http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a8c39fa58da.htm
The Bottom Line
Constitution/Conservatism Editorial Keywords: RKBA; GUN STEALING POLITICIANS; TYRANNY OR LIBERTY
Source: The Sierra Times
Published: Feb 15, 2001 Author: Robert Waters
Posted on 02/15/2001 12:20:10 PST by 45Auto
The bottom line is that they want to steal my guns.
It's a who's who list of unsavory characters. People like Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, and others whose trustworthiness ranks right up there with Al Capone. If they weren't in politics, they'd all be in prison. And we're supposed to trust them to do the right thing?
So there they are, a pack of thieves and robbers who use armed bodyguards to protect themselves but who would steal the right of self-protection from me. You see, I'm an average Joe. My wife and I live in a small condo. She teaches school and I work part-time counseling alcohol and drug offenders. We're middle-aged, and have health problems. The only protection we have are my guns. Not that I own an arsenal or anything--a single-action .22 rifle, a pump-action shotgun, and a couple handguns. But if somebody breaks into our house, at least we'd have a chance.
But they want to steal that chance from us.
They won't couch it in those terms, of course. Like the Ministry of Truth, they rewrite history. Guns are evil, they say. They won't tell us the truth, that had our forefathers not owned guns, today America would be a socialist colony of Great Britain.
Their current goal is to marginalize gunowners like myself--to make us pariahs of society. Once that's accomplished, they'll be able to legally steal my guns. Reminds me of the old Woody Guthrie song. "Some folks'll rob you with a six-gun, others with a fountain pen." I'd rather face down a six-shooter than a crooked politician any day.
But like Dracula, their lies can't stand the light of day.
One of their most blatant lies is that self-defense with guns is "rare." In recent years, thirteen studies by educators and impartial researchers have demonstrated that anywhere from several hundred thousand to two million people use guns each year to protect themselves and others. Many of the same studies show that criminals generally avoid committing crimes against citizens whom they suspect may be armed.
Another of their lies is that for each time a business owner successfully uses a gun to defend himself or herself, "dozens" of others gun down innocent customers and employees. In the six thousand cases of armed self-defense in my files, exactly one business owner shot the wrong person--in addition to killing an armed robber, one of his bullets grazed the shoulder of an employee.
But we all know that thieves lie. What else is new?
In order to steal my guns, Hill and Teddy and Barney have to convince a majority of Americans that I'm dangerous. Since there's nothing in my history to indicate any violent tendencies, they have to lie. Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it. It's not about self-defense, they say, it's about saving the children.
But to me, it's about feeling safe.
So here I am one night a few months ago, sitting in the comfort of my home when the doorbell rings. Peeking out a window, I see a man on my doorstep. Before answering, I get a handgun and put it in my pocket. The guy's a transient, begging for money. I offer him food instead, but he turns it down. Then he becomes belligerent, and begins cursing me. It's nice to reach into my pocket and feel the reassurance of cold steel. I end the confrontation by stepping back inside my house and locking the door.
Am I paranoid?
Or realistic?
I've read too many cases of someone opening their door and being attacked, or murdered. About a year ago, Gerald Leary heard a knock on the door of his Pinellas County, Florida home. He opened it to find two men standing there with guns. They robbed him and his wife of all their cash and jewelry, then forced the frightened couple into the trunk of their own car. With two accomplices driving a second car, the homeowners were taken to a remote area and left to die. They spent nearly twenty-four hours dehydrating in the trunk. It was only due to luck that someone saw the abandoned car and called police.
After the Learys were rescued and their abductors captured, it turned out that another home had been the original target of the thugs. But when the suspicious homeowner opened the door and showed them he had a gun, the pair quickly fled. But there they are, Hill and Teddy and Barney, attempting to whip up a frenzy of indignation because our history and our laws give me the right to protect myself.
If my wife and I are murdered, they won't care. It would be just another headline to them. But to us, of course, it's something more--it's our own lives. Hill and Teddy and Barney aren't going to be there if we're attacked. Even if they were there, I wouldn't trust them to help. Their pasts show them to be like the residents of the Brooklyn apartment who watched and did nothing while Kitty Genovese bled to death on a sidewalk just a few feet away.
Good Samaritans they ain't. And that's the bottom line.
