What We Believe, Part 5: Gun Rights
by Bill WhittleThe Left will have you believe that people who own guns are a bunch of fun-loving, action-hero-wannabes, who are excited by shiny things and loud noises and like to run around blowing things up by remote control. And I say, that’s not a bug — that’s a feature!
But there is much, much more to it than that.
Aside from the entirely plausible idea of defending yourself against criminals and even the big-state lovers who always seem to have Plans for Everyone, vesting ultimate power with the people was a well-reasoned, historically based, profoundly moral decision on the part of the Framers. You could take years making this case; I hope these eight minutes and twenty-one seconds can at least sketch out the broad outlines of why the First Amendment — and all the rest of it — lives or dies by the Second.
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157 Comments
Without the Second Amendment? All other Rights would be at the mercy of tyrants.
They have tried to ban lead in bullets, they have tried to take the guns out of cities, they will not stop. This is why it is so imperative we keep the SCOTUS we have. One more Liberal judge from Berkeley, and kiss this Amendment goodbye, along with many others.
The 2nd Amendment is the only thing that keeps our country from looking like Nazi Germany.
BTW: I like shiny things and loud noises.
Another fantastic video! I'm sending links to this series all over the place.
"BTW: I like shiny things and loud noises"
I have that on my resume. . . .
Gun rights is the foundation of our freedoms. Without the second amendment the US wouldn't exist as we know it.
As I've said in the past, who would try to take our weapons?
I'd like to meet the brave SEIU/obama-cop that would try. When they attack the 2nd (or even first) ammendment, they attack our Constitution, our country, our way of life.
Not a healthy life-style option.
Just sayin'
As always Bill – instructive, and important as we find ourselves at the crossroads as a nation. The 2nd keeps the statist away, and the criminals at bay.
A great point made in the great article "Gun Control and Genocide" is that firearms are the ultimate equalizer. All other weapons favor the strong, agile, and ruthless over the weak, slow, and timid. Firearms, however, give a 5'2", 90 lb female just as much capability of defending herself as they give a 6'4", 210 lb male. The second amendment is one of the most amazing concepts ever conceived. Thank heavens the Constitution wasn't written by the likes of Lawrence "[I] would ban all guns in America" O'Donnell over at MSNBC. One of the biggest take-home lessons for me from The Gulag Archipelago was where the author commented that if a few more of the Secret Police had come home in body bags, a lot fewer citizens would have been imprisoned, tortured, and/or exterminated.
Great Vid!
Bill was essentially talking about the thick spec wearing, pseudo-intellectual crowd that Larry O'Donnell runs with.
I'm sure Bill filmed the series in one day, long ago, and that makes Larry O'Donnell's recent remarks about doing away with all guns, being better than mere liberals, and admitting he's a socialist all the more important.
Place Larry in any major point in history and guess who he would have aligned with. Hint: he wouldn't have ended up in a ditch.
Socialism is for the people, not the socialists.
I have trained long and hard to be proficient with my guns …as has my husband. And we have demanded & ensured this same for our kids. I KNOW I can shoot better than most cops (even under pressure & the adrenaline rush). Although I enjoy my Action Pistol night, I do it to perfect my shooting ability as at my age I cannot expect the cops to arrive in time let alone shoot the perp …I will take care of myself, thank you …free of charge …no tax dollars.
And we ALL should take care of ourselves …free of charge, no tax dollars. This includes medicare, medicaid, unemployment, welfare, food stamps, housing …etc. The Pilgrims tried Collectivism …it failed big time. No different than what Obama is now trying to do. Ah, but he is adding "global redistribution of wealth" …like that is going to make a difference? Beyond STUPID …and what that word might be, I don't know.
I agree with Skip_C
This ought to be easily be framed as a women's rights issue. It is the equalizer for women and single mothers who ought to be able to defend themselves and their children without the help of a man.
Of course, the second amendment also makes the liberals think twice before they overreach. They will always have an enforcement problem every time they take away our freedoms. 16,000 new IRS agents with shotguns?
