Re: The right to bear arms & make salad

["Tomas L. Byrnes" <tomb () byrneit net>]

I wasn't. I was telling the Brit to stop telling us how to run ours. We
had a revolution 232 years ago to establish supremacy of the people,
instead of the crown. We are pretty unique in the fundamental concept of
our government: that the power is delegated from the people to the
government, and those powers not explicitly delegated are reserved to
the states, and if not delegated by the people of the state, to the
people, as opposed to all powers vested in the state (or crown) and
privileges granted to the people.

The most fundamental power, the 4th check and balance built into our
Constitution, the right of "ultimate sanction" (revolution) against a
tyrant, and the means to execute it (firearms) are explicitly codified
into our system of government for a reason.

The fact that a tyranny would face armed opposition is probably one of
the main reasons one hasn't arisen in the US, whereas European countries
have each had several in the same period of time that our Constitutional
Republic has been around. Our megalomaniacs start companies, since being
killed by the hoi-polloi is less likely there.

The Second Amendment isn't only about defending against crime, but about
protecting (the rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, redress of
grievances, and to keep and bear arms all date at least to the Magna
Carta) the means necessary for Jefferson's idea of how the tree of
liberty was to be watered.

The US is different, we like it that way. I emigrated here @ 17 from
Ireland and joined the U.S. Army because I believed, and still do, that
freedom is not the right to be right, but the right to be wrong.

It seems my erstwhile countrymen have recognized that giving too much
power to a bunch of Napoleonic Code worshiping bureaucrats is a bad
idea. Now if only the Witanagemot club would hold more sway among the
Saxons.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org 
> [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Richard M. Smith
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:08 PM
> To: funsec () linuxbox org
> Subject: Re: [funsec] The right to bear arms & make salad
>
> I don't want to ban guns in the U.S.  I just wish Americans 
> would stop lecturing the rest of the world how to run their 
> own criminal justice systems.....  It's downright 
> embarrassing given our track record. 
>
> Richard
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu [mailto:Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 4:02 PM
> To: Richard M. Smith
> Cc: funsec () linuxbox org
> Subject: Re: [funsec] The right to bear arms & make salad
>
> On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:55:31 CDT, "Richard M. Smith" said:
>
> > In the US (population c. 298.5m) there were an estimated 16,137 
> > homicides
> in
> > 2004 (FBI, 2006a) - a rate of about 5.4 per 100,000. Of 
> these, 10,654 
> > were carried out with guns (FBI, 2006b).
>
> How many people died in car crashes in 2004?
>
> How many people died from tobacco and alcohol related issues in 2004?
>
> How many people died from weight-related issues in 2004?
>
> If we're looking at banning stuff because people are dying, 
> let's at least save more lives by banning cars, tobacco, 
> alcohol, and fat people.
>
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