Which in its own way isn't all bad, 'cause it's a tad nippy outside, for Southeast Texas anyway.
Via THR, comes this, from Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald...
You have no right to read this.
The First Amendment gives me the right to write it, but doesn't necessarily give you the right to read it. Or so I was once told by an attorney. While the right to free speech certainly infers a corresponding right to hear what is being spoken, he said, the First Amendment doesn't explicitly grant such a right. So theoretically, it could be argued that no such right exists.
I guess one could make that argument, but only someone as dense as an attorney or big-city journalist would make that argument. Just because it isn't spelled out in the Constitution doesn't necessarily mean it's not a right. And I know I may be going a bit out on a limb here, but I'd argue the Founders likely figured we would all be smart enough to figure out what our rights were without them all being explicitly spelled out in the Constitution -- otherwise they'd still be writing the thing.
Do you really think, regardless of what the court rules, it would be possible to ban firearms on a national scale? I think any attempt to do so would lead to uprisings we can scarcely imagine.Which, my good man, hardly stops some people from thinking it could actually be done. See Simpson, Dan.
What if supporters of gun control could concede that hunting is, for some, an honored tradition? That some people feel it necessary to have a weapon at home for protection? That some entirely rational folks simply like guns?Leonard, you might as well be asking, "What if pigs started flying out of my ass?"
Could gun-rights people then concede that you don't need an assault weapon to go deer hunting?
If you really were all about compromise, Leonard, you'd be asking, "Could gun-control supporters concede that semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-10/AR-15, AK-47 and M1A/M-14 might actually have a defensive purpose, as we all should have seen during the 1992 Los Angeles riots and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? And that they actually may be used for hunting as well, as evidenced by the fact that AR-15 pattern rifles are getting to be one of the most popular hunting rifles in America?" And get with the gun-grabber program, Leonard. It's "intermediate sniper rifle," not "hunting rifle."
And that manufacturers who flood poor, violence-prone neighborhoods with cheap handguns ought to be held accountable?
If there was a shred of solid evidence that any manufacturer was doing this and not being held accountable, it would have been front-page, above-the-fold news in newspapers across the fruited plain. Since it's not, I think it's safe to say there's no credible evidence of said phenomenon and you, Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, you are talking out of your ass. Yet again. I guess you could make a big stink about "cheap handguns," but as for me, I prefer the term "affordable defensive arms." But that's ok, I say tuh-may-duh, you say tuh-mah-doe, right?
And that background checks and gun-safety classes for new gun owners make us all safer?
I guess I couldn't really argue with a gun-safety class if it began and ended with the Four Rules, but anyone who's paying attention would know that it's a bit naive to think that any kind of program administered by the .gov -- and you know that's what Pitts and his ilk are advocating, gun-safety classes taught by government standards -- would end there. As for the background checks, I'd argue they only make us feeeeel safer, but maybe that's just me.
And that gun registration isn't totalitarianism any more than a driver's license is?
Perhaps it isn't, but one more time, it just makes it so much easier for the would-be totalitarians to do their dirty work.
And, most of all, that all of us are tired of seeing children shoot children with guns they never should have had access to?
Right, Leonard, because it's just so much better seeing teh childrenses! stab or beat each other to death.
When theory confronts reality, put your money on reality every time.Take your own advice, Leonard. Take a look at what more often than not comes after gun registration, for starters. And then take a look at just why teh childrenses! are killing each other. Or is that "too close to reality" for you?
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