.
I also like the non-shiny ones as well…lol
Almost time to teach my girls to shot, and to respect guns (I don't feel like one goes without the other). My wife is for it one week, and then her liberal back ground comes through and then she's against it. I gotta catch her on one of her conservative weeks and just take them all to the range.
Old addage, if guns were outlawed, only outlaws would have guns.
In an armed populas, a bad guy sure would have to give careful thought before he violated someone else.
The Gulag Archipelago is a long read (a awful lot of foot notes) but well worth it.
Not afraid of guns, just bullets.
I would never shoot Bambi or a bunny wabbit but I will kill the person who tries to harm my family. Period. I don't care if it it's shiny or matte black, as long as it it shoots a reasonable distance and has bullets in it.
If you were ever against gun rights before, seeing this nation slip ever closer to tyranny over the past 2 years should change your mind. Our founding fathers were absolute geniuses, and knew what it would take to remove a despot.
There are towns scattered throughout the US that require homeowners to OWN a gun, and ammo, and know how to use it. And guess what…………………….they have virtually ZERO property crimes.
Are you going to break into a house where you KNOW the people inside are armed and know how to use a gun?
You'd have to be an idiot…………………………just google or bing………."town requires that you own a gun"
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95092&page=...
if I didn't have guns, how would I take out the little orange men when they try to drink all my vegetable oil?
obama has definitely saved and created jobs in the gun manufacturing industry!
Made the bullets more expensive too.
So I was thinkin' too, maybe it shouldn't be the thought of a tyranical goverment we should want to arm ourselves against, but an outside attack that the goverment won't provide us with protection against. It's not like it's their job or anything. It makes me nervous to hear about reducing our nukes, Obamys goons sueing Arizona for protecting herself… etc. etc. etc.
Here in Illinois, we STILL have no way to lawfully carry a firearm.
Exercise of that Second Amendment right gets you a felony.
Why is it that no lawyer will go after section 1983 rights violations here?
We'll be wearing blue tommorrow.
Illinois politicians do it every day – with impunity.
The Republican Party stands down this particular every election cycle.
Gee, why is the entire state dominated by Democrats in a state where the new governor
only wins 3 counties out of 102?
Too bad the Supreme Court gutted the Second Amendment in the last two gun control rulings. They said very clearly that the Government can make you get a license. If you need a license you don't have a right.
Ironic that Chicago bans guns but wanted to call in the National Guard to fight crime in their streets.
John Lott's book, "More Guns, Less Crime" proves, county by county in the USA, that those jurisdictions that have right to carry laws have less crime after they such pass laws.
Criminals simply go to the other places run by democrats rather than take a risk.
This is why we must restore the Constitution.
Law is to be made int he Legislature, not the courts!
You are right on the second account though.
Illinois is a lot like Nazi Germany – smoking ban and all.
Try living near the Bay in CA. It's not a happy meal kinda place.
Me too. Even the camo ones that make really big booms.
Deference works and as soon as we embrace the reality that there are more of us than there are of them, we will take our country back and restore our Constitution.
No offense Ma'am, I used to shoot bambi's up until about 6 years ago, now with this President, it may be the only meat I can afford.
My guns will never be confiscated without a violent deadly response.
I take issue with one thing in the video.
The Second Amendment does not "allow" us to keep and bear arms. There is no allowing or disallowing involved. Government is not empowered in this area. I have a right, it comes from my Creator and it shall not be infringed. Period.
Government is not there to "allow", neither is the Constitution. Both are there to Observe, protect and defend just such a pre existing right. Period.
I believe John Lott's work is greatly responsible for SCOTUS dismissing the "interest balancing approach". Because he showed the Brady campaign was absolutely FULL OF IT, the premise itself has been relegated to the dustbin of history.
Folks who care about guns and rights own John Lott a great big thank you.
I am left to wonder what people are thinking, here and there, when they go vote. What is it gonna take??? SHEESH!
To the leftist elite, we're just bitter clingers.
