SaveTheGuns.com Blog

Does Chicago have cause to fear?

2010-04-28T13:53:00.008-05:00

Should Chicago Residents Fear the Dismantling of Their 1982 Handgun Ban?

Should residents of the City of Chicago fear the United States Supreme Court finding their twenty eight (28) year old ban on handguns from 1982 unconstitutional? Should Chicago residents live in abject fear of the United States Supreme Court restoring some form of 2nd Amendment rights to the city of Chicago? In a word.... NO!

IF GUN BANS WORKED, CHICAGO POLITICIANS WOULD NOT BE CONSIDERING BRINGING IN THE NATIONAL GUARD TO PATROL THE BLOODIED STREETS OF THE WINDY CITY.

In the city of Chicago there is a lot of fear. People are afraid. Murders in the city of Chicago are almost at one hundred twenty (120) at the end of April 2010. Chicago homicides are on a pace to exceed four hundred murders once again. In 2008 and 2009, Chicago homicides exceeded the number of United States Military deaths in the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan COMBINED.

This horrendous number of murders are keeping the men and women of Chicago's police department hopping. During the week of Saturday April 18th to Sunday April 24th there were seven (7) murders and eighteen (18) people wounded by convicted thugs wielding illegally obtained firearms in the City of Chicago.

Democrat Representatives John Fritchey (D-Chicago) and LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago) have called upon Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D-IL) to call out the Illinois National Guard to battle the outrageous surge in violent crime in the Windy City.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/26/lawmakers-military-quell-chicago-violence/

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/26/natl-guard-chicago-idea-gets-chilly-reception/

Governor Quinn made it clear that he was going to defer to Mayor Daley on the matter. He is not entertaining the idea of sending in armed troops to the streets of Chicago unless Mayor Daley and Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis specifically made the desperate request for the troops.

Mayor Daley and Superintendent Weis refreshed their tired, old, outdated, useless, pathetic and so 1990's calls for stricter gun control laws. I do not know how much stricter one can get in the City of Chicago than a twenty eight (28) year old total ban on handguns, but Mayor Daley and his underlings seem quite willing to ride the misguided train of gun control, without a single morsel of evidence that Chicago's ban on handguns has done anything more than diminish the Bill of Rights.

Do the people of Chicago have something to fear toward the end of June when the United States Supreme Court tells them that their 1982 ban on handgun possession is unconstitutional? No, absolutely not. There is nothing to fear and I'll tell you why...

It is really quite simple. In fact, it is so simple that a child in Kindergarten or even Pre-K could tell you. Law abiding citizens do not commit violent crimes. That is such a simple statement, but it seems as if the idea has never crossed the clouded minds of Chicago politicians. Good people behave themselves.

Good people who own handguns are never a public danger. In fact, I read somewhere and I believe it to be true, that those American citizens who have obtained concealed carry permits actually have a lower rate of criminal convictions than members of the law enforcement community.

Someone who may not be familiar with this issue may well be confused. I can hear them now... "If handguns have been banned in Chicago since 1982, then why is one person in Chicago being murdered with a handgun every day?" If handguns have been banned for twenty eight years, how are felons getting them?

That is the $64,000 question isn't it? Well, let us go back to our kindergarten-age child and ask him/her shall we? Asking the typical five or six year old child, they might say something like this; "People who want to shoot and kill other people don't care about a gun ban." Or something similarly simple, which again seems to elude the convoluted mind of the Chicago politician.

If the 2nd Amendment gets restored at some level to the good people of Chicago, will it increase the number of murders in the city? Our kindergarten child would remind us that good people who can pass a background check to lawfully buy and carefully store a handgun in the home are not going to be involved in street violence, gang violence or in the out-of-control illegal narcotics trade.

So how do felons actually get the guns they use? Please keep in mind that the following sources of actual guns used during a crime come from a study of the general population and not the City of Chicago. Obviously in Chicago, the sources are different, because of their total handgun prohibition.

Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fuo.pdf (Table 9)

1.) 22.8% get the gun they use off the street or through a narcotics sale.

2.) 17.9% of felons borrowed or even rented the gun through a friend or family member.

3.) 13.5% bought or traded the gun from a family member or friend.

4.) 10.9% got the gun from a theft or burglary.

5.) 8.8% got the gun from a fence or 'black market' source.

6.) 7.8% got the gun from a family member or friend through other means not listed.

7.) 6.9% of the guns used came from an unknown source.

8.) 6.0% got the gun they used fraudulently from a retail store.

9.) 3.7% obtained the gun they used through a pawnshop.

10.) 1.1% got the gun from a flea market.

11.) 0.7% of the offenders, the lowest recorded source in the study, got it from a gun show.

Going back to our kindergarten age child, we might ask the following question. Of all of the above sources of firearms that were actually used by felons to commit crimes with, which of them would be greatly affected by a restoration of the right to keep and bear handguns?

The first source would not be affected at all. 22.8% of felons get their gun in an off-the-street sale or through a narcotics trade where a firearm is traded for drugs. A restoration of the right to keep and bear arms to the honest citizens of Chicago would not affect this highest source of illegal firearms.

The second and third sources would not be affected because good people do not let felonious friends borrow their guns. Neither do they sell them to felonious thugs. Nor do they trade firearms to friends of family members who are willing or inclined to commit crimes of violence. Good people are also unlikely to even have felonious friends.

The fourth source could possibly rise slightly as a result of an increase in firearms found during burglaries in the homes of good people who now would own guns. But we can help prevent that by imposing a $5,000 fine upon anyone convicted of a home burglary where a gun was stolen. The City of Chicago could also give a property tax break for gun owners who chose to purchase a strong gun safe and submit the receipt.

The fifth source, the black market would not be affected at all by law abiding citizens getting the right to purchase handguns again. Good people are not involved in the black market.

The sixth most common source demands a reference back to the 2nd and 3rd source. Good, law abiding people who pass background checks and obtain handguns are not willing to let family members or friends who are felons to have them.

The seventh source? We don't know what that even is. But we do know what it is not. It is not law abiding people who pass background checks selling or lending handguns to felonious thugs.

The eighth source is the 6% of the criminal element who obtain their firearms at retailers who lie and misrepresent themselves on documents and provide false identification. This source would likely not be affected very much at all by the restoration of the 2nd Amendment to the City of Chicago. One way to combat false identification is to require a current utility bill or paycheck stub proving that the prospective firearm purchaser actually lives at the residence indicated on the driver's license or pistol permit. In addition, the penalties for fraudulently attempting to purchase a firearm at retail should be followed through with instead of ignored, which they typically are.

The ninth, tenth and eleventh sources is through a pawnshop, flea market or gun show. Once again, proper identification and a federally required background check would help diminish this small source as well. It is federal law that if one is in the business of selling firearms, that they obtain a federal firearm license and perform the mandatory background check.

There are a small number of gun dealers, perhaps 1% or less who are careless about who they sell a firearm to. These disreputable dealers should be properly punished. These sources would likely remain largely unchanged due to the United States Supreme Court restoring the 2nd Amendment to the city of Chicago.

So in conclusion, because of the fact that law abiding gun owners do not commit crimes, do not lend, rent or trade firearms with known felons and do not peddle their cherished guns on darkened street corners, the people of the City of Chicago should not fear the restoration of gun rights due to the impending McDonald v Chicago case to be decided in June.

In fact, just the opposite is true. The people of Chicago will very likely begin seeing a significant reduction in the number of murders. Why? Our kindergarten child could tell you why. More law abiding, righteous and upstanding citizens and business owners having access to deadly force will make thugs think twice about committing a violent crime upon them or in their presence.

Even a child could figure these things out. How these basic truths evade the weakly firing synapses of Chicago politicians is a mystery that is best left to future generations to study. But for the time being, just be glad that the Bill of Rights is about to be restored to another American city.

Oakland California Police Officers Killed

2009-04-07T20:47:00.002-05:00

Recently in Oakland, California, four (4) police officers were killed in the same day, by the same felon. I forget the felon's name and that's probably a good thing. The felonious thug does not deserve to have his name repeated in public anyway. He deserves no fame whatsoever, so even if I could remember his name, I wouldn't mention it.

This thug had a very extensive criminal record. He was being investigated for a recent rape, which I believe he was responsible for, but maybe I shouldn't say that, because he was never convicted of it. He's now deceased, thank God.

It seems that he made a concious decision that he was not going back into a prison cell. Anyway, he was pulled over for a traffic violation and killed the two police officers on motorcycles that pulled him over. He then escaped on foot and hid himself in a local apartment building that he was familiar with and somehow illegally obtained a rifle therein.

When a tipster notified police of his location, a SWAT team assaulted the apartment and this dirtbag, piece of garbage, felon, killed two more police officers in the ensuing battle. My question in this entire matter is solely based on a single inquiry...

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO KEEP VIOLENT FELONS IN PRISON NOWADAYS?

Really!!! What is the difficulty with keeping people behind prison walls who cannot or will not control themselves in a public place and at least make a valiant attempt at observing the Ten Commandments of God found easily in Exodus 20 of the Bible?

In May of 2008, a Philadelphia, PA police officer was killed responding to a bank robbery in progress. He was killed by one of three felonious thugs who were in the process of robbing a Bank of America branch.

The shooter, (I forget his name too) had such an alarming and phenomenally extensive criminal record that he should have been in prison until the year 2038. But he was released from prison on parole almost thirty (30) years early. Yes, almost thirty years EARLY.

The pathetic Mayor of Philadelphia, Nut-case, er I mean Nutter I think his name is, could only respond to the tragic murder of the police officer, by calling for a further erosion of the Second Amendment rights of the law abiding citizens of Philadelphia. Governor Rendell, also had a single-minded response of pointing the crooked finger of accusation at the illegally obtained firearm that the thug wielded. How inexpressibly pathetic...

The fault for the deaths of the five police officers I've mentioned above rests solely and completely on our very own broken criminal justice system. Yes, our criminal justice system is broken. Our justice system has collapsed and it has failed. It is not merely in the process of failing; it is now broken.

A few years ago, in a small town in Rhode Island, a homeowner awoke at around 2:00 AM to the sound of breaking glass in his kitchen. His wife called 911 as he grabbed his 12 gauge shotgun and ran to the sound of someone breaking in through his kitchen door.

As he approached the kitchen, the violent intruder was coming into the kitchen with a long-bladed screwdriver held above his head ready to attack the homeowner. The homeowner was given no choice but to fire to save himself from greivous injury. But what was the real surprise in this story?

The real surprise in this story is that the homeowner took a felon out of the public, where the criminal justice system could not. After the shooting was deemed justified, it came out in the local news that the felonious intruding numb-nut dirtbag had twenty nine (29) previous CONVICTIONS.

That's not 29 arrests. That's not 29 accusations. That's not 29 trials. That's not 29 prosecutions by the Attorney General's office. That's 29 convictions for serious crimes. Why are we allowing felons out of prison at this appalling rate? It seems that the only thing that can remove a felon from public is a load of buckshot or a SWAT team filling him full of holes and blasting off chunks of his oozing flesh.

What we absolutely must insist upon is that our criminal justice system works to keep people away from us who cannot control themselves in a public place. Our police officers have a hard enough job, without pulling over a subject for a traffic violation that was convicted of armed robbery just a few months before.

Many decades ago, there used to be many attempts at felons in prison who tried to escape. Do you remember some of those stories? They would try to dig themselves out of prison with a teaspoon over a period of months... Or they would devise some ingenious attempt to get smuggled out of prison in a laundry basket...

Well, dear readers, that mindset is no longer necessary. If a felon of convicted of his fourth armed robbery, third rape, second murder, seventh aggravated armed assault or whatever, all the felon has to do is sit and wait for a few months until some weak-kneed pansy judge or some disconnected and unconcerned parole board decides that he should be released to prey on the public once again.

Ladies and gentleman, the fault for America being the eighth (8th) most violent country in the world per capita, lies solely with two things.
1.) The felon's unwillingness to obey the Ten Commandments.
2.) The criminal justice system's seeming inability to keep him away from us.

The fault is not with the United States Constitution. It is not the Second Amendment that is responsible for armed violent crime. It's not the NRA that is at fault here. It's not the 'lack of common-sense gun laws'. The fault lies with the felon and with the people responsible for letting them out of prison, sometimes decades early.

When a state Attorney General, big city mayor, or State Governor points the crooked finger of unwarranted and false accusation at the Second Amendment or the NRA, we know the real fault for this situation lies in their mirror every morning they wake up. This is a responsibility that our elected officials should not be allowed to shirk.

If you want to learn more about my ideas on crime fighting, while preserving the words and spirit of the Constitution, go see my 'Share the Solution' page at www.SaveTheGuns.com, oh and while you're there, join the NRA too.

Marc Richardson
Owner/Webmaster www.SaveTheGuns.com
NRA Membership Recruiter
USCCA Recruiter

It's been a while...

2008-09-09T13:33:00.003-05:00

First of all, please allow me a moment to apologize. Quite a few blogs and Web sites around the world have posted links to this blog and I'm very thankful for that. I must apologize to my readers, but especially to those fellow bloggers who have posted links to my blog in the past, because I have been so inactive.

I've been seriously busy as you might imagine. With the Heller Case coming out in the United States Supreme Court and me starting another five (5) Web sites, getting my eldest son off to college, cutting firewood for the coming winter and so much more, my free time each week is down to merely a couple of hours.

I have used Microsoft FrontPage 2000 to post everything to the Web for the past almost ten years. Since both Microsoft and my Web host have stopped supplying tech support and updated FrontPage extensions, I have bought a new Web site program, that has a rather higher learning curve to it. It is taking a bunch of time to recreate ten years worth of work and updating my content. Once everything is done, I'll be certain to post a blog announcing my new site(s).

My Web sites now include www.PoolFever.com which will be a Web site for pool players, which is another hobby of mine. I played in the APA and was a skill level 6 for two years, but stopped playing in 2003 as a skill level 5 after one bad session.

Another two Web sites that I have registered and done some work on, (but not published) are www.NothingUnderAGrand.com and www.AllOverAGrand.com. These two Web sites will be focused entirely on retail items that are between $1000.00 and about $5,000,000. There are almost no Web sites on the Internet that focus specifically upon items that are at least one thousand dollars in price and I thought this might be a good niche area to work in. I have not spent nearly enough time on them though. That's mostly because my focus has been elsewhere and I have no other excuse.

The other two remaining Web sites that I have registered and have in progress are Christian focused. They will be focused upon garnering prayer partners for Christian missionaries. They are www.MissionaryPrayerWall.org and www.MissionaryPrayerWall.com. So to recap, I help to preserve the Second Amendment with www.SaveTheGuns.com, help promote Christianity with these two and try to sell $1000+ items online, with the previous two.

So, working on five other Web sites at the same time, while writing two new e-books and working another full time job to support my family, as well as writing my monthly newsletter called the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, I am extremely busy. In short, my plate is quite full; overflowing may be a better description. Please forgive me for not posting to this blog in a while... :-)

I want to hit a few subjects with this post. First, I want to personally thank Associate Justice Antonin Scalia for his superbly brilliant defense of the Second Amendment in the Heller case. It could have been better, but not by much.

If you have not read and saved the Heller Case decision, I have posted it on my Web site in a .pdf file here:

http://www.savetheguns.com/PDF_Files/DCvHeller07-290.pdf

You will of course need some program that reads .pdf files, such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, to read it and save it. Otherwise, I will try hard not to change the address above.

Secondly I would like to address the 2008 election. I was going to "protest-vote" this year and pull the lever for either Bob Barr or Ron Paul. I expected McCain to pick Governor Romney (R-MA)as his running mate, perhaps Tom Ridge, or maybe even Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). I would have been very unhappy with these guys.

I was a Massachusetts resident under Governor Romney and at the time, he was an anti-gun and pro-abortion governor. Both Ridge and Lieberman have stands on issues that I don't agree with and I could not have voted for them. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has never gotten any better than a "C" rating from the NRA and I believe his best rating with the Gun Owners of America was a "C-".

Then came Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). I have so much in common with Sarah Palin that it's kind of scary. We were both born in 1964, she is just a few months older than me. We're both Life NRA Members and support hunting. In fact, I'm one of the top ten NRA Membership Recruiters for the entire United States for the summer of 2008.

We have both attended Assembly of God churches. Myself, Brockton Assembly of God http://www.brocktonag.org/ and Grace Family Church Assembly of God http://www.gracefamilychurchag.org/. Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) has attended Wasilla Assembly of God http://www.wasillaag.org/.

Sarah Palin and I both have special needs children. Sarah and her husband Todd have Trig, who has Down's Syndrome and my wife and I have Matthew who has Carpenter's Syndrome and is completely non-verbal, with marked fine motor delays.

So, with all these things we have in common, as well as a passion for truth, balancing budgets, routing out corruption, NRA, same age, same church and both being proud parents of special needs kids, how could I not vote for McCain - Palin '08?

Okay, I better go now, I have to start making dinner for the kids...

Marc

Oh yeah, before I go, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to rejoin, renew or join the NRA for the first time. The NRA cannot keep up the fight if just 4 out of every 100 American gun owners are members of the NRA.

The following link goes directly to the membership checkout page at the National Rifle Association. If you're already a Life NRA Member, you can give a gift of an NRA Membership here as well.

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807

Bye for now. I'll try to post again soon, but I'm not making any promises... :-)

District of Columbia V Heller

2007-11-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure you know by now, the United States Supreme Court has decided to hear the District of Columbia V Heller case in early 2008. The case should begin in March and a decision on the case should come by sometime just before summer, perhaps in late June.
The District of Columbia asserts that the Second Amendment was solely intended to give the states a "right" to arm their own militias. Do they have a leg to stand on?

SaveTheGuns.com Quotes of the Month

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invent against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Thomas Jefferson letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison, The Federalist Number 46

"[Tyranny cannot be safe] without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."
James Madison, In his autobiography

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person."
James Madison, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution June 8, 1789

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The Second Amendment

SaveTheGuns.com Gun Safety Tip of the Month

NEVER allow your children to mishandle a gun or play around with it, simply because you know it is unloaded. This is not an acceptable way of getting children familiar with firearms. A police officer in my in-laws family was killed by his son many years ago because he was allowed horseplay with an unloaded handgun.

He regretted his flawed training methods for about a minute or so between the time his son shot him in the chest and the moment he passed away. NEVER allow horseplay with an unloaded firearm at anytime. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE.

Please contribute this month if you have not done so before.

NRA Membership Recruiter Corner
http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807
Santa says "Give an NRA Membership as a gift this year, it's a great idea and it saves me some time."
As you may already know, SaveTheGuns.com is one of thousands of NRA Membership Recruiters across America. As an NRA Recruiter, I'm officially a subcontractor for the National Rifle Association of America and not an employee.

I make a small commission whenever you join, renew or give an NRA Membership as a gift. Please use the link above for all your NRA Membership needs. If your NRA Membership expires within four months, I encourage you to renew your membership early using my convenient link that lands right on the appropriate page at the National Rifle Association.

I have written a Web page with more information on membership in the National Rifle Association. It has a list of benefits as well as membership options and prices. For your convenience the above NRA Membership link is there as well.

http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

P.S. Remember, my link goes directly to the NRA Membership check out page. Using my special link is a lot more convenient than trying to find the page yourself.
As of this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, I've recruited 155 NRA Members through this link.

I want to be one of the top NRA Recruiters for the nine (9) state northeast district of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Please use my convenient links for all your NRA membership needs and pass it around to others.

Contributions to SaveTheGuns.com

Please use the following convenient link to securely use a credit card online to give SaveTheGuns.com a voluntary contribution:
http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3GXU3PIEM5ST1

To write me a personal check, it's almost as easy!

Write out a personal check made payable to Marc H. Richardson. Sign it and put it into a stamped envelope addressed to:

Marc H. Richardson
P.O. Box 424
Shapleigh, ME 04076-0424

My contributors have kept this informative Web site going for more than seven years. Become a contributor today... please? Active contributors are the only thing keeping www.SaveTheGuns.com online.

Thank you very much for your support!

$5.00 in contributions were received since the November 2007 issue of the Minuteman Monthly.

Item of the Month

An Amazon.com Gift Certificate is really the easiest way to do Christmas shopping. There's almost anything you can think of in more than forty (40) major categories, in fact there are literally millions of items. Use the following text link. I have an Amazon Gift Certificate banner on the left side of every page above the navigation bar at www.SaveTheGuns.com as well.

