Arkansas Blog

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.

We the people in my opinion are the well regulated... and will only be militia way after the **it hits the fan, but we must be able to be the militia if and when that time comes. I don't see much difference today in the intent of Big Brother to oppress the people much more so than the British King intended not so long ago, historically speaking.

The problem with regulating handguns in a large City is that it will only lead in one direction...further loss of liberty across the board for all of us. I quake in my boots every day with realizations of new compounded assaults on our liberties. Imagine for just a few moments what the people in leadership positions would do right now if so many Americans were not well armed.

I say we can declare and end to the WAR on everything from drugs to fear (terror). Lets change a lot of the way we govern ourselves and the world (at the point of a gun and a bomb).. lets make sure police can't shoot or taze everyone with impunity. Lets stop jailing more of our population per capita than any other so called civilized nation in the world (for non violent crimes) and hold the violent thugs fully accountable yet develop some actual rehabilitative measures both inside jails and outside.

There are countless ways to address violence in this country without shredding the constitution further than we already have.
We desperately need to discuss these things but it is urgent, imo, that we restore what liberties we have lost and are losing at an alarming daily rate.

After all the 2nd amendment is already a waining fantasy considering the loss of Habeas Corpus and other losses found in laws like the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act of 2007, Dept. of Homeland Security, upcoming warrantless satellite and drone surveillance of all our home and business. Not to mention the assault on many who try to assemble or serious monitoring on our own citizens conducted by our own military. Much more the way our government has employed the use of private militia from N.O. during Katrina..all the way to Baghdad. I would imagine Blackwater alone is more powerful and well armed than most armies in the world. And they answer to no one except those with enough money to hire them.

I used to think words such as I typed above were for white punks on dope and religious freaks... but no more. I have read enough evidence myself.

Now more than ever I want my squirrel gun! and I want my neighbors to have one too.

Some things stay the same. Like this 2nd amd issue. Robin Williams commented on it during the tonight show way back in - well Johnny Carson was the host.

During the interview Robin said "The second amendment gives us the right to bear arms - not artillery"

Still true today.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that Bush would refuse to leave office, calling upon his lapdog generals to back him, and his loyal Republicans to form a new government. He has demonstrated repeatedly that he has no respect for the Constitution, only what he can accomplish by force.

So, you are right on target, Eureka.

Eureka Springs wrote: "Now more than ever I want my squirrel gun! and I want my neighbors to have one too."

Yup, and as long as our neighbors have weapons, let's make sure the city and county authorities have bigger ones to control our neighbors -- not you and me, of course, just our rogue neighbors.

And the state police should have even bigger ones and more ammo to control all the big shot weapons in all the neighborhoods of all our wayward neighbors.

We gotta make sure that our little bitty state has even bigger weapons and more ammo than any other state that might run amok and threaten our state. (Don't put anything past those red states, don'tcha know.)

Because...

... we damn well can't trust our crooked Federal Government to control any run-amokkers trying to usurp power. That's why WE the people need our guns.

But we want our Federal Government to have bigger, more powerful weapons than those French, British, Iraqi, et ceterans and run-of-the-mill whatevers so that our Feds can protect us ordinary folks against usurpers of power.

So, if every run-of-the-mill government needs the biggest and the best firepower-shooting bombs and military machines, who are we (the people) to tell all those North Koreans, and Iranians, and Russians, and Pakistanis and other rogue countries that they can't protect themselves and their people with whatever they think they need.

After all, if we average Americans are scared to death of OUR OWN U.S. Government, and we need bazookas to protect ourselves, why in hell don't the Iranians and the North Koreans, among others, need some atomic-bomb power to throw at Bush-Cheney too?

Well, it seems to me that if I have the right to own firearms, then we (the armed people of the U.S.) have no logical argument to stop Iran from possessing whatever weapons they think they need -- [gulp].

And North Korea, and Russia, and India, and Pakistan, and Texas, etc.

If we're allowed to have the Second Amendment, how can we tell Iran they can't have their precious bomb?