I'm getting my concealed carry license renewed next week. Sweet!
Common sense=freedom. Well spoken Mr. Whittle.
If everyone starts packin' and does a march on Chi-Town, say one million gun owners, what are they gonna do, arrest and imprison all? It would be a bit tough for the obama-bots to pull that off. Strength in numbers….
If the Jews had done it before Hitler took away all of the guns, the world would be very diffferent I think.
Ditto
I knew Lott is a hero but didn't know that. After that, he belongs in our Hall of Fame!
The messiah didn't like Lott when he was at U of Chicago. Lott said he was aloof and petulant and would never accept any friendly dinner invitations.
—
Los Angeles runs around 2.1 homicides per 100/000 per year
Switzerland has 0.24
LA has near-total gun control
The Swiss are the most heavily armed people on earth, with nearly every household *issued* a military SIG 510 or 550 rifle. The government actively promotes the shooting sports, and even subsidizes the cost of ammo.
Guns don't kill people. Criminals kill people. Unless people with guns kill the criminals.
What the tea party really believes: screwing working people, being mindless slaves to billionaires, and keeping their guns for a revolt that they they would never have the balls to fight. Truly hilarious.
Causation does not imply correlation.
A single armed sociaty is a Dictatorship. That is incompatible with America.
Never have the balls to fight? I'm ready…
The Swiss remember Hitler.
The most law-abiding demographic in the US? Concealed Carry permit holders.
Go figure!
As someone who carries a gun most of the time, I always feel the responsibility to act with MORE caution, MORE awareness and MORE respect than everyone else. Carrying a firearm in public bestows on one an enormous amount of responsibility. I shoulder that responsibility willingly! As a former soldier and combat veteran, I never take lightly the consequences of using a gun, but I would not hesitate to use it in defense of myself of anybody else – even some 'Liberal' who doesn't believe I should have the right to carry it.
Thankfully, even many Democrats still believe in gun-rights: It is the Progressives who want to take them away, in order to leave the people completely powerless and even more reliant on government.
Even if some radical left-wing President and Congress DID somehow manage to pass laws banning the private ownership of firearms, I would tell them "Good luck trying to take mine!"
Μολὼν λαβέ
No you're not. All tea baggers are chicken sh*t internet blatherers who sit at home and talk the talk and wouldn't know how to walk the walk if they were held by the hand. You'll never do anything. Guaranteed.
Those 16,000 shotguns would easily be taken away from the Government if they tried to use them against the people–most likely by the IRS employees themselves. They aren't robots and I know several government workers that are gun owning conservatives. Feels good to know that they are on the "inside" so to speak.
Besides we got 80,000,000 trigger fingers out here in flyover country.
This is really good. But also watch part 4 on Natural Rights. That's the one I like the best.
We only want the cabbage, dude….and donuts ; )
right on. remember they will drag a couple of local uniform guys along with them when they come for your guns. don't shoot the local uniform guy–that's you neighbor. If you have to shoot aim for the guy in the suit standing next to the sedan parked across the street. that's the thug who calls the shots. he is your enemy. better yet hole up and call for back up! we got 80,000,000 trigger fingers!
According to gun-grabber logic, guns cause crime. By Brady Bunch
thinking, Switzerland ought to be the most violent place on earth.
Instead, the Swiss prove that the basic thesis of gun control is total
crap.
You see, if you were cognizant of basic logic, boy, I am in fact asserting
quite the inverse: that a lack of correlation falsifies causation.
I know! The little bastards!
"screwing working people"
No, just nonworking people. Like you.
USAUSAUSA—so says the Soros paid troll who "earns" his $7.50/hr by takin' it to the TeaBaggers!
You are such a douche bag!
<perk> did someone say…2nd Amendment? : D
I agree, a robber would have to be an idiot to try to rob a house where he knew the occupants were armed. But there was guy who tried to rob a gun store at gunpoint in a town near here. Besides all of the employees being armed, there was a cop inside shopping. The robber had to walk around the police car parked in front of the door on his way into the store. No more robber.