Amazon.com Gift Certificates

Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Aiming Point

Does Washington D.C. have any chance of persuading the Supreme Court of the United States of America that the Founding Fathers meant to solely include a state's power to form its own militia within the Bill of Rights?

If you want a single word answer, it's NO!

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788

The Founding Fathers very clearly intended the Bill of Rights to be a strict limit upon the power and reach of the government over the people of the United States. They knew well that every government seeks to gain more power and authority for itself over time. It was and still is the case. All governments eventually become too powerful, burdensome and overbearing until they are overthrown and reformed into something more tolerable by the people.

Does it make any sense that a people who came to America seeking freedom for their families, who carved a life out of a harsh wilderness and then shook off the yoke of oppressive British rule, would then give the "right" to bear arms only to those who were acting in an official capacity in an organized state militia? No, of course not. History proves this is simply not so. In fact, it is a laughable and frankly ridiculous assertion.

Does Washington D.C. claim that every women, all the physically disabled persons and every man over the age of 60, had no right to bear arms because they were not qualified for service in the state militias at the time? The mere notion is ludicrous and frankly insulting.

The very spark that began the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775 was when British troops attempted to seize a store of arms and ammunition from the Massachusetts Militia. This is established historical fact and is hopefully still taught in most public schools. My own ancestor was in the Massachusetts Militia at the time.

The vast historical record itself is clear and convincing evidence that the Second Amendment was intended, like most of the Bill of Rights, to be a right of all individuals. They believed that the right of self defense was a right that belonged to all human beings, but they also knew that government always seeks more power and authority for itself wherever it can.

The District of Columbia asks America to believe that in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights the Founding Fathers gave individuals the rights to religion, speech, press and assembly. Then they took a hard turn and detoured into making sure the states had the power to create and maintain their own militias, then they took another sharp detour from that and continued on with more individual rights such as those to be secure against unreasonable searches, rights against self incrimination and the right to a trial by jury among others.

The Founding Fathers had no trouble differentiating between the powers of the states and the rights of the people in the Constitution. To claim that the term "the people" in the first, fourth and ninth amendments means the general population of the United States, while the same term used in the Second Amendment refers to the powers of a state is patently preposterous.

The Second Amendment says "...the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." and there seems to be no 'wiggle room' in that clear statement whatsoever. The United States Supreme Court over the years has 'found' 'rights' within the text of the Constitution that are not clearly present. For instance, in Roe V Wade, the SCOTUS found a right to lawfully end a pregnancy within some contrived 'right to privacy'.

In early 2008, the SCOTUS will have the chance to bring clarity and light to a right that is clearly visible in the Bill of Rights.

"The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals."
President James Monroe (November 16, 1818)

The concept of an armed population keeping the peace is an Anglo-Saxon tradition that went back more than 800 years at the time. But did the Founding Fathers ever hint at the notion that only those who serve in an active state militia had the right to bear their private arms?

NO!

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President. Source: Eighth Annual Message, November 8, 1808

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important."
Thomas Jefferson 1803

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can."
Samuel Adams

"...It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control...The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them."
Samuel Adams

"The said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
Samuel Adams of Massachusetts -- U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788

If the Founding Fathers ever entertained the idea that only men aged 17 to 60 who served in an active and organized militia had the right to bear arms, they kept it a very closely guarded secret and never spoke of it to each other and never wrote that idea down anywhere, at anytime.

"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison, The Federalist Number 46

However, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence says that it's a "myth" that the Second Amendment provides for a right to own guns separate from a well-regulated militia. They say that it is a "myth" due in large part to a campaign of "misinformation" supported by those who are opposed to "common sense gun laws".

This "campaign of misinformation" that the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence speaks of, comes from people like myself who attempt to constantly remind Americans of what the Founding Fathers actually said concerning private ownership and carry of firearms. I would propose instead that the Brady Center is the one perpetuating a campaign of myth and misinformation, especially noting that NONE of the Founding Fathers ever mentioned that the Second Amendment applied only to those who are qualified and currently serving in an active state militia.

Nowhere in the historical record is it mentioned even once that arms were intended solely for those who were in active service in their own state's militia. It makes even less sense when you consider that there were no supermarkets back then. At the time, even elementary school aged children went out with their muskets to bring wild game to the dinner table.

The notion that the right to bear arms was strictly limited to participation in an organized state militia is feeble-minded foolishness at best. I can see where a small preschool child without any formal education could come up with such an idea. But for an adult who has hopefully been through at least a grade school education, one would have to be a complete moron to believe such an idea that goes wholly unsupported by American history and jurisprudence.

"Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense."
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed."
Alexander Hamilton

Let us for a moment consider Alexander Hamilton's quote right above this text. Did he say the best we can hope for concerning our various state militias is that they be properly armed, or did he say "...the people at large..."?

Washington D.C.'s amusing and ludicrous contention that the second item in the Bill of Rights, directly after the right of religion, speech, press and assembly, includes only a state-run organized militia and the power to form one without federal authority, should have been laughed right out of court. It amazes me that someone with even a cursory and superficial education in American history could come up with such an absurd defense of Washington D.C.'s openly unconstitutional 31 year old handgun ban.

When we look at the Bill of Rights as a whole, the setting of the Second Amendment reinforces its individual nature. The Bill of Rights was almost entirely a declaration of individual rights, and the Second Amendment’s inclusion therein strongly indicates that it, too, was intended to protect personal liberty. The collective right advocates ask us to imagine that the First Congress situated a sui generis states’ right among a catalogue of cherished individual liberties without comment. We believe the canon of construction known as noscitur a sociis applies here. Just as we would read an ambiguous statutory term in light of its context, we should read any supposed ambiguities inthe Second Amendment in light of its context. Every other provision of the Bill of Rights, excepting the Tenth, which speaks explicitly about the allocation of governmental power, protects rights enjoyed by citizens in their individual capacity. The Second Amendment would be an inexplicable aberration if it were not read to protect individual rights as well.
Parker V District of Columbia

But, with all of American history on our side... With all of the Founding Fathers agreeing in concert with our view of the Second Amendment...anything can happen. Just look at what the SCOTUS decided in Kelo V New London and eminent domain...

What I expect will occur with D.C. V Heller is a very narrow and very carefully crafted decision that will return some form of Second Amendment rights back to law abiding residents of Washington D.C. but under voluminous restrictions and that's about it.

It's my belief that the United States Supreme Court will carefully tread on this decision so as to not completely eradicate gun control laws from the public arena. Many current gun control laws and many proposed gun control laws will be held up to the light emanating from this decision. I believe it will be so narrow and craftily evasive, that the issue of gun control will still be debated afterwards.

The U.S. Supreme Court has no interest in my opinion, to wipe 20,000+ gun control laws off the books in all fifty states. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen...

But what if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the Parker Case and gives the green light for states and cities to limit the right to keep and bear arms as they see fit? What if federal, state and local governments can then regulate private arms to their heart's content? Will we see confiscation of private arms without proper compensation? Will we see a breakdown of civil order? Will we see a further dismantling of the Bill of Rights? Will property rights then disappear? Think about it and then... JOIN OR REJOIN THE NRA TODAY

Maybe, just maybe if the U.S. Supreme Court tells the American people that they have no right to own and carry privately held firearms, the vast majority of inactive, do-nothing gun owners will get angry enough to have their voices finally heard. Then maybe 95% of gun owners will be actively supporting the Second Amendment, instead of 95% of them sitting on their hands as they do today.

Closing Comments
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. I encourage you to pass it on.
You may use this newsletter as you see fit. You may post it, blog it, print it, forward it and publish it. The only thing I ask is that somewhere in your material, make sure the URL www.SaveTheGuns.com appears prominently.

Thanks,
Marc Richardson
Owner/Founder
www.SaveTheGuns.com

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American..."Tench Coxe

Sources of Crime Guns and How To Curtail Them

2007-07-27T08:21:00.000-05:00

Hello again, yes it's been a while, but I've been very busy trying build and maintain three other domains in addition to http://www.savetheguns.com/ all by myself. Time does seem to get away from me when I'm too busy. I apologize for the lack of posts.

All too often I hear politicians say that "we've got to get guns off the streets", yet all the politicians can come up with is gun control regulations that have to be obeyed by lawful, upstanding and honest gun owners. Law abiding gun owners don't commit violent crimes with their guns. With that in mind, I think most gun control is aimed at the wrong people and I have some solutions that most politicians either have not thought about or have ignored on purpose.

You see, lawful and honest owners of firearms are not peddling their cherished firearm collections to crack-addicted miscreants on darkened street corners. However, with anti-gun politicians, anti-gun advocates and their misinformed rhetoric, you'd think that this was the case.

I've stated it in a previous blog, but I suppose it's time to post it again. The actual sources of firearms that are used during the commission of a violent crime are very important to examine. Crime control measures that are intended to diminish violent crime committed with firearms almost never focus on these specific sources, but rather are misdirected toward firearm ownership in general.

This of course is not only a clear violation of the Bill of Rights, but it's completely useless in terms of preventing violent crime. I believe that we can and should have policies in place that affect the actual sources of guns used during the commission of a crime, while leaving the honest gun owner completely out of the loop.

Okay Marc, you might say, where do criminals get their guns if they're not buying them from sincere and trustworthy gun owners? I'm so glad you asked... This is the focus of this latest blog post, so let's get right to the meat and potatoes and cut through the crapola shall we?

According to the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), there was a study of 18,000 state and federal prisoners and the goal was to determine where they obtained the firearms that they used to commit crimes with. This study and other studies that have been done since then all come up with approximately the same percentages and sources. Here is what they found:

39.6% of guns used in a crime come from friends and family of the convict.

39.2% were obtained through illegal sources, such as on the street, through the illegal narcotics trade and through robberies and burglaries of homes and gun stores.

8.3% were purchased fraudulently through a legitimate and properly licensed retail outlet. Mostly these came through lying on required forms and paperwork and providing false identification. Only about one percent (1%) of all gun dealers sell guns to felons either negligently or knowingly.

3.8% of guns used during the commission of a crime come from pawn brokers for the same reasons as other retail outlets.

1.0% of them come from yard sales, flea markets or personal sales, where a gun owner unknowingly or knowingly sells a gun to a felon through a face-to-face sale without any kind of background check at all.

0.7% of guns used during a crime come from sales at a gun show.

The remaining 7.4% of guns that are used during the commission of a crime are unknown and could not be determined by the study. Logic dictates that this 7.4% that is unknown, is from illegitimate sources that cannot be tracked by state or federal entities and was not revealed by felon interviews.

When you closely examine this very important study, you can clearly see why gun control laws aimed at general firearm possession have almost no affect on the criminal mind or the felon's sources of firearms. Okay Marc, you've convinced me that you know what you're talking about. What can we do to diminish sources of guns actually used in criminal activity, while leaving the good guy out of the loop entirely?

The first thing we should consider is much harsher penalties for a family member or friend who knowingly provides a gun to a felon. Giving your brother, cousin, nephew or son a handgun, when you know that he's up to no good, should result in serious penalties that would make someone think twice about doing something that stupid.

Next, is "on the street" sales and sales through their illegal narcotics trade. Most of the time, from what I've seen, gun charges are dropped in favor of getting a more significant penalty for narcotics dealing. This is a colossal mistake in my opinion.

Most violent criminal activity comes from felons who are trying to get money for drugs or who are on drugs during the commission of the crime. Since most violent criminal activity is drug related in some way, these firearm charges should never be dropped, but should play a major role during the process of criminal charges and convictions.

Okay, next we have burglaries of homes and robberies of firearm dealers and sporting goods stores. These comprise the lion's share of the second 40% in my opinion. Firearms that result from burglaries and robberies are very quickly turned around and sold off to criminals who are willing or inclined to use them to do harm to others. Firearms that are stolen in this way are not held onto and hoarded by the burglars, they are quickly turned around for cash or narcotics.

What we can do to curtail this source is actually quite simple, but mostly overlooked by legislators and prosecutors. A five (5) year prison term should be imposed in addition to a home burglary, per firearm if a gun was taken. In addition, a robbery of a sporting goods store or firearm dealer would result in an additional penalty of five (5) years per firearm stolen. I.E. commit a robbery of a gun dealer and steal ten guns and you're in the clink for the next fifty years!! Period. Negotiation complete.

Ignorant teen aged neighborhood thugs would leave the home owner's gun collection right where it is and take only their other valuables if they knew each gun would result in a five year additional prison term. We MUST affect the criminal mind, as well as the actual sources of these "crime guns".

Next on the list is the fraudulent purchase of firearms at retail. These sources comprise 12.8% of guns actually used during criminal activity. If you add gun dealers, pawn brokers and gun shows together, you get 12.8%.

Again, about 99% of these retail purchases come from providing false identification and falsifying state and federally required documents. According to what I've read from the F.B.I., B.A.T.F.E .and other federal agencies, about one percent (1%) of Federal Firearm License (FFL) holders and gun retailers either knowingly sell to felons or do not run names properly through the National Instant Check System (NICS) or do not keep good transaction records.

Some anti-gunners insinuate that most retail firearm purchases from felons happen through this very small portion of rogue gun dealers. But real-world statistics from federal agencies indicate that only 1% of all gun dealers do not care who they sell guns to. Even though this is a small percentage of gun dealers, these scoundrel dealers should be punished appropriately.

The attempt by felons to provide false identification at retail to purchase a gun can be reduced by better firearm retailer identification policy and procedure. Most gun owners can easily provide two forms of picture I.D., such as a driver's license, concealed carry permit or an employer-issued I.D. card. There should be no excuse for providing a firearm at retail to a violent felon.

Lastly and least important on the list are firearm sales that are completed at gun shows. Of all guns that are used during the commission of a crime, only seven tenths of one percent (0.7%) come from gun shows. There has been much undue attention focused upon gun shows as of late, while 99.3% of actual crime guns come from other sources. This statistic to me is maddening!

The anti-gun crowd seem to claim that gun shows are arms bazaars for violent felons and this is simply not the case at all. In addition to that, the term "Gun Show Loophole" is thrown around as if everyone knows what they're talking about.

The truth is that there is no such thing as a "gun show loophole". If a citizen is in the business of selling firearms, they have to have a Federal Firearm License (FFL). FFL holders are required by law to run a prospective firearm purchaser through the National Instant Check System. In states that require a firearm identification card or concealed carry permit to purchase a gun, a valid permit is required in place of the NICS check.

Now that I've addressed how to curtail the actual sources of "crime guns", lets move onto another subject. Let's promote legislation that will affect the criminal mind. Most legislation promoted or supported on the state or federal level is not aimed at the violent felon, but is rather aimed at general firearm possession and sales by the public, in my opinion, this is the definition of insanity.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Some evidence shows that this is not really a quote from Benjamin Franklin, but it's wise just the same. Major gun control legislation has been on the books since the National Firearms Act of 1934 and gun control has not diminished rates of violent crime at all.

If anything, rates of violent crime since the promotion of gun control laws has increased and not decreased. In my opinion, that's because gun control laws are focused on guns and not criminal activity, the actual sources of "crime guns" or the mind of the violent felon.

The violent drug addicted felon, serial rapist, gang member or hot-headed convict is already committing the worst crimes known to mankind and they do not concern themselves with laws that regulate firearm possession, transfer, storage and carry.

That is why we have to work on diminishing the actual sources of "crime guns". But diminishing these sources is not where we should stop. We also have to affect the decision making process of the criminal mind as well.

Just as we should add five (5) years onto a burglary charge when a gun is stolen, we should also add prison time onto a violent criminal act if a firearm was possessed, brandished, discharged or used to injure a victim while committing a crime.

Adding civil penalties and/or prison time onto a criminal act if a firearm was used in any way, would affect the criminal's decision making process and leave the law-abiding gun owner completely out of the loop of crime-control efforts.

We should add:

5 years of prison if a gun was possessed during the commission of an aggravated assault, rape, robbery or murder.
10 years if the gun was brandished.
15 years if the gun was discharged.
20 years if the gun was fired and used to injure or kill.

The next thing I would like to address in this blog post is just as important. First, we need to focus upon diminishing the actual proven sources of where "crime guns" come from. Secondly, as I've noted, we need to specifically punish the law-breaker for choosing a gun to aid him/her in committing the crime.

Thirdly, I would like to discuss what has come to be known by "Three Strikes and You're Out".

Recently in Connecticut, a family was devasted by Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes. They were charged with six capital felony counts in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters during a home invasion. They previously were charged with assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and arson.

These two vicious criminals have criminal records that stretch all the back to their youth. One of them had more than twenty (20) criminal convictions on his record. That's more proof that our criminal justice system is not merely in need of repair. Our criminal justice system is broken.

Think about it for a moment.... If our criminal justice system was completely broken and useless to society, what symptoms would we see? I think we would see violent criminals with a dozen or even two dozen serious crimes walking around free. Am I wrong?

A few years ago near my home, a Rhode Island homeowner was forced to shoot a violent criminal in his home. The violent felon broke into a home, made threats with a deadly weapon and the homeowner grabbed a personally owned firearm and shot the intruder dead in his tracks.

But that's not the most shocking and troubling thing at all. The most troubling and frankly appalling part of that story is that the intruder had twenty nine (29), yes that's not a typo, twenty nine serious criminal convictions.

Enough is enough. I've had it! I know you've had it as well. The chances are that the reader of my blog posts agrees with me. I'm "up to my eyeballs" in frustration and unmitigated anger that there are violent criminal thugs walking around free with literally dozens of criminal convictions.

Do you know who first pushed the "Three Strikes and You're Out" idea on a national scale? I'll bet you don't know that it was the National Rifle Association. That's right, the NRA was the first group on a national scale that pushed "Three Strikes..." legislation.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm frustrated and angry beyond words that our criminal justice system is so impotent, subverted and broken that there are convicts prowling in our neighborhoods with more than two dozen criminal convictions.

In the story above, where the family in Connecticut was invaded and the wife and two daughters were killed, the convicts were literally hiding in the bushes outside the family home for days studying the movements of the family as if they were lions in the African tundra stalking an f'ing zebra!!!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

It's time to pass both national and state-wide legislation that allows ONLY three murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries or aggravated assaults and then it's prison for the rest of their natural lives.

So to briefly recap this blog post.... We must focus on diminishing actual sources of crime guns, add specific penalties to a crime if a gun was chosen to commit the crime with and we must keep habitual violent thugs behind bars as if they were vicious animals in an f'ing human zoo.

It's about time that we get serious about real crime control and leave the failed, impotent and unconstitutional gun control laws to rot in the graveyard of terrible ideas.

Thanks for listening! Until next time...

Marc
http://www.savetheguns.com/

Why Gun Control Does Not Work

2007-01-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

Minuteman Monthly Newsletter
Issue 67
February 2007

Welcome to this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. This is the monthly communication from my Web site at www.SaveTheGuns.com. Thank you for reading this month's issue and for passing it on to a friend.

Major U.S. gun control legislation has been around since before the National Firearm Act of 1934. This act put strict restrictions, taxes and fees upon short-barreled shotguns and fully automatic machine guns. There has been more than 25,000 local, state and federal laws and ordinances regulating firearm ownership, carry and transfer ever since.

Why then, with 25,000 gun laws, don't we have the safest country in the world? Why hasn't gun control put a stop to violent crime committed with firearms? To find out why gun control is a terribly ineffective method of reducing crime, not to mention that it's unconstitutional...
Read On...

SaveTheGuns.com Quotes of the Month

"[Tyranny cannot be safe] without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace."James Madison, In his autobiography

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny."James Monroe (1758-1831), 5th US President

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Thomas Jefferson

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances." Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98

SaveTheGuns.com Gun Safety Tip of the Month

The gun safety tip of the month for this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter is to positively identify a threat in your home as a true threat before you draw and fire upon them.
Many hundreds of people have been shot by mistake in a home because the homeowner misidentifies a threat. Unannounced sleepovers from unfamiliar guests have resulted in tragedy. Don't let this happen to you.

Perhaps a friend of your teenage son and your son decided it would be best for him to sleep at your house tonight without telling you or your wife... You wake up to find a total stranger in your home trying to find the bathroom... Think about it...

Never assume that a person you don't know in your home is there to do you harm and is deserving of a .45 ACP in the chest. Positively identify a threat as a true threat before utilizing your basic human rights of self defense.

