http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/trejbal/wb/wb/xp-108160
So, if I understand correctly, the Roanoke Times had a list of ALL the CCP (Concealed Carry Permit) holders in the Commonwealth? I guess I made the internet paper then!
This goes to show why the pro-gun lobby is always so adamant in its efforts to curtail ANY type of registration. This time it wasn't the government that exploited a list, it was the free press, our guardian of a free society.
The real problem with the anti-gun coalitions is that they just don't trust their fellow man. They think that all men are inherently evil and therefore will succumb to the seduction of power and abuse their position to overpower or harm their fellow citizen.
Sadly, episodes such as this editorial add weight to their position. One little man with a vendetta against gun ownership has wielded much harm. The sad part is, they rarely recognize the evil they have committed as such. They feel they did it for the good of mankind.
The liberal thinks he is smarter than the average bear. He thinks that because of his superior intellect, he has some God-given right to tell others how to live and how to do things (no, scratch that, can't be God that gave it to him in this existential wasteland - must be nature or... something). Because he is smarter, because he knows better, because nature - or whatever - has given him this right, he becomes a crusader and will use any resource to accomplish his goal. His Machiavellianism leads to things such as publicly exposing those he wants to lord over, or manipulating statistics on crimes in concealed carry states or even overtly lying to those of us whom he perceives as, well, just plain dumber than the average bear. The liberal becomes inherently evil and therefore will succumb to the seduction of power and abuse his position to overpower or harm his fellow citizen.
But the tides turn and the people eventually wake up and begin to recognize that they have been deceived. After years of constant refutation by the pro-gun camp of faulty statistics and fraudulent reports on handgun crime, the people finally realize that they were being duped and then the real evil of the world is exposed. The evil is not the guns or most of those who carry them. It is those who prey on the weak and the ones who insist the weak stay helpless.
Trejbal's own article states that there are 135,789 of us carrying concealed weapons. We do not rampage. We do not fly off the handle in traffic. We do not have "itchy trigger fingers." 135,789 carrying concealed and we still live in peace. Go figure. And we feel safe to boot.
I didn't see the list but if it was accurate, I was on it. I’m not a cop, or a bounty hunter, or an abused spouse or a vet with a high security clearance job. I’m just an average Joe looking to keep myself and my family safe from those who would do us harm and I consider myself fortunate to live in a Commonwealth that helps afford me that ability without fear of prosecution. The Roanoke Times may have actually inspired the legislature of this fine Commonwealth to action. Already the Attorney General has placed a temporary stop to sharing the CCP list to any but law enforcement and it may end up resulting in Alaska carry in Virginia.
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2007/0409-foi-access.html
Mr. Trejbal may have heard from the locals when he first moved to Roanoke, "We don't care how you did it back home." Really, we don't. You moved to the very womb of the American Democratic system when you came to Virginia. I like to think we still have some common sense here for the most part. We will not long tolerate evil once it is recognized. We still fly a flag that states, "Sic Semper Tyrannis."
Even if you were smarter, we still wouldn't let you tell us what to do.
- Clint
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2 comments:
My turn to comment, and I apologize if it's a little on the lengthy side.
When I was a kid -- and believe me, that was a while ago -- there was a movie called Red Dawn. Don't know if you saw it or not, but the basic premise was that the U.S. was invaded by Soviet and Cuban troops (kind of quaint in hindsight). At one point, one of the characters describes how the invaders got hold of the list of weapons permits issued by the government and used it to arrest or kill anyone carrying a gun.
This stuck with me, because not only is it a reminder of why the second amendment was written in the first place -- but, it would seem, the deep-down, secret argument at the foundation of many gun owners' reasons for not only wanting to carry weapons in the first place, but from wanting to make sure that no one can ever find out just who's carrying.
That's a little scary, because it seems slightly paranoid to me. It's one thing to want to make sure that your right to arm yourself isn't infringed upon -- but it seems conspiratorially alarmist to claim that any kind of registry is unthinkable.
I believe in the second amendment, but I'm infuriated to no end by the pro-gun lobby's unwillingness to compromise in ANY way -- it confuses the hell out of me (and no, the slippery slope argument is a cop-out, the same way it's a cop-out when the pro-choice lobby stands against any reasonable attempt to curtail abortion -- for the same reason incidentally). I have no doubt that one of the causes of this ridiculously intransigent all-or-nothing attitude is the core belief that "liberals" are all elitist intelllectuals and "conservatives" are all ignorant Neanderthals. Neither of these assessments is true.
I'm not a liberal, nor am I a conservative. To be honest I'm not a fan of either label and I think that together they've done more to bitterly divide this country and kill healthy discussion than just about any other factor.
As you kind of alluded to in my own comment section, sometimes both sides of the debate are wrong -- and the more each side demonizes the other, the better the chance that the extremists on either will increase that likelihood.
Chez - I very much appreciate your input.
Lists of gun owners being exploited by various entities is more than the fiction of Red Dawn (I thought that was a great flick when I was a kid. I had, in fact, written a short story with the same story line a few years before and felt ripped off when Hollywood came out with the movie. But I digress...)
A study of California’s history since the Stockton schoolyard massacre will show how gun registration in the midst of revolving political figures can make a legal, personally owned firearm a felonious piece of contraband overnight. A Google search using the words “California, gun registration, confiscation” will yield much on the subject. The ‘90’s were a terrible time in California for legal gun owners. They were becoming criminals everyday without even committing a crime. Finally, we end up with statements such as this a few days ago by the San Franciscan District Attorney: "Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe in the way that you conduct your affairs."
The pro-gun lobby’s failure to yield on many issues is often tainted by the press. For instance, the press recently reported that the NRA did not want a law put into place that prevented the sale of firearms to terrorists! Good Lord, are they nuts? Of course, no one wants terrorists to have firearms. They will terrorize us with them! That’s what they do!
However, look a little closer at the objections and the reasoning becomes a bit clearer. The issue was that the Attorney General’s Office would be given power to make a list (eek! Another list!) of “suspected” terrorists and these people would be denied purchase. There is no definition of how one gets on such a list and, even worse, no indication of how one gets off of it. We would be entrusting to one man the power to deny us a Constitutional right with no system of checks and balances in place. This is unacceptable. It would be McCarthyism with no rebuttal. It puts the AG above the highest law in the land: The US Constitution.
As for the “liberal” and “conservative” labels, perhaps they are too polarized for most people and I respect you pointing that out. For me, the terms serve as a shorthand method of defining one’s position or philosophy on an issue. Perhaps that is fodder for another blog.
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