It Is Not About Safety, It Is About Control

The federal government and a number of states with liberals in charge are working very hard to infringe on the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Yesterday Senator Feinstein introduced a bill that would ban 150 firearms because they look scary and would limit the number of rounds a magazine can hold to 10. That ten round limit is, in effect, a ban of certain types of firearms because the smallest magazine for them holds more then 10.

Joe Biden, the drunkard VP, is in charge of the gun ban effort and he has come out to make it very clear that this is not about gun control, it is about safety.

He also made it clear that the proposals of the Obama regime will not end gun crime but could make a difference.

The vice president fielded questions online in a Google+ Hangout, saying the proposals that he and President Barack Obama have laid out won’t end gun crime, but they still could make a difference. WSJ

It has long been recognized that these kinds of laws will not work and Biden is basically acknowledging that fact. So if what they are doing won’t end gun violence and at best, COULD, still make a difference then how is it about safety? If it does not make it better (which it won’t) then it can’t be about safety because no one will be safer. If it is therefore not about safety it must be about gun control.

Gun control is not about guns but about control so the overarching theme is that the Obama regime wants more control over people.

Basically what Biden is telling us is they want to infringe upon our rights for the possibility of safety (though he admits we won’t be safer). Should we as a people give up our rights for safety?

Ben Franklin, a man much wiser than any in politics now, said it very well:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The right to keep and bear arms is an essential liberty and it is a liberty the Obama regime (and minions across the nation) is trying to take from us for a promise of safety (safety that COULD happen). If we give up our liberty for this alleged safety we will deserve neither.

And we will get neither. We will no longer have the right and we will not be safe from the most dangerous threat to our existence.

The government.

What are your thoughts on the proposed gun ban?

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

[jpsub]

The Truth Shall Set You Free If You Listen

The media, the Obama regime, the Internet and the chattering classes are all abuzz today because a video of Mitt Romney from May of this year has surfaced and in it he is discussing politics. He states that 47% of people do not pay taxes, believe they are victims and are entitled to free everything. He said his job is not to worry about them because he can’t convince them to take responsibility. It is obvious that he meant politically he can’t worry about them because he won’t get their votes:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what..These are people who pay no income tax…. [M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Romney told the truth, well almost. He was a little low in his assessment of the number of people who do not pay taxes but he is right on target when he discusses that these folks (and it is a broad term since not all of them believe this) believe they are victims and are entitled. Barack Obama and his Democrats have beat victim mentality into the heads of many of these folks. They are the downtrodden because of the rich. They are not making it because of the Republicans and the big oil companies. They don’t have jobs because of the corporations. The Obama regime plays class warfare and has been quite successful in making a lot of people believe that they are victims and that they “deserve” free everything.

Obama wants this because he wants more and more people dependent on government. If the Democrats can get more than 50% of the population dependent on government and believing they are victims who are entitled to free stuff then they will have a permanent Democrat voting bloc.

This was LBJ’s intent with the Great Society (and was particularly aimed at blacks) and it is the intent of Obama. When more and more people realize they can vote for people who will give them free stuff they will do so and willingly become slaves to government. They will give up their freedom and relinquish their responsibility so they can be taken care of.

Why would Obama want this? Besides the obvious desire to get more Democrat votes it will also help with his plan to fundamentally transform America. Obama wants to change this country into a Socialist Mecca and he needs more and more people on the dole in order to do it. In order to get his Mecca he needs to end the Republic and that is what he wants to do. Romney’s quote discussed nearly half the people on the dole and when that 50% + 1 level is reached the Republic will spiral down. Romney is not the first to recognize it and his observation was not the most eloquent. This quote is attributed to Benjamin Franklin:

When people realize they can vote themselves money from the public treasury, it will herald the end of the republic”

This quote is spot on and is coming to fruition. There is no doubt that far too many Americans (and some who are not American and not here legally) believe that they are owed and that the government will take care of them. Who can forget the moocher Obama supporter who proudly boasted:

I won’t have to worry ’bout putting gas in my car, I won’t have to worry ’bout payin’ my mortgage. You know, if I help Obama, he’s gonna help me.