NRA Membership Recruiter Corner

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807
As you may already know, SaveTheGuns.com is one of thousands of NRA Membership Recruiters across America. As an NRA Recruiter, I'm officially a subcontractor for the National Rifle Association of America and not an employee.

I make a small commission whenever you join, renew or give an NRA Membership as a gift. Please use the link above for all your NRA Membership needs.

I have written a Web page with more information on membership in the National Rifle Association. It has a list of benefits as well as membership options and prices. For your convenience the above NRA Membership link is there as well.
http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

P.S. Remember, my link goes directly to the NRA Membership check out page. Using my special link is a lot more convenient than trying to find the page yourself.
As of this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, I've recruited 92 NRA Members through this link.

Contributions to SaveTheGuns.com

Please use the following convenient link to securely use a credit card online to give SaveTheGuns.com a voluntary contribution:

http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3GXU3PIEM5ST1

To write me a personal check, it's almost as easy!
Write out a personal check made payable to Marc H. Richardson. Sign it and put it into a stamped envelope addressed to:

Marc H. Richardson
P.O. Box 424
Shapleigh, ME 04076-0424

My contributors have kept this informative Web site going for seven years. Become a contributor today... please?

Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Aiming Point

Okay, here it is Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Daley and many, many others in local, state and federal positions of authority who believe that gun control laws are effective means of reducing rates of violent crime. If only they can find the right type of gun restriction...

There have been, according to most experts, more than 25,000 local, state and federal laws, regulations and ordinances passed by legislative bodies in the United States alone. The Massachusetts Police Chief's Guide to Gun Control Laws in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is larger than War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings put together.

Why then, with so much gun control, is Massachusetts the eighteenth (18th) most violent state in America? It's the same case in Maryland, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey.

These gun control capitols of America should be the safest states of all, but they're not.

Maryland has countless firearm restrictions and regulations that apply to lawful gun owners, yet Maryland has the third (3rd) highest rate of violent crime in the country. The law abiding gun owners of California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey are equally frustrated, as their states rank 10th, 11th, 21st and 26th in violent crime per capita, but make gun owners jump through hoops merely to exercise their rights under the Constitution.

The states with the least restrictions upon gun owners are actually among the safest. For instance, the upper New England states of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine are 47th, 48th and 49th in per capita rates of violent criminal acts respectively. Yet, gun control up here in the northeast corner of the nation means using both hands and a proper and consistent grip.

In Maine, I can carry a handgun openly in public, without a permit, although nobody really does it anymore and many towns have implemented ordinances against it. Concealed carry is more acceptable to the general public in these states. Heck, in Vermont, you can carry a concealed firearm under your clothing without any permit required as long as you're of age to do so. But these three states have among the lowest per-capita violent crime rates in the country.

If gun control was so darn important in reducing rates of violent crime committed with handguns, shouldn't Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire with the state motto "Live Free or Die", be among the most violent instead of the safest?

I'm not saying that if Washington D.C., Detroit and Los Angeles just adopted Vermont's firearm laws, that everything would be fine. But I am saying that at the very least, there is no correlation whatsoever between harsh firearm ownership regulations and low rates of violent crime.

If you take a close look at the state of Alaska for instance, you'd see that they have the highest rates for forcible rapes per capita of any other state, but in Alaska one can lawfully carry a concealed firearm without a permit as in Vermont.

So very few firearm restrictions, doesn't necessarily mean very little violent crime either. Alaska has very few firearm ownership restrictions, but is the 7th most violent state in the nation, mainly because of its colossal number of forcible rapes.

In Washington D.C., handgun ownership has been banned since 1976, but they have the highest rate of violent acts per 100,000 citizens of almost any area in the world.

Gun control legislation as a method of curtailing rates of violent crime has completely failed. The evidence is very clear on at least that point.

Why has gun control completely failed as a method of reducing violent crimes committed with firearms?

The easy answer is actually pretty darn simple:

Violent criminals and those who are willing and/or inclined to commit rape, robbery and murder with a firearm, are already disobeying some of the most basic laws of humanity and are not concerned that they're also breaking a law that regulates firearm possession. That's the easy and quick answer.

The somewhat more involved answer is this:

Violent criminals do not obtain their firearms from properly licensed sporting goods retailers, while filling out all the forms correctly and with proper identification.

According to the United States Department of Justice, around twelve percent (12%) of all criminals who actually used a gun in the commission of a crime, got their gun from any retail source.

About 88% of violent criminals who committed a violent crime with a firearm, got their gun outside of the reach of any firearm regulations. Firearm sales and acquisitions can only be controlled by a government entity or regulation when you have an upstanding licensed retailer and an honest and law abiding citizen as parties in the sale. When neither is involved in the transfer of possession of a firearm, the sale falls outside the reach of state or federal gun control policy.

That makes perfectly good sense doesn't it? When the buyer or the seller have no interest in abiding by local, state and federal law, the transfer of possession of the firearm cannot be controlled by any government policy. Even the biggest liberal secular progressive dimwit can understand that...

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 40% of violent criminals who used a gun to commit a crime with, got their guns from family and friends. They were either voluntarily given to them by their family and friends or stolen from them. The study does not differentiate between the two.

Approximately another 40% got their firearms from street purchases, through the illegal narcotics trade and from burglaries and robberies. So we can clearly see that about 80% of violent felons got their guns from sources that lie outside the control of government policy. Of the remaining 20%, here's the breakdown:

8.3% came from retail outlets. Such as major retailers, sporting goods specialty stores and from gun dealers. These purchases were mostly made through falsifying documentation, providing false identification and a small number (about 1%) of licensed (FFL) gun dealers who disregard the National Instant Check System (NICS), don't keep good BATFE records or who knowingly sell to felons.

6.2% came from undetermined sources, but were probably outside the reach of gun control laws, simply by the evidence that they were classified as undetermined.

3.8% of crime guns came from pawn shops, where again, there was false identification, lying on required forms or a very small number (1%) of pawn shop owners who did not follow proper record keeping or NICS procedures.

1.0% came from flea markets and yard sales through private transfers of firearms directly to violent criminals.

About 0.7% of guns actually used to commit a crime came from gun shows. Yet, with this small sliver of seven tenths of one percent, gun shows seem to be the latest focus by dimwitted gun control fanatics. Gun control fanatics it seems to me are not really the brightest lights on the chandelier, if you know what I mean...

Looking closely at the actual sources of guns that were actually used in criminal acts, we can pretty easily see why gun control laws don't work to reduce acts of violent crime. With full realization that violent criminal thugs do not concern themselves with breaking gun laws, why are many in government touting them as effective?

To recap, here is why gun control doesn't work and only serves to diminish the Bill of Rights and harass and burden honest gun owners.

***Violent criminal thugs do not observe and heed laws that regulate firearm possession, because they're already committing worse crimes and pay no heed to such laws. In addition, they know that most often, illegal firearm possession or firearm possession during the commission of a crime is plea-bargained away or dropped entirely by the District Attorney's office.

***Violent criminal thugs do not customarily get their guns from properly licensed retail outlets where gun control policy is followed through. Only the law-abiding are effected by such laws.

***Violent criminal thugs fabricate documentation, lie, cheat and provide false identification when they get their guns from retailers, pawn shops and others sources.

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."Thomas Jefferson

Since laws that regulate firearm possession, ownership and carry affect only those who obey the law in the first place, what can we do? What steps can we take to diminish guns being used during the commission of a violent crime? How can we diminish gun-crime, without placing any undue burden upon the lawful and honest gun owner?

How can I/We stand here and thrust the Bill of Rights into the faces of politicians, without offering viable and useful alternatives? Violent crimes committed with firearms need to be curtailed somehow. It's indeed a serious problem in many of our larger cities and something needs to change.

It's mostly a social problem, a lack of good fathers, terrible role models, a lack of general public morality and empty churches. It's certainly not the fault of lawful and honest gun owners...
Can we curtail these incidents where firearms are used to commit crimes, while leaving the lawful and honest gun owner out of the loop? I think we can!

We must diminish criminal access to firearms and introduce policies that really affect the criminal mind. These are some steps we can take to actually affect criminal usage and access to firearms, while leaving legitimate and honest gun owners completely out of the loop.

Add significant civil (fines) and criminal penalties onto a friend or family member of a violent felon who knowingly provides a firearm to him/her.

Add five (5) years of federal prison (per firearm) onto any burglary or robbery charge where a firearm is stolen. This additional five year of real prison per stolen firearm must be mandatory and should not be dropped or plea-bargained away. (I.E. Six guns stolen from a home burglary would get thirty years in prison (6X5=30))

Add significant civil (fines) and criminal penalties onto any violent crime of rape, robbery or murder, where a firearm was used or carried as a weapon. (I.E. 5 additional years for gun possession during the commission of a violent crime, 10 additional years for brandishing, 15 additional years for firing it and 20 additional years for personal injury to the victim with the firearm discharge.) We must make criminals think twice about choosing a firearm to commit a crime with.

Prosecute felons who attempt to purchase a firearm through a properly licensed retailer and get caught. It's been illegal for felons to own firearms since the Gun Control Act of 1968, but they're rarely ever punished for the attempt to purchase one. If you choose to be a felon, you have to realize that you're giving up certain freedoms when you commit a crime of violence. As Benjamin Franklin said "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Legislators have to refocus crime control efforts and aim at the felon and the felon's access to firearms and not at firearms themselves or those who lawfully own them.
Concentrating efforts to reduce violent crime upon the violent criminal thug and not the firearm they obtained, would go a long way toward fixing this persistent problem.
Hey Bloomberg, Menino and Daley! Are you listening?

Government must take more careful aim at diminishing actual sources of firearms that are used in crime. They must also promote efforts that affect the criminal mind by increasing penalties for choosing a firearm to commit a crime with, while not providing a way out for these increased penalties. If we're going to be serious about reducing violent crime, we must do away with the plea-bargaining of illegal firearm charges. Most often these gun charges are dropped in a criminal case and violent felons know it....

Let's look at the problem even more simply shall we? Honest and upright gun owners commit no crimes, while violent criminal thugs don't obey laws that regulate firearms. That's the whole reason behind the failures of gun control laws to affect violent crime.

Even the most ignorant dimwit liberal can understand that...

Shine the floodlight upon the violent felon and not the gun in his hand. How's that for being simple and focused?!?!?!

It is only the slow-witted legislator and obtuse leftist who thinks that a hardened violent criminal thug will obey a law regulating firearm possession.

Oh wait a minute, I do have another answer! Let's stop voting dimwit blockheaded anti-gun legislators into public office!

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."Noah Webster 1758-1843

Closing Comments

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. I encourage you to pass it on.
You may use this newsletter as you see fit. You may post it, blog it, print it, forward it and publish it. The only thing I ask is that somewhere in your material, make sure the URL www.SaveTheGuns.com appears prominently.

Thank you,
Marc
SaveTheGuns.com

Thoughts and Solutions on School Shootings

2006-10-31T15:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a copy of my latest newsletter through my Web site. Enjoy!

Minuteman Monthly Newsletter
Issue 64
November 2006

Our hearts go out to the Amish people of Lancaster County Pennsylvania, as well those victims in the other very troubling school shootings in recent weeks. As law abiding, honest and upright gun owners, we're mad as hornets when some evil creep takes advantage of innocent students in school and decides to take their young lives away. It's my belief that losing a child is one of the hardest things human beings endure.

School shootings are not an epidemic as some people in the anti-gun crowd don't hesitate to say. School shootings are still rare. They began to rear their ugly heads with the Pearl High School shooting in Pearl Mississippi in 1997. As of this date, only two school shootings have been stopped prematurely. Both of these were stopped by armed citizens protecting innocent life.

In the Pearl Mississippi school shooting, it was an Assistant School Principal who quickly exited the school to retrieve a firearm from his pick-up truck that was parked off of school grounds. At the Appalachian School of Law in 2002, the shooting was brought to a quick stop by an armed college student.

What can we do to help prevent and deter school shootings? That's what this month's newsletter is all about. It's gonna be a long one, so go get a cup of coffee.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;..." Thomas Jefferson letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 1824

"The congress of the United States possesses no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state: it belongs not to them to establish any rules respecting the rights of property; nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people;…" Saint George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries (1803), Volume 1, Appendix, Note D

"Posterity, you will never know what it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States.

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."Alexis de Tocqueville

"All men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing the obtaining of happiness and safety."George Mason(1725-1792), drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, ally of James Madison and George WashingtonSource: First Draft, Virginia Declaration of Rights

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
RENEW NRA MEMBERSHIPS EARLY!

Check out the expiration date on your NRA Membership card. If your NRA Membership expires within the next six months, you can renew now and save the National Rifle Association much needed funds.

You can save the NRA money by renewing your membership early, saving on postage and membership renewal notices. Using my special NRA Membership link below, you will go directly to the NRA Membership page, saving you from having to find it yourself.

Save yourself $10.00 by using my link. One year memberships are normally $35.00, but they're reduced to $25.00 for a limited time.

Save money and save time! Renew with this link today!
http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807

If you're still a bit squeamish about using a credit card online, I have an NRA Membership form that you can print out and mail with a personal check.
http://www.savetheguns.com/National_Rifle_Association_Application.doc

P.S. Please print out this NRA application and distribute them to family, friends and your local sporting goods retailers!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM GUN SAFETY TIP OF THE MONTH

If you're simply hiding a loaded firearm in your home, without taking the time to properly teach safe firearm handling to your children or grandchildren, you could be very sorry that you went this route.

Certainly one should always store firearms appropriately, but the three rules of safe gun handling should also be carefully taught as well.

Teaching young ones about firearms and how to handle them is a much better way to prevent accidents than hiding a loaded firearm. Don't make guns in your home a "forbidden fruit" either. If you tell the kids "these guns are off limits", they will most assuredly seek them out when you're not around.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM ONLINE AFFILIATES

Please visit my "Affiliate Links" page. I now have sixty seven (67) affiliates. I make a small commission if you purchase anything from the advertisement banners on this page. You'll find some of your favorite retailers there like Amazon.com, Wal-Mart.com, Target.com, Overstock.com, Buy.com, Shop.com and much more.

http://www.savetheguns.com/affiliate_links.htm

Hint: Please use this "Affiliate Links" page for your Christmas and Hanukah shopping!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MINUTEMAN MONTHLY AIMING POINT FOR NOVEMBER 2006
Something has to be done about school shootings. Nobody with a sound mind will argue with me about that fact. We must develop a policy to deal with this very disturbing trend.

Obviously gun control laws are not an answer. However, it seems to me that more gun control schemes are the only thing that government officials can come up with. A gun control law will never stop a school shooting. The perpetrator(s) have already made the decision to commit a more serious crime than a firearm violation anyhow. Often, as in most of the cases, the shooter has decided to end their lives during the event anyway. No law can prevent that, gun control or otherwise.

Gun-free school laws have only served to embolden those twisted minds of mass murderers and thugs who are counting on being in complete control of an unarmed school.

In one of the latest evil and twisted school shootings in the Amish school in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, the shooter had no previous criminal history and no documented history of mental problems. He would have passed any background check. Nobody knows how he was able to hide his demented tendencies. Even his own wife seemed to have been clueless as to the reasons for his evildoing and subsequent suicide.

We should wake up to the fact that there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in the lives of many American youth. Many of them have never seen the inside of a church or synagogue. They have no clue that the very foundation of freedom was forged using morality and religion as an essential ingredient.

Many young people today lack the strong moral convictions that teach us the difference between right and wrong. They have no remorse or twinge of guilt that should be telling them not to do wrong things. They will view more than 1,000 shootings and murders on television and in the movies each year. What kind of future will we have if things do not turn around?

What can we do about school shootings? What federal, state and school policies should we be looking at? I have a three-pronged approach to the problem. I realize that probably only the readers of this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter will hear about my approach, but I cannot keep silent about it any longer.

My hope is that you forward this newsletter onto others and maybe my approach will get the attention I believe it deserves. If you think my approach to this perplexing problem is worthy, then please feel free to pass it on. Let's get right to the first of my three prong answer to school shootings.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SCHOOL BULLYING

First, let's address a factor that seems to be very common in many school shootings. The subject of bullying in school is the first prong of my three pronged response to school shootings.

Bullying should not be tolerated in the least little bit. Most incidents of bullying in school would result in a criminal charge and arraignment by law enforcement and the District Attorney's Office, if it occurred outside of school and after high school graduation.

If bullying is allowed in school and goes largely unpunished, we are making our schools a safe harbor for criminal acts of violence. If nothing is done about bullying in school and there is no effective school policy to deal with it, we are condoning it by our inaction.

Think about it for a moment. If you were at your place of employment and an eighteen year old new employee pushed you, harassed you, stole your belongings or assaulted you verbally or otherwise, law enforcement would intervene and criminal charges of assault and battery, criminal threatening, larceny and maybe more would be leveled at this young punk.

But earlier, while in high school, this same punk gets away with this very same conduct, Scot-free!?!? I have personally witnessed vicious incidents of bullying in school, while timid teachers looked the other way, not wanting to get involved or hurt themselves. Two family members of mine that were public school teachers have been injured, while breaking up such bullying incidents.

Bullying in school should never be treated as if it's just a "kid thing" or some kind of right of passage into adulthood. Our school systems are the very cradle of future American civilization and should be treated as such. There should be no room for school violence... none, none whatsoever.

When school bullying occurs, a meeting should be called quickly involving the bully and his/her parent(s), the bullying victim and his/her parent(s), a school administrator, a uniformed police officer and a volunteer student body representative, possibly a class president or vice president or other responsible student of good repute.

Each and every participant should have a minimum two (2) minute opportunity to speak in order to resolve the problem, if they choose not to speak during this two minute segment, there should be complete silence during this two minute interval.

This should go a long way toward exposing the bully and diminishing these abhorrent incidents. In most cases, I would imagine, that the bully's parents have no clue how badly their child is behaving in the first place. This policy should be adopted in every school and practiced as early as first grade. School bullying should not be brushed under the carpet as a right of passage for adolescents. School bullying is a factor in school shootings and it's not "just a kid thing" any longer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE ARMING OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND TEACHERS

I know this second avenue of focus is controversial. Even many long-time Second Amendment warriors are not completely convinced that this is a good idea, but please hear me out.

For the most part, people who line up against such proposals, with all due respect, have no clue what they're talking about. The notion that a gun control law will prevent a school massacre from occurring is an empty-headed and Utopian view at best. Thinking that a law against bringing a firearm to school will prevent someone from doing so, when they've already decided that they will die in the process is simply sticking your head in the sand.

The legislator or school official who believes that another metal detector will prevent a Columbine-style shooting, is at best oblivious and at worst, they're stunningly ignorant. It's exactly the same as a restraining order. A restraining order is only as good as the person who willingly obeys it. A pink sheet of paper forbidding contact with an estranged spouse in a domestic violence situation, is useless if the restrainee doesn't care about violating it.

Likewise, a student who is determined to commit a school massacre, will not be slowed down by a metal detector at all. They won't even slow down long enough to notice the flashing red lights and audible alarm go off!!

In Israel, there was a terrible school shooting by a group of Palestinian terrorists many years ago, where dozens of Israeli children perished. Since then, Israeli teachers and school administrators have been allowed to be armed to defend the school if necessary. Why not us too?

Firearms have not been allowed in school in the United States since January 27, 1991 and the law has not been obeyed by any school shooter yet. Anyone who thinks a school full of unarmed adults and unarmed children are completely safe because it's unlawful to have a gun in school is a total idiot.

I have not even made a case for the fact that a gun-free school zone runs contrary to the words and spirit of the Second Amendment itself. The words "...shall not be infringed." don't leave any wiggle room for a gun-free school. That being said, let me continue...

For one to obtain a CCW or concealed weapons permit or whatever your state may call it, you must ordinarily undergo a strict background check and demonstrate a knowledge of safe firearm handling and most often satisfactorily complete a firearm safety course.

Those Americans who choose to legally carry a concealed handgun in a public place are among the most well-behaved and most level-headed and responsible citizens I know. That has always been the case. Concealed firearm permit holders are among the most upstanding and honest people. That has been my experience through more than thirty (30) years of being involved in shooting and being an NRA Certified Firearm Instructor and NRA Membership Recruiter. Disagree with me if you wish, but I speak from experience on this.