Wow! great comments, all.

But I guess even I, a real liberal, want my guns. Especially with Bush Co. in power. Think about it: Just what do we have left? Wouldn't it be funny in the future if the NRA became a liberal organization so liberals could keep guns to protect us from this conservative government?

Maybe that's not funny at all...

Another great coaching night, Houston! Is it too late for
Darren to transfer to USC or Tulsa or Arkansas Tech so he has a chance to win the heismann??
Fire Nutt

Anybody else remember the Saturday Night Live segment from the '70's where the sketch was about an NRA-like group fighting for the right to bear arms of the nuclear type? ("They'll take away my atom bomb when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers" "Atom bombs don't kill people, people kill people" "When A-bombs are outlawed, only outlaws will have A-bombs") The main problem I have with the Charlton Heston/Wayne La Pierre faction is the paranoia they try to instill. I really don't believe there are jack-booted thugs plotting to rid me of my trusty .410. As the aforementioned sketch illustrates, there must be a line drawn at some point. The question is where. It bothers me that some seem to believe there should be no line.
How many of these hard-liners are members of "a well regulated militia" (besides maybe Posse Comitatus)?
Another question tangential to the subject: What about those who think the country would be safer if a majority of us were packing heat? I keep hearing about how that would have stopped a particular shooting sooner, etc. I will admit that that may be the case, but my suspicion is that many more would be lost to accidents or incidents of sudden, incontrollable rage than would be saved in vigilante action. I have seen people get angry enough that I believe had they had a gun, someone could have been killed.

What do you think keeps anyone from breaking into your house to kill, rape or steal from you?
That's right, they don't know if you have a gun and they don't know if they will be alive after they break in your house.

I am a liberal who practices gun control. That is, I don't own a gun, and I don't plan to own one. But if a wanted to own a gun, I believe I should be able to buy one. I don't care how you parse the second amendment; people should be able to own guns. The question is, what kind of guns should people be allowed to own, and who should be allowed to own guns? I don't pretend to know the answer to these questions, but I know there are some guns that people shouldn't be allowed to own, and there are some people who shouldn't be allowed to own guns. This is the crux of the debate about the second amendment.

I turned in my weapon when I was discharged from the army, and I haven't fired a rifle or a handgun or an automatic assault weapon since that time. I don't own a gun because I don't plan to shoot anything --- or any body. I don't own a gun, but many of my friends do. They own hunting rifles and shotguns. They have target pistols and pistols designed to kill. Most of these friends are responsible hunters and gun owners. One friend who is not a hunter had a pistol and managed to kill his son by accident. I may get shot by one the bad guys some day, but he won't shoot me with my own gun. And I won't kill my wife or one of my daughters with a gun.

"What do you think keeps anyone from breaking into your house to kill, rape or steal from you? That's right, they don't know if you have a gun and they don't know if they will be alive after they break in your house."

Is that what keeps you from breaking into people's homes, chasv? I doubt it. I think it's that you're probably a good person.

I don't think criminals are that deterred by the odds someone might be in the house and have a gun, once they decide they want to break in. I lent a friend a shotgun one time because he lived in a scary neighborhood. You can guess what happened - they broke in and stole the gun.

If you're scared of people breaking in, get a dog.

i like it when you look at the stats of countries that have gun control and the numbers of gun deaths. then you look at the number of gun deaths here. the nra says it has nothing to do with the law. how stupid are these people? there are civilized countries in europe where gun deaths are so rare that it is amazing where here it is an epidemic. i understand hunting but you dont hunt with an uzi.

Well by god , there just one thing I have to say to the gun grabbing libs:

You'd get my Daisy pellet rifle when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.
and my bow and arrows too!
.

Could this post possibly be any more condescending or arrogant? At least Max--whom I more often than not disagree with--doesn't talk down to his audience.

You, sir, are a moron. I hope you're in a position some day where a "gun nut" has to protect you or your family. Maybe then you'll appreciate the most logical of outcomes--that when you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Want proof? Look at how violent crime, including home invasion and burglary, went UP in the UK after they enacted strict gun control.

