Liberty MavenQuick Hits: Guns, Obama, Ron Paul, The Big Three, and Random Thoughts
July 10th, 2009 8:10 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Activism, Big Government, Civil Liberties, Commentary, Constitution, Court Cases, Economics, Environment, Free Market, Gun Control, Health Care, Individual Responsibility, Liberty, Market Regulation, Maven Commentary, Money, Ron Paul, congress, energy, government spending | 3 Responses
This week I’m thinking about the 2nd Amendment and gun control. By now everyone has heard about the Heller Supreme Court victory last year that struck down DC’s gun ban. There is another “gun fight” brewing. The Heller case dealt with applying the 2nd Amendment to the federal government. The new case explores whether the 2nd Amendment applies to the states. Perhaps most compelling about this new case is that it is an effort to strike down Chicago’s gun ban and we have a President who would love nothing more than to extend that ban to all the states.
Make no mistake that is what Barack Obama wants to do. Whether he actually can accomplish it is another story. For more details on the new case and its history see this excellent article from Reason. Let’s all hope that the Supreme Court takes the case and does the right thing.
Ron Paul is one of the leading advocates of interpreting the 2nd Amendment as written. No surprise there, but does he actually put his money where his mouth is? Of course he does. Here are three gun-related bills he introduced a few weeks ago in the House:
H.R.3022 : To restore the second amendment rights of all Americans. This bill repeals various gun control laws already on the books, including background checks and child safety locks.
H.R.3021 : To repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and amendments to that Act.
H.R.3023 : To provide for the safety of United States aviation and the suppression of terrorism. This bill would allow employees of airlines to carry guns in order to protect themselves and their passengers.
I especially like that last one. September 11th may have turned out differently had the pilots been armed. They say that 9/11 changed everything. Well, if pilots were armed it may have changed nothing. No justification for the Iraq war. No justification for the Patriot Act. No justification for warrantless wiretaps. And so on.
Gun control is certainly important but in the age of Obama there seems to be 3 major efforts that liberty lovers need to do everything in our power to stop. All of them directly affect our economy in bad ways. Together they are a recipe for economic armageddon.
- Cap and Trade: This bill needs to fail in the Senate after already passing in the House. We all know why it’s a bad idea. In fact even some of those who voted for it in the House know it’s a bad idea but voted for it anyway. I wish Ron Paul would name names.
- Government Health Care: Obama says the government is going to “compete” with the private sector. The market will react by forcing people toward using government health care until all the competitors are gone. Obamacare is really just a migration plan toward complete socialized medicine. How much is it going to cost to provide health care for 130 million more Americans and where will the money come from?
- Stimulus, Part 2: There’s a renewed effort under way to push for another stimulus program. We haven’t even spent more than 10% of our previous stimulus money and we already want another one? Obama used fear tactics to push his first one through. It had to be done right then, yet months later we’ve only spent 10% of the money. The only effective shovel ready Obama project is the one that is shoveling bullshit from the White House directly into our ears.
Fighting this evil recipe for economic armageddon should be first on your liberty to-do list.
And on that “up” note here are this week’s random thoughts, tweets, and quotes:
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the f**k happened. – @rebelyid on Twitter
- In the U.S. every day should be Independence Day. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!
- I wonder how many would show up if we had a memorial/funeral for the Constitution. Not “celebrity” enough I guess.
- Screw Al Qaeda, there are at least three other Al’s that need to be stopped, Al Franken, Al Sharpton, and Al Gore.
- If people automatically think that strict adherence to the Constitution is “crazy” then Ron Paul will never be considered sane.
- G8 all agree to attempt to control the weather. Mother Nature laughs.
- I cringe at the word “regulation” more than any other imaginable swear word.
And finally, my favorite, passionate Frederic Bastiat quote:
Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations, their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations!
and with that… Have a wonderful weekend!
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July 10th, 2009 at 3:47 pm (#)
"The only effective shovel ready Obama project is the one that is shoveling bullshit from the White House directly into our ears."
…good stuff and soooo true. =)
July 10th, 2009 at 9:03 pm (#)
During World War Two the reason that Japan did not attack the mainland of the United States was their belief and knowledge that a large percentage the populace was armed and would defend the country. Now however, there is the proposal to first disarm the people and to create a civilian defense force to protect the country and they are to be armed as well as the military. Is it now that we as a people and a nation can no longer defend ourselves or is it believed that we no longer have the courage or the willingness to defend our country and ourselves? What would be the next to fall local law enforcement? It is sounding much like Germany in the 1930’s and we know how well that worked out!
July 13th, 2009 at 5:16 am (#)
On the gun control issue…I am from Canada where the gun control is out of control. Let me shed some light. We need to take a course that takes about 8 hours in this class the first half is about why guns are dangerous and why the government of Canada claims that guns are not a valid form of self protection. it also teaches you as to why you can be held accountable for assault or murder if you were to shoot or shoot at a robber who broke into your house in the middle of the night or any time of the day for that matter. The government is protecting the rights of a person who brakes into my house with the intent to steal my property and possible hurt me. The second half is the safety and how the gun registry works. Finally you pass the test they do a background check and ask for the names and numbers of the last 2 sexual partners or significant others you had in the past 10 years as well as 2 character witnesses. Finally you get a license you can now go and buy your gun…. (only long guns not hand guns or any thing else, cause guns are only permitted for hunting.). You pick out a gun you then have about 4 pages of registry paper work to fill out. You get a temporary registry paper work which lets you use your gun while the RCMP (our version of FBI sort of) complete the paper work. ok great now we have a gun we can use for hunting or sport shooting (not protection from people who might do you harm). Cool well one more thing, if you plan to take your gun any where besides hunting or sport shooting range you must call the rcmp and ask for permission to travel with your gun and they will submit you with written notice. So with all this regulation and making sure only the good guys get guns in this country you probably think there are no more murders especially by hand gun seeing how no one is permitted to have a hand gun in the country…. well that would be dead wrong no significant down turns in gun murders or violence has ever occurred with every regulation they have been placing on the people. But as a criminal you now know if you bust into some ones house they likely won't be shooting you… and if they do you can have them charged with assault. Oh yeah and there are plenty of high school shooting here too so don't think gun regulation will stop that in the states…. As Americans your right to this is protected by the constitution but you need to make sure they don't let it slip away or you will quickly become like us and have no resistance of last resort. Remember your history and why the 2nd amendment was put in there in the first place.
Good nra video on how the government was taking guns away from pepople at a time they needed it the most (government authority and protection was pretty much non-existant , looters were running rampant ) I think this situation was exactly the one in the minds of the founding fathers. Then the government exerts time , money , and risk to remove the protection from lawful citizens. I am sure most of you have seen this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-yVu8×8oC0