The teacher or school administrator who has passed safety and marksmanship training, as well as a complete and thorough background check, should be allowed to carry that handgun concealed on their person during school hours if they freely and responsibly choose to do so. There is no legitimate reason whatsoever that this should not be allowed, none whatsoever.

School administrators and teachers should be allowed to defend their school in the case of a student gone mad, or some evil adult who ties up young girls and attempts to execute them. When one of these terrible scenarios occurs, let's go over what happens shall we?

During a tragic school shooting, somebody calls the local police department to respond to the school. School officials call upon members of law enforcement, who are fully trained men and women that carry firearms. Hello? Does anyone else see the irony in this?

The school calls upon someone to remedy the situation, who carries a gun and has been trained and certified to do so. Certainly, members of law enforcement have a higher level of training for such things, but why can't an armed teacher or armed school administrator be a first responder as well? Most often, by the time law enforcement arrives, analyzes the situation and takes charge of it, much of the damage has already been done and often the tragedy is already over.

The bottom line is that we must allow fully trained school employees to carry a concealed firearm in school as long as they are licensed to do so and keep the firearm under their control at all times. It doesn't matter to me if it's the district superintendent or a part-time janitor. They must be allowed to defend innocent students and that's the bottom line. Next topic...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON IS HERE

Please visit my "Affiliate Links" page and do your shopping from these convenient links.

http://www.savetheguns.com/affiliate_links.htm

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
STUDENT INCIDENT PREPARATION AND TRAINING

Preparing students and training them properly on how to handle a school shooting and what to do during one, is the third and final focus on this topic.

Let's suppose for a moment that a disgruntled, misled, angry and armed student enters a local police station with a gun instead of a school cafeteria or library. Would the fully trained law enforcement personnel inside obediently line up and agree to be tied to each other with plastic strapping? Of course not! Then why the heck would we tell students to obey a violent, gun toting fellow student or adult? This is simply not common sense.

If members of law enforcement would not obey the commands of an armed student, then why should we tell the students to do so? Our past experiences with tragic shootings in school clearly tell us that obeying the commands of an armed student is very deadly and should be the very last thing students do.

We should train and prepare students to deal appropriately with armed and violent students. Yes, I know that school shootings are very rare occurrences. They happen on average less than once a year, but as of late, these tragic events are being repeated to the point that we should prepare students for such an event however unlikely it may be.

As we all know, a firearm is simply a device that discharges ammunition in a straight line. A gun by itself, is never a threat. A gun by itself is never a danger at all. A gun pointed in a safe direction is not dangerous to anyone. This can be a difficult concept to comprehend for those who are not completely familiar with how guns work.

Allow me to repeat my previous statement, because it's essential to understand this third focus. A firearm pointed in a safe direction is not dangerous!!! That being said, let's explain what I think the elements of proper student incident preparation and training should consist of.

Listen carefully now and make sure you grasp these concepts. First, the armed student should not be given freedom of movement throughout the school. When an armed student first appears in a room, library or cafeteria, student bystanders, adults and teachers should immediately take away the shooter's freedom of movement. This may be a difficult decision, but anything else is probably more deadly.

Anything and everything should be thrown at the student without any hesitation whatsoever. Scissors, staplers, lunch trays, laptop computers, books, overhead projectors and anything else that's not nailed down. Then immediately, when the armed student is confused, disoriented, possibly injured and put on the defensive, he/she should be attacked so that the shooter's freedom of movement is brought to a stop.

The shooter should immediately be brought to the floor and the shooter's arm and hand that is controlling the firearm, must be strictly controlled as soon as physically possible. Once again, I'll repeat myself. As soon as possible tackle the shooter to the floor and "pigpile" on top of him, restricting his freedom of movement and absolutely as soon as possible, control the direction that the barrel of the gun is pointing.

If the armed student is brought down and the direction that the barrel is pointing in can be strictly controlled, the situation can be very quickly snuffed out. Once the direction the gun is pointing can be controlled, the armed student is nearly harmless.

Students should be trained not to necessarily disarm the student, unless it can be done safely. Disarming a violent person who is in control of a firearm is not easy without lots of training.

Short of actually relieving the shooter of the gun, the shooter's movement can be severely restricted and the direction that the gun is pointing should be able to be controlled if enough bystanders participate.

This concept of preventing the shooter's freedom of movement and controlling where the gun is pointing, is nearly opposite of what has been done in the past. In the past, students have tried to hide themselves, while leaving the armed student free to roam around and fire at will, unmolested and unchallenged. In the past, students have obediently lined themselves up in a straight line to be tied up and shot at the shooter's leisure.

What is crystal clear, is that obeying the shooter's commands and giving him complete freedom of movement is exactly the wrong thing to do. You see, the armed student is going into the situation thinking that he will be in complete command. He's thinking that he will be free to roam around at will and give payback to whoever or whatever his reasons for shooting are.

In my opinion, the student should be disoriented and immediately put on the defensive, he should then be attacked and subdued immediately, restricting his freedom of movement and the barrel of the gun should be pointed in a safe direction as soon as possible. Then and only then should they wait for law enforcement to arrive, hopefully within a few short minutes.

Allow me a few moments to recap my three points of focus. We must not allow bullying in school to continue. Bullying should never be viewed by school officials as some kind of right of passage for adolescents. Develop an effective anti-bullying campaign as I've briefly outlined and begin it early in grammar school.

Secondly, teachers and school administrators who are licensed and qualified to have a concealed firearm on their person and under their personal control in a public place, should not be prohibited from doing so while at school, if they so choose.

Lastly, we should fully prepare students and have them rehearse responding to a shooting at school. The shooter should be attacked immediately with thrown objects of any size or weight. Then the armed student should be brought down to the floor and his freedom of movement taken away from him. Then as soon as physically possible, the direction that the gun's barrel is pointing in, should be strictly controlled and forced into a safe direction, away from fellow students.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
RISK FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO TEEN VIOLENCE

What are some of the individual and family factors that contribute to violence committed by teenagers?

1.) Attention deficits and/or hyperactivity disorders. A child who has these mental and cognitive disorders is more likely to commit a violent act than those without any such disorders.
2.) Antisocial beliefs and attitudes. The Columbine killers clearly had anti-social attitudes, wearing all black and calling themselves the "Trenchcoat Mafia". If such anti-social behaviors are observed in school, these children are calling out for intervention, even if they don't voice it.
3.) History of early aggressive behavior. Obviously if a young child has aggressive and contentious behavior before age ten, he/she is more likely to commit a violent act as a teen without some degree of intervention. Many of the most violent people have tortured animals as children. If you know of a child who regularly participates in animal torture, this child could be on the road toward disaster and significant intervention is warranted.
4.) Involvement with drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. Narcotic use, alcohol use and tobacco use can be contributing factors. An aggressive youth is more likely to commit a violent act when alcohol or narcotics are diminishing their inhibitions toward acts of violence.
5.) Early involvement in general offenses. If a youth below ten years of age, clearly demonstrates no respect of the law or parental authority, they are more likely to be insubordinate as teens.
6.) Low intelligence. A teen with a very limited ability to learn in school for whatever reason, will get easily frustrated and can be more likely to lash out.
7.) A lack of self control. If a youth demonstrates a lack of ability to control their own actions, acts of violence may indeed be more likely to occur.

8.) Last, but certainly not least is what I've already mentioned above. School bullying is a common thread found in most school shootings.

There are many elements in the teen's family life that may contribute greatly to their propensity toward committing a violent act:

** Too overbearing and strict parental discipline.
** Acts of domestic violence in the home.
** Parental discipline that is inconsistent.
** Parental substance abuse or alcoholism.
** Parental involvement in criminal activity.
** Lack of proper supervision of the child.
** Lack of parental involvement with the child.

Be on the lookout for these important factors! If you examine these above factors closely, it's pretty easy to see that the falling apart of the traditional American family is to blame for much of the disturbing trend of youth violence. I don't intend to offend anyone when I say this, but it must be clearly stated.

The situation where the man of the home is the father of the children and he is married to the woman of the home, who is the children's mother is far too rare in today's America. Just take a look around you. The traditional family structure in America has fully and completely collapsed. The rise in incidents of youth violence is just a symptom of this collapse in my opinion.

There is an entire generation of young people that are crying out for change, but who is listening?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you think I made any sense here, please feel free to post this newsletter, forward it, print it or blog it. Just make sure you use www.SaveTheGuns.com in any material.

Thanks,Marc RichardsonOwner/Founderwww.SaveTheGuns.com

"We have staked the whole future ofAmerican civilization, not upon the powerof government. Far from it. We have stakedthe future of all our political institutions uponthe capacity of each and all of us to governourselves according to the Ten Commandmentsof God."

James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth Presidentof the United States.

To opt-out of further e-mails from www.SaveTheGuns.com simply reply with "Unsubscribe MMM" in the subject line.

Common Sense Gun Control Laws

2006-03-16T10:46:00.000-05:00

For some very cool firearm-related bumper stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs and more, see this link:
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/firearms?pid=5951342

COMMON SENSE

The definition of Common sense:

(From Wikipedia)
One meaning of the term common sense (or as an adjective, commonsense) on a strict construction of the term, is what people in common would agree; that which they "sense" in common as their common natural understanding. Some use the phrase to refer to beliefs or propositions that in their opinion they consider would in most people's experience be prudent and of sound judgment, without dependence upon esoteric knowledge or study or research, but based upon what is believed to be knowledge held by people "in common". The knowledge and experience most people have, or are believed to have by the person using the term.

Common sense in my own definition means a set of beliefs on a particular topic where a normally adjusted person would not need any degree of instruction on the topic to agree with the proposed thesis.

In other words, a concept that could be labeled as common sense is a statement of fact that we can all pretty much agree upon without having to go through a university degree program first.

Now, with that said, let me give you a clear, concise and easy to understand quotation, that is a prime example of what I would call a common sense statement:

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."-- Plato(429-347 BC)

Now, I think we can all agree that in this above quotation, Plato has made a common sense statement. It does not require a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice to understand and agree to this above common sense statement.

If everyone can agree that good people don't need laws to ensure their honesty, responsibility and moral integrity, why then are most gun control laws focused upon restricting the possession, transfer, transportation and carry of firearms by law abiding people?

I know that for the truly ignorant and slow-witted among us, this concept may be a bit steep on the learning curve, so, I'll try to explain it a bit better.

The person who conducts his life with honesty, uprightness, integrity, truthfulness and honor and traditionally operates his or her life within the letter of the law, does not commit any crimes with firearms. Now that's a truly common sense statement, if I've ever heard one. Law abiding gun owners, commit no crimes. Even for the biggest dunce among us, this is not a difficult concept to grasp.

Now that we can agree that law abiding firearm owners don't commit crime, can someone answer the question as to why lawful and honest gun owners are made subject to anti-crime legislation?

In other words, if the aim of any gun control law is to reduce violent acts, why does such a law include restrictions upon those who obey the law?

That pretty much sums up the NRA's argument, as well as the pro-gun argument from www.SaveTheGuns.com as well.

As a law-abiding, honest, decent and upstanding individual, my rights to own and carry the firearm of my choice are restricted by legislation aimed at violent criminals. That's very frustrating to us in the pro-gun community.

We should be treated fairly. Most gun control legislation seems to assume that because we own and carry firearms, that we're somehow predisposed to commit the violent criminal acts of rape, robbery and murder. That's simply not the case and it goes to the center of the entire issue.

Legislation that is supposedly aimed at reducing crime, should focus solely upon criminal possession of a firearm during a criminal act. It should be focused upon reducing the common ways in which felons obtain illegal firearms. It should be focused upon increasing penalties for crimes where the perpetrator possesses, brandishes, fires or uses the firearm to injure someone intentionally.

LAW ABIDING GUN OWNERS ARE FRANKLY TIRED OF HAVING TO ABIDE BY RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION THAT'S SUPPOSEDLY AIMED AT REDUCING VIOLENT CRIME.

WE'RE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ACTS OF VIOLENCE COMMITTED BY VIOLENT THUGS MERELY BECAUSE WE MIGHT LAWFULLY OWN AND SAFELY USE THE SAME HANDGUN THAT A THUG USES DURING THE COMMISSION OF A VIOLENT ACT.

IT'S REALLY NOT TOO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND OUR FRUSTRATION IS IT?

We simply want to see laws that leave the law abiding firearm owner out of the loop of firearm related legislation aimed at reducing violent crime.

That's it. It's that simple.

Thanks for listening,
Marc Richardson
www.SaveTheGuns.com

Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence Releases State Grades

2006-03-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence releases it's grades for 2005. Each state is graded according to their restrictions upon the Second Amendment.

Let's examine the grades shall we?

Does the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and their grading system seem fair and appropriate? Do their higher grades such as A- and B+ apply to states with lower levels of rape, robbery and murder?

Major gun control legislation has been around since the National Firearm Act of 1934, which placed high taxes, transfer fees and prohibitions on machine guns and short barreled shotguns.
With seventy-two (72) years of major gun control legislation in the United States, one would think that by now, the states with the most restrictions upon firearms, would have the lowest overall rates of violent crime.

THAT IS OF COURSE IF VIOLENT CRIMINALS OBEYED SUCH LAWS...

Below, is the rank of the most violent states in the United States, (including Washington D.C.). I have ranked the states according to their per capita rate of overall violent crime and to the right of the state's name, I have listed their Brady Campaign letter grade.

1.) DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA B
2.) SOUTH CAROLINA D+
3.) FLORIDA F+
4.) MARYLAND A-
5.) TENNESSEE D+
6.) NEW MEXICO F
7.) LOUISIANA F
8.) ALASKA F+
9.) NEVADA D
10.) DELAWARE C
11.) CALIFORNIA A-
12.) ILLINOIS A-
13.) TEXAS D-
14.) ARIZONA D
15.) OKLAHOMA D-
16.) ARKANSAS D
17.) MISSOURI D+
18.) MICHIGAN D+
19.) MASSACHUSETTS A-
20.) GEORGIA D
21.) NORTH CAROLINA C
22.) NEW YORK B+
23.) ALABAMA F
24.) PENNSYLVANIA D+
25.) KANSAS C-
26.) COLORADO D
27.) NEW JERSEY A-
28.) WASHINGTON D+
29.) OHIO D-
30.) INDIANA D
31.) NEBRASKA B-
32.) OREGON C-
33.) MISSISSIPPI F
34.) MONTANA F
35.) CONNECTICUT A-
36.) VIRGINIA C-
37.) WEST VIRGINIA D
38.) IOWA C+
39.) MINNESOTA C-
40.) HAWAII A-
41.) RHODE ISLAND B-
42.) IDAHO F+
43.) KENTUCKY F
44.) UTAH D-
45.) WYOMING F
46.) WISCONSIN C+
47.) SOUTH DAKOTA D
48.) NEW HAMPSHIRE D-
49.) VERMONT D-
50.) MAINE D-
51.) NORTH DAKOTA D

Let's take a moment to look as these shall we. Of course the reader can draw their own conclusions.

THE TEN STATES WITH THE LOWEST PER CAPITA RATE OF VIOLENT CRIME ARE RATED BY THE BRADY CAMPAIGN AS FOLLOWS: (3 Fs) (6Ds) and (1C).

THE TEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST PER CAPITA RATE OF VIOLENT CRIME ARE RATED BY THE BRADY CAMPAIGN AS FOLLOWS: (4 Fs) (3Ds) (1C) (1B) (1A).

I want the reader to play very close attention to the very bottom of the list. The five safest states in which to live in the United States have almost no gun control laws. In Vermont for instance, ranked 49th in violent crime, a twenty-one year old can carry a concealed firearm without even a permit.

Of the five lowest states in violent crime, they are all either "Shall Issue" concealed carry states or unrestricted concealed carry states.

Of the five highest states in violent crime, one has denied concealed carry altogether, one has very restricted concealed carry and three are "Shall Issue" states.

The states with the highest restrictions upon the Second Amendment's protection of private firearm ownership are not ranked in the lowest levels of violent crime.

For example the states with the highest Brady Campaign Score of A- are ranked 4th, 11th, 12th, 19th, 27th, 35th and 40th in rates of violent crime.

The states with the lowest Brady Campaign Score of F are ranked 6th, 7th, 23rd, 33rd, 34th, 43rd and 45th.

So as we can see there's no correlation between a highly restrictive state and a very low violent crime state.

In fact, one may even loosely draw the conclusion that it's safer to live in a state with fewer and less restrictive gun control laws.

As for myself, living in Maine, ranked fiftieth (50th) in violent crime and ranked a paltry D- by the ineffective Brady Campaign, I'll take the D- grade and be very happy with it.
Marc Richardson

http://www.savetheguns.com/

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

2006-01-12T10:22:00.000-05:00

That's how I feel, just like in the 1976 movie Network, in which the character Howard Beale says " So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

I'm mad as hell and sick and tired of pro-gun groups being strictly reactionary in nature. I'm tired of being on the defense. Once in a while, the defense should be able to trot off to the sidelines and take a breather.

If you play defense on the New England Patriots, (go Pats), when Tom Brady takes the ball, you know that you'll be able to catch your breath and watch some brilliantly played offense for a change.

I feel the same way about us pro-gunners. I'm getting fed up with playing defense all the time. I hate having to react to idiotic and dangerous bans on handguns. (San Francisco will soon find out why handgun bans are dangerous.) Just watch rates of robbery, rape and murder rise after San Francisco residents turn in their handguns...

I'm eager to begin a new philosophy and a brand new and more confident attitude toward being a law abiding gun owner and concealed handgun carrier. I want to see a bold new look for the pro-Second Amendment patriots in the United States.

In order for this new philosophy to have a snowball's chance in hell, more gun owners have get off their collective behinds and get active. More than one hundred million (100,000,000) Americans have some kind of ready access to lawful firearms in their homes by my estimate. Yet only about four million (4,000,000) are members of the National Rifle Association.

Maybe a million (1,000,000) more are active pro-gunners and are not members of the NRA. That's still only 5% of America's gun owners. It's maddening to me that so many of us gun owners are doing nearly nothing to help.

Join the NRA today if you haven't already. Give a membership as a gift to your spouse or child as well. http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 I'm an NRA Membership Recruiter and I made a Web page to tell you all about the many benefits of membership in the NRA. http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

The law, the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and U.S. history are on our side. The Second Amendment very clearly protects the American public from unlawful and unreasonable regulation and confiscation of firearms.

The United States Department of Justice issued a conclusive stand on the meaning of the Second Amendment. I've posted it on my Web site. http://www.savetheguns.com/doj_statement.htm

It's a very long read and I hope you make time to get through it.

But I digress.

I want to begin an audacious, forward looking and shockingly defiant move for law abiding gun owners to go on the offense for a change. We have good reason to be bold and courageous.

Rates of violent crime are way down. The traditional violent crimes of rape, robbery and murder are at forty (40) year lows. This is occurring all the while firearm ownership and concealed handgun carry among lawful, honest and upright gun owners are all at all-time highs.

We have a right to be intrepid and undaunted. We're winning the battle for freedom. The idiots who blame violent crime upon firearms alone are losing and rightly so.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman philosopher born around 4 B.C. and died around 65 A.D. said "Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit,occidentis telum _est". This translates to "A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands".

It's really not that difficult to understand. I think that even the most devoted liberal mind can grasp the concept and understand it fully.

A firearm is merely an inanimate object that is designed to launch a small piece of metal at very high speed. It's not a new device either. I'll bet that a very small percentage of people reading this blog would know that the firearm was first invented before the year 1300.

Anyway, getting back to my point again. The battle really rests in the hearts and minds of the American people. The best way to win that battle is through the media and the Internet.

Since I fully realize that a completely truthful and unbiased discussion of the issue won't be seen on ABC, NBC, CBS or especially the now traitorous New York Times, we must rely upon the Internet and blogs like this one to make a difference.

Let's be bold and courageous. Let's go on the offense for a change and not be so reactionary anymore. We've worked hard and we deserve a breather once in a while.

By going on the offense, I mean let's put some scores on the board instead of just keeping the opponent from scoring. Remember that the battle we must fight is in the hearts and minds of the American people.

The weapon that we wield is simply the truth. The unvarnished truth about both guns and lawful gun owners is our weapon of choice. The authenticated and naked truth is our ammunition. Now let's get out there and fight.

