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Second Amendment Activists Must Stick Together
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Second Amendment Activists Must Stick TogetherSheriff Michael E. Cook - 12.12.01
I would like to point out something that is near and dear to my heart. It is the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms. In our world today it is so easy to get side tracked when it comes to this issue. The anti-gun and anti-rights people have learned to stay focused on the issue and take one small victory at a time. Now if the pro-gun side could learn to do the same thing we could win.The old adage that you only eat and apple one bite at a time is so true. Many times a pro-gun measure will come along and people will not support it because they don't like who benefits from the law. This is the case with the article I wrote last week. Many pro-gun people who don't like the police or feel the police don't support their right to bear arms, and believe everyone should have the right to carry anytime they want didn't like the bill I talked about. Well just to set the record straight I feel the same way, however I know that if we don't get our foot in the door by pushing each and every bill that comes along in our favor we will loose again. This bill is just one bite it is not the whole apple.I see that many people are upset with the National Rifle Association over the CARA bill. This is fine that you not like CARA and tell the NRA how you feel, however pulling your support from this organization for one issue in which you disagree is one way to insure that the anti's win. The Sara Bradies of the world just get excited every time they see this. This is a signal they look for to take another bite. The NRA has always been in the front of the fight to keep our right to bear arms. They don't always make the right choice or fight the issue you want them to but they are the main game in town. When it comes to the supper bowl of the gun rights issue they are going to be our team in the game. You and I better be able to cheer them on or we will not win that game.I see this issue kind of like raising my three children. Now these three girls were about two years apart in age. They had almost a constant argument going between them. Anyone from outside the family would think they were always mad at each other. But let someone from outside pick on one of them and see how fast they each came to the aid of the other and you would see how close they were. If you made the mistake of thinking you could come between them you soon learned that was a mistake.My hope is that the pro-gun people learn this. We must stick together on any issue that allows our cause to get closer to what the second amendment says. That don't mean we can't debate the issue among ourselves. I do believe in the right to keep and bear arms, however it doesn't say the right to conceal that arm. The courts and our legal history has held that you have to carry the arm in plane view. The state has often felt it had the right to control that aspect of caring a firearm. So this is something that has been shown in the last few years, with all the states passing, right to carry laws. The crime rate dropped and many people got the permit so that they could feel safe and legal in bearing their forearms.Now before you get all upset with me let me give you my view. I believe that any citizen who has the right to own and bear firearms should be allowed to carry that firearm in any manner he or she wishes. I also know that the only way to get to that is by taking one bite at a time until this can be shown as the best way to keep this momentum going. It is tuff to get the government to trust the honest citizen, just like the honest citizen doesn't trust government. We must all work hard to build that trust. Right now in Oregon you pay a tax to get this permit and you go through a background check along with some proof that you know how to safely handle the firearm. You must renew this permit every four years and pay the tax again.Also in Oregon right now you must go through a background check and pay a sales tax every time you buy a firearm. This to me is about as dumb as it gets. Every adult or person over the age of sixteen in Oregon has a drivers license or state issued ID card. The back of this card has a bar code on it. It would be very simple to have credit card type readers in all places where firearms are sold and in all police vehicles that would read this bar code and instantly give the person the OK to buy any firearms they wanted or the information the officer needed to know that the person could carry a concealed firearm. There is no need for records of honest citizens and we don't need to have the continued tax associated with this business. We should all insist that this be our goal and then we can push for every state in this great Republic of ours to honor that permit to carry just as they honor our state issued drivers license. So you see that is the governments first step in showing the citizens that they are trusted. Then perhaps we could return the trust.God Bless America.Michael E. Cook, Coos County Sheriff, Retired. http://www.sierratimes.com/archive/files/dec/12/sheriff.htm
I would like to point out something that is near and dear to my heart. It is the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms. In our world today it is so easy to get side tracked when it comes to this issue. The anti-gun and anti-rights people have learned to stay focused on the issue and take one small victory at a time. Now if the pro-gun side could learn to do the same thing we could win.The old adage that you only eat and apple one bite at a time is so true. Many times a pro-gun measure will come along and people will not support it because they don't like who benefits from the law. This is the case with the article I wrote last week. Many pro-gun people who don't like the police or feel the police don't support their right to bear arms, and believe everyone should have the right to carry anytime they want didn't like the bill I talked about. Well just to set the record straight I feel the same way, however I know that if we don't get our foot in the door by pushing each and every bill that comes along in our favor we will loose again. This bill is just one bite it is not the whole apple.I see that many people are upset with the National Rifle Association over the CARA bill. This is fine that you not like CARA and tell the NRA how you feel, however pulling your support from this organization for one issue in which you disagree is one way to insure that the anti's win. The Sara Bradies of the world just get excited every time they see this. This is a signal they look for to take another bite. The NRA has always been in the front of the fight to keep our right to bear arms. They don't always make the right choice or fight the issue you want them to but they are the main game in town. When it comes to the supper bowl of the gun rights issue they are going to be our team in the game. You and I better be able to cheer them on or we will not win that game.I see this issue kind of like raising my three children. Now these three girls were about two years apart in age. They had almost a constant argument going between them. Anyone from outside the family would think they were always mad at each other. But let someone from outside pick on one of them and see how fast they each came to the aid of the other and you would see how close they were. If you made the mistake of thinking you could come between them you soon learned that was a mistake.My hope is that the pro-gun people learn this. We must stick together on any issue that allows our cause to get closer to what the second amendment says. That don't mean we can't debate the issue among ourselves. I do believe in the right to keep and bear arms, however it doesn't say the right to conceal that arm. The courts and our legal history has held that you have to carry the arm in plane view. The state has often felt it had the right to control that aspect of caring a firearm. So this is something that has been shown in the last few years, with all the states passing, right to carry laws. The crime rate dropped and many people got the permit so that they could feel safe and legal in bearing their forearms.Now before you get all upset with me let me give you my view. I believe that any citizen who has the right to own and bear firearms should be allowed to carry that firearm in any manner he or she wishes. I also know that the only way to get to that is by taking one bite at a time until this can be shown as the best way to keep this momentum going. It is tuff to get the government to trust the honest citizen, just like the honest citizen doesn't trust government. We must all work hard to build that trust. Right now in Oregon you pay a tax to get this permit and you go through a background check along with some proof that you know how to safely handle the firearm. You must renew this permit every four years and pay the tax again.Also in Oregon right now you must go through a background check and pay a sales tax every time you buy a firearm. This to me is about as dumb as it gets. Every adult or person over the age of sixteen in Oregon has a drivers license or state issued ID card. The back of this card has a bar code on it. It would be very simple to have credit card type readers in all places where firearms are sold and in all police vehicles that would read this bar code and instantly give the person the OK to buy any firearms they wanted or the information the officer needed to know that the person could carry a concealed firearm. There is no need for records of honest citizens and we don't need to have the continued tax associated with this business. We should all insist that this be our goal and then we can push for every state in this great Republic of ours to honor that permit to carry just as they honor our state issued drivers license. So you see that is the governments first step in showing the citizens that they are trusted. Then perhaps we could return the trust.God Bless America.Michael E. Cook, Coos County Sheriff, Retired. http://www.sierratimes.com/archive/files/dec/12/sheriff.htm