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Pastimes : Let's Argue
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To: Solon who wrote (16)3/13/2000 9:29:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte  Read Replies (2) of 415
 
It is one thing to leave a loaded gun where it is in easy reach of children. That's just plain dumb in anybody's book. But it is an entirely different thing to restrict and ultimately forbid the ownership and carry of guns. Who stands to gain here? Society? Depends on how one defines society. (It is not a definition I would embrace, because it contains a shift of primacy from the citizen to the collective.)
We have a Constitution in which the framers spelled out the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms. (And as far as I know this makes our Constitution unique among the major social codices in the world.) If we as a society decide that to be a Bad Idea, the place to start is by using the process to rewrite the Bill of Rights. But my fear is that if we remove a Constitutional right simply because it is unpopular, then the inhibitors that the Constitution presents to keep us from tyranny are all in jeopardy. After the Second is gone, a big incentive to uphold the First has been removed.
As long as the government trusts the citizen to own and carry defensive weapons, of which the gun is by far the most effective and failsafe, I see that as a token of the primacy of the citizen. And that is imo the cornerstone of a healthy contract between the citizen and the state. The Government leaves me with the final right of revolution should the Gov't truly and egregiously break its social contract.
By all means enforce the ample and comprehensive laws, local through Federal, forbidding stupid and/or nasty acts using firearms or any other deadly weapons. But don't blame the gun. Don't blame society. Just my $.02
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