Now that you're motivated, send me a contribution to help me keep fighting the battle for truth and justice.

http://www.savetheguns.com/contributions.htm

Thank you for listening.

Marc Richardson
www.SaveTheGuns.com

Gun Safety Rules Blitz 2006

2005-12-29T12:13:00.000-05:00

Minuteman Monthly Newsletter
Issue 54
January 2006

Let's make history this year!!! Let's make 2006 the lowest recorded year in U.S. history for accidental deaths involving firearms. I want to launch an effort for 2006 to keep accidental firearm related deaths down to only two (2) per week. I know that with the information in this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter and your promotional efforts, it can be done!!!!

In the last few years, 3.5 to 4 children ages 5 to 19, die each week due to the mishandling of a loaded firearm. In 2001, which is the last year for which I have complete statistics, 182 children ages 0 to 19, had to buried by their parents because of an accident with a gun.

If enough families get this newsletter this coming year, I think we can bring that total down to two children a week. Together, let's cut this accidental death rate among children in half in 2006!!

In addition to 182 deaths, there were hundreds more tragic injuries that we can help avoid as well. With your promotional efforts and full participation, we can make 2006 the safest year in history in regards to firearms.

Let's start right now. Right here at the beginning of a brand new year. Let's set a limit of 104 children dying because of the mishandling of loaded gun. There's no reason it can't be done, if you'll agree to help me out by forwarding this newsletter on to others. That's all I'm asking you to do!!!

You can help me by writing about this gun safety effort in your local newspaper, e-mailing national news programs, posting information about this effort in your favorite blogs and posting this newsletter at your gun club among many other things you can do. Most importantly though, talk to your own family and friends first.

<<>> This entire issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter is posted on my blog at: http://savetheguns.blogspot.com

LET'S SET A NEW RECORD FOR GUN SAFETY IN 2006. A PARENT SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO BURY THEIR CHILD BECAUSE OF SUCH A PREVENTABLE TRAGEDY.

WE ALWAYS FIND TIME TO FORWARD OFF COLOR JOKES, CHAIN LETTERS AND VIRUS ALERTS. WHY NOT MAKE THIS YEAR MEAN SOMETHING BY SAVING THE LIVES OF
CHILDREN AND ADULTS WHO MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF ALL THE RULES OF FIREARM SAFETY.

A HUNTER SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO APPROACH HIS HUNTING BUDDY'S WIFE AFTER HE KILLS HIM TO EXPLAIN THAT HE THOUGHT HE WAS A GAME ANIMAL.

TOGETHER, WE CAN LESSEN THE CHANCES OF THESE THINGS HAPPENING IN 2006.

JOIN ME AND WE CAN SAVE LIVES TOGETHER. I WROTE THIS NEWSLETTER AND THE FIFTY PLUS GUN SAFETY RULES IT CONTAINS. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FORWARD IT TO OTHERS AND HELP ME PROMOTE THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"Freedom is the most contagious virus known to man."
-- Hubert H. Humphrey
(1911-1978) US Vice-President, US Senator (D-MN)
Source: Speech, New York City, 29 October 1964

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-- John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873) English philosopher and economist

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
-- Mark Twain
[Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910)

"Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum _est" ("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands")
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" ca. (4 BC - 65 AD)

NOTE: Wouldn't you think that after 1941 years, everyone would realize that a weapon doesn't kill anyone? Of course the blame always rests on the perpetrator. However, with many brands of gun control measures and gun control activists, you'd think that the firearm itself is to blame for a criminal act.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NRA MEMBERSHIP

In 2005, I recruited twenty six (26) NRA Members through my "NRA Membership" page and my special NRA Recruiter link. In 2006, I want to double that total to fifty two (52). We can accomplish this goal together. I'll need your help to gain one new NRA Member each week in 2006.

http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807

http://www.savetheguns.com/National%20Rifle%20Association%20Application.doc

Please consider printing this National Rifle Association Membership Application and keep a stack of them at your favorite local sporting goods retailer. Make sure you ask permission first.

Most gun owners don't join the NRA because they have never been asked to. Well consider yourself asked!!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CONTRIBUTIONS

Can you start me off right this year with a contribution? To contribute to my efforts with a credit card, please go to my Amazon.com secure Pay-Page at: http://www.amazon.com/paypage/P3GXU3PIEM5ST1

Or, you can simply make a personal check payable to Marc Richardson.

mail your check to:

Marc Richardson
P.O. Box 424
Shapleigh, ME 04076-0424

My goal for contributions for 2006 is $6,000.

http://www.savetheguns.com/contributions.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM GUN SAFETY TIP OF THE MONTH

The most common way of a child getting killed in a firearm related accident is by pulling on the barrel, while another child has his finger on the trigger.

You MUST help me to get this message out if we're going to save eighty (80) to one hundred (100) kids this coming year in 2006.

If a child finds a gun in an unsupervised situation, they should stop, leave the area and tell a responsible adult what they found. A child should NEVER touch an unsupervised firearm. Furthermore, if a child picks up an unattended firearm, any other child in the area should leave the area and tell a responsible adult what was found.

A CHILD SHOULD NEVER TRY TO DISARM ANOTHER CHILD THAT HAS PICKED UP AN
UNSUPERVISED FIREARM.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MINUTEMAN MONTHY AIMING POINT FOR JANUARY 2006

Below is the most comprehensive and complete list of gun safety rules that I know of. I've looked around a lot at gun safety information on the Internet and I truly believe that nothing beats this list.

Together, we can save at least one hundred (100) lives this coming year in 2006. JOIN THIS EFFORT BY SIMPLY READING AND FORWARDING THIS MONTH'S NEWSLETTER. IT'S ALL UP TO YOU.

Bill Gates won't send you a check. Nothing cool will pop up on your screen either. But you might save the life of someone you know.

I've categorized these fifty gun safety rules to make it easier to read and comprehend. There are seven (7) categories of Gun Safety in this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter:

**Three Basic Handling Rules
**For Kids
**At All Times
**At Home
**While Hunting
**At The Shooting Range
**While Reloading Ammunition

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THREE BASIC HANDLING RULES

There are only two causes of the accidental discharge of a firearm. A lack of knowledge and carelessness are the only two causes of an accidental firearm discharge. Now that you are on the most comprehensive and all encompassing gun safety page currently found anywhere in the world, a lack of knowledge is not an excuse.

There are three rules of safe gun handling. Learn them right here. Repeat them as many times as you wish, I'll sit here and wait for you.... :-)

1.) **ALWAYS point the barrel of the gun in a safe direction. A safe direction is defined as a direction where if the gun discharged, nobody would get hurt. The best direction to point a gun is generally at the ground and to the side.

This is known as the Golden Rule Of Gun Safety.

If everyone followed this one rule, it would bring an end to accidental firearm related deaths.

Be aware that the "safe direction" may change as you change your location.

2.) **ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. There is a natural tendency to place the index finger inside the trigger guard. This MUST be avoided. Condition yourself to place your shooting hand index finger along the side of the frame.

There is no reason whatsoever that your finger should be on the trigger unless you have safely and appropriately acquired your target and your sight picture and are ready for the trigger squeeze.

3.) **ALWAYS Keep the action open and the gun unloaded until you are ready to use it. The action is the moving parts of the gun that allow loading, unloading, firing and extraction of the empty case or shell. If you are not ready to use it, keep the action open and unloaded.

With an open and unloaded action, the only injury that might occur, is if you drop the firearm on your foot.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY FOR KIDS

Gun safety for children is the top priority on my agenda. Most of the gun safety Web sites online that purport to help protect children from firearm accidents are openly anti-gun Web sites. I have not seen an anti-gun Web site, meant to protect children from accidental death with firearm, that knows what they're talking about.

Let's face the hard cold fact here ladies and gentlemen. When it comes to gun safety and proper firearm education, anti-gun leaning organizations and Web sites don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Until I got black-listed by Google, my "For Kids Only" page was the top destination on the planet for children to learn how to be safe around firearms at all times. Gun safety for kids, while at home, at the shooting range and while unsupervised, are essential things for your children to grasp.

In 2001, 182 children ages 0 to 19, died because a loaded firearm was unintentionally mishandled. Kids have to know what to do if they come upon a firearm in an unsupervised situation.

I cannot imagine the horror, of having this occur to a son or daughter. The pain and anguish of having to lay a son or daughter to rest in a graveyard, must be unbearable. It can be prevented. Together, we can save one hundred lives or more in 2006.

I'm going to save space here, by just asking you to send the following Web page to anyone with a young child. I doesn't matter if they're anti-gun, pro-gun or don't care about the subject at all.

http://www.savetheguns.com/for_kids_only.htm

Help me save some kids in 2006.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY AT ALL TIMES

Before I get into the gun safety rules to obey at all times, let me say something on the subject of discovering a discarded firearm outside a home.

Even though violent crime has been declining for years, rates of violent crime among our youth has been escalating. Increasingly, it is America's young people who are responsible for a lion's share of violent crime.

Because of that very fact, it is getting more likely that a discarded firearm could be found in an area frequented by young people like a park, playground or other recreational area.

If an unattended firearm is discovered, it is very likely that the last person to handle that firearm was a criminal and it could still be loaded.

Do not pick up the discarded firearm and bring it to the police station. Rather, contact police and have them come and take possession of the gun.

Yes, I know that many of you are retired military personnel and police officers, gun club range safety officers and firearm instructors. If you're not new to firearm safety, you know how to handle an unfamiliar firearm safely. However, the discarded firearm was probably recently used to commit a crime.

It might have fingerprints, palm prints, human tissue, blood, dna or other evidence on the firearm itself. The area around where the firearm was discovered might have clothing threads, footprints, tire tracks or other evidence that might be essential in solving a violent crime.

That's why I have always advised to carefully back out of the area disturbing a little as possible, post a trusted sentry near the firearm and contact police and tell them that you've found a discarded firearm that could have been used to commit a crime. It's the right thing to do.

Now for the fifty plus (50+) gun safety rules, which is the centerpiece of our cooperative effort to prevent over a hundred accidental firearm related deaths in 2006!!!

ALWAYS treat every gun as if it is loaded and ready to fire. An excuse often heard following an accidental death is that "...I thought it was unloaded." ALWAYS handle the gun as if it is loaded, even if you know it is empty.

Never target shoot or hunt with a firearm, when you are too tired or fatigued to continue to pay attention and operate a firearm safely. After getting a brand new gun or your first firearm, you may have a tendency to stay out too long. Call it a day before you get too tired to pay attention.

NEVER point a gun at something or someone that you don't intend to shoot at. As Jeff Cooper would say "Don't point a gun at anything you are not prepared to destroy."

Check the action of the firearm every time you pick it up. Condition yourself to do this. Check that action again, even if you just checked it.

Wear eye and ear protection as appropriate. Inviting a hot piece of metal or powder in your eye is not a very good idea, in fact it hurts like hell. ALWAYS wear those silly looking glasses or you may be sorry. If you want to be able to hear your grandchildren, you should have ear plugs or ear protection muffs and use them according to the instructions.

NEVER TAKE A GUN AWAY FROM SOMEONE BY PULLING ON THE BARREL. If they have their finger on the trigger, pulling on the barrel could discharge the gun and injure you. This is the most common type of accident among young people.

NEVER use drugs or alcohol before or during shooting. Alcohol or drugs can impair judgment. Mistakes are more likely to happen under the influence of alcohol. Be vigilant about safety, don't drink alcohol or use some prescription drugs while handling a gun. Alcohol use before or during the handling and/or firing of a gun, can drastically increase the incidence of a scientific phenomenon known as the Stupidity Factor. Ok, I made up the "Stupidity Factor", but my point remains. This rule applies especially when reloading ammunition.

NEVER shoot into water and avoid ricochets. Bullets can skip off the surface of water and then change direction too!!!! Don't shoot into the water. Don't shoot at heavy metal objects such as junked cars, old propane tanks and abandoned refrigerators. Ricochets have been deadly in this type of situation.

NEVER rely solely on the safety device on the gun. Mechanical safeties have been known to fail. If you know Murphy's Law, then you would know that if a safety lever or button is going to fail, it will fail at the worst possible moment. Mechanical safeties can wear out or malfunction over time.

NEVER allow horseplay with a firearm even if you are certain it is unloaded. Horseplay with an unloaded gun is never a good idea. It can condition a child to respect a firearm less, and regard gun safety as less important. NO HORSEPLAY. NEVER.

ALWAYS AVOID THE NATURAL TENDENCY TO PLACE A FINGER INSIDE THE TRIGGER GUARD WHEN HANDLING A GUN. I know I already said this one, but it is worth repeating. Most accidental discharges occur because of a misplaced finger on the trigger.

Carry guns in cases whenever practical. In some States, this is the law. Get to know your State firearm laws. Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse before a judge. It is the gun owner's responsibility to be familiar with their own state's gun laws.

Do not allow a holster, sling or clothing that might interfere with the safe operation of the gun. Choose firearm accessories carefully. Use only the slings, holsters, mounts or aiming devices made specifically for your gun.

Never lean a rifle or shotgun against a wall or vehicle. They can easily slip off the surface and hit the floor or ground. It is very unlikely that it will discharge, however, a ding or scratch in the firearm will not make you a very happy camper. It could permanently damage a scope too.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY AT HOME

A gun safe or quality security cabinet is a great idea for the home. If it's bolted to both the wall studs and the floor, a home burglar will not be able to get at your firearms as long as the safe or security cabinet is of decent quality. I have some safes and cabinets linked near the bottom of my "Safety Rules" page:
http://www.savetheguns.com/safety_rules.htm

A decent security cabinet can prevent little curious hands from handling a firearm unsupervised. They don't have to cost as much as your car either, see the link.

Store guns and ammunition so it is not accessible to unauthorized people. NEVER be satisfied with just hiding a loaded gun. If you are simply hiding a loaded gun in your home, KNOCK IT OFF. You are sending out an invitation to tragedy if you simply hide a loaded gun in your home. There are easily affordable devices available so you don't need to simply hide a gun. Quick access however, should be practiced and practiced often. You don't want to be fumbling around for a defensive firearm while you're being attacked. Firearm accessibility and home firearm safety is a relationship that we've been struggling with since the 1300s. Each gun owner must come to their own compromise and be able to live with it.

Never hide a firearm under a pillow or mattress. This is not a very smart thing to do. Someday it WILL BE FOUND by someone. It can get damp or musty under there too! Whoever finds it, may not be someone you want handling an unsupervised firearm. Not to mention that if you are attacked while still in bed, you can't get under the mattress anyway. Your weight and the weight of a spouse and/or intruder will prevent access to the gun anyway.

Store firearms and ammunition separately. Store ammunition so it does not get too moist or in an area that gets excessively hot, like an attic, cellar or closet. Ammunition primers can corrode and become unreliable if they are stored in a damp area.

Read and fully understand the manual that came with the gun. The gun manufacturers are concerned about gun safety. Don't take the gun apart too far!!! Learn all there is to know about your firearm. Know it inside and out. Taking the gun apart too far is how gunsmiths make a lot of their money. Not that I'm against gunsmiths making money, but I would rather spend my money on something other than having a professional reassemble a gun that I took apart too far.

When attaching trigger locking devices, make certain that they are done properly. If you have your firearms under lock and key, be sure to keep the key on YOUR key chain and keep it with you. It does no good to lock up your guns and leave the key out for anyone to find. Make certain that trigger blocking devices are inserted behind the trigger, but still within the trigger guard if possible.

Always thoroughly check to make sure a firearm is unloaded before cleaning or disassembly. Also you should strictly follow the user's manual when disassembling the firearm. Remove all live ammunition from the area where you'll be cleaning the gun. There's no reason you should have live ammo around when cleaning a firearm. Cleaning solvent and gun oil can damage
ammunition as well.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY WHILE HUNTING

Never shoot at movement when hunting. If you miss your intended target, where is the bullet going???? Positively identify the sex of the animal before firing. This will guarantee that you will not kill some lady who is hanging out her laundry while wearing a brown and white fur coat (true story). If you don't know what the male and female species of your quarry looks like, you should not be hunting in the first place.

ALWAYS carry the gun safely and watch that muzzle!! The muzzle is another name for the front end of the barrel.

While hunting, you should be completely aware of where your buddies are and carry your firearm accordingly. When walking together, make certain that the muzzles are looking in a safe direction.

NEVER climb a tree or fence or jump a ditch with a loaded gun. You will have very little control over your firearm during a fall. Unload that firearm before you descend or ascend steep slopes. During an uncontrolled tumble or while sliding down a steep slope, your control of the firearm will be compromised. Unload it first. I would rather see you lose a chance shot at a game animal, than take a load of buckshot under your chin during a fall. In 2005, a hunter accidentally killed his own son after an uncontrolled slide down a steep slope while hunting. Before you do anything physically challenging, unload the firearm first. Please hear me on this.

I know I shouldn't have to say this one, but I will anyway. Wear blaze orange clothing so other hunters that have not read these rules know that you're not a deer.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SAVETHEGUNS.COM ONLINE STORE

Please make time this week to visit my online store and make a purchase. I've created a page of affiliates with convenient links to their Web sites.

http://www.SaveTheGuns.com/affiliate_links.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY AT THE SHOOTING RANGE

Never accept a loaded gun from anyone, unless you are a Range Officer or Certified Firearm Instructor or really know what you are doing. When you receive a firearm from someone, it should be unloaded and the action should be open. Keeping the action open when passing a firearm from one person to another is very important. It clearly demonstrates that you are conscientious and that you know what you are doing. It is impossible to have an accidental discharge with the action open.

Be sure the gun is safe to operate. A gun that has been neglected or one that is very old, may not be safe to use. Some guns manufactured in the early 1900's should not use modern ammunition.

Never look down the barrel of a potentially loaded gun. Leave that to an episode of the Three Stooges. There is no way to tell if a gun is loaded by looking down the barrel anyhow. Don't do it, it's not that funny. Checking the barrel for powder, lead and copper deposits while cleaning the gun is ok, as long as the action is open and you're completely certain it is unloaded during the cleaning process.

Be certain that when you are leaving the range or another shooting area, that the firearms you are packing away are completely unloaded, including magazines. I have been shooting for more than thirty years and I mistakenly left a handgun loaded after packing up at the range only once. As a responsible and alert gun owner, you should always know if one of your guns are loaded or not. That is why I have clearly advocated so many redundant safety checks. Please hear me.

If you don't know anything about the gun, seek a knowledgeable person. If you are in a position to use a gun at a range or while recreationally shooting outdoors, and you are not familiar with the gun, then ask the owner. Almost every model of gun, operates a little differently from its
cousin.

Know how to use the gun safely. If you don't know what you are doing while out shooting with friends and family, don't pretend to know what you are doing. It is always OK to ask questions. Don't be afraid about looking less than macho. If you make a grievous mistake while handling the gun, then how would you look?

Use ONLY the correct ammunition for the gun. On a rare occasion, a 20 gauge shell has slipped into the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun. The next shot could destroy the gun and injure you. I know of someone that tried to shoot a .38 special from a 1911 .45 ACP. (A hospital run came soon after.)

Carry only one caliber cartridge or shell at a time. This will reduce the possibility of using the wrong ammunition in your firearm.

Know your target and what is behind and beyond it. Be certain of where your bullet will end up. With some higher powered rifle cartridges, bullets can travel up to five (5) miles under the right conditions. Most rifle bullets will travel between a mile and a half (7,920 feet) and three and half miles (18,480 feet).

Be aware that certain firearms and activities have additional rules and precautions. When attending competitions or other organized activities, make certain that there are no other rules that you might be unaware of.

ALWAYS obey range rules and a Range Safety Officer. A Range Safety Officer has everyone's best interest in mind. Don't feel angry if a Range Safety Officer corrects something you are doing wrong. There are quite a few gun safety rules and they all must be obeyed at the same time. A gun club may have rules posted that you're not aware of. Please treat the Range Safety Officer with respect.

Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions. An obstruction inside the barrel, such as a patch, bullet or bullet jacket can destroy the usefulness of the gun and could cause severe injury OR DEATH.

If the discharge of the cartridge seemed a bit different in sound or recoil, the gun should be pointed in a safe direction for at least thirty (30) seconds to two (2) minutes, in case of a hangfire. Then the barrel should be checked for obstruction. A hangfire occurs when the gun does not immediately discharge, but discharges a few moments later. This is usually due to a defective primer.

