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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (3726)	5/24/2000 7:28:00 AM
From: Pat W.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13062

orlandosentinel.com The not-so-hidden agenda of those million moms marching By Charley Reese Columnist Published in The Orlando Sentinel on May 21, 2000 Contrast Mothers Against Drunk Driving with the Million Mom March against guns. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or rather its founders, recognized in a rational, intelligent manner that the cause of their grief was not the automobile. The killers of their children were human beings who drove the automobiles in a criminally reckless manner. They have been quite effective in persuading state legislatures to toughen the laws against drunken driving. The Million Mom March, however, ignored the problem -- the humans who used firearms to commit murder -- and focused instead on the gun, which, like the automobile, is an inanimate object incapable of acting on its own. Two explanations are possible. One, they are just ignorant and superstitious or, at best, thoughtless and ill-informed about their own country's history. Two, they know quite well what they are doing -- pursuing a hidden agenda to disarm the American people. Certainly any group that picks Rosie O'Donnell, a loud, beefy comedian who confuses volume with intelligence, is not exactly an advertisement for rational people engaged in a thoughtful debate. None of the people who have used guns to commit crimes, whether career criminals or the temporarily or permanently psychotic, would be affected one whit by new laws. Who can imagine that a person intent on violating the law against murder would be deterred by the prospect of violating a law involving possession of a firearm? Only the thoughtless. These women, organized by a friend of the Clintons, were just staging a political charade to further the Clinton agenda to gut the Second Amendment rights of the American people. When they piteously say that 13 children a day die, they conveniently forget that 85 percent of them are 15- to 20-year-old thugs, usually engaged in drug wars or turf battles. In fact, only 20 children younger than 5 died in firearms accidents in the last year for which numbers are available. Only 142 younger than 14 lost their lives in firearms accidents. That puts firearms accidents dead last as a threat to children in the accidents column. Besides, the ugly fact is that most children who die in firearms accidents are children of low-class, low-intelligence parents who are far too irresponsible to obey any laws requiring locks. As for licensing handguns, anything that is licensed is not a right, and the American people have a clear, unquestionable right to own and keep firearms. When the government starts to license speech, press, assembly and religion, then you will know that you no longer live a free society. The gun has been a constant in American history, both in our Colonial period and in our national period. There would be no America without the gun. It is to us, our history and our culture what the sword is to Japan. Look at the phrases in our language derived from guns -- "lock, stock and barrel," "shoot your wad" and "hit the nail on the head." Yes, the last referred to a marksman hitting a nail and driving it the rest of the way into a board or a tree. That was a common target for shooting matches on the American frontier. Americans in those days were good shots. Their lives depended on it. The fundamental difference between a free society and an unfree society is an armed citizenry. No unfree society allows its citizens to be armed. Even today we can paraphrase Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli and say that America and Switzerland are the most armed -- and the most free -- countries on Earth. Heed the Constitution not some overweight comedian. It's your liberty they are threatening.

To: Jim S who wrote (3726)	5/27/2000 2:59:00 AM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13062

And This Little Boy Imagined His Teacher Dead... Police: Student Kills Florida Teacher By KARIN MEADOWS .c The Associated Press LAKE WORTH, Fla. (May 26) - A 13-year-old student sent home from school for throwing water balloons on the last day of classes returned and fatally shot a teacher with a semi-automatic pistol Friday, police said. Seventh grader Nathaniel Brazill returned to Lake Worth Community Middle School shortly before 3:30 p.m., Police Chief William Smith said. He spoke to teacher Barry Grunow, pulled out a .25-caliber pistol and fired a single shot, killing the 35-year-old language arts teacher, he said. Brazill flagged down a police officer about a quarter mile from the school and surrendered. He was being questioned by police late Friday. There were no other injuries and no other suspects, Smith said. Brazill had returned to school to see some students in Grunow's class before school let out for the summer, police Lt. Rachel Houston said. When the teacher asked him to leave the classroom, the boy pulled out the gun and fired, she said. Grunow, of Lake Worth, was shot in the face, said Mabel Cardec, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County School Board. Grunow was one of Brazill's teachers, but another teacher had suspended the boy. Amanda Grunwald, 13, who was in Grunow's class, said the teacher was standing in the doorway, talking to students in the hallway when he was shot. ''He was standing out in the hall, telling everybody to go back into class because it wasn't time to be dismissed,'' she said. ''Five seconds later he was shot.'' Brazill likely will be charged with murder, but must appear before a judge Saturday morning to determine whether he will be charged as an adult or juvenile. He was to be taken to a juvenile detention center Friday night. Police said Brazill got the gun and bullets from a dresser drawer at his grandfather's house last week. Smith said police are considering filing charges against the grandfather. Brazill's grandmother, Eberlena Josey, said the boy went to her house mad and wanting a key to his house at about 2:30 p.m. Josey said her daughter had called her in the morning and said that Brazill was being suspended and that he was going to have to walk home. She said she didn't have a gun in her house. It was not clear if she is related to the grandfather police said owned the gun used in the slaying. ''I thought he was the best boy. He was good,'' she said. The gun used in the slaying was described as a Raven, a semiautomatic manufactured by Phoenix Arms. The pistol is compact, barely five inches long, and is easily concealed. Brazill earned A's and B's and had perfect attendance, said Nat Harrington, a spokesman for the school board. ''He had no problems of any kind, prior to this,'' he said. Harrington said Brazill told investigators he liked Grunow. Outside the apartment where Brazill lives with his mother, stepfather and 2-year-old sister, neighbors said he was not a troublemaker. Carmen Torres said she often heard him playing the flute or would see him playing basketball outside with his friends. Grunow, who had worked at the school for seven years, had a wife, a 5-year-old son and infant daughter. ''I know Barry loved the kids and he would want us all to keep loving the kids,'' said Jeff Neal, a teacher at the school and a friend of Grunow's. Lake Worth is just south of West Palm Beach. The school has about 1,500 students. It is a community school because adult-education classes are held there in the evenings. Lake Worth is in Palm Beach County, the fourth largest school district in Florida and 14th largest in the nation with more than 149,500 students. AP-NY-05-26-00 2226EDT Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.