When I was around 10 I bought my first BB gun. That was 60 years ago. An identical model is now on sale at Walmart for $22.95.
When I was 12 or 13 I bought a .20 caliber Sheridan Bluestreak pump air rifle. Eight pumps gave the pellet the power of a .22 short.
When I was 15 or 16 I took a bus to the Dave Cook Sporting Goods store in downtown Denver, where I bought two M1-Garand surplus rifles. No ID, no permit forms, nothing. Just pure 2nd Amendment. I rode the bus home with those guns and no one gave me a second glance because it was not unusual. Pickups had guns in gun racks in the back window. Many, but no one knows how many because such statistics weren't taken, had pistols in their glove compartment and carried one in their pocket. I'd hop on my bike, guns strapped to my back, and ride west 10 miles to the foothills to hunt or target shoot. Or, I'd ride it 6 miles SouthEast to Cherry Creek Reservoir to do the same. Back then the farmland began less than a mile east of my house, now it starts 15 miles east. I suspect that guns were more prolific then than they are now, because of
illegal gun restrictions now in affect.
Illegal? Yes. The framers of the Constitution made it very clear how important guns were to the 1776 revolution when they added the phrase "
shall not be infringed" to the 2nd Amendment. Without it the other Amendments or the Constitution itself is unenforceable. To "infringe" is to trim away at the edges. Trimming can continue until there is nothing left. The NY legislature passed the most restrictive gun laws in the country a few days ago. This despite the overwhelming evidence that past gun bans only increased gun and other crimes because citizens were left defenseless. They, and all anti-Constitution people say they are "being reasonable" and you aren't if you disagree with them. The NY crowd even claimed they "protected the 2nd Amendment" (their words)! How? By not confiscating the guns!!! With friends like that the 2nd Amendment needs no enemies.
The police you say? 30 seconds? The average response time to a 911 call varies around the country but generally is between 6 and 8 minutes. Sooner IF a squad car happens to be in the area and available. 30 seconds? Only IF they are parked outside when your emergency arises. Many times police do not come at all when a citizen places a 911 call. When seconds count the police are only minutes away, if they come at all.
The SCTOUS has ruled twice, in 1987 and 2005, that the police have NO obligation to protect any particular citizen even if they know that that the citizen is under current threat of lethal violence, which was the reason for the two lawsuits. Everyone screams about the children, but their only solution is to put up signs on school property that declare it a "Gun Free Zone", in compliance with the American Safe Schools Act of 1995, which made the schools decidedly UNSAFE by prohibiting armed guards in public schools. However, our elected politicians gave an exemption to the Sidwell school, where they and the media elite send their kids. Sidwell has 11 armed guards to keep their children safe.
The Founding Fathers also carved into the Constitution what they thought would be a bed rock guarantee that the Constitution would be protected and defended. They put it in the oath that Congress, Senators and Federal servants have to take before they assume their elected office:
I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
ALL have to swear an oath to "support and defend" the Constitution against ALL enemies, both foreign and domestic, and that they will bear TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE to the Constitution, they take the OBLIGATION freely,and WITHOUT any mental reservations or purposes of evasion.
So far, only a few of our Senators, Congressmen have upheld their oath. The majority, while not abandoning their oath altogether, have allowed infringements to many of the amendments in the Bill of Rights, not just the 2nd Amendment. The rest, who constantly vote for any and all restrictions, and would support a nationwide gun ban if they could, are liars whose actions demonstrate that they are domestic enemies of the Constitution who pick and choose which parts they will support and defend, but have mental reservations about the rest, if they weren't outright being evasive (fingers crossed behind their backs) when they took the oath. Our Founding Fathers never realized that a time would arise when many Americans would not put their faith in the Constitution but, instead, have their hearts and minds focused on another form of politic, one that has left a history of tyranny and millions of dead in its wake.
Just take a few seconds to pause and think about all that has happened in this country since Bush pushed and passed the Patriot Act, formed FEMA and the DHS, which gave rise to the TSA and its nationwide VIPR teams, drones in the sky, Federal regulatory agencies that have run amok and trampled the Constitution and personal freedoms, the "Constitution Free Zone" that puts 110 million Americans outside the full protection of the Constitution, which is even less than what the rest of us have been left with.
And you don't think it will get worse? When push comes to shove what will you do? Our Founding Fathers wrote what they did in the Declaration of Independence. In that document they made it very clear that the 2nd Amendment is not about duck hunting or sport shooting, or even personal protection, all though those activities are an auxiliary spin off of the 2A.
They learned that political power flows out of the barrel of a gun, the most powerful guns you can get, and the Europeans learned that also, but too late, twice. I doubt that American will be willing to spend blood and treasure to bail out Europe a third time. Mao, Stalin, Hitler and a host of other tyrants knew that as well, which was why their first act after seizing power was to confiscate all weapons, and in doing so they illustrated the REAL purpose of the 2nd Amendment all too well:
He who owns the guns makes the rules.
Once you give up your right to make the rules someone else will make them for you, regardless if you like it or not. England gave up that right and now they are reaping the consequences: the highest violent crime rate in Europe of not the world, even as the police state seeps into every aspect of their lives with cameras and audio equipment watching and listening to their every word. And they thought they were being "reasonable".