In some cases, a cartridge may have a primer, but no powder. Upon discharge, the primer would push the bullet into the barrel, where it would get stuck. This is called a "Squib Load". If only the primer fires on a cartridge, point the gun in a safe direction for up to two (2) minutes, possibly more, then check the barrel for any obstruction. If a bullet is stuck in the barrel, don't shoot another bullet at it to get it out. This will more than likely destroy your gun and could injure you and bystanders near you. If you can't get it out, see a gunsmith or other knowledgeable person. Many times, you'll be able to get it out yourself. I advise to pour some type of penetrating oil into the barrel and tap it out with a solid aluminum or brass rod after letting it soak overnight. A wooden dowel will probably splinter and mushroom, but a good hardwood dowel might work, if you oil the barrel. Try to insert the rod or dowel from the breech end if possible to avoid damage to the muzzle.

If you do a bunch of your shooting at indoor pistol ranges, you should make sure that the range is fully ventilated and the fans are properly working. There can be a relatively high concentration of lead and harmful compounds in the air if proper ventilation is not observed. In addition to this, make certain that you wash your hands very well after shooting and cleaning your guns. There are many harmful compounds found in gunpowder and ammunition priming compounds. Some of them are listed here:

diazodinitrophenol
potassium nitrate
nitrocellulose
boron metal
nitroglycerin
tetrazene
lead
nickel
copper
zinc
lead styphnate
barium nitrate

While at the outdoor shooting range, keep your muzzle down!!! Don't allow your barrel to point above the dirt berms that are designed to protect the surrounding community from a wayward bullet.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GUN SAFETY WHILE RELOADING AMMUNITION

Never keep black powder or smokeless gun powder in unmarked containers. Always use the original containers. Don't mix powders unless you know what you're doing and you're specifically attempting a known duplex load.

Store reloading components in a cool and dry area. Primers, black powder and smokeless powder should always be stored in a cool and dry area. This is more to protect the integrity of the reloading components than anything else. Of course you'll want to store them away from any heat source like a furnace, woodstove or water heater.

Always check metallic cases and shotgun hulls for defects before reloading them. Check cases and hulls for splits or cracks.

Use the utmost in caution when reloading centerfire ammunition. Don't allow yourself to become distracted. Concentrate completely on the task at hand, and most importantly, stay organized and label everything. Follow the ammunition tables exactly, do not experiment unless you are a very experienced or expert reloader. Don't reload ammuntion after you've had a couple of beers either. Remember the "Stupidity Factor" I spoke of earlier?

A cartridge which has: the wrong powder, no powder charge, or too large a powder charge; an inverted primer, mis-seated primer, the wrong type of primer or an inert primer; a mis-seated, inverted, or mis-sized bullet; a collapsed, weakened, improperly sized or mis-crimped case; incorrect overall length or any of a host of other defects may seriously jeopardize your safety, the safety of those around you, and/or the reliability of your firearm in a defensive situation.

Many shooters prepare and safely use reloaded ammunition each day, and it can be an economical way to stretch your ammunition budget, but the safety of that reloaded ammunition directly depends on the care, components, equipment, and practices used in preparing it.

Always use a proper measure when loading Pyrodex or black powder into a muzzle loading firearm. Never simply guess.

Never use modern smokeless gun powder in a muzzle loader and never mix smokeless powder and black powder. There is such a thing as a "duplex" load which uses two different powders, but they should only be used under the most controlled circumstances and according to known recipes.

Never smoke cigars, pipes or cigarettes when using a muzzle loader or when reloading centerfire ammunition. You may lose part of your beard, mustache, eyebrows and eyelashes, which is very unattractive. :-)

Never put a match to a pile of accidentally spilled black powder. You might end up having to completely shave off all your facial hair until it grows back evenly, right John?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A SERIOUS EFFORT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED TODAY!!!

Now that you've read the January 2006 issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, what are you going to do next? Are you going to close and delete this newsletter? Or are you going to forward it on to another family, so we can save perhaps one hundred children and adults this year.

Not many of us can say that we saved the life of another human being. What a great feeling it is. I saved a life myself in 2005 and it feels pretty neat to have done so.

I wrote and sent this month's newsletter myself, all you have to do is forward it, print it, post it, leave it in your breakroom at work, put in on your refrigerator, write an editorial about this effort in your newspaper and more.

Think hard at what you can do to promote this gun safety issue of the Minuteman Monthly. Whether or not we're able to save up to one hundred (100) people this year from accidental death with a firearm, depends entirely on the next few seconds in your life. Are you going to send this on to someone else, or are you going to delete it. That's the question that only you can answer.

Thanks,
Marc Richardson
Owner/Founder
www.SaveTheGuns.com

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that
the whole body of the people always
possess arms, and be taught alike,
especially when young, how to use
them..."
Richard Henry Lee,
Additional Letters From The
Federal Farmer, 1788

Protection of Firearm Manufacturers Against Frivolous Lawsuits

2005-10-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

On Thursday October 20, 2005 (my 41st birthday), the United States House of Representatives passed legislation that would protect firearm manufacturers against being sued for the illegal, uncivil and criminal misuse of their lawfully manufactured products.

The United States Senate passed a very similar measure in July of this year.

I heartily applaud this common sense action taken by Congress and about to be signed into law by President George W. Bush.

This law does not give complete immunity to gun makers, as it shouldn't. Gun makers can still be sued for making defective firearms. Gun dealers can still be prosecuted for selling firearms to anybody who has failed a criminal background check or who is a known felon.

The important part of this new law voids and prohibits governments and individuals from holding gun manufacturers responsible when their lawfully produced products get used during the commission of a crime.

This is simply common sense.

Ford, GM, Chevrolet and Toyota cannot be held liable when a drunk driver is involved in an accident. Likewise, Louisville Slugger cannot be held liable for a beating with a baseball bat. And a kitchen cutlery manufacturer cannot be held responsible for the criminal misuse of their merchandise and the stabbing of a violent crime victim.

To say that firearm manufacturers should be responsible for the criminal misuse of their merchandise is simply illogical and absurd. If not completely inane, the notion of holding a manufacturer accountable for the actions of a violent criminal, is pretty darn stupid if you ask me.

The firearm manufacturing industry is one of the most highly regulated in the world. To assert that there's not enough laws, ordinances, statutes and regulations for gun makers to follow, shows a complete lack of knowledge on the issue.

The truth of the matter is that a gun, all by itself, is completely inert and neutral. Without a person handling the firearm, it does nothing at all.

Anyone who fears a firearm all by itself, or one who thinks guns commit crimes is basically an intellectual ignoramus.

This law is strictly common-sense legislation. It protects gun makers from frankly idiotic lawsuits claiming that they're responsible for acts of violent crime. Yet, gun makers can still be sued or prosecuted for criminal negligence or for making defective products.

Anyone who disagrees with this common-sense legislation is either an idiot, or is trying to circumvent the United States Constitution by bankrupting the firearm industry, thereby getting around the right to keep and bear arms found in the Bill of Rights.

That's where I stand and I welcome your comments.

Don't forget to shop for Christmas on my "Online Store"

Gun Rights Supported and Violent Crime Down Again

2005-06-14T11:02:00.000-05:00

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807

The title tells it all ladies and gentlemen. It's exactly what I and every other activist for the Second Amendment have been saying for decades.

Those who are willing and inclined to commit a rape, robbery or murder with a firearm, do not and never have obeyed laws that regulate firearm sales, possession or transportation.

It seems so obvious, that it's actually painful for me to keep repeating it. The only people who obey laws that control guns are people who obey the law in the first place.

The once championed federal Clinton-Reno Semi-Automatic Firearms Ban that sunset last September is a perfect example of what I'm speaking of. There were thousands of anti-gun activists who lamented about "blood running in the streets" if the sunset on the Semi-auto ban remained.

Whenever they could find a microphone and a camera they wailed and whined about semi-automatic rifle fire echoing in every street and in every alley in the nation if the ban on semi-auto firearms was allowed to pass into the annals of terrible legislation.

Sarah Brady of Handgun Control Incorporated fame and now The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said of the sunsetting semi-auto ban "Our streets are going to be filled with AK-47s and Uzis."

They all grieved and carried on about how many young men would be lost in America's streets. However, the only loss that occurred was in the credibility of gun control activists.

Every single time that a state passed concealed handgun carry legislation, the gun control miscreants and the gun ban iconoclasts, reached for every camera and microphone they could get their filthy hands on and made dire predictions of car accidents escalating into gunfire. They forecast that simple disputes would swell into high murder rates all over the state because people were going to be allowed the freedom to carry a concealed firearm.

Now, thirty eight states and I think soon to be thirty nine, have enacted legislation that allows concealed carry of a handgun. What has happened with the massive increase in concealed carry states and the sunset of the asinine Clinton-Reno semi-automatic ban from 1994?

According to the F.B. I., crime, especially the violent crimes of rape, robbery and murder are down and down big-time. Even more so in the highly populated inner cities. Crime is dropping precipitously.

Cities with more than a million (1,000,000) citizens saw the largest decrease in rates of violent crime of 5.4%. Cities with under ten thousand (10,000) citizens saw the largest decrease in actual rates of murder of 12.2%.

Nationwide, murders fell by 3.6%. All four of the nation’s regions showed decreases in violent crime, with the Northeast dropping the most, 2.6 percent, followed by the West (2 percent), Midwest (1.5 percent) and South (1.2 percent).

So, you might ask....

How come the media isn't loudly trumpeting the fact that rates of violent crime are down, while the Second Amendment has gained much more support in both Congress and the state legislatures? The semi-auto ban is gone, many new states are allowing lawful citizens to carry concealed firearms and murder rates are down 3.6% overall and 12.2% in smaller cities.

Why is everybody silent on this issue except for those who support The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It seems that the only place you'll hear of this great news is on pro-gun blogs and pro-gun Web sites like www.SaveTheGuns.com and the NRA, GOA and others.

ADVERTISEMENT

Have you considered joining the National Rifle Association? Did you know and were you aware that you can give someone close to you a membership in the National Rifle Association as a gift?

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 Go here to get your own membership in the National Rifle Association or to give that special gift today.

When Considering Legislation...

2005-05-04T14:11:00.000-05:00

This is a very important blog that I think every local politcian, state legislator and U.S. Congressman should read, consider and obey.

It is my belief, in conjunction with the belief of the Founding Fathers that any piece of proposed legislation has a certain hierarchy or order in which the bill must be considered.

When considering any legislation, whether it be from a town selectman's proposal, a state legislator's bill, a House Resolution offered in the United States House of Representatives or a bill offered in a United States Senate Committee, it must be evaluted in a certain order.

First, the proposed bill must be held up to the blinding white light that radiates from the Bill of Rights.

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788.

If the proposed legislation passes this test and completely complies with the Bill of Rights, then the offered legislation should be held up to and closely compared with the rest of the United States Constitution.

"We may be tossed upon an ocean where we can see no land nor, perhaps, the sun and stars. But there is a chart and a compass for us to study, to consult, and to obey. The chart is the Constitution."
Daniel Webster

"An act against the Constitution is void. An act against natural equity is void."
James Otis (1725-1783)

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invent against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Thomas Jefferson June 12, 1823

If the offered legislation complies with the United States Constitution, then it must be compared with the individual state constitutions and it must then be determined if it complies with the articles found there.

Kentucky: The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned. (1792)

Vermont: [T]he people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State and as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power. (1777)

Pennsylvania: That the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; And that the military should be kept under strict subordination, to, and governed by, the civil power. (1776)

Maine: Article 1 Section 16. To keep and bear arms. Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.

If any proposed local, state or federal law, stands up to the Bill of Rights, the remaining seventeen amendments of the Constitution and the indivdual state constitutions for state and local bills, then and ONLY then, may it be considered further.

Next, the bills may be considered according to what grave and serious problem they help to solve. Legislation should never be considered simply in order for the Congress or the legislatures of the fifty states to keep busy and have something to do. Regulation and restriction of the people's freedom, liberty and independence should ALWAYS be very carefully weighed against any benefit derived from proposed legislation.

Then the representatives of the people have the duty to carefully weigh and deliberate upon the desires and opinions of their constituents. They can then request any available data to help them arrive at an equitable and fair decision upon whether or not to co-sponsor and/or support the bill at hand.

I have spoken with many legislators who consider offered legislation without first holding it up to the Bill of Rights and the remaining hierarchy I have described above. If we don't hold our representatives in government responsible for observing the Bill of Rights and the federal and state constitutions first, we're not doing our duty as Americans.

The average world democracy lasts about two hundred years.

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

I don't own a fully automatic machine gun. I don't own a paramilitary semi-automatic rifle with a bayonet either. Neither do I own a .50 caliber rifle.

Because I don't own any of these types of firearms, I'm often asked by people what I'm afraid of. I respond that I'm not afraid of anything that walks the face of the Earth. Neither am I afraid of death itself.

What I fear is that my descendents in future generations of America may have to live under the heavy chains of tyranny, dictatorship and despotism, simply because I stood idly by while I allowed the Bill of Rights to be dismantled by my own government.

Whether people find it distasteful or not, it doesn't matter. The Second Amendment was specifically designed to protect the people from their own government and to keep the door to tyranny forever locked. I will staunchly oppose any attempt whatsoever that may unlock that door. It has nothing to do with hunting.

"Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us."
Thomas Jefferson

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Thank you for listening to me today and reading my latest blog.

Have you looked into the great benefits of becoming an NRA Member?

http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

JOIN THE NRA RIGHT NOW.

Thanks again,
Marc Richardson
www.SaveTheGuns.com

P.S. Is it a surprise that I'm actually related to Samuel Adams, John Adams and John Quncy Adams? :-)

Firearm Owner's Responsibilities

2005-04-25T14:23:00.000-05:00

Your decision to lawfully own a firearm is protected from government encroachment by the Second Amendment found in the Bill of Rights. Very few who know what they're talking about would disagree with that statement.

Once you've decided to buy a gun, there are quite a few responsibilities that go along with that decision. The decision should be carefully weighed and thoughtfully considered. Please do not approach the decision to own a firearm lightly.

Have you considered all the responsibilities that go along with the choice to purchase your first gun?

I have been a Certified Firearm Instructor, NRA Recruiter and I am the Owner and Founder of a Web site called www.SaveTheGuns.com. I have been shooting guns since I was a child. I have taught gun safety and firearm education since I was a mere 22 years old or so.

The responsibilities that go with a first gun purchase are many. A few of them, you might not have even considered before you opened the box that contained your first gun. Let me take you on a brief tour on what I believe are the gun owner's many responsibilities.

I will attempt to address these items in the order of their importance. It is up to the reader to hold yourself accountable. In owning a firearm, you're not only answerable to yourself and your family, but I believe you're also answerable to your community and your nation.

Here is my list of gun owner responsibilities:

Safety and Storage
Awareness of State and Federal Laws
Defend and Support the Second Amendment
Proficiency and Practice
Involve your Children

I will attempt to address each one and expand upon them.

Safety and Storage:

I believe the primary responsibility of a gun owner is to make absolutely certain that nobody is permanently maimed or killed because of a lack of knowledge or carelessness when it comes to gun safety rules, proper gun handling or storage of your firearm.

There are three basic rules of gun handling. I will not address them here in this blog. They are listed on my "Safety Rules" page. http://www.savetheguns.com/safety_rules.htm.

If you own a gun, but cannot correctly recite the three basic rules of gun handling in their order of importance, you have not met your primary responsibility and you have some reading to do.

If you think there are only about ten gun safety rules, again, you have some reading and learning to do. I have an addtional forty seven (47) gun safety rules and tips on my "Safety Rules" page linked above.

As far as gun storage goes, you have a responsibility to keep your firearm away from unsupervised hands (especially little ones). I believe you also have a responsibility to prevent your guns from being stolen in a home burglary.

If your guns are in a glass case in your livingroom or den or there sitting in your bedroom bureau draw or closet readily discoverable by a home burglar, your responsibility in proper storage is not being met.

Firearms stolen from homes are one of the few major sources of guns used during the commission of a violent crime. You have a responsibility to reduce the possibility that your new revolver will not be used to kill the elderly couple down the street.

Safe storage of a gun and the quick accessibility of that gun in an emergency should be very carefully weighed and considered. Obviously if your gun is locked in a safe at all times, it will probably not be of much use in an emergency. However, a loaded gun set aside for emergencies with small curious hands in the close proximity is no good either. Please take the time to weigh these decisions very carefully.

There are many devices available on the market which can bar access to small curious hands, while keeping the gun pretty quickly accessible. Single pistol boxes, with quick combinations or fingerprint readers are just one solution. There are many others. Weigh them all carefully.

Awareness of State and Federal Laws

Are you familiar with all the laws of your home state and have a knowledge of the federal legislation that affects gun owners? My bet is that almost no gun owner in the country has a complete knowledge of the gun laws that they are supposed to obey.

There are more than 20,000 federal, state and local laws and ordinances concerning the ownership, purchase transportation and carry of firearms. One cannot possibly be aware of them all.

You should, however be aware of the basics. How far away from a home, business or street do you have to be to fire a gun? What is the proper process of selling a firearm in your home state? Are there any type of mandatory storage laws that you are forced to obey? You get the idea.

The Chief of Police's Guide to Gun Control Laws in the state of Massachusetts is more than just a few inches thick. Just to read the guide, would take you longer than reading the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarrilion all back to back and Tolkien's works are a lot more interesting than Massachusetts legislators.

Anyway, the best place to go for a basic knowledge of gun laws in your home state is either your state's NRA Affiliate or your local police department.

http://www.savetheguns.com/state_nra_groups.htm

Defend and Support the Second Amendment

The very first thing that comes to your mind is probably the National Rifle Association, otherwise referred to as the NRA.

Yes, you should indeed consider joining the NRA. That's not just because I'm an NRA Recruiter either. The NRA offers many benefits. A good number of current NRA Members are probably not even aware of them all.

http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm

Go here, to my "NRA Membership" page to learn more about it.

Or go here, to join the NRA right now.

There are many other groups you can join and help fight for the Second Amendment and many of them are listed on my "Links" page.

http://www.savetheguns.com/links.htm

Proficiency and Practice

Have ever considered carrying a concealed firearm in a public place? Now 38 states in the United States offer some degree of concealed carry.

Would you want someone defending themselves from a violent attack in a public place in your families' vicinity if they weren't completely proficient with their firearm? Of course not.

You have a responsibility to practice with and be efficient with a firearm. This is especially true if you are licensed to have your gun on your person in a public place.

Practice with your guns as often as time permits. Make time to do it. Join your local gun club. Make a gun range on your property as long as it's lawful to do so.

If you have a gun in your home, do you practice with it at least a couple times a year? Do you involve your children.

Involve Your Children

Please make time to involve your children. Telling them that your firearms are "off limits" is not a good idea. If you do so, they'll satisfy their curiosity when they're unsupervised. You know that as well as I do.

Also, you know as well as I do that you could spend more time with your kids anyway. Take them shooting. Have them learn the basics. Teach them about real American history and the Second Amendment and what it really means.

They see guns being misused nearly every day on television. The messages they're likely to get from school about guns I'm certain won't be very helpful.

If we don't involve today's children in our firearm hobby, we can kiss the right to keep and bear arms goodbye in the next generation. Teach them properly about guns, gun safety and our rights under the United States Constitution.

Get them a Junior NRA Membership today as a gift. You will not be disappointed in this decision.

http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807

Thank you for reading my latest blog. I'm open to your comments and suggestions at any time. webmaster@savetheguns.com

Please consider a contribution today:

http://www.savetheguns.com/contributions.htm

Marc Richardson
www.SaveTheGuns.com

The Biggest Threat To America

2005-03-12T14:18:00.000-05:00

What is the biggest threat to the United States of America?

Is it terrorism?
Is it Socialism?
Is it nuclear war?
Is it dirty bombs?
Is it judicial obstructionism in the U.S. Senate?
Is it natural disasters?
Is it AIDS?
Is it human diseases or some yet undiscovered virus?
Is it Hillary Clinton?

Let me first quote Abraham Lincoln, before I go any further.

"At what point should we expect the approach of danger? By what means are we to fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military power to step across the ocean and crush us? Never. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it cannot and it will not come from abroad. If danger ever reach us, it must spring up from amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live through all time or die by suicide."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) From an 1838 speech when he was just 29 years old.

