Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 3:28am

Gun Confiscation: Go For It Liberals

 

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.

Noah Webster, An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Constitution (17 October 1787).

 

 

One does not have to read long on most Leftist sites before becoming aware of how popular the concept of disarming the American people is on the Left.  Charles C. W. Cooke at National Review Online has some practical suggestions for the implementation of this cherished Leftist goal:

 

Seriously, try it. Start the process. Stop whining about it on Twitter, and on HBO, and at the Daily Kos. Stop playing with some Thomas Jefferson quote you found on Google. Stop jumping on the news cycle and watching the retweets and viral shares rack up. Go out there and begin the movement in earnest. Don’t fall back on excuses. Don’t play cheap motte-and-bailey games. And don’t pretend that you’re okay with the Second Amendment in theory, but you’re just appalled by the Heller decision. You’re not. Heller recognized what was obvious to the amendment’s drafters, to the people who debated it, and to the jurists of their era and beyond: That “right of the people” means “right of the people,” as it does everywhere else in both the Bill of Rights and in the common law that preceded it. A Second Amendment without the supposedly pernicious Heller “interpretation” wouldn’t be any impediment to regulation at all. It would be a dead letter. It would be an effective repeal. It would be the end of the right itself. In other words, it would be exactly what you want! Man up. Put together a plan, and take those words out of the Constitution.

This will involve hard work, of course. You can’t just sit online and preen to those who already agree with you. No siree. Instead, you’ll have to go around the states — traveling and preaching until the soles of your shoes are thin as paper. You’ll have to lobby Congress, over and over and over again. You’ll have to make ads and shake hands and twist arms and cut deals and suffer all the slings and arrows that will be thrown in your direction. You’ll have to tell anybody who will listen to you that they need to support you; that if they disagree, they’re childish and beholden to the “gun lobby”; that they don’t care enough about children; that their reverence for the Founders is mistaken; that they have blood on their goddamn hands; that they want to own firearms only because their penises are small and they’re not “real men.” And remember, you can’t half-ass it this time. You’re not going out there to tell these people that you want “reform” or that “enough is enough.” You’re going there to solicit their support for removing one of the articles within the Bill of Rights. Make no mistake: It’ll be unpleasant strolling into Pittsburgh or Youngstown or Pueblo and telling blue-collar Democrat after blue-collar Democrat that he only has his guns because he’s not as well endowed as he’d like to be. It’ll be tough explaining to suburban families that their established conception of American liberty is wrong. You might even suffer at the polls because of it. But that’s what it’s going to take. So do it. Start now. Off you go.

And don’t stop there. No, no. There’ll still be a lot of work to be done. As anybody with a passing understanding of America’s constitutional system knows, repealing the Second Amendment won’t in and of itself lead to the end of gun ownership in America. Rather, it will merely free up the federal government to regulate the area, should it wish to do so. Next, you’ll need to craft the laws that bring about change — think of them as modern Volstead Acts — and you’ll need to get them past the opposition. And, if the federal government doesn’t immediately go the whole hog, you’ll need to replicate your efforts in the states, too, 45 of which have their own constitutional protections. Maybe New Jersey and California will go quietly. Maybe. But Idaho won’t. Louisiana won’t. Kentucky won’t. Maine won’t. You’ll need to persuade those sovereignties not to sue and drag their heels, but to do what’s right as defined by you. Unfortunately, that won’t involve vague talk of holding “national conversations” and “doing something” and “fighting back against the NRA.” It’ll mean going to all sorts of groups — unions, churches, PTAs, political meetings, bowling leagues — and telling them not that you want “common-sense reforms,” but that you want their guns, as in Australia or Britain or Japan. Obviously, the Republicans aren’t going to help in this, so you’ll need to commandeer the Democratic party to do it. That means you’ll need their presidential candidates on board. That means you’ll need to make full abolition the stated policy of the Senate and House caucuses. That means you’ll need the state parties to sign pledges promising not to back away if it gets tough. And if they won’t, you’ll need to start a third party and accept all that that entails.

And when you’ve done all that and your vision is inked onto parchment, you’ll need to enforce it. No, not in the namby-pamby, eh-we-don’t-really-want-to-fund-it way that Prohibition was enforced. I mean enforce it — with force. When Australia took its decision to Do Something, the Australian citizenry owned between 2 and 3 million guns. Despite the compliance of the people and the lack of an entrenched gun culture, the government got maybe three-quarters of a million of them — somewhere between a fifth and a third of the total. That wouldn’t be good enough here, of course. There are around 350 million privately owned guns in America, which means that if you picked up one in three, you’d only be returning the stock to where it was in 1994. Does that sound difficult? Sure! After all, this is a country of 330 million people spread out across 3.8 million square miles, and if we know one thing about the American people, it’s that they do not go quietly into the night. But the government has to have their guns. It has to. The Second Amendment has to go.

You’re going to need a plan. A state-by-state, county-by-county, street-by-street, door-to door plan. A detailed roadmap to abolition that involves the military and the police and a whole host of informants — and, probably, a hell of a lot of blood, too. Sure, the ACLU won’t like it, especially when you start going around poorer neighborhoods. Sure, there are probably between 20 and 30 million Americans who would rather fight a civil war than let you into their houses. Sure, there is no historical precedent in America for the mass confiscation of a commonly owned item — let alone one that was until recently constitutionally protected. Sure, it’s slightly odd that you think that we can’t deport 11 million people but we can search 123 million homes. But that’s just the price we have to pay. Times have changed. It has to be done: For the children; for America; for the future. Hey hey, ho ho, the Second Amendment has to go. Let’s do this thing.

