is the UN breaking down your front door to confiscate your 'small arms' - any guns you have under the UN small arms agreement. "Universal background checks" is back door gun registration - the BATFE already copies form 4473's from gun dealers, in violation of the law, so what's to stop them? This 'gun show loophole' has to be killed now! Write, write, and write some more - tell them "NO" to any more gun control! Then tell them again about your civil rights!
I also live in Washington State, Clark County in Legislative District 18. The bill you are referring to is SB 5737 and it does need to be stopped. Just to add to what you have already said, if you now go the legislative web page and read the bill you will notice that after its title there is in parenthesis the notice: (CORRECTED VERSION). Their implication being that the original wording was a mistake which has now been corrected. That is not the truth. The same bill with the same language to allow annual entries into the homes of gun owners, was introduced by the same senators and the same co-sponsors in 2010. So that provision was not just an oversight that somehow got into the wording of this year’s bill by accident. They have had three years to vet it and knew full well that it was there. Their protestations of being unaware, notwithstanding.
Even with that provision removed SB 5737 will still inflict serious infringements against our right to acquire and keep guns of our choice. Our Republican legislators are making a good effort to resist the passage of this bill but any support we can give them by way of emails and phone calls to them (it really does help even when they are already on the right side of the issue) and letters to the editor and so forth. Particularly important in this case is Senator Rivers who is the Senate Republican Whip, and Senator Benton who now shares senate leadership with his Democrat counter-part in the bi-partisan coalition they have put together. If you have not contacted them then I urge you to do so. (Senator Mike Hope of Lake Stevens is the only Republican I know of who is not with us on Second Amendment issues.)
Also, if you are a Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) consider moving your Central Committee E-Board to take a public stand on the Gun-Rights issue. If you are not a PCO then contact your county Republican Party and ask who your precinct officer is and then contact that person and ask what you can do to help to help him or her to move the Board in that direction.
Over the past several weeks I have worked with PCO’s in Clark County to draft a Resolution which empowers our Board to sanction, condemn, withhold support from and actively recruit opposition to run against any elected official who opposes Second Amendment rights, regardless of party affiliation. At our last Central Committee meeting, the resolution was adopted by over a hundred PCO’s in attendance. The Chairwoman has now sent it via press release to the local media and I expect the public discussion of it to heat up very quickly. The object of doing so is to put our elected officials on full notice that we will no longer tolerate any assaults against the Second Amendment without bringing political repercussions against the offender. I would urge every county GOP to do something similar.
I think I will post the full text of the resolution we enacted on this forum in a new discussion. This post is already too long. In the meantime, if I can give you any more info about this issue just let me know. And I would be interested in knowing where in our State you are located and if you are actively connected to your local GOP.
So let’s get together on this and get something done.
-- Edited by FOTH on Wednesday 27th of February 2013 09:37:49 PM
-- Edited by FOTH on Wednesday 27th of February 2013 09:53:03 PM
I live in New York State, Chautauqua County, and am disgusted with the brazen pandering to infringe upon our 2nd Amendment rights by Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg. The first thing that needs to be fixed is the true nature of our relationship with these elected officials. They are not our Daddy, but merely our employees. Our Constitutional rights are not subject to the whims of mob rule or granted by political fiat. Congress does not grant us rights; their job is to protect our natural or God-given rights. We will not comply!
It isn’t About the Guns!! It’s about “We the People”
Recently I was challenged about my belief in the 2nd Amendment (“Not that gun thing again” was the exact statement.)