Of course, don't let that distract you from your pedantic rants.

I miss Max. At least he seemed to have respect for differing opinions.

So Prouster hopes the writer finds himself in a threatening situation, out of which only someone toting a gun can help him. Nice. There's your warm-fuzzy for the day.

No one said anything about outlawing guns.

"Could this post possibly be any more condescending or arrogant?" "You, sir, are a moron." "At least he seemed to have respect for differing opinions."
Ah, the irony...

prouster, have i ever called you a name? why do you insist on calling everyone on the blog by demeaning terms? is that all you were taught?

oh by the way i have several hunting guns and i doubt if a burgler would try to get past the sound of the slide of a 12 gauge. it is one of the most distinctive sounds in the world. there are not too many home invasions by uzi in little rock.

Roland is exactly right! A dog is 10 times better than a gun if you're in danger of someone crawling in your window in the middle of the night. My pissing poses of dogs let me know if someone's walking a block away. Yeah....I scream SHUT UP about 49 times a day, but I go to bed every night without worrying someone is going to sneak up on us.

I also keep a loaded pistol just in case. I hate guns. I only have guns because relatives die and leave them to me. But I think everyone ought to have 1 gun they can get to in an emergency. I dread the thought of people walking around armed, but from what I can tell there is as much proof that it's a good idea as there is that it's not.

I was attacked by a crazy with a gun while trying to cross Garrison Avenue one night about 13 years ago. He said he was going to shoot me and after he split my head open with the butt of his pistol, I was sure my time had come.

While wearing this guy round my neck, I decided to walk us into the front door of a bar so they'd be plenty of witnesses to name my killer. I was greeted with laughter and applause.....until the crowd figured it wasn't a joke. My killer was kind enough at that point to hop off me, fire the gun out the door and start running off. The mob and the cops caught him about 2 blocks down the street throwing up at the John Yantis Memorial Pygmy Fountain.

There are two lasting scary things about that night. 1 is that he was fixing to kill me for no reason. I thought it was robbery or mistaken identity at the moment, but later I figured out he was nothing more than a messed up idiot freshly out of prison suffering from very low self-esteem. All he really needed was for me to fall on the ground and beg for my life. He needed to feel like a big man, he needed to feel he had some kind of power over someone better dressed and well liked. Later I remember seeing him earlier in the night....and something about that nearly forgotten meeting planted a seed in his twisted mind. Not a good reason to kill someone, but apparently enough for some members of the bottom rung of society.

The second scary thing...is that if I had had a gun on me, I was so scared I would still be standing over him pulling the trigger today. And I wonder how I'd feel, knowing I had killed someone? Even killing such a scumbag as my attacker....would I sleep well for the rest of time? Who knows? In hindsight I know I was lucky to be unarmed on that traumatic night, but that might not be the case the next time.

Greed is what puts assault weapons in the wrong hands. Greed is what causes America to sell bombs and missiles to foreign countries who use them to kill their neighbors. We get the blowback when the survivors of foreign attacks find Made in USA in the wreckage. I truly believe 9-11 had as much to do with a century of deaths from weapons made and sold in America, as anything else. Every arms shipment going overseas makes us less safe. America should get out of the arms business. People selling assault weapons to the wrong people should be put to death on live TV.

We've let the business of business ruin the world by focusing on whores, drugs, gays, and pretend family values when the root of all our current evil is greedy people who will do anything for a buck. We're losing a war brought on my greedy people after someone else's oil. We are to blame...not the President of Iran, or Islam or towelheads with box cutters. The G-8 leaders are the overseers of the world, the rest of us mere slaves to be used, abused and thrown away. Unlike the distracted American consumers, some of the slaves aren't willing to go easy.

We need Money Control, not Gun Control. Millionaire politicians are more dangerous than crack addicts.

I had the pleasure of hearing Jim Winkler, who heads social justice for the entire global Methodist church, preach today. He identified the true axis of evil as being 1) our pandemic of poverty; 2) environmental degradation; and 3) the proliferation of arms worldwide*.

