Tom DeLay’s latest comment about the assault weapons on the news? “It’s a feel-good piece of legistlation, and all it does is punish those people that live by the law, and it does nothing to keep assault weapons out of the hands of criminals.”
Thanks Tom; personally I would like to feel good.
If the law wasn’t effective, then fix the law. I’m more curious about these good law-abiding people that need assault weapons. Why? Why would you need an assault weapon? Who needs one? I really don’t want my neighbors to own one.
I have no issues with people owning guns. If you want to hunt, go ahead. But there is no need for any citizen to own an assault weapon.
17 replies on “Personally, I Want to Feel Good…”
Yeah, what cracks me up are the people who say that you are being irresponsible as an American Citizen because you refuse to carry a weapon.
Yeah… that’s great.
With as many people I as I know who are slightly hot headed, I shudder to think about what they would be like if they carried guns.
-H
Amen, amen. I couldn’t agree more. This is a sad lack of action.
“Assault Weapons” may be used for hunting if you choose, but they also can be used as intended in the Second Amendment to overthrow a dictatorial government.
No, you are not “un-American” if you don’t own a weapon, but you are being un-American for telling people they don’t have the right to defend their home and state of life.
And please read Assault Weapons Ban and inform yourself actually what this bill means. “Assault weapon” is a term used to make everyone feel better.
And if you want to feel better then actual stay ignorant, because ignorance is bliss.
Please see my comment on the previous post.
Oooooh… so I can go get an assault weapon now and overthrow Bush’s dictatorial government? COOL!!!
Yeah, I realize the Second Amendment says that. However, there are many laws in place that prevent you from threatening the government or the president in any way. Somewhat of a contradiction. I don’t think the Second Amendment as our founding fathers intended it is really feasible in any way in today’s society.
I own what people refer to as assault rifles. Lots of ’em. Wanna know something even weirder? I don’t believe in hunting. I don’t do it… I shoot holes in paper. I enjoy target shooting, and I prefer to do it with civilian versions of military-type rifles. Why? Because I was a Marine for 12 years, and you know, these rifles are fun to shoot. I think killing Bambi is not fun… I think shooting ducks is not fun… but accurately shooting holes in paper is as much fun to me as it is for some people grow plants or to do stamping or scrapbooking or whatever else. We need to PUNISH CRIMINALS not law-abiding, sane, and otherwise non-threatening people. If you think that by me having an AR-15 or two makes me dangerous, move to England where they have no private ownership of weapons, and people do not have the right to defend themselves in their own homes. Please, don’t make me post a list of all the law-abiding British citizens that are currently in prison for fighting off attackers in their own home. Oh… and the bad guys there all have guns. Only the good guys (the other 98% of society) don’t. Aside from home defence, which I PRAY AND HOPE I never have to do, it’s nothing more than a hobby. Just because they scare you doesn’t mean I’m going to use them in a scary way. Blaming guns for the problem is like me blaming my #2 pencil for me failing a test.
Christine, I never said “Bush’s dictatorial government”, so don’t put words in my mouth.
If the US government ever became a threat to our freedom and was take over by a dictator. I would hope that the people of the United States would be able to fight to reclaim their freedom. I also think that having modern weapons at our disposal to carry that fight is important.
It doesn’t matter if the enemy is foreign or domestic.
And our forefathers intended the Second Amended to be in place incase another tyrannical government arose. People make the argument that at the time of the constitution they only had “muzzle” loaded weapons. Well at that time, those were “assault” rifles, they were the same type as carried by the British Military, some of them even were better.
I have to agree with Edge. I own two “assault rifles.” Why? Becasue I like to collect Eastern Block items, and these particluar pieces of cold war history are quite relevant to te collection. Plus, as Edge said, they are a blast to shoot. I too only shoot targets. I don’t hunt. I don’t think its fair to the animal to be shot, tricked, and stalked like most modern hunters do. It basically nothing more than target practice.
You know I am a Republican. However, I am in total agreement with you on this. Nobody needs a semi-automatic weapon to mow down Bambi. The only purpose that these guns serve is to kill people.
*I* said Bush’s dictatorial government, because that’s what it is in my eyes. All you said was dictatorial… I commented that I could take my assault weapon and take over the government… no, wait, I can’t because there are *other* laws in place that go against the Second Amendment.
And yes, I consider Bush a severe threat to our freedom.
Edge, you’re right – as I said, I have NO problem with people owning guns. And guns don’t just randomly fire themselves – there are people that do that. THEY are to blame. However, I personally don’t like assault weapons being readily available. I may be “uneducated” as to the whole situation in some people’s eyes, but it is still how I feel. It is how I have felt for at least 15 years. I’m not comfortable with assault weapons being on the streets. I know you and know that you have respect for weapons and their power, and I appreciate that fact.