Shut up.
Liberals like Lawrence O'Donnell would ban all guns in America even though they have no right to do so. That's another reason why liberals cannot be trusted with government. They have no respect for the rights of others.
Strange thing. I grew up you fought to earn respect. I got into at least 10 fights through my school years. win lose or draw you got respect for not running away (this was in the suburbs of Chicago by the way). Asked some younger men here in California how many fights they'd been through and heard none??? I think something has been lost if you can't (or don't need to) fight your way through to maintain dignity.
My family isn't anti-gun (got lots of veterans in the family), but my mom banned guns from the house after my dad shot the TV because he didn't like what some politician said on Meet the Press. I learned to use a firearm but haven't ever owned one. That may change soon.
Been hitting the post-election bottle, have we? Literally nothing you just said is true. I kind of doubt 95% of gun owners keep guns thinking they'll revolt against the Federal Government someday. My family's owned guns all my life because we're sportsmen, we like being able to defend ourselves if we're ever caught in a violent situation, and it's an important barometer for how free a country is.
As for being mindless slaves to billionaires, I think you're mistaking the Tea Party for the Democrats, the number one billionaire donation recipient.
And screwing working people? It's kind of hard to screw a shrinking class, shrinking thanks to the economic uncertainty over Obama's insane spending spree and factors like the minimum wage, currently making the part-time jobs which once sustained both students and families needing extra money scarce and hard to get these days. Are you so insulated from reality that Tea Party members all get together plotting nefariously, no doubt over cigars and Hennessy, to find new ways to "screw working people"?
If you do decide to get a firearm, Glocks, Rugers and Smith & Wesson revolvers aren't a bad way to go for pistols.
Your mom kind of reminds me of my future in-laws. I always go out shooting with my dad on Fourth of July and New Year's Eve, so I casually announced that I'd be taking my fiance with me one year to shoot, and her parents (both paranoid and hypochondriac LA folk) flipped out and forbade it. I said, "Sure", and then took her out shooting anyway. There's nothing better than a sexy Puerto Rican gal holding a gun.
I don't know who was on, but it was probably a Republican (my dad was a liberal). This was back in the early '60s. My mom was okay about guns, but the combination of my dad's hot temper and two babies in the house ended her patience on the matter.
Take some photos of your fiancee with the gun. You can use them to piss off your in-laws, or to entertain yourself when she's not available–!
Yep. And I heard they call it flyover country because of all the angels up above who watch over the 80 million with the 240 million lead accelerator devices!
—
The Democrats been trying to disarm us for a long time. They really do need to disarm us now days since the Democrats wants the U.N. to control us and International Laws to dictate our way of life!
Its a rule in our house that *I* (specifically…apparently I have a temper…go figure <snort> ) am not allowed to shoot ANYTHING that annoys me. Ever.
I am allowed to shoot targets, dinner, and anything that threatens my safety or the safety of my family.
I once argued that my hateful paint horse (she hates me, I swear) was threatening me…gave hostile looks at our son…and could potentially be dinner. I got frowny faced.
But Elvis'ing a tv?? That's epic!! LOL
I moved to Utah after living in Illinois for years. On my previous point, I stand corrected. Though there were people (rumored) to say "feh" to the restrictive Illinois gun laws and have them anyway.
Me? I was on the base marksmenship team (I sucked, but what the hell) and had special compensation.
The odd thing about Illinois was that (IMHO) most dems were old school. They weren't the tofu, San Fran liberals you see today.
In 1997 handguns were banned in the UK telling us that it would eliminate armed crime. Tony Blair even boasted hwo he had taken guns off our streets.
Armed crime went up, including crimes specifically committed with handguns.
Since then the UK government has found excuse after excuse to restrict even replica firearms, blaming them for the increase without explaining why crime involving illegal handguns and actual guns deaths were influenced by the legal availabilty of air soft guns.
Some politicians have gone so far as to deny that they ever claimed the handgun ban was intended to reduce crime, even though those statements are in official records.