* There have been 100 MILLION AK-47 rifles produced worldwide, according to a book on them I just read.

Guess I'm up creek without a paddle as I'm afraid of guns and big dogs since I was
mugged by a Weirmariener many years ago. I am 5'6 and he was on a level with my face,
both front feet on my shoulders, teeth bared admiring my neck.....our collie saved my
life. This dog later took a little girls face off.
I can scratch and kick pretty good.

prouster, i am still waiting for an answer to my question?

Does 2nd amendment have the word "state" in it any where? It says people.

What are you some kind of "cafeteria constitutionalist"?

You sound like a religious fundy granting only the rights you want outhers to have. They try to reason that alcohol should be banned even though their own Bible states that as his first miracle Jesus turned water into wine. They say that wine was "different" back then.

So John C. Williams, are you aware that your "Reason" for declaring gun ownership a "states's right" makes as much sense as claiming freedom of the press is a right for the states, not citizens.

You sound like George Bush when he claims we will all be saved from certain destruction when we do away with just this one right.

John C. Willaims says we will all suffer a horrible death by UZI unless we just give back this one right.

Make up your mind John C. Williams, we either protect the first ten amendments to the constitution or we don't.

I have been called many things I am proud of such as an environmental whacko by Huckabee, a godless environmentalist by a Harrison rancher because I was tired of his chicken sh/t washing off his steep pastures into my stream and killing my fish. Now I am a gun nut because I wish to deny ohters when they try to limit our rights.

I don't use the gun rights but I intend to protect them. I have never printed with a press but I will do all I can to keep that right.

John C. Williams, defend the whole constitution or else you open the door for others to do warrantless wiretaps, "the freedom from unreasonable search is only for states?"

Please reply.

er uh Citizen, the second amendment does in fact contain in the word "state."

"being necessary to the security of a free State"

.

Zonker: as an NRA member and a gun owner, apparently I qualify as a "Second Amendment whacko." If you're going to lump everyone into a group like that, then yeah, you've called me a name.

I own guns (and have a concealed carry permit.) I'm a responsible person with a postgraduate degree. I primarily shoot my guns at a firing range for sport. Target shooting is an Olympic event, by the way.

I'm able to disagree with people respectfully when they're respectful. I don't go around saying those who endorse gun control are morons. There are legitimate arguments for background checks and banning assault weapons. I support those. But then, I don't resort to glittering generalities to demean everyone whose opinion differs from mine.

And no, I don't call everyone names. I like to rag on DBI because he's a tinfoil-hat type, and Drew Pritt because he's run for sixteen different offices and keeps running. Other than those two, I generally don't even notice who posts what.

Gettin ugly out there........
Glad I'm a female type woman and don't have to pack heat to make up for a small penis.

Congratulations Elwood,

I was just seeing if anyone was listening.

Not really, I f'd up. I was using memory but my memory paraphrased on its own.

What is really embarassing is that at my office people come to me to settle trivia disputes.

Are there two c's or two u's in vacuum?

Two U's.

Is Pi 3.1415 or 3.1416?

6 if rounded, 5 if trunkated.

Is the formula for circumference - pi (R sq) - or pi(dia)?

Cobbler are square, pie are round.

Why are they drilling in the Fayetteville shale by Greenbriar and not by Fayetteville?

It is naturally exposed around Fayetteville and most the good stuff leaked out long ago but burried and trapped way down under Greenbriar and east of there and more economic to extract.

In the Wizard of Oz, did the Tin man get a brain or courage?

He got a watch?

These are disputes I was actually asked in the last month. These people have internet access in their offices but they prefer to tromp in and ask me. What is funny is that they accept anything I say and even pay off bets they make.

Anyway, I have a pocket U.S. Constitution I keep in my car since so many people spout off stuff they claim is in the Constitution that I need a print copy to convince them of their error and to shut them up.