The Bottom Line
Constitution/Conservatism Editorial Keywords: RKBA; GUN STEALING POLITICIANS; TYRANNY OR LIBERTY
Source: The Sierra Times
Published: Feb 15, 2001 Author: Robert Waters
Posted on 02/15/2001 12:20:10 PST by 45Auto
The bottom line is that they want to steal my guns.
It's a who's who list of unsavory characters. People like Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, and others whose trustworthiness ranks right up there with Al Capone. If they weren't in politics, they'd all be in prison. And we're supposed to trust them to do the right thing?
So there they are, a pack of thieves and robbers who use armed bodyguards to protect themselves but who would steal the right of self-protection from me. You see, I'm an average Joe. My wife and I live in a small condo. She teaches school and I work part-time counseling alcohol and drug offenders. We're middle-aged, and have health problems. The only protection we have are my guns. Not that I own an arsenal or anything--a single-action .22 rifle, a pump-action shotgun, and a couple handguns. But if somebody breaks into our house, at least we'd have a chance.
But they want to steal that chance from us.
They won't couch it in those terms, of course. Like the Ministry of Truth, they rewrite history. Guns are evil, they say. They won't tell us the truth, that had our forefathers not owned guns, today America would be a socialist colony of Great Britain.
Their current goal is to marginalize gunowners like myself--to make us pariahs of society. Once that's accomplished, they'll be able to legally steal my guns. Reminds me of the old Woody Guthrie song. "Some folks'll rob you with a six-gun, others with a fountain pen." I'd rather face down a six-shooter than a crooked politician any day.
But like Dracula, their lies can't stand the light of day.
One of their most blatant lies is that self-defense with guns is "rare." In recent years, thirteen studies by educators and impartial researchers have demonstrated that anywhere from several hundred thousand to two million people use guns each year to protect themselves and others. Many of the same studies show that criminals generally avoid committing crimes against citizens whom they suspect may be armed.
Another of their lies is that for each time a business owner successfully uses a gun to defend himself or herself, "dozens" of others gun down innocent customers and employees. In the six thousand cases of armed self-defense in my files, exactly one business owner shot the wrong person--in addition to killing an armed robber, one of his bullets grazed the shoulder of an employee.
But we all know that thieves lie. What else is new?
In order to steal my guns, Hill and Teddy and Barney have to convince a majority of Americans that I'm dangerous. Since there's nothing in my history to indicate any violent tendencies, they have to lie. Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it. It's not about self-defense, they say, it's about saving the children.
But to me, it's about feeling safe.
So here I am one night a few months ago, sitting in the comfort of my home when the doorbell rings. Peeking out a window, I see a man on my doorstep. Before answering, I get a handgun and put it in my pocket. The guy's a transient, begging for money. I offer him food instead, but he turns it down. Then he becomes belligerent, and begins cursing me. It's nice to reach into my pocket and feel the reassurance of cold steel. I end the confrontation by stepping back inside my house and locking the door.
Am I paranoid?
Or realistic?
I've read too many cases of someone opening their door and being attacked, or murdered. About a year ago, Gerald Leary heard a knock on the door of his Pinellas County, Florida home. He opened it to find two men standing there with guns. They robbed him and his wife of all their cash and jewelry, then forced the frightened couple into the trunk of their own car. With two accomplices driving a second car, the homeowners were taken to a remote area and left to die. They spent nearly twenty-four hours dehydrating in the trunk. It was only due to luck that someone saw the abandoned car and called police.
After the Learys were rescued and their abductors captured, it turned out that another home had been the original target of the thugs. But when the suspicious homeowner opened the door and showed them he had a gun, the pair quickly fled. But there they are, Hill and Teddy and Barney, attempting to whip up a frenzy of indignation because our history and our laws give me the right to protect myself.
If my wife and I are murdered, they won't care. It would be just another headline to them. But to us, of course, it's something more--it's our own lives. Hill and Teddy and Barney aren't going to be there if we're attacked. Even if they were there, I wouldn't trust them to help. Their pasts show them to be like the residents of the Brooklyn apartment who watched and did nothing while Kitty Genovese bled to death on a sidewalk just a few feet away.
Good Samaritans they ain't. And that's the bottom line.