Thank you though for finally giving me two reasons why they should be out there – for target practice and for collecting. I still don’t like them though.
First off, the cat is out of the bag. The smoke has left the fire. The cow is out of the barn. “Assault Weapons” are ALL OVER THE PLACE. MILLIONS of them. They have been since 1776 (adjusting for timeline context as Robert so adroitly pointed out). You ARE NOT going to put the cat back in the bag. The English tried it. Didn’t work. Still doesn’t. You can “not like” them all you want. I absolutely couldn’t care less about your peace of mind/likes/dislikes/emotional stability…they are here and they aren’t going away…laws or no laws. All I can do now is hope I never need to defend myself, my family, or my property from or with one. But I can guarantee that I am ready to do so.
As for overthrowing a dictatorial government…well, clearly you have no idea what a dictatorship is. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the men were taken away and put to slavery or simply shot. The women were gang raped — they actually used houses that they set up per city block to do just that in “assembly line” fashion. While women were being raped (and ultimately killed) they slaughtered their children in an array of amusing ways ranging from simple shootings to electrocution in their own bathtubs. And, as I stated earlier, there is a reason that the Nazis took all weapons away from the citizenry — most notably the Jews. So, I guess I’m being paranoid? Well, they probably thought the same thing. That didn’t happen in a movie, you know. So, Christine, do not open your mouth about dictatorial regimes. Neither Bush nor Kerry holds a candle to that kind of evil.
If something even remotely resembling this ever happens in the United States from an enemy either foreign or domestic I will utilize my weapons to win this country’s freedom back. I’m fairly sure I will not be alone and that you will not be by my side. I pray to all that is holy that something like this never happens. But, THAT, is what the 2nd Amendment is about. This is OUR country and our founding father’s thought it was a pretty good idea that if things got bad enough (from inside or out) it would fall to US to take responsibility for OUR country and defend it and win it and our freedom back. I enjoy poking holes in paper as much as the next person; however, several of my weapons have been expressly designed to more effectively kill people. That’s what they are for. Let’s not skirt the subject. But I will die a happy man if all I ever do is tear up paper.
However, and this really is the crux of the matter, the assault weapons ban being lifted DOES NOT enable any one to a) to get a gun that couldn’t before or b) get a gun with any more lethality that was already available. The ban was a FAILURE. IT DIDN’T PROHIBIT ANYTHING. How hard is that for people to get? NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Don’t let the law expire. I DON’T CARE. IT DIDN’T MATTER. All of the same weapons were available and legal. Anyone who could not buy a weapon before STILL CAN’T. That, I think, is the truly funny part about this. All of the “guns are scary” people are so freaked out about the ban being lifted. Gun owners just think it’s funny because nothing really changes. Oh, sure a few of the more or less cosmetic things are cheaper, but that’s about it. And, the assault weapons ban didn’t affect crime rates hardly at all. I posted the stats in my last post and there are plenty more where those came from. The ban did not take weapons off the street and it didn’t stop their sale and manufacture. This is readily demonstrated by walking into any gun shop. Oh, well, now that the holy ban is lifted I guess you will think that those just “appeared” there because *now they’re legal*. Anyway, so if all of the EXACT SAME GUNS (ok, without bayonet lugs) were still readily available during the ENTIRE BAN DURATION, how exactly could a statistic show that anything changed?
And I just LOVE the logic of running to the law-abiding gun-owners every time a criminal does something stupid with a gun. Yep, that’s the solution. Criminals have guns? Quick! Take all the guns away from the law-abiding citizens. Whew! We solved another one, Batman. Your form of ignorance is a direct threat to my personal safety.
Oh, yeah, and it was announced today that we have the lowest crime rate in 30 years. I’m guessing that’s because we “don’t have” assault rifles. Yeah. You keep dreaming. I’m going to go hug my post-ban AK-47 and laugh at you.
Hmmm….
Oh! Oh! I totally missed it! Edge brought up the “if you don’t like it … move!” comment! I actually almost brought it up myself. Trust me, if it was up to me … I WOULD! At least out of Texas, and if possible, England would be a great option.
Many European countries do not allow private citizens to own guns. Know what? When I lived in Germany, I heard of ONE murder – and it was a US soldier that killed a German man. Mike said he never heard stories while he lived in England of the 4 year old child finding a gun under the mattress and killing themselves with it; and far fewer stories of people being killed with guns in comparision to the United States.
We allow people to own guns. Many people (Edge, Robert and Kenny all being the exceptions) do NOT treat those guns with the respect they deserve. It made me sick to learn that a 4 year old child found her mother’s gun under the mattress and shot herself with it – and stories like that are all too common in Houston and across America. If people can’t be responsible with their guns, then I believe they shouldn’t be allowed to have them.
