Understanding a Right
Deborah Venable
05/27/13
I
must admit that I’m getting old and tired.
When you have to keep fighting the same fights over and over again with
the same or even worse results, it can make you tired even if you aren’t old. If you are both, it is especially
disheartening.
I
direct your attention to a little history that occurred eleven years ago almost
to the date. There was a big gun
control battle going on at that time too, and the National Rifle Association
was in there swinging for all they were worth as usual. At about this particular time in March of
2002, the very famous tax preparation company, H & R Block made all the
liberals happy when it announced that it would no longer associate itself with
the NRA. (Up until that time, they had
been best buds I guess.) Upon hearing
this, I published the following article, (minus some links that have long since
ceased to be active.) You can check out
the whole thing with a little research of your own.
Blockheads and Gun Grabbers In Cahoots
Deborah Venable
03/12/02
It seems various gun grabbers were literally
salivating over what they consider to be a great victory over the “powerful gun
lobby” yesterday as H &R Block severed their affiliation with the National
Rifle Association. It isn’t a pretty
sight I’m sure to see the “Million Moms Crowd” marching on the “Blockers”
across the land, but hey, what can you expect?
Both gun control organizations and tax preparation people feed on
Constitutional infringements for their livelihood. It has been suggested by some astute gun rights folks that perhaps
a boycott would be in order. I wonder
how much effect could be realized in the last month before that god-awful April
15th deadline date rolls around?
Meanwhile, I would just like to say that the NRA
certainly doesn’t represent my idea of fighting infringements on the Second
Amendment – they okay too much gun control and I don’t believe in any – but
they do fit the category of what the liberals would call “powerful” and they
have probably stood in the way of even more ridiculous gun control measures
than we already have. I’ve never used H
& R Block tax services, but most of the people I’ve ever known have at one
time or another, so they fit the category of pretty “powerful” in the tax prep
industry. I guess it is only natural
that the two organizations would have reached some kind of mutually beneficial
agreement at some time in the past.
Enter the anti-gunners: The scene might play out something like this:
HR Preppy looks up from his stack of forms and
says, “Yes madam, how may we help you?”
“Well!” she sniffs. I am a concerned MM Marcher, and I would just like to know who
you think you are dealing with the likes of those gun toting hooligans from
NRA? Don’t you know that GUNS kill
people?”
“Why, no ma’am,” he oozes with much mock
concern. “Those folks told us that GUNS
don’t kill people – PEOPLE kill people!”
“People with GUNS kill people, sir! Anyone who wants a GUN is a killer! Do you want a GUN, sir?” Hysteria has crept into her voice now.
Mr. HR Preppy begins to sweat and tug at his
tie. “No-o-o-o-o! Not me!
NO! I haven’t even held a gun
since my last game of cowboys and Indians when I was about 10 years old!” I can surely see what you mean, Ms. Marcher,
for sure!”
“Humph!” she huffs. “Cowboys and Indians indeed!”
“I’ll issue that press release right away and
send those bad old GUN people packing, okay, Ms. Marcher?” he says with a grin
from ear to ear.
“Fine,” she says. “Now how about a deal on my taxes? I need a big, fat return this year so I can afford a body guard
for the next march.”
Or something like that. Whatever! You get the
picture. These folks will always
scratch each other’s backs as long as they can keep the need for their
existence alive and well. They don’t
care about truth, or statistics, or freedom or anything else that makes sense
to you and me. As we search for the
pieces of the shredded Second Amendment, they will be casting the Sixteenth in
concrete. And they have the gall to say
they CARE!
Now
all these years later so many conservatives still hang all their hopes on the
NRA, and I just have to ask the question, WHY?
They have never been for NO infringements on our Second Amendment
rights, and they never will be. Think
of all the money and prestige they would lose if suddenly the attacks on it
stopped. I would just caution anyone
who thinks that the NRA is best buds with true Constitutionalists, and that
they deserve all the money funneled to them via membership dues and donations
to the cause of protecting the Second Amendment, because they haven’t done that
great a job so far.
The
sad thing is that most folks living today have no idea just how much freedom
they have already lost in this country.
