Thread: Ultimate Test of Civility ~ 2nd Amendment

Good post, JL. I feel very much the same way. I never owned a firearm till a few years ago when I started working as a hotel night auditor. Our security are all off-duty police officers and ALL of them told me to get my concealed carry permit and a good handgun. Every one of them believe in a responsible armed citizenry. They told me frankly that they can't be everywhere. I read everything I could on the subject and finally did just that. Interesting how much more in control of thoughts and emotions one is when one accepts the responsiblity of carrying deadly weapon.

Originally Posted by Sec162

Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too

often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the

sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have any idea how hard it

would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and

killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were

unprepared for that day?"

This often crosses my mind when I enter certain places in certain states where a civilian (and technically an off duty LEO) is not supposed to carry, often these are the places where many crimes can happen. It is a constant question of which option I could live with.

I make sure my loved ones carry

Couldn't agree with you more, JL. I don't go anywhere without my friend Gaston.

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

After WWII, the courts began to interpret the reach of the federal government more broadly. Inter-state commerce and federal grants becae an excuse for reaching into the states to regulate things that were thought to be under state control.
...
So, you're right, the federal powers go well beyond specific grants in the Constutution, but that's where they come from. Every time the feds exercise power, it has to come from some grant.

I'm not terribly happy about the ever-expanding interpretation of those grants, but that's a different debate.

On a somewhat related topic: What is your opinion of McCain/Feingold? I've seen a lot of convincing arguments saying it's unconstitutional, but I am not a lawyer.

Originally Posted by JLStorm

It puts the world in perspective, you no longer think to yourself or daydream about injuring the jerk in traffic or the guy that curses you out on the sidewalk for no apparent reason. Having the means to easily end someones life with a gun changes you, and when for most, when a gun is carried, those thoughts simply stop and are replaced by thoughts of peace and calm.

Were you packin' when you posted this one?:

Originally Posted by JLStorm

I say screw them, end them, eliminate them in their entirety. They breed like rats as well.

Originally Posted by Feng_Li

I've seen a lot of convincing arguments saying it's unconstitutional, but I am not a lawyer.

These are 1st amendment arguments, premised on the idea that special interest money is a form of speech.

If money is speech in America, and speech is free in America, then money is free in America. It's our constitutional right!

I could come around to this way of thinking.

Were you packin' when you posted this one?:

The mass media likes to take quotes out of context also.

Originally Posted by dylandog

Were you packin' when you posted this one?:

HK USP FS LEM 45 Variant 2, 12 rounds in the mag one in the chamber + 2 x 12 round magazines and a S&W 340PD .357 magnum on my ankle

Originally Posted by Sec162

The mass media likes to take quotes out of context also.

I believe the context here is guns, not mass media, but anyways I was kinda playin'. Hope I didn't give offense. The line about thoughts of peace and calm struck me as funny given the nature of the thread.

Josh, I've broken bread with a lot of Arabs and I disagree with you about as much as it's possible to disagree with a person. But I've also read a lot of your posts over time and gotten a kick out of them, and I know you're a good guy. Politics is only one dimension of things, esp. on a razor forum. If my irony went amiss, my apologies.

Originally Posted by JLStorm

HK USP FS LEM 45 Variant 2, 12 rounds in the mag one in the chamber + 2 x 12 round magazines and a S&W 340PD .357 magnum on my ankle

I guess it didn't go amiss.