Guns for Fun, Protection & Liberty

[Robert Jones]

Robert; If there were justice there would be two university presidents seeking other employment. Brodhead of Duke and the president of Virginia Tech.

PRECISELY! The campus police were on top of things? THE CAMPUS POLICE?????? I don't know how "hardcore" the Virginia Tech "campus police" are, but if they're LIKE EVERY OTHER CAMPUS POLICE, they're a bunch of KEYSTONE COPS, RENT-A-COPS, WANNABE, HAS-BEEN NEVER-WAS cops!

Oh, it was a "domestic incident"? WHAT? As though that lessens the severity of the threat? The Virginia State Police troopers should have been on that campus like stink on shite! They should have been on LOCKDOWN!

Unbelieveable!

As for the Duke President AS WELL AS ALL THOSE LEFTIST PROFFESOR SANCTIMONIOUS LYNCH MOB, I'd get the baddest-ass civil liberties attornies and go after them PERSONALLY with DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER lawsuits! WHERE IS THE ACLU? (That's just a rhetorical question: The ACLU is defaming the characters of people who want to fly safely without Imams kneeling in the aisles, facing Mecca).

[Chris Grieb]

Robert; I'm still waiting to find out what church the shooter goes too. The only description is Asian. That really narrows it down.

[Chris Grieb]

Everyone,

The DC circuit has let stand the three judge panel ruling about DC gun laws. The city will appeal. That means the next stop is the Supreme Court. Other blogs are saying right about the time of the Presidential conventions the Supreme Court could have hearings. Watch this spot.

The Supreme Court could next year strike a great blow for freedom or put the cause of freedom back

[mweiss]

I used the obvious example because it's one with which I can easily agree, probably, and with which most of the rest of us can probably agree. But when I consider that the military isn't (*DRUM ROLL*) -- The Military -- as an uberbeing over and above and separate from you and me and everyone else we know, and having some super wisdom and power and entitled to some special reverence and awe -- but simply a subset of us to whom we've delegated one of our jobs, that job being foreign defense, I ask myself, why should ANY public collective be entitled to use things that its bosses -- i.e., you and me -- aren't entitled to use? They fight for us because we pay them to. They defend us because we pay them to. Inherent therein is the conclusion that we have the rights to begin with, so that we can delegate them to the military. If we don't have them, they don't have them. Thus, it kind of bothers me to say that the military has rights to use weapons that we don't. On a gut level, I don't want my neighbor playing with nukes, but I can't quite justify how I have a right to prevent it, yet do have a right to delegate to the troops myself a right to fight with them.

As far as changing worlds justifying tighter gun laws -- well, there's an argument to make me see red. Damned if you'll ever get me to agree to put more restrictions on the law-abiding because somebody out there has chosen not to enforce existing laws against existing crimes. That's called punishing the innocent. And damned if you'll get me to agree that I should disarm in the face of increasing chaos; that's called exacerbating the problem. If you say that people were more gun savvy in the '50s, and propose that, because of that, guns should be restricted, I say in return, why not make gun education mandatory in the schools the way sex education is? Gun ignorance can quite literally be lethal.

Judith

I have to applaud your stance on self defense as well as your weapons savvy.

Good argument on why shouldn't the public have the same weapons as the military!

If the 2nd Amendment's purpose included the prevention of tyranny, then we are indeed under-weaponized today as a public. The military has tools and weapons that are not even made public. We have the potential of a really bad dictatorship gradually taking over, and once the public is riled up enough to revolt, the tremedous force of our military would be brought to bear, to utterly squash any rebellion. We have no more control over government, not without each citizen having a WMD of some sort that becomes the wildcard that the fed must reckon with.

Great post, Judith!

[Chris Grieb]

Mark,

Radley Balko of Reason formerly with Cato has had some good warnings about the increasing militarization of local police departments. This is primarily with regard to SWAT teams. Some departments have APC for their department SWAT teams. Balko also makes the point that police departments are useing military tactics in drug raids.

The recent case of the 92 year old woman in Atlanta who was killed by members of Atlanta police department. One of the good things that may come out of this case is a full investigation of Atlanta police department and exposure of more members of Atlanta police department. It does look that there will be any change with regard to the use of no knock raids.

Two members of the police have already plead guilty and will serve some time. One more is going to trial.

[BaalChatzaf]

Mark,

Radley Balko of Reason formerly with Cato has had some good warnings about the increasing militarization of local police departments. This is primarily with regard to SWAT teams. Some departments have APC for their department SWAT teams. Balko also makes the point that police departments are useing military tactics in drug raids.

The recent case of the 92 year old woman in Atlanta who was killed by members of Atlanta police department. One of the good things that may come out of this case is a full investigation of Atlanta police department and exposure of more members of Atlanta police department. It does look that there will be any change with regard to the use of no knock raids.

Two members of the police have already plead guilty and will serve some time. One more is going to trial.

Think of it as a Friendly Fire incident. We live in a rough neighborhood and crappy things happen.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Ba al,

With your attitude you assure these bad things will continue to happen.

The police lied to get their warrant. They were caught trying to plant drugs in the lady's house. A similar incident had happened nearby. They will not get enough time.

[BaalChatzaf]

Ba al,

With your attitude you assure these bad things will continue to happen.

The police lied to get their warrant. They were caught trying to plant drugs in the lady's house. A similar incident had happened nearby. They will not get enough time.

I did not know that. I thought it was just a mishap, which happens more often than it should, but happens just the same.

I do not condone illegal police activity. However during a legal process friendly fire happens from time to time.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Ba al,

The house had a wheel chair ramp on the outside.

That might have been a clue. The problem is this other war.

Edited May 9, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[dogsofworr]

Stumbled upon this site. Look forward to exploring.

Objectivists should definitely learn to defend themselves and the role a firearm can play in the defense of life and liberty. I personally grew up in a somewhat anti-gun family and only learned of the fiream's crucial role in individual liberty after discovering the works of Ayn Rand. I eventually wrote , The Philosophy in Defense of Firearms, which is an objectivist oriented look at the right to keep and bear arms issue. Available at my website http://www.eoffshore.com

One of the issues I grapple with is the attempt to dismiss RKBA by bringing up the "right to nukes" (or any other high explosives)...I won't spill my conclusion, to encourage everyone to check out PDOF.

Handguns are the tool for defending against the common, free-lance criminals, while rifles are the tool for defending against criminal governments. There is a group in NC (not objectivist), the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, that teaches rifle skills through their "Appleseed program with rifle instructors traveling across the nation to teach basic rifleman skills.

http://www.rwva.org

[Chris Grieb]

Welcome!

A comment I once heard at a Cato forum was that gun control was a steady hand.