History books currently in use throughout the ridiculous and ill named
“education” system in this country, don’t reflect it. The media in all forms doesn’t do it justice. The “good” politicians can only try to stop
the speed at which we are flinging ourselves into the tyrannical lion’s den –
no time to think about hitting reverse for any of it. Organizations like the NRA can only burn through money while they
make good speeches that are shallow and meaningless in the long run.
So
senators like DiFi certainly don’t like to be schooled on the Constitution or
lectured to, huh? Well, now lady, I
resent being on the receiving end of your condescending attitude every time you
and others like you open your mouths.
You know all about guns and what they can do? You’ve seen the bodies and put your fingers in the bullet
holes? You know which guns deserve your
“exemption” from unconstitutional laws?
Tell me, which side are you going to be on when this over bloated
government turns on the people for that final confiscation? Are you going to lecture me on what a right
is?
A
right cannot be taken away by anybody else, but that is all your progressive
ilk think about and work towards these days.
You’d better hope that most people in this country do not understand
what a right is. Actually, you’d better
hope for a much larger majority of folks that do not understand than do. After all, it was a minority of the
population that won American independence in the first place – and it all
started with the push to disarm them.
Are you willing to gamble that their blood has been so thinned over the
last 237 years that their descendents will just lay down their arms and go
quietly off into slavery?
The
truth is, we should not even be considering any further erosion of our
rights. Every time they bring it up, we
should react by demanding some of our lost ground back. Let’s see what that would entail, shall we?
Before
I could even vote I had purchased my first gun. It was a beauty too! I
could shoot and hunt and even reload my own ammunition before I was out of my
teens. I wasn’t told where I could and
couldn’t take a gun. I even walked
through airports, large and small, with it slung on my back, took it aboard the
planes, and drove all the country with it.
As much as ten years after that, I could walk down the street with my
holstered sidearm in plain view – no “permit” required. Nowadays, if I want to be a law-abiding
citizen, it is incumbent on me to stay on top of a whole slew of gun laws that
have gone into effect just in my lifetime!
Traveling with my gun? Well,
now, that could get me into a whole bunch of hot water, couldn’t it? Having it with me wherever I go for
self-protection? Only if I want to run
the risk of having it confiscated and landing me in prison. Yes, things have changed.
I
still do not believe that I will ever see the day when door-to-door
confiscation of firearms will be attempted here in America, but that may be
wishful thinking on my part. I do know
that if it is ever attempted, the result will be the same as it was 237 years
ago. I guess it all depends on just how
expendable the government decides the resistant minority is.
The
only way to fight continued erosion of rights is to shore up the weakest areas
of the destruction it has caused. You
want to keep allowing control freak politicians and weak kneed, ignorant
collectivists to have their way with your God-given rights, or do you think it
might be time to dig in with some individualist roots and demand the
infringements stop and be restored to sanity?
That goes for guns and taxes.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is where all the power is after all.
There
are no “common sense” gun control measures, simply because limiting the
public’s availability to guns IS infringement of a right. I have no problem with organizations such as
the NRA continuing to provide training in gun safety and shooting ability to
the public – but I do have a problem with such training being mandated by
law. By all means, if you want to seek
out an NRA class in safe handling of firearms, please do so. Most of the instructors will be good descent
people who provide a valuable service.
But don’t propose or vote for any more laws that require me or anyone
else to have a “certification” or a license or permission from government to
exercise my God given right to own, possess, or carry a firearm.
Common sense is not something that government officials are qualified to preach, yet they try to employ the language as if they wanted common sense followed by everyone. They don’t want a real debate on the original intent of the Second Amendment because common sense would illuminate the existing infringements on it for everyone to see. Even the seemingly “common sense” laws that prevent previous felons and the mentally ill from owning guns do not make common sense. If these people are allowed to freely walk among us with no one responsible for them, then they have the same rights they had before they were locked up. If they are considered too dangerous to have those rights, they should still be locked up. Simple – common sense. Background checks are ludicrous and prejudicial if we are to believe that people do pay their debts to society.
If
you are still living in a La-La Land of thinking that every single
Constitutional right we have in this country is not under attack, reality is
just not your thing I guess. An ever
growing, powerful government will always want to take complete control of
individual lives, and unless you truly understand a right and can articulate
defense of every single one of them, you will lose them all. Preservation of the absolute right to keep
and bear arms is the only thing that can stand in the way of that happening.