Saturday, December 1, 2012

Guns in America


When speaking of guns in America, words on the subject of gun ownership like the 2nd Amendment, Right Wing nut jobs w/guns, or recalling Charlton Heston's famous phrase "from my cold dead hands"'; are instant fodder which solicits views from both sides of the subject like wildfire.

Tolerance of one's point of view, freedom to choose; have room for expression in a free society.  Like Colt Manufacturing's famous advertising slogan "God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal".  That guns have been glamorized rightly or wrongly, doesn't matter.

What does matter is, we live in a free society and can only survive if we agree to live together under a set of guiding principles and leave each other alone to pursue liberty and happiness.

Another example of pouring gasoline on a roaring fire is the annual protests of the use of the word "God" in public places, crosses in the desert or city signage across the country, Christmas trees, manger scenes during the Holiday Season.

As a teacher friend of mine in my neighborhood recalled her visit to China a couple of years ago said, she and her husband were invited to join a typical Chinese family for dinner.  During the evening conversation, Maureen asked her host, a Chinese mother, what she admired most about the US?  The Chinese woman leaned over to Maureen and said, "You're free!"

History records views on gun ownership in America:

The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half-century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.  – Report of the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session (February 2983)

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries afraid to trust the people with arms.  – James Madison

The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens keeping their own arms.  – Samuel Adams

Gun bans don’t disarm criminals, gun bans attract them.  – Walter Mondale

This country was founded by religious nuts with guns.  P.J. O’Rourke

We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists – Patrick Henry


As that famous American philosopher from Los Angeles, Rodney King, once said, "Can't we all just get along."