Anyone who knows me will know that made me think.I hate to have strong feelings about things for no reason.So I questioned why I feel so very strongly about the gun issue, and more particularly the 2nd Amendment. We are all aware that guns and the 2nd Amendment are front and center in Washington after the massacre of the innocents at Sandy Hook School and the bombing of the Boston Marathon. I am also reminded of the Virginia Tech murders, Columbine and even one that happened a few blocks from our house in Stockton, California when Purdy killed children on the open playgrounds. There is no one with a heart for children (Jesus Christ says we should have a special place in our heart for the children, widows and orphans); At least no one I know, who wants this to happen. I want to be able to go to a mall and shop without getting shot. I want to go to the movie and not worry about the door bursting open and some nut job opening fire on innocent men, women and children who had done nothing more harmful than go to a movie. However, the nut jobs and lunatics are not the real issue. Nor are the guns! I have never, ever seen a gun walk into a school yard and begin randomly killing people. Bad, evil or deranged people kill people. This is the truth of the matter whether you live in the real world and admit it, or not. It doesn't matter whether you like guns philosophically or wish that evil people did not exist.You can wish it weren’t so all you want but the sad truth is it does exist.So now it is time to man up (I purposefully used that for the PC crowd) and fight back.Neither you nor I nor the President can regulate, legislate, dictate or wish human evil away. You can lock up more of the really troubled ones to control and hopefully help them while keeping society safer. What you can’t do is blame God because as a nation we have made it abundantly clear that we have turned from Him and from the tenets our fore fathers followed when they conceived and formed this great republic. What then is the issue? The issue today is, that people are in power in America who do not believe any of what I just wrote. They live a world they would like to have.The world they see has food for everyone, a small portion of the society working hard every day so they can happily give away much of their goods to those who won’t work.That every doctor, nurse, profitable small business or large corporation would willingly give up most of their income or profit to make the less deserving have all they want or need.
I hate to break the bubble but the real world does not and will never work the way the dreamers believe it should.Christian men and women (Patriots) risked it all (their good name, their fortunes and their lives) to form this wonderful country this beautiful republic we are so blessed to live in. They pictured a country where if you worked hard you could have the bounty of the land.The founders and those that Patriots who followed accepted that times and circumstances would change.They also were wise enough to know that sooner or later a person or groups of people were going to have to fight to defend themselves, their families, the community or this country from those who want to turn from the Republic. They even considered the fact that someday someone would try to use the government to usurp our Republic.
How would this change begin?History shares the lesson of how Hitler and others accomplished it which gives us a template.First take away the ability of the average citizen to defend themselves.After that limit travel (without proper papers) and keep the masses in a survival mode.Hitler did it, Stalin did it and almost every dictator down through the ages has always disarmed the general populace, limited travel and kept the population off balance.This is usually precipitated by a manufactured crisis that requires Martial Law and the control of the movements of the people.From there it isn’t a quantum leap of the imagination that the government would decide we need the stability of a president who has a third and fourth term (to ensure the vision remains pure.)
It’s not about the guns.It’s about “We the People.”It’s about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that have been our rock since the beginning.“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union (more perfect than any king, tyrant or despot can possibly come up with) 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 (to ordain as in a God given right) and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”Make no mistake America this statement may not mean much within a few years unless we wake up and respond.We must vote out those who want to dilute or destroy the Constitution.This is our solemn duty for our children and grand children.
If we the people stand quietly by and let the government media machine, the gutless and deluded politicians pander to the takers in our society; and we continue to pencil God out of America we will leave a legacy of pain and suffering for our children.We will relegate them to mediocrity and servitude.The flood gates of tyranny will be open and someone will march through and take over.We will pass on a debt load so large that the generations to follow will be swallowed by the sea of red tape. Never again will this be a great nation.This nation, which contrary to Obama’s father, has not been a colonial oppressor throughout the world has not enslaved other countries. America has been the defender of freedoms for many peoples and nations. Countries and peoples who have been unable to defend themselves down through the decades have always known we could be trusted to keep our promises and help when the need arose.For us to allow this way of life and this country to be denigrate, and cheapened is the worst crime we could ever commit.
Read the words of Justice Story (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1833)
“Commentary on the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
By Joseph Story
Section 1889: 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."
Section 1890: "The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected on the subject. The militia is the natural defense 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 the 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. And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of such a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burdens, to be rid of all regulations. How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger, that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt, and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.
Section 1891: A similar provision in favour of Protestants (for to them it is confined) is to be found in the bill of rights of 1688, it being declared, "That the subjects, which are Protestants, may have arms for their defense suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law." But under various pretences the effect of this provision has been greatly narrowed; and is at present in England more nominal than real, as a defensive privilege."