I never thought the ban was to do with crime anyway, 1997 was an election year and the politicians wanted to make themselves look tough on crime while they did nothing to target criminals at all.
Aaah, typed like a true lib/dim/socialist that doesn't have the sense to get in out of the cold without the government telling them they should. Your post is the epitome of the stupidness that is the left. Screwing working people. Really. Wonder why so many supporters of Nobama were able to attend his ordainment? It's because most of them didn't have to worry about being at work. Wonder why so many of our tea parties aren't populated with the actual numbers of people that support them? It's because most of us have to work, run businesses and tend to family issues? Something the left knows little to nothing about. And as for the gun issue: The week after the current SOTUS (That's socialist of the United States for your feeble little mind), was elected and his minions put into their positions in the government, I purchased my first firearm. Several more since then. Not have the balls to fight? Tell you what, come to rural Georgia and talk that smack and let's see if us true patriots will put our money where our mouths are. You are a true talking piece for the left. Mommy and Daddy must be so proud.
Logic is, the second amendment was made the "next" amendment after the first, to protect the first. Anyone who can't figure that out, is trying not to.
Amusing little exchange up there
Lock.
But Elvis'ing a tv?? That's epic!! LOL
Funny thing is, the pasty leftists who put "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers on their Priuses, would crap themselves and faint if they actually witnessed it.
How does that old adage go? I believe it's something like this – an armed society is a polite society, and being judged by twelve rather than being carried by six is a good thing. The day we give up our guns is the day the Constitution becomes a mere piece of paper and we become true slaves of a repressive government. And boy oh boy, the useless nations and people like Hilary Clinton want us unarmed.
Remember this:
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." – Thomas Jefferson.
That says it all. I'll keep my guns, thank you.
Without the Second Amendment? All other Rights would be
at the mercy ofcrushed by tyrants.Fixed that for ya…
You don't think we have the balls to fight it?????
Try us, numbnuts…….PLEASE try us!
The Second Amendment IS my license.
They'll have a heck of a time trying to run them all down for sure. There simply aren't enough agents to track all of them down let alone confiscate them all. You can bet once they start, it'll get far more difficult.
And now, a scene from Day One of the Tea Bag Battle for Freedom:
Patriot #1: General, we brought our guns.
Tea Party General: Great. Let's start the revolution!
Patriot #2: Whoo! Who we gonna fight?
Tea Party General: The government!
Patriot#1: Let's go get 'em.
*Silence*
Patriot#2: Uh, where's the government?
Patriot #1: Washington, D.C., I think.
Patriot #2: But we're in Texas.
Tea Party General: We don't need to get the government, all we need to get is some LIBERALS.
Patriot #1: Hell yeah! Where are they?
Tea Party General: I see 'em mostly on the internet.
Partiot #2: Heck. I can't use my gun on the internet. It won't fit!
Tea Party General: Maybe we could, uh… how 'bout we instead… um. How about we go back to my field, shoot us some more pumpkins, drink us some beer and work on our plan a little more?
Patriot #1: Pumpkins? I love shootin' pumpkins.
Patriot #2: And drinking beer, 'cause liberals HATE beer.
They pile into their Ford F-250, which they neither use for hauling or work, and drive off into the sunset, still unaware of how blindingly ignorant they are. The end.
Even if the SCOTUS turned the 2nd Amendment on it's ear, I think they'd be hard-pressed to find someone for implementation and enforcement.
That's called 'infringement' and is not allowed per the wording in the 2nd Amendment. Daly and his buttboys are trying real hard to make it hard but will ultimately fail. Keep pushing.
Well, thanks for the lame attempt at humor, demonstrating that you are the typical, out-of-touch liberal elitist, but it doesn't work like that: Any future revolt against this government would not involve anyone marching on Washington; it would simply involve those of us who have had enough refusing to recognize the authority of the federal government. It is THEY who would have to march on US and, considering how incompetent and inefficient the federal government is (I'm talking about it's administrative abilities, going back many, many years, not just the CURRENT government); we are all going to have PLENTY of time to drink beer and shoot pumpkins…….and STILL be reloaded and ready for when they finally arrive!