Oh, and by the way – I’m all for an attachment to the steering wheel of the car that requires the driver to breathe in to it to prove they are not drunk – whether they are 16, 36, or 56.
People need to be responsible for their actions. The government needs to put laws in place to help keep the rest of us safe.
Kenny, I’m actually laughing at your comment. (Which, if you wrote “hmmm…” because it didn’t appear, WP threw it in to moderated mode, NOT me.) You obviously read a lot more in to what I wrote then what I said. It’s reached the point where I shouldn’t even bother responding because you think you’re right and you’re not even hearing what I’m saying.
I didn’t appreciate the attack on my character, on my level of knowledge, and claiming that you will back the US and I “will not be by your side” to defend my country. I spent a few years as a military wife, and my beliefs are obviously VERY different then what you think they are. I simply stand on the side of the fence where people don’t feel that assault weapons are needed on the street. Other than that, my beliefs aren’t that far from yours. I may not be so zealous about it, but that doesn’t mean you should assume to know how I feel. My comments on Bush were simply in the context of the fact that I can’t actually overthrow my government – thanks to things like Homeland Security and several other laws, if it was even perceived that I was a threat to the government, the government could come after me and stop me. We’re not allowed to follow through on the Second Amendment as it was written. That’s my beliefs. If you believe something different, that’s ok. It’s a free country. But just because I don’t see it your way doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
As for the rest of my sentiments on Bush, I’m not even going to go there. I don’t feel safe with him as the president. No one will change that feeling of mine.
As for Kuwait … thanks, I was a Desert Storm wife. I know all about it. I’m a rather intelligent woman, although I guess you have decided I am not. I know about the realities of war. I’ve been to the Nazi concentration camps and witnessed the horrors first-hand. I was disappointed in our government as they focused on Iraq in the early ’90s and ignored the autrocities initially in Yugoslavia. Reports of concentration camps and many other horrors were coming out of the country, but as a country without oil and therefore no worth to us, Bush didn’t do a thing about it. I thought it was a shame.
My ex-husband was fired on while in both Iraq and Turkey. He later served two trips to Bosnia. He was in Korea twice. He is in the 82nd Airborne, and I have heard firsthand stories about many things to happen in all of these places. Not only from him, but from many others. I know all too well about reality, and for the record, I support our troops 100%.
I never said that guns would now magically “appear” on the streets. I said I feel they should still be banned. I knew when I wrote my first post that the ban had many loopholes which never got the guns off the street in the first place. Some of them have always been legal, even while the ban was in place. Thanks for making a lot of assumptions about what I knew, but you were quite wrong about them.
I’m glad I was able to give you a place to vent your point of view. Next time, do it on Elaine’s site or somewhere else – don’t do it here when you have only a small BLURB of my feelings, not the whole facts, not my level of knowledge on the topic, nothing else. Then to sit there and insult me on top of it? Yeah, going way too far.
I am not ignorant, and in no way do I threaten your personal safety. Thanks though for putting a lot of words in my mouth. Next time, I hope you can have an intelligent and civil discussion on my site instead of resorting to calling people names and making a lot of assumptions.
I love how you, Robert and Edge all suddenly showed up on my site to comment. I would be curious to go back in to my logs to see what brought the three of you here, when you have NEVER commented on my blog before. Strange…
Yikes, I’m almost afraid to comment. Just one thing, the reason the criminals will still have access to these types of guns and why the law “doesn’t work” is not because of the law, law makers or law enforcers. It’s because demand for criminal substances (like guns and drugs) are always available on some level to those who want them. They will find a way to score what they want.
I’m not suggesting there should be a free-for all, however, if law abiding citizen can’t get what criminals can, then we have a problem because all the bad folks have the bad toys and good folks have no way to defend themselves.
There is no reason to be afraid to comment – I’m all about *discussion* – I just get very frustrated when I feel attacked. Especially by people that I know. What you said isn’t attacking anyone, just stating your opinion – and a very valid opinion at that.
You’re right, the bad guys will find a way to get what they want, no matter what. That’s the way it has always been. I’m not opposed to people owning guns, and I realize that the ban itself did not stop the legal sale of many assault weapons. However, I wish that there was some way to close the loopholes, keep the ban in place, and keep the guns off the street.
Then again, I wish that there was peace around the world, and that everyone had healthcare available to them, food available, etc. – but I am enough of a realist to know that can never be the case. But I wish it could be…
“Oh, yeah, and it was announced today that we have the lowest crime rate in 30 years.”
I think I was watching Leno last night and he mentioned the low crime rate and then said, “Kerry’s blaming that on Bush too. I mean, even the criminals can’t find jobs!”
I was laughing my fool head off.