I should have looked at it before I spouted off above, but, I maintain that the 1st ten amendments are THE PEOPLE'S "freedoms from" and "rights of".

Thanks for reminding to be more careful and not undermine my positions with mis-statements.

Bravo to Ken Burns first part of "The War" on PBS tonight.

I should have looked at it before I spouted off above, but, I maintain that the 1st ten amendments are THE PEOPLE'S "freedoms from" and "rights of".<<

Well, sorta. The Bill of Rights to many constitutional scholars represent restrictions on government as 'Thall Shalt Nots' applied to subsequent executives until a few power mad, deranged one manipulated their way into office. The original Constitution enumerated the powers of government and segregation of those powers and specified their respective duties. There are some glaring overlaps.
.

You, sir, are a moron. I hope you're in a position some day where a "gun nut" has to protect you or your family. Maybe then you'll appreciate the most logical of outcomes--that when you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Want proof? Look at how violent crime, including home invasion and burglary, went UP in the UK after they enacted strict gun control. prouster

since my post was the only one referring to other countries who had outlawed guns i probably stupidly thought you had taken to calling me names. i had also in the same post discussed hunting guns as being ok. now under the present administration do you actually think that a gun is bought without the size of underwear of the purchaser being known by the white house? registration is generally required most places but these idiots at gun shows have fun making their little kits to make uzi shotguns or whatever they can think of just so they can have toys to shoot and go boom. in some cases that is just about all they want to do is go into the woods in camoflague and play army and be real strange. that is where you get your mcveighs. is that what you want to breed more of prouster? that is not a good american. good ole home grown american rednecks probably george bush voting, are where the second largest murderers in the united states came from do you realize that? first it was the saudis with the world trade center, and then the conservatives of mcveigh and whoever was with him in ok city. makes you kind of proud that your conservatism is not that far from the thinking of a timothy mcveigh.

I've already said that I endorse background checks and controls on assault weapons. But lumping everyone who believes in the right to bear arms into a "second amendment whacko" category makes me, well, a second-amendment whacko. I think that the handgun bans in DC and NYC are unconstitutional. And honestly, it hasn't done a whit of good for either of those cities. Crime didn't start falling in either one until responsible leadership came in (Giuliani and Anthony Williams, respectively.) And yeah, those two may have endorsed their city's gun bans, but they weren't so knee-jerk leftist as to pin all the blame for crime on guns.

Comparing my "brand of conservatism" to Timothy McVeigh is a really nice debate point. You can invoke Godwin's law without even using Hitler. Just haul off and accuse anyone who believes in a constitutional right to self-defense weapons of being a stone's throw from a white-supremacist terrorist. Clever.

well you made me look one up there. i had never heard of goodwins law but then it's been a lot of time since i have been to college. i have never used the term wacko. that was at the heading used by somebody else. i am just saying there is a difference between a self defense person and the people who spend their time at the gun shows trying to invent new devices to make all kind of guns fire many multiple rounds just to be cute or for toys.
actually sociologically the differences between extreme conservatism of the type that you are expousing and the brand that mcveigh expoused are not that much different. just like the difference between berkley bomb throwers and me is not much different except i try to be peaceful. the big difference is he was nuts and you are not, at least we hope, you never know the odds are at least one or 2 of the bloggers are and the odds are that the political party doesn't matter is is just about 1 out of 10 people are flaming nuts.

the conservative liberal continum was always explained to me as a circle with extremes at the top and bottom. extreme conservative and liberal are both a little nuts and then the calm ones that can actually talk and deal with each other are at the bottom. think about it. i have spent most of my life trying to get to the bottom of the circle. sometimes i fail.

Prouster,

When I go back and read the first 2 paragraphs by JCW, I don't see that he is lumping you in with the wackos. He doesn't categorize every person who is pro-Second Amendment as wacko. My interpretation is that there are people who support the Second Amendment, then there are EXTREMISTS who also support it, but who feel there should be few if any boundaries.

I can see the difference between the two groups. One group seems grounded in reason; the other group seems like a bunch of wackos.