It is my belief that this approach of danger that must spring up from within America to destroy us, is our own unwillingness to conduct our lives within a moral and virtuous framework.
The Founding Fathers knew quite well that national morality, individual virtue and a national focus on religion, are essential ingredients in a free constitutional republic.

"The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code ... laws essential to the existence of men in society."John Quincy Adams

WHAT ABOUT THE EFFORTS TO REMOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."Noah Webster 1758-1843

HEY, YOU MIGHT SAY, WE ELECT OUR OWN PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND IF THEY WANT TO TEAR DOWN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, ISN'T THAT WHAT WE GAVE THEM POWER TO DO?

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."Noah Webster 1758-1843

With the level of freedom, liberty and independence guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution, with special emphasis on the Bill of Rights, personal responsibility and individual virtue are inseparable.

"[Religion] is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submission to the Divinity?"Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle…"George Washington (1732-1799)

How can we honestly expect to hold onto our current level of freedom, or even gain back some of the freedom and liberty we have lost in the past century, if we cannot control ourselves. We must have self-discipline and a focus upon morality and religion that we once had if America is to survive another 230 years.

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only foundations...of republicanism and of all free governments."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"The belief in a God all Powerful, wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

It has been said that some of the Founding Fathers were not Christians. I have heard many uninformed people say that we can find our own level of morality and define for ourselves what is right, true and just. Of course, that's a bunch of Sophist hogwash. There are moral absolutes and we have lost sight of them.

Have you ever been walking in the woods, following a clearly marked and well trodden path, only to find that after walking for a while, the path is gone? The path has vanished. What do you do? Really, what do you do? Of course, you know exactly what to do. You retrace your steps until you find the path again. NOW, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS BLOG IS ALL ABOUT.

Even as I write this message, there are national efforts to remove the Ten Commandments of God from all public buildings and displays.

Well, for those who think the "separation of Church and State" is part of our history and can easily be found in the founding documents of the United States, I say that you should be a little more informed of real United States history and not the historical revisionist crap that our children are being taught in public school.

The "Separation of Church and State" cannot be found in the founding documents of America because the Founding Fathers knew that national morality, virtue and religion are completely inseparable in a free country.

"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

"The great pillars of all government and of social life …[are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

Some completely uninformed people actually have the belief that the Founding Fathers were not Christians. Well, bear with me a bit as I list some quotes disproving that.

"You do well to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention."George Washington from his speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779.

"The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor so to live as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."George Washington July 9, 1776

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The precepts of philosophy laid hold to actions only, but Jesus pushed His scrutinies into the heart of man, erected the tribunal in the region of his thoughts and purified the waters at the fountainhead."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Why is it next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day, the Fourth Of July? It is because the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission on earth and laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) From a speech on July 4th 1837.

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

"Providence has given to us the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."John Jay (1745-1829) First Supreme Court Chief Justice

"The Americans, combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: That it connected in one dissoluble bond the principles of Christianity with the principles of civil government."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity, will change the face of the world."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.

"O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins... Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in Thy sight."President George Washington (From a booklet of prayers he wrote.)

"My custom is, to read four or five chapters [of the Bible] every morning immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time. It is essential, my son, in order that you may go through life with comfort to yourself, and usefulness to your fellow-creatures, that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper."President John Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy Adams

"The Bible is the book upon which this Republic rests."Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States

"Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die. This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which can make them rich indeed."Patrick Henry (1799, on his death bed)

"In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect…All confidence must be withheld from the means we use and respond only on that God who rules in the armies of Heaven and without whose blessing the best of human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity…and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven."John Hancock, April 15, 1775, just four days before the "shot heard round the world".

OK, OK, YOU SAY, YOU'VE MADE YOUR POINT CLEAR, THE FOUNDING FATHERS WERE INDEED CHRISTIANS.

Our system of government depends almost entirely upon the American people being virtuous and righteous. If we continue on the path of moral relativism, we're doomed. If we continue to keep God and Jesus Christ out of our public lives we're doomed to failure.

If we continue to buy the lie that God should not have a place in our public schools, we're denying the truth of our historical record. In fact, right now, let me post in the 2nd and 3rd Articles of the Massachusetts Constitution as follows:

Article II. It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society,publicly, and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.

Article III. As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality; and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the institution of the public worship of God, and of public instructions in piety, religion and morality: Therefore, to promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.
And the people of this commonwealth have also a right to, and do, invest their legislature with authority to enjoin upon all the subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public teachers aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any on whose instructions they can conscientiously and conveniently attend.
Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, shall, at all times, have the exclusive right of electing their public teachers, and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance.
And all moneys paid by the subject to the support of public worship, and of the public teachers aforesaid, shall, if he require it, be uniformly applied to the support of the public teacher or teachers of his own religious sect or denomination, provided there be any on whose instructions he attends;otherwise it may be paid towards the support of the teacher or teachers of the parish or precinct in which the said moneys are raised.
Any every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably, and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the law: and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law.

WOW HUH?

So much for separation of Church and State huh? This might lead you to ask, what about the First Amendment that says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion? Here's my take on that portion of the First Amendment.

The Founding Fathers were very aware of how England did things. They wanted to be completely separate from England. That is what the Declaration of Independence and the ensuing Revolutionary War was about, remember?

England had a national church. It was called the Church of England. If you were not a member of the Church of England, but gathered privately for religious services, you were known as "Separatists". As Separatists, you were persecuted, oppressed and maltreated by the English government.

This drove a group of these Separatists to Holland, who then decided to make a new life for themselves in America. They made the perilous journey in 1620. We know them as the Pilgrims.

The Founding Fathers wanted nothing to do with an official national church that would control and oppress other Christian denominations. That is what that portion of the First Amendment is all about. Like it or not, believe it or not, it doesn't matter to me. The fact remains that the Founders of the United States of America wanted God, morality, religion and government to work together for the common good, remember the first Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay?

"Providence has given to us the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."John Jay (1745-1829) First Supreme Court Chief Justice

I wonder to myself sometimes what Chief Justice John Jay would have said to Michael Newdow who is single-handedly trying to erase God from everyday life in America? I say, we all stand on our own two feet and tell Michael Newdow to sit down and shut up and keep your God-hating opinions to yourself.

I will now finish this hopefully enlightening communication with the rest of the Founding Fathers words on the importance of morality, religion and virtue in America and its role in government and our lives as individual and free Americans.

Please feel free to pass it on. Incidentally, all these quotes can easily be found on my Web site. http://www.savetheguns.com/. If you want to see what the Founding Fathers had to say concerning private firearm ownership, go to my "Quotes" page. www.SaveTheGuns.com/quotes.htm

Now for the remaining quotes I have on religion, morality and virtue and their importance in America:

"Has it [government] any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone...? I think it is an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the author of Nature whose laws never vary...Government...is by no means an arbitrary thing depending merely on compact or human will for its existence... The power of God Almighty is the only power that can properly and strictly be called supreme and absolute. In the order of nature immediately under him comes the power of a simple democracy, or the power of the whole over the world...[God is] the only Monarch in the universe who has a clear and undisputable right to absolute power because He is the only one who is omniscient as well as omnipotent... The sum of my argument is of God, that the administrators of it were originally the whole people."Samuel Adams (1722-1803) The Father of the American Revolution

"I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the states over which you preside, in His holy protection…that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example, we can never hope to be a happy nation."George Washington in his last official address to Congress

"I conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray but that ye act."John Hancock (1737-1793) First signer of the Declaration of Independence.

"[T]he law…dictated by God himself is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

"Three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it is possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark; the laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)

"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?...[W]ithout His concurring aid...we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

"No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of events and the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States…And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."George Washington (1732-1799)

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."George Washington (1732-1799)

"[T]rue religion affords to government its surest support."George Washington (1732-1799)

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect...No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States."George Washington (1732-1799)

"It is the duty of all nations as well as of men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose god is the Lord."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity. We have grown in numbers and wealth and in power as no other nation ever has, but we have forgotten God. We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, and too proud to pray."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"Your love of liberty -- your respect for the laws -- your habits of industry -- and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness."George Washington

"Providence punishes national sins with national calamities."George Mason (1725-1792) The Father of the Bill of Rights

"God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove from them a conviction these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and His justice cannot sleep forever."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

“And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence.”John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."Benjamin Franklin

"There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."Patrick Henry in a 1787 speech

"We need God to be our friend and our ally. We need to keep God's concurring aid. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in the sacred writings that 'except the Lord keep the city, they labor in vain that build it.'"Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist. This quote was said on the floor of the Constitutional Convention June 28, 1787

"It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits and to humbly implore his protection and his favor."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.

"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."Abraham Lincoln 1858

"And now, Almighty Father, if it is Thy holy will that we shall obtain a place and name among the nations of the earth, grant that we may be enabled to show our gratitude for Thy goodness by our endeavors to fear and obey Thee. Bless us with Thy wisdom in our counsels, success in battle, and let all our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with enlightened minds, that they become sensible of their injustice, and willing to restore our liberty and peace. Grant the petition of Thy servant, for the sake of Him whom Thou hast called Thy beloved Son; nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done."General George Washington 1779

"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."Noah Webster 1758-1843

"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."William Penn

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."Alexis de Tocqueville

"What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint."Edmund Burke

"Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised!, in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous than their arms. Let us then ... under God trust our cause to our swords."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions."George Washington

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."John Adams

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."Noah Webster 1758-1843

"My God, how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth have ever enjoyed."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States. Author of the Declaration of Independence.

"Our task and our duty must be to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill and the eyes of all are upon us."John Winthrop (1588-1649) Puritan and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1649

AND NOW, LET ME END THIS COMMUNICATION TO YOU WITH MY FAVORITE SHORTEST QUOTE OF ALL TIME:

"I am nothing. Truth is everything."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Sixteenth President of the United States.

WE HAVE LOST SIGHT OF THE PATH FOR AMERICA THAT WAS SET FORTH FOR US BY THE FOUNDING FATHERS. JUST AS IF WE GOT LOST IN THE WOODS, WE MUST RETRACE OUR STEPS AND FIND THAT PATH AGAIN IF WE ARE TO EVER PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO ME TODAY.

MARC RICHARDSON
INFO@SAVETHEGUNS.COM

Protection of Firearm Manufacturers

2005-03-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

Dear Reader,

Thank you for visiting my www.SaveTheGuns.com Blog. Please feel free to print, post, forward, e-mail or otherwise use any information on this blog, as long as you leave it unedited and don't claim the work I did for yourself. Please include a link to www.SaveTheGuns.com somewhere in your work.

Now, onto protecting gun makers...

Again, in the latest session of Congress, there is proposed legislation in both the United States House of Representatives as well as the United States Senate to protect firearm manufacturers from being sued out of existence for the illegal, uncivil and immoral acts of violent criminals.

In the United States Senate, the Bill Number is S. 397 and in the United States House of Representatives, the house resolution number is H.R. 800 both entitled The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Go read the bills here http://thomas.loc.gov/.

The half-witted and muddle-headed trend of holding firearm manufacturers responsible for criminal acts committed with their lawfully produced and non-defective products is very disturbing on so many fronts.

The world's gun makers are concerned about gun safety. If you have purchased a firearm lately, you would find that there are many references to gun safety information and pertinent warnings included with a new firearm.

The vast majority of firearm manufacturing firms are small family-owned companies of usually less than 350 employees. Allowing individuals, cities and even state's to sue those small family owned companies will end the lawful production of firearms outright, or it will make it so expensive to buy a firearm that you'll need a six figure income to legally obtain one.

These inane and ill-conceived lawsuits are more about ending the firearm manufacturing business and less about the misguided effort to fight acts of violent crime. These lawsuits must come to an end. Not only because they're wrong-headed and downright stupid, but they're making the next gun I want to purchase so very expensive. :-)

The firearm manufacturing industry is already the most highly regulated industry in the world, short of those who produce nuclear energy. They only sell their legally manufactured and constitutionally protected products to federally licensed and highly regulated wholesalers, who then sell to highly regulated Federal Firearm License (FFL) holders. Gun makers do not sell their products to criminals.

If you want to find out where criminals are obtaining the firearms they use to commit crime with, then please see my blog titled "Felon-Focused" gun control. In short, criminals do not lawfully purchase firearms at retail outlets. Felons have been outlawed from owning guns since the Gun Control Act of 1968.

The radical experiment of the Founding Fathers of self-government and complete human freedom was a resounding success. With the amount of freedom that the founding documents guarantee us, we must have an equal amount of personal responsibility and moral and religious restraint that goes along with it.

Efforts such as holding gun makers accountable for the uncivil and immoral use of their products completely throws out the notion of personal responsibility, that is so central and essential to a free people.

The very concept of holding a manufacturer responsible for the illegal use of their products is witless, inane and senseless. Using the same misguided logic, we would be able to sue a drug maker for an overdose, a baseball bat maker for a beating or a cutlery manufacturer for a stabbing. The logic simply escapes me... Aren't our elected officials supposed to have some semblance of intelligence and common sense?

In the last legislative session of Congress, with the support of ousted Democrat leader Tom Daschle, anti-Second Amendment Democrats attached so many anti-gun amendments to this common sense legislation that even the staunchest Second Amendment supporter wouldn't vote for it. This time, we're watching the Democrats very closely.

Please contact your U.S. Senators and your U.S. House Representative and ask them to co-sponsor or at least support S. 397 and H.R. 800. Our nation's gun makers deserve the common sense protection against frivolous lawsuits contained in this bill.

Now that you've read my blog on this issue, go tell your two United States Senators and your United States House Representative how you feel about these inane and outright dangerous lawsuits. From the Senate and House homepages, you can easily contact those who represent you in our legislative branch of government. Remember that we are their employers and we tell them what to do in our stead. Although I know a couple of Senators from Massachusetts and New York who might disagree with that statement.

Remember to be polite, but firm and use the Bill Numbers and Title in the text above.

United States Senate
United States House of Representatives

Marc Richardson
Owner and Founder
www.SaveTheGuns.com

Contribute securely to my efforts, with a credit card.

"Felon-focused" gun control

2005-02-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

This blog is concerning a new approach to reduce crime, that I would like to call "Felon focused" gun control. I would like to see a fresh focus on legislation that will affect both the criminal mind and the main sources of firearms actually used during the commission of a crime.

Gun control legislation doesn't have to be a dirty word in the pro-gun community. All we really have to do is take the focus off the firearm and put it on affecting the criminal mind and also concentrate on diminishing the sources of actual crime guns.

I think that if gun control legislation was specifically designed to affect crime and not just guns in general and honest gun owners, it would garner widespread support in both the pro-gun and law enforcement communities.

First, let's address the criminal mind and how we can change the criminal's decision to choose a gun to commit a crime with.

We must add penalties to a violent criminal act if a firearm was possessed, brandished, fired or used to injure. I believe that if we had mandatory sentencing guidelines in place nationwide, that specifically punish criminals for choosing a firearm, it would greatly affect the violent criminal's decision making process.

I believe that if a gun was possessed, brandished, fired or used to injure, the criminal should receive an additional five, ten, fifteen and twenty year penalites attached to a violent criminal act. I.E. if a convenience store is robbed at knife point, and there is a conviction, the perpetrator should receive X number of years for the crime. However, if the same criminal during the same robbery, brandished a firearm to commit the crime, he should receive X+10 years or X+15 years if the gun was fired.

Studies have shown that 85% of all violent criminal acts such as robbery, rape and murder are routinely committed by only 7% of the criminal population. In other words, 93% of the people with criminal records are not habitually committing violent criminal acts. We must focus legislative efforts on this most violent 7% of the criminal population.

We must have laws in place that will actually make an impact upon the criminal's decision to commit a violent crime. Simply making laws that have to be obeyed by lawful, honest and upright gun owners and merely have to do with firearms will not affect rates of violent crime and never have.

The crimes that I'm referring to, that need this type of sentencing are the traditionally recognized set of violent crimes, such as rape, robbery and murder.

Contact your state and federal legislators today and ask them to begin to develop and implement "felon-focused" legislation and stay away from useless and unconstitutional laws that control the lawful ownership and carry of firearms.

Now, let me switch gears for a moment and ask the reader how he/she thinks criminals are actually gaining possession of guns that they use in criminal acts.

Where are felons actually getting guns? Let me first tell you where they're not getting them. They're not getting them from lawful, honest and upright gun owners peddling their cherished gun collections on street corners. But most gun control laws seem to assume such a ridiculous scenario.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) did a comprehensive study of more than 18,000 state and federal inmates and attempted to ascertain where they got the guns they used to commit their crimes.

Here is what they found:

39.6% of the guns used to commit a crime with came from friends and family members of the felon.
39.2% of the guns used to commit a crime with came from illegal sources, such as on the street, through the narcotics trade and through burglaries and robberies.
8.3% were purchased fraudulently through properly licensed retail outlets. These purchases were made by misrepresenting themselves, lying on forms and providing false identification.
3.8% of them were obtained through a pawn shop. Again, bought by falsifying documents and identification.
1.0% of the guns used during the commission of a crime came from yard sales and flea markets.
0.7% came from gun shows.

With this very powerful and enlightening information, we can begin the see where gun control legislation should be properly aimed.

Let's look at the biggest source. Friends and family members of the felon. Now, with this information, we could develop legislation that would specifically punish people for knowingly providing a firearm to a known felon. How about a mandatory sentence of five years, living in the general population of a state prison for providing a firearm to a known felon.

How about the second highest source? An almost equivalent 39.2% of guns used in crime came from "on the street" purchases, through the narcotics trade and through robberies and burglaries of homes.

There is plenty of opportunity to enact meaningful laws to curtail these transactions. Illegal gun running is not currently punished harshly enough in either state or federal law in my opinion. If someone is convicted of trafficking in illegal firearms, they should not be able to plea-bargain a lighter sentence under any circumstances whatsoever. We must shut down this primary source of guns used in crime.

Now what about home burglaries? Yes, here is another primary source that we should focus on. Burglaries of homes and robberies of sporting goods stores are some of the biggest sources of guns used in crime. Let's implement penalties of five additional years of prison time for each and every firearm stolen during a burglary or robbery. I don't know about the reader, but if I knew there was a probability of an additional five years of real prison time added to a burglary, I would leave that gun right there and just take the television, stereo and silverware.

Let's move onto the other lesser sources of crime guns. 12.1% of guns used in criminal acts were purchased at lawfully licensed retailers and pawn shops. The vast majority of which I can safely assume were bought through fraudulent identification and by falsifying documents. I don't think it's too much to ask a retail firearm purchaser for at least two forms of positive identification. Another way to diminish these types of illegal firearm acquisition is to follow through on penalties for attempted unlawful purchase of firearms at retail.

The remaining 1.7% were obtained through yard sales, flea markets and gun shows. There was been a lot of noise lately about gun shows being virtual bazaars for violent criminals, but at 0.7%, the truth has been told. But even here, we can ask for more positive identification and increase penalities for fraudulent purchases.

There you go reader!!! I advocate for what I'm calling "Felon-focused" gun control. I think you'll easily find that most lawful and honest gun owners won't mind coming up with an extra method of positive identification. That is the only burden that my suggestions place on the good guys.

I've done my job. Now it's time for you to do yours. Contact your elected officials, e-mail them this article. Tell them to pass more "Felon-focused" laws and no more laws that regulate and burden the lawful and honest gun owner.

The Foundation of Liberty

2005-02-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

What a heavy subject to write about in a blog only a few hundred words in length!!! I will give it my best shot. Please feel free to reply with comments and tell me how well, or how badly I did.

What is liberty, freedom and independence sitting on? What does the very base of real human freedom look like? What is it comprised of?

Let me begin this brief discussion with a statement that I think is very relevant to my thoughts on this central issue.

I believe that every major problem that we are currently dealing with in the United States, has a viable solution that lies somewhere in America's past history. All we have to do is begin searching for the answers to today's dilemmas in our historical past.

Now that that statement is out of the way, allow me to continue...

We cannot have complete human freedom, liberty and independence, without having a solid foundation of religion, morality and virtue to stand on.

Let me quote: (which I will do a lot in this blog.)

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

We will not hold onto the freedoms afforded to us in the Constitution if we cannot find ways to confine our conduct within the boundaries of morality and virtue.

We likewise cannot have real morality and virtue, without a belief structure and a relationship to and with God. We human beings need a belief in a post-mortem future of rewards and punishments in order to properly define and constrain our moral conduct.