So tell me, how is Romney’s assessment that there are people who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing… and will not vote for him wrong?

Romney needs to get out in front of this and make sure people know his idea is to make sure the 47% earn more and contribute to society rather than living off it. His job is to tell them that his policies will make sure they are not subservient to the government. He needs to let people know he can free them from bondage to government.

Romney wants to free them, not enslave them. With a record number of people dependent on government Romney has his work cut out for him. Let’s face it, these folks are indeed victims but they are victims of a ruthless progressive orthodoxy that enslaves them and takes away their will to be independent.

Monica Crowley has a great article on this.

Interestingly, it looks like Jimmy Carter’s grandson had something to do with releasing the video.

Romney is correct and the truth will always set you free.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

Give Me Liberty…

…Or give me death.

Immortal words from a speech given by Patrick Henry (published after his death).

Interestingly, there are many people today who choose something other than liberty and they make no bones about it. Jules Witcover, writing in the Baltimore Sun, has produced a piece in which he describes the enhanced security procedures of the TSA as a sacrifice for the security of our nation. Witcover equates this sacrifice to the sacrifices made by the people who fought or supported WW II and to a lesser extent Vietnam.

Witcover describes sacrifices made by people during those tumultuous periods of our history and then goes on to say that those who are squeamish about making sacrifices now can stay home on Thanksgiving and watch football (not a bad idea regardless).

But what Witcover fails to see is the distinction between personal sacrifice as in doing without or collecting for the war effort and the sacrifice of liberty.

During WW II Americans did without quite a bit in order to support the war effort. Food was rationed and people collected rubber and scrap metal to help the war effort. Americans bought savings bonds to support the effort. These are all admirable things and none of them involved sacrificing LIBERTY.

The enhanced screening done by the TSA is an invasion of privacy and an affront to our rights. We have a right to travel by air (as codified in the United States Code) and we have a right not to be searched without probable cause. The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution protects us against such invasions.

Witcover thinks that we should ignore our rights and acquiesce to the government because, to him, it is no big deal to have this disregard of our rights in the name of security. It is, as he points out, a sacrifice that we should make.

Americans are not dismissing the need for security at our airports though one could argue that the procedures in place are hit and miss and that anyone with ill intent could easily breach security. The issue with the enhanced procedures, as I see it, is not about security but about control (the process is a great example of the Overton Window). There are other non intrusive methods available that have proven more effective. The Israelis use a method of profiling that screens passengers and weeds them out to those who pose no threat and those who might. Those who might are given a more thorough look while those who are not are sent on their way.

The Israelis have not had problems with terrorists getting on their planes.

My message to Mr. Witcover and others who think like him is that we should never, ever give up our liberty in the name of security. We are not the enemy and we are not the threat. Those who are can be better identified and dealt with without subjecting the rest of us to intrusive searches.

We are Americans and we have rights and we should never abandon those rights in the name of security.

As Ben Franklin stated; “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Those, like Witcover, who would give up their liberty in order to have the temporary security on an airplane deserve neither liberty or security.

What do you say we actually work on targeting those who would do us harm and leave the non invasive screening for those who value their liberty?

Mr. Witcover, it is admirable to sacrifice during times of trouble and past generations have shown what sacrifice is but they did so without sacrificing their liberty. While one could argue that this generation is sacrificing little in the way of supporting the war effort, that should not be an excuse to demand that people sacrifice their liberty.

America is the land of the free because it is the home of the brave and that includes the brave people who stand up to tyranny from their own government. It includes those who refuse to allow their rights to be violated in the name of security.

I wonder where Mr. Witcover would stand if the government decided, in the name of security, that all articles from journalists had to got through the government to be censored. Jules, would you be willing to sacrifice in that instance or do you only value some rights?

The entire text attributed to Patrick Henry is as follows:

“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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!”

Substitute the word security for peace in the quote and you will have my answer to Mr. Witcover’s request for sacrifice.

I don’t plan on dying anytime soon and I certainly don’t plan on giving up my liberty.

Remember, the only way you can lose your rights is to give them away.

And if that is the kind of sacrifice you want then you can count me out…

You can contact Mr. Witcover at juleswitcover@comcast.net

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

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