CA: Reader rebuttals to anti-50 editoral in SJ Mercury News


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shooterx10
August 3, 2003, 04:02 AM
Thank you to all those who replied back to these anti-gun scumbags! :cuss:

Posted on Sat, Aug. 02, 2003
Gun editorial gets it wrong

The Mercury News editorial board's cavalier treatment of the potential ban on a type of .50 caliber rifle (Opinion July 28) generates both anger and concern.

Anger, because the editorial board didn't even take time to explore the facts. Had you done so, you would have found that no crime ever has been committed in California with any .50-caliber arm; the supposed draconian effects can be achieved by a skilled marksman using any high-caliber arm; the arm in question is strictly a long-range target proposition, hardly a ``sniper'' rifle; and the author of the legislation is a far-left, hysterically anti-firearms Assembly member who can be counted on to trot out several such bills every session.

Concern, because of your flippant disregard of a constitutional right as contained in the Second Amendment. You say the burden of proof should be on those who may want to purchase such a rifle, not on government efforts to restrict such purchase. Would you also agree that as a condition of employment, every reporter in the land be required to prove that he or she will make no mistakes and write no potentially libelous stories? I thought not.

Bill Leonard
San Jose

Once again, it is you who has things backward. The Bill of Rights says a person has a right to own a firearm -- the part that says ``the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'' What part of ``the people'' do you not understand?

No official approval is required to own a big rifle, just as you don't have to get permission from anyone in order to express your opinions, however wrongheaded they may be.

Frank L. Messersmith
Cupertino

Your July 28 editorial repeats the same tired mantra that citizens should have no rights to weapons with military use. This is just the inverse of the standard interpretation of the Second Amendment. The amendment was formulated specifically to balance the power of government and citizens, not just to assure we could all hunt to feed ourselves or protect us from criminals. If an individual right to keep and bear arms exists, and many or most scholars think it does, then we all have the right to the same weapons as our own military and police.

Steve Schear
Fremont

Here is the link. (http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/6442894.htm)

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Standing Wolf
August 3, 2003, 05:36 PM
What part of ``the people'' do you not understand?

All of it, obviously. Leftist extremists purport to believe "the people" are somehow "represented" by the National Guard. I kind'a sort'a somehow doubt they'd go along with a similar interpretation of the First Amendment.

Sven
August 3, 2003, 06:28 PM
Nice. Were there any "pro-ban" letters?

I'm finding more and more like-minded folks here in the Bay Area. Joining a shooting club, networking through the forums and learning that other friends are interested in firearms has made all the difference in correcting my misformed perception that I am alone in a sea of fascists.

I now believe that I - and a few hundred normal and balanced (not to mention heavily armed) folks out there - are an island in a sea of fascists. :)

I've learned that some of my anti-leaning friends in the Bay Area are merely projecting their fears onto the world because they believe that they THEMSELVES should not be trusted with firearms! In taking said non-shooter associates out shooting for the first time, I've learned that rather quickly they lose their fear of guns as objects unto themselves and gain a respect for responsible handling of firearms - a respect that is necessary for safe operation and objective understanding of how these things work.

Only problem is, these people still will vote the same way!

How about we create a national holiday called "Take a politician or reporter out shooting for the first time" day? After visiting the firing range, we could show them a brief history of responsible firearms incidents where a life was saved with firearms (start with Tamara K's story (http://www.gunowners.org/wv21.htm)) and then...


...and then I wake up and realize this is a dream unless we all GET THE WORD OUT and STICK TOGETHER.

rrader
August 3, 2003, 10:22 PM
Sven:

...we could show them a brief history of responsible firearms incidents where a life was saved with firearms (start with Tamara K's story) and then...

Is this the same Tamara who is a Moderator of this forum?

4v50 Gary
August 4, 2003, 12:12 PM
Yep.

BTW, the drivel from the SJ Mercury is typical of the blather put out by the newspapers & TV on firearm ownership. San Jose is the city where two cops blasted a immigrant Vietnamese (or Hmong or Laotian?) woman who held a peeler in her hand.

Mute
August 4, 2003, 12:29 PM
I think the biggest threat to our freedom in Kalifornia is not the anti's but those who are apathetic. The Dems stay in power not because most people care about gun control one way or the other, but because they are more interested in continuing their dependence on government handouts, something which the Democrats love doing. They also know that this is their greatest source of power and take full advantage of that. Until we can break people's addiction to these entitlements, the anti's will always stay in power.

ElToro
August 4, 2003, 12:38 PM
Chalk one up for pop!

Thats MY dad who wrote one of those letters... he occasionally sends me much harsher screeds in email just to vent, threatening to one day send one to the editors of the daily fish wrap... i guess he finally did it.. ( i dont get the murky news since i dont live in SJ, but i read it on occasion at work)
He was a reporter for 20 years, so he knows of what he speaks and is quite erudite.

way to go dad!

ET

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