The Second Amendment Should be Rethought

I'm posting some comments I made on a blog or two about the recent terrorist attack in AZ. I know a lot of people think we should focus on the Republican hate-speak people like Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, etc., which may be appropriate (they at least help stir things up), but in my opinion, we should just take the damn guns away. That's right, I said it, not everyone in this country has a God given right to bear any damn assault rifle, semi-automatic rifle, and handgun they want just because we have a Second Amendment. Maybe the 2nd Amendment isn't Godspeak, you think? It was written by a bunch of men who were fighting against a tyrannical government. They never had any expectation that some nutjob would be allowed to fire 30 bullets into a crowd at a market, resulting in the death of a 9 year old girl.

What really should happen is tougher gun laws, such as banning automatic guns. Seriously, they have no purpose except killing people. So to the Repubs and the NRA, I say shut the hell up about no gun restrictions. I'm calling for a ban on all automatic and semi-automatic weapons, just like we had in 1994. I'm even calling on more restrictions on handguns, the need for everyone to get a permit for one. I'd like to see them outlawed completely, but I know that won't happen. I say that the 2d Amendment, allowing everyone and anyone a gun is just wrong.

I respectfully disagree that if we have a law banning automatic and semi-automatic weapons that people like Jared would have been able to get one by other means. In that case, the bullets shot before reloading is significantly reduced and maybe, just may...be, a little 9 year old girl, as well as several others, would be alive today.

If we have more restrictions on getting handguns as well, more waiting time, better background checks, then maybe he wouldn't have gotten one of those either.

So where would this guy have gotten a gun if certain ones were barred and others significantly more difficult to obtain? Steal one? From who? Again, if said automatic and semi-automatic weapons were banned and handguns more difficult to obtain, the people from whom Jared could have stolen a gun would be significantly fewer.

And don't give me the bullshit that if we ban weapons or make them harder to get, only criminals will have weapons (I suppose that may be true, since you'll be a criminal if you have one). If automatic and semi-automatic weapons were banned, NO ONE would have such weapons. Persons caught with such weapons (including "criminals", who are "criminals" by definition of having such guns) would be arrested and the guns take...n away and eventually destroyed.

Second, many criminals get weapons either from gun shops or from "law abiding citizens" (straw buyers or theft). Again, if certain weapons were banned and more restrictions placed on other weapons, then criminals would have a hard time getting such guns either.

Third, if permits were required for every gun and must be produced upon request, then again, many criminals would lose their guns because they would not be able to produce such permits.

The 2d Amendment is not the Bible. It is not sacrosanct just because it's in the Constitution. Slavery used to be in the Constitution too, as well as forbidding the right to vote by women and blacks. Prohibition was an Amendment. All of this was in the Constitution and later removed because they were wrong. So maybe the 2d Amendment is wrong too.

I'm hoping that this tragedy will wake up people to realize that we have to do something about this gun-loving 'I can do whatever the hell I want culture.' NO YOU CAN'T. Not when the lives of 9 year old girls, mothers, fathers and others are at risk. Ban these automatic and semi-automatic weapons and their magazines. Place better background and more restrictive checks and permit requirements on other guns. Require more than a week of waiting before you get your gun. Stop the sales of guns by unregistered dealers at gun shows. Stop the ability to buy a gun immediately at said gun shows unless one has already passed a background check and brings said paperwork to the gun show. You want a gun? Then do the homework!

A gun has no purpose except to kill. Drugs can be helpful or harmful, and we regulate those, why the hell can't we regulate something that has a very small helpful purpose (hunting animals)?

See http://abovethelaw.com/2011/01/sarah-palin-doesnt-kill-people-guns-on-the-other-hand/#more-52245