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Liberty, Safety & The Second Amendment
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Liberty, Safety &
The Second Amendment
by Jennifer Freeman
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- Benjamin Franklin,
Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
And yet that is exactly what gun-ban organizations want you to do. Lock and unload. Ban them. Turn them in. If not by choice, then by force. If not through Congress, then through the courts. And they have the nerve to cite safety and liberty as the primary reasons for doing so.
Gun-banners have a concocted a wildly ridiculous view that people everywhere are at risk of being shot either accidentally, on purpose by some crazed lunatic, or spontaneously at the site of a traffic accident. In the gun-banners' world, the mere presence of a firearm puts everyone at risk and therefore violates our (nonexistent) right to feel safe from firearm danger everywhere.
This is insane, of course. From the birth of this nation to present day, the firearm is the ultimate symbol of freedom AND safety. It is the firearm that enabled us to win independence from the tyrannical King of England. In 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is quoted as saying, "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." There is no telling how many other tyrants have been deterred by our formidable military and armed populace. Clearly only a madman with a death wish would dare attack the United States.
International politics isn't the only arena in which the firearm preserves liberty, however. Liberty is also found in the right of the people to feel safe in their homes and to defend themselves against domestic predators, gangs, and terrorists. Dr. John Lott estimates that firearms are used 2.4 million times per year in self-defense. That averages to 6,575 self-defense cases per day. Of those, it is estimated that the firearm is merely brandished 80% of the time, causing the perpetrator to flee the scene and resulting in no injuries. As a woman I can assure you, it is the perpetrator that scares me and my .357 that makes me feel safe.
The United States is unique in that we are the only country in the world with a guaranteed right to keep and bear arms. This is the foundation of what America and freedom are all about. Without self-defense, liberty would be impossible to maintain. The two are inseparable.
And yet, like raving lunatics, gun banners insist that the opposite is true. When you consider the countless millions of atrocious murders committed by tyrannical governments against an unarmed populace - throughout history and continuing to this day - one must wonder what the possible justification gun-banners might have for continuing their campaign of fear.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
http://www.libertybelles.org/articles/liberty.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
The Second Amendment
by Jennifer Freeman
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- Benjamin Franklin,
Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
And yet that is exactly what gun-ban organizations want you to do. Lock and unload. Ban them. Turn them in. If not by choice, then by force. If not through Congress, then through the courts. And they have the nerve to cite safety and liberty as the primary reasons for doing so.
Gun-banners have a concocted a wildly ridiculous view that people everywhere are at risk of being shot either accidentally, on purpose by some crazed lunatic, or spontaneously at the site of a traffic accident. In the gun-banners' world, the mere presence of a firearm puts everyone at risk and therefore violates our (nonexistent) right to feel safe from firearm danger everywhere.
This is insane, of course. From the birth of this nation to present day, the firearm is the ultimate symbol of freedom AND safety. It is the firearm that enabled us to win independence from the tyrannical King of England. In 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is quoted as saying, "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." There is no telling how many other tyrants have been deterred by our formidable military and armed populace. Clearly only a madman with a death wish would dare attack the United States.
International politics isn't the only arena in which the firearm preserves liberty, however. Liberty is also found in the right of the people to feel safe in their homes and to defend themselves against domestic predators, gangs, and terrorists. Dr. John Lott estimates that firearms are used 2.4 million times per year in self-defense. That averages to 6,575 self-defense cases per day. Of those, it is estimated that the firearm is merely brandished 80% of the time, causing the perpetrator to flee the scene and resulting in no injuries. As a woman I can assure you, it is the perpetrator that scares me and my .357 that makes me feel safe.
The United States is unique in that we are the only country in the world with a guaranteed right to keep and bear arms. This is the foundation of what America and freedom are all about. Without self-defense, liberty would be impossible to maintain. The two are inseparable.
And yet, like raving lunatics, gun banners insist that the opposite is true. When you consider the countless millions of atrocious murders committed by tyrannical governments against an unarmed populace - throughout history and continuing to this day - one must wonder what the possible justification gun-banners might have for continuing their campaign of fear.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
http://www.libertybelles.org/articles/liberty.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>