Welcome to another edition of RKBA, West Coast edition.
RKBA is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you. RKBA stands for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
You've heard of the ACLU right? It was brought up in a diary the other day and some might be wondering what the official stance of the ACLU on Amendment 2 actually is:
link
Heller Decision and the Second Amendment
So, we've been getting a lot of comments about the ACLU's stance on the Second Amendment. For those of you who didn't catch our response in the blog comments, here it is again:
The ACLU interprets the Second Amendment as a collective right. Therefore, we disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in D.C. v. Heller. While the decision is a significant and historic reinterpretation of the right to keep and bear arms, the decision leaves many important questions unanswered that will have to be resolved in future litigation, including what regulations are permissible, and which weapons are embraced by the Second Amendment right that the Court has now recognized.
As always, we welcome your comments.
Shadan7 has this for your consideration:
And yet, one of the most common responses I hear to the idea of private citizens exercising our 2nd Amendment rights is that only law enforcement officers are "trained adequately to safely handle and carry firearms":
Report: Officers lose 243 Homeland Security guns ( http://www.cnn.com/... )
Washington (CNN) — Nearly 180 Department of Homeland Security weapons were lost — some falling into the hands of criminals — after officers left them in restrooms, vehicles and other public places, according to an inspector general report.
The officers, with Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "did not always sufficiently safeguard their firearms and, as a result, lost a significant number of firearms" between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2008, the report said.
TG has yet another blurb for your thinking pleasure.
The United States isn’t the same as Europe
In many RKBA discussions, people will often make the comparison between the United States and some other country, generally a European country, and make the claim that since the cultures are the same apart from private gun ownership, it must be that gun ownership that causes the higher rates of violence in the United States.
This is, of course, only true if you ignore all those other differences.
If the cultures being compared were identical, apart from gun ownership, then it would be valid. No two cultures are that identical to one another. It would be like saying that a cow and a tiger are pretty much the same, except for the stripes – so the stripes are what makes a tiger into a carnivore. It could only be valid if everything were identical, except for the stripes.
It makes no more sense to compare the United States with any other country, claiming that the two are identical apart from gun ownership. They are not. One must look beyond the easy – and false – blame put upon an inanimate object.
My personal opinion is that the largest contributor to the violence in the United States is the disastrous and utterly failed "War on Drugs," but that is a topic for another day.
KV subscribes to an email listing that had this gem in it:
Me: I guess those open carriers do have their advantages...
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Link to article.
Matt Brannan and J.P. Mitchell were dining in the Wafflehouse on Barrett Parkway at I-575 in Kennesaw at 4:45 in the morning recently when a scout for an armed robbery crew entered the restaurant to case it. At the time, Matt and J.P. thought he looked a little suspicious, as he was wandering around the small restaurant like he was looking for someone. Unknown to Matt and J.P., two cars full of armed robbers were parked behind the restaurant waiting for the scout's report.
The scout saw that two of the customers were wearing holstered 1911 Springfield Mil-Spec .45 pistols, and he immediately turned and left the store.
Meanwhile, conscientious Cobb County Police Officer D. Lowe had noticed suspicious cars sitting behind the restaurant in the dark and decided to investigate. He caught men with masks and rifles who had been preparing to rob the Wafflehouse. The criminals informed the police that they had changed their mind upon discovering armed customers and were waiting for Matt and J.P. to leave. Ironically, the police car was pulling in to the parking lot just as Matt and J.P. were driving away. In other words, had Matt and J.P. not been armed, the robbery probably would have occurred before the police intervened.