Letters to the Editor
tom payne
Published Letters: 1101 Editor's Choice: 3
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Ah, the Second Amendment
[Read the article: I'm almost 21. Should I buy some guns?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gunnutz want to slide past the first clause in the amendment because of the shadow of the phrase "well regulated militia". In the second clause, they tapdance past the absurdity of what the word "arms" means. In 1789, arms meant cannons and hand held firearms. There was no standing army, and no predisposition to have one. On the contrary, the Founders thought that a central government with a big army might tend toward oppression. Ya think? So, the notion that the citizenry (the People, in the constitutional sense) have to right to access to the whole panoply of modern weaponry is batpoop crazy. If one "loner" with a couple of handguns and a hand ful of clips can off 32 students by 9:30 in the morning, what might he have done with an Abrams tank, or a helicopter gunship? It's reducio ad absurdum time, gunnutz. Personal nukes? A bunker buster for your SUV? My God, how stupid can you actually be? Now, to Mr. Sugarman, pardon me for missing what seems to have been well disguised satire or sarcasm. It flew right by me. But Jamaican Jews: I have to give you props on that, brother. My son in law the cop is of 'Turkish descent, a lapsed Moslem, and would scare the bejeezus out of airport security. That olive complexion, those massive shoulders, that nose (which is not all that different than the stereotypical semitic nose, which is actually quite handsome). So, two of our grandkids are "breeds" if you will. the rest of us look like Aryan nation textbook white people, tall and blond (or bald in my case). I'm a Swede, for cryin' out loud. so of course I must be a socialist and love lutefisk. Never mind. but I'm dead serious about the 2A part as described above. we have the right to own guns. In the context of the intent of the Founders, that means very close to nothing at all. But those guns sure do kill efficiently, as the student body at virginia tech can attest. One guy. Two guns. And that's the freedom we're exporting to Iraq every single day, only far worse. dozens upon dozens of dead, all day evey day all week all year for four years and counting. Mission accomplished.
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Ivan
[Read the article: I'm almost 21. Should I buy some guns?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That same AK47 could have been in the hands of the Korean loner yesterday, too. then, we'd be talking hundreds of dead. The whole notion is looney tunes.
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2000 Coup
[Read the article: I'm almost 21. Should I buy some guns?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]They didn't need guns to steal the 2000 election. The only mob violence was republikan staffers sent by Tom Delay, et al, to stop the vote in dade county. guns don't guarantee justice, or liberty. Wall Mart does that for us.
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David
[Read the article: I'm almost 21. Should I buy some guns?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't you know Jesus was a blue eyed blonde? Race, in DNA terms, is a fiction. Religion is not an inherited trait, it is a faith or practice or culture, or all three, inbued in a new generation by an older one. My son in law's father abandoned his family. Ercivan grew up in the streets of Amsterdam, where he was treated much like a Jew in Bavaria in the 1920's. He learned martial arts, moved to America, became a citizen, speaks English far better than our dumbass President, and married my beautiful, brilliant daughter with our full blessing. He's a fine man and a great father. He doesn't think he's a Moslem, and only dimbulbed airport security or braindead bigots would assume so without speaking to him. I admire your belief in and adherence to your religion. I'm a Catholic, so I know the moment I announce that fact that a whole myriad of pedophile priest, Pope worshiping images go throug many American minds- what there is of those minds, that is. But, on topic, I'm not sure gun ownership and faith have a particularly illustrious history. Generally, weapons have been used, as they are as we speak, to kill infidels (although we may not be honest enough to call them that). Our invasion of Iraq is an abomination by either old or new testament criteria, I would argue. Mass murder is closer to it. And the Iraqis have no gun control; jeez, they all seem to have automatic weapons. are they free? Free to die in droves. Sorry. Dinner time. That was an appetite suppressant if there ever was one. Good on you, David.
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Guns n Roses
[Read the article: I'm almost 21. Should I buy some guns?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Guns don't have feelings. They have firing pins and triggers and barrels. You are correct, David, that the ethos of the weilder of said gun, his emotional stability, his inculcated values, are critical. American education these days gives one scant hope. I favor gun registration and gun control. There's no self defense reason to have a 20 round clip. A waiting period and a background check is a minor inconvenienve compared to random street killings. As far as the Swede Catholic thing, I was a later life convert from Anglican,which was my parents' church. I am drawn to Christian mysticism, little appreciated of often mocked in this "culture"; William Blake, John Donne, St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton were major influences. Chuck in Walt Whitman for the American part. Yes, the conversation is good, and heartfelt conflict is not inherently bad. Well utilized abrasion sharpens the blade. I fear the love of violence is too deeply ingrained in America to be excised. virginia tech, grotesque as it is, is only different in degree to what happens in every major American city virtually every day, and is nothing compared to what we have visited on Bagdhad and the rest of Iraq. A half million innocent deaths makes 32 pale. They find that many executed bodies in the backstreets of Bagdhad almost every day. Let freedom ring. Unfortunately, it's the ring of a gunshot or an IED. Peace requires patience, and we have no time for that, or contemplative thought, or holy silence.