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

James Madison hit the nail right on the head. We must govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

Is this our fate? Is human freedom itself on the brink of extinction because of the lack of morality, virtue and righteous conduct?

How long would we allow the freedom to own and carry the firearms of our choice, if we had no compunction against murder? Likewise, if we believed it was a legitimate career choice to burglarize or rob, how long would we retain the constitutional rights afforded to us?

America is still pretty much a religious and moral country, still over 85% of Americans believe in God and an afterlife. However, our moral standards and our core belief in moral absolutes seem to be on the decline.

I have heard many times on this topic, people say something to the effect that we can choose our own morality and that there are no moral absolutes. That's total hogwash and a feeble copout if you ask me.

Clearly identifying the problem for us today is this quote:

"Man is the measure of all things. Truth is merely opinion, and, therefore even morality is relative."Protagoras (480?-411? B.C.) A 5th century B.C. Greek Sophist

Protagoras was wrong. History has proven without any doubt that there are and should be absolutes in morality.

Adolph Hitler thought his actions were right and just. Are we to honor the Holocaust because Hitler was operating within the boundaries of moral conduct that he set for himself??? Come on now. There are moral absolutes and they must be observed.

A clear and unobscured focus upon morality, religion and virtue and a univsersal willingness and intent to obey the Ten Commandments of God is the true foundation of human freedom, liberty and independence.

No other country in the history of the world has been so powerful, yet used that power so benignly and graciously as the United States of America. We have used our might to free the people of oppressed countries who have posed a danger to both us and their very own people. Spreading human freedom across the globe is the one best chance for world peace.

The intentions and words of President George W. Bush are noble and historic. We should attempt to spread human freedom throughout the world. World peace is the currency that human freedom can produce. We don't need to beat up every country in the world to spread the idea of human freedom. Freedom can do that all by itself.

True human freedom comes with a requirement of responsibility. A responsibility to conduct our lives within a framework of religious and moral behavior is an essential and inseparable aspect of human freedom. It also comes with a fundamental duty of protecting and defending that freedom once it has been acquired.

I have spent many years compiling the views of the Founding Fathers and other important historical figures, on the subject of the importantance of religion, morality and virtue. You can now take full advantage of my work.

ENJOY

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

THE QUOTES
(These men set forth the path for America and I contend that we have strayed dangerously far from that path.)

"Respect for religion must be reestablished, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of public officials must be curtailed, assistance to foreign lands must be stopped or we shall bankrupt ourselves. The people should be forced to work and not depend on the government for subsistence."Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and philosopher (106-43BC)

"Our task and our duty must be to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill and the eyes of all are upon us."John Winthrop (1588-1649) Puritan and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1649

"Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternally life."Harvard University (Pamphlet published in 1643)

"Christ is the only, the true, the living way of access to God."Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1795-1817)

"Give up yourselves therefore to Him, [God] with a cordial confidence, and the great work of life is done."Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1814 Baccalaureate Discourse)

"The chief Thing that is aimed at in this College is to teach and engage the Children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him, in all Sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of Life, with a perfect Heart, and a willing Mind."Columbia University publication (1754)

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, "just men who will rule in the fear of God." The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."Noah Webster 1758-1843

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."John Adams

"I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America…Let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hates iniquity…Let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases."John Hancock, American Patriot and Revolutionary

"Posterity, you will never know what it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States.

"In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect…All confidence must be withheld from the means we use and respond only on that God who rules in the armies of Heaven and without whose blessing the best of human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity…and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven."John Hancock, April 15, 1775, just four days before the "shot heard round the world".

"My God, how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth have ever enjoyed."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States. Author of the Declaration of Independence.

"We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions."George Washington

"I am nothing. Truth is everything."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Sixteenth President of the United States.

"If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"Our unalterable resolution would be to be free. They have attempted to subdue us by force, but God be praised!, in vain. Their arts may be more dangerous than their arms. Let us then ... under God trust our cause to our swords."Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint."Edmund Burke

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."George Washington

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America . . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."Alexis de Tocqueville

"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."William Penn

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."Noah Webster 1758-1843

"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one."Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

"Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die. This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which can make them rich indeed."Patrick Henry (1799, on his death bed)

"To commit our children to the care of irreligious people is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves."Timothy Dwight, President of Yale from 1795-1817

"The Bible is the book upon which this Republic rests."Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States

"My custom is, to read four or five chapters [of the Bible] every morning immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time. It is essential, my son, in order that you may go through life with comfort to yourself, and usefulness to your fellow-creatures, that you should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own conduct and temper."President John Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy Adams

"And now, Almighty Father, if it is Thy holy will that we shall obtain a place and name among the nations of the earth, grant that we may be enabled to show our gratitude for Thy goodness by our endeavors to fear and obey Thee. Bless us with Thy wisdom in our counsels, success in battle, and let all our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with enlightened minds, that they become sensible of their injustice, and willing to restore our liberty and peace. Grant the petition of Thy servant, for the sake of Him whom Thou hast called Thy beloved Son; nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done."General George Washington 1779

"O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins... Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in Thy sight."President George Washington (From a booklet of prayers he wrote.)

"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."Abraham Lincoln 1858

"Wish not so much to live long as to live well."Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738

"At what point should we expect the approach of danger? By what means are we to fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military power to step across the ocean and crush us? Never. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it cannot and it will not come from abroad. If danger ever reach us, it must spring up from amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live through all time or die by suicide."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) From an 1838 speech when he was just 29 years old.

"It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits and to humbly implore his protection and his favor."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.

"Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.

"We need God to be our friend and our ally. We need to keep God's concurring aid. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in the sacred writings that 'except the Lord keep the city, they labor in vain that build it.'"Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist. This quote was said on the floor of the Constitutional Convention June 28, 1787

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity, will change the face of the world."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."Patrick Henry in a 1787 speech

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."Benjamin Franklin

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: That it connected in one dissoluble bond the principles of Christianity with the principles of civil government."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

“And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence.”John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we remove from them a conviction these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and His justice cannot sleep forever."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The precepts of philosophy laid hold to actions only, but Jesus pushed His scrutinies into the heart of man, erected the tribunal in the region of his thoughts and purified the waters at the fountainhead."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"Providence punishes national sins with national calamities."George Mason (1725-1792) The Father of the Bill of Rights

"Your love of liberty -- your respect for the laws -- your habits of industry -- and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness."George Washington

"The Americans, combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"[Religion] is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submission to the Divinity?"Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"Providence has given to us the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."John Jay (1745-1829) First Supreme Court Chief Justice

"Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Why is it next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day, the Fourth Of July? It is because the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission on earth and laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) From a speech on July 4th 1837.

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity. We have grown in numbers and wealth and in power as no other nation ever has, but we have forgotten God. We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, and too proud to pray."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"It is the duty of all nations as well as of men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose god is the Lord."Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect...No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States."George Washington (1732-1799)

"[T]rue religion affords to government its surest support."George Washington (1732-1799)

"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principle…"George Washington (1732-1799)

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."George Washington (1732-1799)

"[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."George Washington (1732-1799)

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only foundations...of republicanism and of all free governments."John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"A nation that expects to be ignorant -and free-…it expects what never was and never will be."Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The belief in a God all Powerful, wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of events and the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States…And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?...[W]ithout His concurring aid...we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

"Three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of a God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it is possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark; the laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy."John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)

"The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor so to live as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country."George Washington July 9, 1776

"[T]he law…dictated by God himself is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

"I conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only that ye pray but that ye act."John Hancock (1737-1793) First signer of the Declaration of Independence.

"You do well to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention."George Washington from his speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779.

"The great pillars of all government and of social life …[are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible."Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

"Has it [government] any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone...? I think it is an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the author of Nature whose laws never vary...Government...is by no means an arbitrary thing depending merely on compact or human will for its existence... The power of God Almighty is the only power that can properly and strictly be called supreme and absolute. In the order of nature immediately under him comes the power of a simple democracy, or the power of the whole over the world...[God is] the only Monarch in the universe who has a clear and undisputable right to absolute power because He is the only one who is omniscient as well as omnipotent... The sum of my argument is of God, that the administrators of it were originally the whole people."Samuel Adams (1722-1803) The Father of the American Revolution

"I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the states over which you preside, in His holy protection…that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example, we can never hope to be a happy nation."George Washington in his last official address to Congress

Now that you have seen these quotes, what are your thoughts? I'll tell you what I think of them... I think that we have lost sight of the vision that the founders had for the future generations of America.

They knew quite well that a nation could not be truly free if they could not find ways to keep their conduct within a framework of morality, virtue and righteousness. Without religion and morality playing a primary role in the lives of every American, we will continue to lose our freedom.

I will close with a restatement of a quote from Benjamin Franklin:

"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher, diplomat and scientist.

I invite your comments.

Quotes of the Founders

2005-02-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

Dear SaveTheGuns.com Blog Visitor,

I have quoted many of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. These thoughts of the Founding Fathers will help you immensely in gaining a better and more comprehensive understanding of what they meant when they wrote and ratified the Second Amendment.

You may use these quotations and snippets as you see fit. I do not own these quotes, one cannot own quotations. However, if you use my work, I only ask that you mention www.SaveTheGuns.com somewhere in your work or dissertation.

ENJOY.

"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole body of the people except for a few public officials. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them..."George Mason

"I ask what is the purpose of the militia? To offset the need of large standing armies, the bane of liberty."Elbridge Gerry

"Altho' a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country, yet a few Troops, under certain circumstances, are not only safe, but indispensably necessary. Fortunately for us our relative situation requires but few. The same circumstances which so effectually retarded, and in the end conspired to defeat the attempts of Britain to subdue us, will now powerfully tend to render us secure. Our distance from the European States in a great degree frees us of apprehension, from their numerous regular forces and the Insults and dangers which are to be dreaded from their Ambition."George Washington May 1, 1783.

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances."Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98

"Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."Samuel Adams speech, 1771

"I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm house."Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Jacob J. Brown (1808)

"God grants Liberty only to those who live it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."Daniel Webster (1782-1852) (Secretary of State under three U.S. Presidents)

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Thomas Jefferson

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."George Washington

"Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.""M.T. Cicero" 1788

"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England"

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms."Tench Coxe, June 18, 1789

"The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of the republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."Joseph Story, United States Supreme Court Justice, 1833

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."Edmund Burke, Speech at country meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."Thomas Jefferson

"The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the 'government', not to 'society'; and as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage."Joel Barlow, Advice to the Privileged Orders, 1792-93

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

"To each of my Nephews, William Augustine Washington, George Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington, and Samuel Washington, I give one of my swords or Cutteaux of which I may be Possessed; and they are to choose in the order they are named. These Swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheathe them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for self defense, or in the defense of their Country and its rights; and in the latter case, to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the relinquishment thereof."George Washington from his Last Will and Testament

"An act against the Constitution is void. An act against natural equity is void."James Otis (1725-1783)

"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 band of regular troops..."Noah Webster, An Examination of The Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia 1787

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. When you give up that force, you are ruined."Patrick Henry, Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention

"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them."Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796

"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."George Washington

"[The disarming of citizens] has a double effect, it palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: a habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral [force]; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression."Joel Barlow, Advice to the Privileged Orders, 1792-93

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms never, never, never! You cannot conquer America."William Pitt, Speech, November 18, 1777

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776

"Arms in the hands of individual citizens [may] be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense..."John Adams, A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America, 1788

"Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts (1744-1814)

"(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."James Madison, The Federalist, Number 46

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important."Thomas Jefferson 1803

"Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defense, the militia is put in the hands of Congress?"Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot Debates 48.

"The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops."James Madison, The Federalist, Number 46, January 29, 1788

"I ask what is the purpose of the militia? To offset the need of large standing armies, the bane of liberty."Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts

"The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people."Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts June 12, 1789

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government."Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #28

"... as all history informs us, there has been in every State & Kingdom a constant kind of warfare between the governing & governed: the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less. And this has alone occasioned great convulsions, actual civil wars, ending either in dethroning of the Princes, or enslaving of the people. Generally indeed the ruling power carries its point, the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes; the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure. There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever ..."Benjamin Franklin, before the Constitutional Convention, (June 2, 1787)

"We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in."Thomas Paine

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person."James Madison, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution June 8, 1789

"They tell us that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us."Patrick Henry, 1775

"Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense."John Adams

"The power of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."Tench Coxe, writing as "the Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1788 (Alexander Hamilton's Chief Assistant in the Treasury Department)

"All persons shall bear arms, and every male person shall have in continual readiness a good musket or other gun, fit for service."Connecticut Gun Code of 1650

"Suppose that we let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal: still it would not be going to far to say that the State governments with the people at their side would be able to repel the danger...half a million citizens with arms in their hands"James Madison, The Federalist Papers

"That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power."Virginia Declaration of Rights 13 (June 12, 1776), drafted by George Mason

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States....Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America"Gazette of the United States October 14, 1789

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."Thomas Jefferson's advice to his 15 year-old nephew

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can."Samuel Adams

"...[A]rms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property...Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."Thomas Paine, Thoughts On Defensive War, 1775

"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them..."Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 1788

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if so dear to the enlightened legislator - and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.Criminologist Cesare Beccaria On Crimes and Punishments (1764)

"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny."James Monroe

"...It is always dangerous to the liberties of the people to have an army stationed among them, over which they have no control...The Militia is composed of free Citizens. There is therefore no danger of their making use of their power to the destruction of their own Rights, or suffering others to invade them."Samuel Adams

"The constitution ought to secure a genuine militia and guard against a select militia. ....all regulations tending to render this general militia useless and defenseless, by establishing select corps of militia, or distinct bodies of military men, not having permanent interests and attachments to the community ought to be avoided."Richard Henry Lee

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! - I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"Patrick Henry

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."John Adams

"...if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to 'bind me in all cases whatsoever' to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?"Thomas Paine

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country."James Madison

"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole body of the people except for a few public officials. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them..."George Mason

"The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them"Tench Coxe, An American Citizen IV, October 21, 1787

"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun."Patrick Henry

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large, is that they be properly armed."Alexander Hamilton

"The said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."Samuel Adams of Massachusetts -- U.S. Constitution ratification convention, 1788

"Are we at least brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"Patrick Henry, 3 Elliot Debates 168-169.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."Thomas Jefferson, in letter to William S. Smith, 1787

"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state.... Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788

"...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..."Alexander Hamilton Federalist 29

"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny."Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe."Noah Webster

"Instances of the licentious and outrageous behavior of the military conservators of the peace still multiply upon us, some of which are of such nature and have been carried to so great lengths as must serve fully to evince that a late vote of this town, calling upon the inhabitants to provide themselves with arms for their defense, was a measure as prudent as it was legal. It is a natural right which the people have reserved to themselves, confirmed by the [English] Bill of Rights, to keep arms for their own defense, and as Mr. Blackstone observes it is to be made use of when the sanctions of society and law are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."From "A Journal of the Times", calling the citizens of Boston to arm themselves in response to British abuses of power, 1769

"And we do each of us, for ourselves respectively, promise and engage to keep a good firelock in proper order, and to furnish ourselves as soon as possible with, and always keep by us, one pound of gunpowder, four pounds of lead, one dozen gunflints, and a pair of bullet moulds, with a cartouch box, or powder horn, and bag for balls."George Mason's Fairfax County Militia Plan, 1775

"Altho' a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country, yet a few Troops, under certain circumstances, are not only safe, but indispensably necessary. Fortunately for us our relative situation requires but few. The same circumstances which so effectually retarded, and in the end conspired to defeat the attempts of Britain to subdue us, will now powerfully tend to render us secure. Our distance from the European States in a great degree frees us of apprehension, from their numerous regular forces and the Insults and dangers which are to be dreaded from their Ambition."George Washington May 1, 1783

"...As there is not the least doubt at present, that the principle Object of the Enemy is to get Possession of the City of Philadelphia, it is absolutely necessary, that every Person able to bear Arms (except such as are Conscientiously scrupulous against it in every Case), should give their personal Service, and whenever a part of the Militia is required only, either to join the Army or find a Man in their place. In order to effect this, I beg you will order the whole Militia of your State to be enrolled and compleatly equipp'd; that one half at least may proceed to join the Army with all possible expedition..."George Washington--to Pennsylvania Safety Council, January 19, 1777

Welcome and My Focus

2005-02-17T09:09:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new SaveTheGuns.com Blog.

I have found a few basic truths through more than twenty years of pro-Second Amendment activism. I have found that those people who support efforts to control firearm ownership, use, transportation and sales, are generally decent and caring people who want to do something about violent crime, but really don't have a sound foundation of knowledge to pull from.

Most people who aren't familiar with guns and lawful gun owners, get most of their firearm related knowledge from the entertainment and news industries. The Three Stooges was hilarious entertainment. That group of men have entertained millions with their on screen antics, but they are not a good source of proper gun handling techniques. Likewise, neither are the latest movies being shown on the silver screen.

Thousands of times, we have seen firearms mishandled on television and in the movies. We have seen police detectives fire a snub nosed .38 Special revolver at a fleeing vehicle and have seen it explode and jump into the air. There's no wonder that millions of people fear firearms.

We human beings have always feared the unknown. It is a primal and natural human reaction to our environment. Before the 15th century, it was thought that we could sail off the edge of the Earth. Young children are often afraid of the dark because the absence of light creates an unknown.

The same principle applies to firearms, gun owners and violent crime. I have thought for decades that those who support stringent gun control laws, begin their misguided journey with a lack of knowledge about guns. This complete lack of knowledge, combined with misinformation coming from the press and the entertainment industry, leads to apprehension or animosity toward both guns and gun owners alike.

This feeling of animosity and apprehension gradually evolves into hatred and disdain of both firearms and those who lawfully and responsibly own them. I believe that is the main reason why more than half of American citizens support gun control laws.

The truth of the matter is very involved, but not really complex to comprehend and understand. Guns were invented shortly before the year 1300 A.D. Now, more than seven hundred years later, some people still fear them.

Violent crime is a problem. I won't stick my head in the sand and ignore that. You can't ignore the fact that more than 25,000 people will die this year from a combination of suicide, homicide, legal intervention and accidental discharges.

However, limiting the legitimate and proven rights of decent, law abiding and honest firearm owners will do nothing to affect those numbers. We must have legislation that affects both the criminal mind and the actual sources of firearms that are used during the commission of a crime, while leaving the honest gun owner completely out of the loop.

I call this type of legislation "Felon focused" legislation.

You might ask, "Marc, if gun control is not the answer, then what is?". I'm so glad I asked. We must create laws that will diminish the criminal's desire to use a gun to commit a crime with, as well as diminish the sources of where the felon gets his gun.

In the largest study of its kind, the U.S. Department of Justice did a survey of more than 18,000 state and federal inmates to determine where they obtained the guns they used while committing crime. Here is a brief synopsis of what they found.

39.6% of the guns used to commit a crime with came from friends and family members of the felon.
39.2% of the guns used to commit a crime with came from illegal sources, such as on the street, through the narcotics trade and through burglaries and robberies.
8.3% were purchased fraudulently through properly licensed retail outlets. These purchases were made by misrepresenting themselves, lying on forms and providing false identification.
3.8% of them were obtained through a pawn shop. Again, bought by falsifying documents and identification.
1.0% of the guns used during the commission of a crime came from yard sales and flea markets.
0.7% came from gun shows.

You can plainly see that the majority of gun control laws will not prevent violent criminals from obtaining firearms to commit a crime with. In fact, it has already been illegal since the Gun Control Act of 1968 for a felon to be in possession of a firearm anyway. Even though more than 86% of adult murderers had criminal records as adults.

In order to diminish the felon's desire to commit a crime with a firearm, we must add penalties to a crime if a gun was possessed, brandished, fired or used to injure, of 5, 10, 15 and 20 years respectively. Specifically adding serious prison time, simply for choosing a gun, is one method of what I call "Felon-focused" legislation.

Another example would be adding five years of prison time onto a robbery or burglary for each stolen firearm. Laws that are aimed at the felon alone, would be very effective and would get the stamp of approval from most gun owners.

Yet another example would be implementing serious penalites for a family member or friend of a felon for knowingly providing them with a firearm. We must focus our efforts on the actual sources of firearms used in crime and not wrongly punish the law-abiding and limit their rights under the United States Constitution.

E-mail a friend a link to my Web site!!

I want your opinions.