All this PSH about black powder guns is reminding me of a local Congressworm by the name of Joe Hoeffel. Joe is the guy that unsuccessfully challenged Arlen Specter in the 2004 election. I don’t like Specter much at all, but I’ve still voted for him, and this is why:
After a disgruntled former employee of Norristown State Hospital took two hostages, killing one and seriously injuring the other with a replica of an antique firearm, Joe introduced legislation that would bring antique and replica firearms under the same federal regulations as modern firearms.
But then gun control advocates tell us “You want the right to bear arms? Fine! You can have muskets and flintlock pistols, just like they had during our founding father’s times. Our founding fathers never would have imagined an AK-47.” Bogus argument, made even more bogus by the PSH over black powder arms when incidents like this sprout up.
I will go back to era firearms as soon as the New York Times goes back to era printing presses.
We don’t want to ban guns, just have reasonable restrictions. Well, except for hadguns—we should definitely ban handguns, but we don’t want to take away your rifles. Well except for your rifles that look like military rifles, but you can keep the other rifles. Oh, except for .50 cal rifles, because they are sniper rifles—which your hunting rifles sort of are also, since they are long range and accurate. Ok, you can keep your black powder muzzle loaders, since they are what the founding father were talking about. Ah, fuck it—you can’t have those either. Now you’re safe.
They were right the first time. We should only be allowed to use flintlocks (no percussion caps either!), just like they should only be allowed to use quills and hand-presses when exercising their freedom of the press. :-)
I never did buy that arugment about the Founding Fathers and flintlocks. Because during that time period Col. Ferguson of the British Army created one of the first breech loading (top loading) rifle A very fast rifle for the day. It would hense conclude the Founding Fathers were aware the technology would progress to faster and easier firearms.
Even better than hand set type as the equivalent to black powder arms, cruel and unusual punishment. Certainly we should judge that by the standards of the Founding Fathers. They considered hanging proper treatment for horse thieves, so it should carry over to car thieves, right?
I forget who said it, but I seem to recall someone saying, maybe it was Clayton or Dave Hardy, and I’m paraphrasing here:
If you had shown up at the constitutional convention with an M16, and showed it to our founding fathers, they would think you’re pretty damned cool, but they’d still recognize what you had as a rifle, and as an “arm” that would be protected by the second amendment.
Certainly we should judge that by the standards of the Founding Fathers. They considered hanging proper treatment for horse thieves, so it should carry over to car thieves, right?
Good point. A lot of people don’t get the death for horse stealing, becaue we’ve lost it all in modern context. But in previous times, and in certain places, if someone stole your horse that could literally be a death sentence. You might find yourself having to walk through desert, forest populated by natives and highwaymen who’d sooner kill you than look at you, or stuck in some god awful place with no real way to get home.
Now a days we have AAA. They didn’t have AHA back then… your horse was a lifeline.
Free Speech should only cover spoken word, hand writing, and early printing press. Telephone, Radio, internet and email may all be restricted as the govenment wishes.
There wasn’t any national guard or coast guard at the time of the Bill of Rights, so we’ll be able to save our defence budget quite a bit by billeting National Guard and CG troops in civilian houses.
Amendment 4 should not cover any electronic media that can be hacked from outside the home, and of course any electronic wire tapping is perfectly legal.
I can do this all night! How totalitarian and despotic do you want it?
Just follow the Antis rule of the Bill of Rights and Mexico will be bitching about all the American Aliens hiding out there!
Nah, we should just have blackpowder guns that use an electrical ignition system.