I don't see why you're so worked up. It's not like you have the "balls" to enforce tyranny so you'll never find out if the people you hate are brave or not.
Even the ancients understood the concept.
"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms." Aristotle
I don't think any federal administration will be able to ban gun ownership: Eventually, the UN will probably impose a world-wide ban, which will 'officially' mean that gun ownership is 'banned' in the US, but it will be completely unenforceable. Over the course of many years, anyone stopped by the police – for ANY reason – found carrying a gun will have it confiscated; gun stores will be closed down (although many will survive by re-branding themselves and selling other products as a 'front', whilst selling smuggled weapons 'under the counter'), and that is about as close as the federal government will ever get to taking away our guns. They can't send federal agents door to door to confiscate guns: It would cost too much money and the lives of too many federal agents.
Leftists couldn't kill time!
There's no small irony at work here. The two cities, Washington and Chicago, who have the highest gun crimes in the country, had no legal gun ownership. They just so happen to be the biggest 'plantations' meaning they have the highest populations of poor, inner city minorities, slaves, if you will, and are run by the democrats, the new slave owners. Unfortunately for the 'plantation' crowd, they're victims of a Stockholm Syndrome-like malady that will forever addict them to the stingy largesse that strings them out like cracks addicts moving from one hit to another. Gun ownership is tantamount to liberty and once people taste that, there's no stopping them but the new slave owners can't have that and fight tooth and nail to ensure their power base. Look for that to change when people wake up and realize they've been fooled. Oops, looks like they already have!
It's not about fighting the government, Mr. USAUSAUSAUSA, people just don't want to live in fear from petty criminals, muggers and thieves and living room liberals who think they know it all.
I like to remind folks of that little fact ever now and again. It's fun to watch their face brighten, or darken, depending on who I'm reminding.
So, does that mean you're not allowed to carry, even if your state says you can? "No, Mom, you may NOT bring your sidearm!" (wink)
Ask your girls if they would be interested in trying a martial art first. Maybe judo. If so, that will help them get their mind right as one of my LEO buddies loves to say.
After a couple of years in such a discipline, they should be ready for basic firearms instruction.
Just my two cents… Well, make that my experience based on raising a couple of kids to adults and steering the wife towards self-defense and firearms training.
I live not too far from Kennesaw Georgia. The mandatory ownership law in Kennesaw was passed in 1982 in defiance of other municipalities passing bans. –> http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=41196
Funny thing is, the town is relatively crime free. At least in regard to violent crimes… the last time I bothered to check on the stats.
Think of it as the municipal equivalent of posting this sign in your front yard –> http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/images/g-i/house_...
How in the world did we ever reach the point where a woman, lying raped and murdered in an alley, is somehow considered to be "morally superior" to another woman, standing in the entrance to that same alley, explaining to the police how that rapist got a hole in his chest?
You can have my cabbage when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. And as for the donuts, you're too late. The corn flakes ate them already.
You can't fool me. That's just what you want me to think.
* in my best imitation of John Wayne * Well put Pilgrim… +
Mr. Whittle, your videos are excellent! 'Ordinary Men & Extraordinary Heroes: Serving Those Who Serve America' is very moving, and 'A Tale of Two Americas' is even more brilliant. Your work is much needed and makes the world a better place. Thank you for your wonderfully powerful stories — you hit many nerves!
Most evil Liberals and their most restrictive anti-gun bills:
Ronald Reagan (R) — The Mulsford Act in California
George Pataki (R) — New York's 5 Point Gun Law
George HW Bush (R) — The ban on import and sale of assault rifles
James Brady (R) — The Brady Bill. Legislated and publicly supported by George HW Bush (R) and Ronald Reagan (R).
George W. Bush (R) — Patriot Acts I and II
Damn dirty Liberals and their Republican/Conservative operatives.
But we love you O defender from the men in orange! by the way may I suggest a flame thrower?
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