Go here to read the rest.  Reality based community?  Sure!

 

 

 

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Don L
Don L
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 6:53am

Joel 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears….

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 6:54am

Who would have thought!? After eight years of hope-and-change and fundamental transformation, we get daily school mass shootings.

Good enough. I will be sending a ‘larger’ check to the NRA.

In his first foul four years, Obama commanded majorities in both houses of Congress plus 90% of the lying media, and they refused to pass more (how many thousands already exists?) gun control laws. When the blood is wet, they shriek like so many wind chimes in a hurricane. After, they slink away because it’s political suicide.

Seen elsewhere. One side wants to ban guns. The other side wants to triple gun ownership. A bipartisan/reasonable compromise: increase guns by 50%.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 7:01am

The whole point of liberal discourse is to strike attitudes. They don’t actually have practical solutions to anything and are emotionally triggered by the odd solution which is actually out there.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 7:12am

Minnesota is reporting a 50-year record-low in violent, gun crime. Concomitantly, concealed carry permits and background checks are at record-high levels. More gins. More public safety.

If I lived in America, I’d carry a handgun: a Ruger Super Blackhawk (single action revolver) in .454 Casull. Never happen. I live in a war zone called NY.

Stopped clock is correct twice a day. In NY, a state legislator is introducing legislation to make it “safe” for mental health professionals to report violent mental patients so that they cannot obtain arms.

Luke 22:36. Politicize Everything!

Mary De Voe
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 8:16am

Again: “Thou shalt not kill” is taken out of the public schools and the politicians are blaming Christians. God is taken out of the Democratic platform. The politicians are demanding more power to destroy the sovereign person, the work of the devil. Give us God, the God of infinite Love, perfect Mercy and Creation and the work of the devil will cease and be exorcised.

Philip Nachazel
Philip Nachazel
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 3:11pm

Ok liberial.
When the number of dead Americans from firearms equals that of aborted children in America an offer will be made. Stop legalized abortion and I’ll give up my pistols, rifle and shotguns. Stop legalized abortion tomorrow you may pick up my guns tomorrow. Deal?

trackback
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 3:43pm

[…] The best article I read today is here. […]

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Saturday, February 17, AD 2018 9:18pm

If there is anything that stands in the way of dealing with an endemic problem such as school shootings, it is news articles that begin with the headline, “Gunman kills…..”, when it would be far more appropriate to say, “Madman kills…..” The first is agenda based but the second addresses the true problem.

Foxfier
Admin
Sunday, February 18, AD 2018 2:17pm

Based off of the evidence, one of the biggest causes of FBI-definition mass shootings is gun free zones. (Even the freaking movie theater shooting was at the one movie theater with a “no guns” sign, and the guy’s diary said he’d considered several other options, but they were too well defended.)
And that is what people keep on pushing, anyways.

What the hey?

CAM
CAM
Sunday, February 18, AD 2018 10:07pm

These deranged killers in many cases are looking for their 15 minutes of fame, and 24 hour news stations, wanting to fill air time, are willing to give them that plus. Too much publicity and the use of words in reporting on mass murders, as William P Walsh noted, gives the murderers some status when in reality they are misfits, losers, madmen, crazies, cowards, etc., anything but heroes.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, February 19, AD 2018 5:42am

The FBI, democrats, the lying media, and et al are too much occupied with trying to depose Trump to protect school kids.

Two common traits encountered in liberal gun-grabbers: low IQ and inability to understand the concept of the “inanimate object.”

They say, “There is no such thing as a bad boy.” I say, “There is no such thing as a bad gun.” It drives them nuts.

Most liberals are walking/talking refutations of Darwinian Evolution. The rest are worse people than Hitler.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Tuesday, February 20, AD 2018 11:57am

Gunman versus Madman

A generation or two ago, madness was rare but dealt with more promptly than presently. Religion was integral with a culture that supported parents efforts to decently raise children. Through self-censorship, the entertainment arts supported the culture. Radio and television were not vehicles for pornography or for the gratuitous violence which is vicariously equivalent to the gladiatorial entertainments of pagan times. Children’s games were age appropriate and parents had adequate control of what their kids could access.
The 60’s swept much of that away. The state is agnostic if not yet atheist and people live as if there is no God. We seem better at inculcating madness than in treating it. Liberals want to blame inanimate objects but the blame is really liberalism itself.

TomD
TomD
Tuesday, February 20, AD 2018 5:57pm

“A detailed roadmap to abolition that involves the military…”

You have to purge the military of pro-2nd amendment supporters (that is, most of the military), otherwise you will likely have a mutiny on your hands.

During the Armenian Genocide about half of the Turkish governors resisted and had to be replaced. The Nazis took note and made sure to replace anyone who might offer resistance prior to starting their genocides.

Christine
Christine
Tuesday, February 20, AD 2018 10:26pm

How do you get rid of the side bar on the left (fb, twitter, G+ etc) obscuring about an inch of text along the left margin? Can’t read except for a 2″
window above where you can read full text from left to rt. I am so lame on the technology…I love American Catholic. Once I click ‘read more’ I find
the page layout changes and I can’t ‘hide’ the colored squares along the left overlapping the article.

Christine
Christine
Tuesday, February 20, AD 2018 10:28pm

Nevermind…once I posted my previous comment the page popped into readable format exactly like home page….

Foxfier
Admin
Wednesday, February 21, AD 2018 1:35pm

Ugh! There’s a reason that “have you tried turning it off and on again” is standard troubleshooting… annoying bugs.

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