This civil war you speak of I'm not liking our pacifist chances. Please, we can get almost 90% of us to agree we need stricter gun laws. Gun loving family and friends of mine are starting to come around, don't eff this up by talking of civil war.
Oh for crying out loud, man. Why are you insisting on going off on this tangent and why are you pulling ridiculously inflated percentages out of your ass? "Gun loving family and friends of" yours should contemplate their Christianity for a while, just like the Pope suggested.
"Repealing the 2nd amendment dosen't seem to be in the cards any time soon. Stricter laws are the way to start."
What form will those stricter laws take? I'm done with generalities where this issue is concerned. Which specific laws should be amended and/or which new ones should go into force?
What form will those stricter laws take? I'm done with generalities where this issue is concerned. Which specific laws should be amended and/or which new ones should go into force?
We need an entirely new Second Amendment, which means we have to repeal the current one and pass a new one, which would the Twenty-Eighth Amendment, which would repeal and replace the Second Amendment.
There's an old thread in which I re-phrase the current Second Amendment and propose it as the replacement.
Even so,m 45 of the 50 states have gun rights enshrined in their state constitutions. So, at that point, there would be armed insurrections among the gun-rights folk inn 45 states, with the notable exception of South Florida's "gun-loving family and friends" who would have already come around, of course, unless I effed their coming around up by talking about civil war.
We now have as normal, bullets flying all over, and a "stray" one hit the bus.
To make matters even worse, it was reported later on that the bullet came from someone who was shooting from a second floor apartment. Nice. You can get shot from someone in the comfort of their own home.
Paljoey, if you wanted to repeal the second amendment, you would have to have to make an amendment stating the repeal of the second, so the new second amendment you propose would be the 29th.
And here's my rewritten Second Amendment, which would be the Twenty-Eighth or Twenty-Ninth, depending on whether a separate amendment repealing the original Second would be necessary:
A well-regulated militia NO LONGER being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to bear arms shall henceforth be considered a privilege and no longer a right. This privilege shall be limited to licensed possession, ownership, carrying and use of small firearms including revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, but excluding assault rifles, submachine guns and light machine guns. Also excluded from the civilian privilege shall be heavy machine guns; hand-held grenade launchers; portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns; recoilless rifles; portable launchers of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems.
Why do we have to repeal the second amendment? This is the text:
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.
"Arms" is not a defined term anywhere in the Constitution. We have bans on numerous type of arms, including types of guns, in place already. According to the gun nuts, the second amendment would already have to have been repealed for those laws to be legal. Like the radical Christian right, they are trying to own interpretations and definitions to which they have no right to do so. Congress is just too chicken sh*t to point this out. It's really not about rights, otherwise we'd have seen a lot more bitching and campaigning to own hand grenades and the right to bury land mines in your front yard. It's about control through fear and power. The most recent trend in scare tactics is the idea that we cannot survive in this country unless we all own guns and that has NEVER been the case in the history of this country.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
South Carolina State Senator Paul Thurmond, son of notorious Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, made these thoughtful and inspiring remarks yesterday calling for the removal of the confederate battle flag from the state capitol.
State senators Paul Thurmond and Marlon Kimpson at the South Carolina Statehouse
I cannot comprehend the hate that was visited upon the Holy City, but I can respond with love and unity and kindness and maybe show others that their motivation for future attacks of hate will not be tolerated, will not result in a race war, will not divide us, but rather will strengthen our resolve to come together as one nation, one state, and one community under God.
I think the time is right and the ground is fertile for us to make progress as a state and to come together and remove the Confederate battle flag from prominent statue outside the Statehouse and put it in the museum. It is time to acknowledge our past, atone for our sins and work towards a better future. That future must be built on symbols of peace, love, and unity. That future cannot be built on symbols of war, hate, and divisiveness.
I am aware of my heritage. But my appreciation for the things that my forebearers accomplished to make my life better doesn’t mean that I must believe that they always made the right decisions and, for the life of me, I will never understand how anyone could fight a civil war based, in part, on the desire to continue the practice of slavery. Think about it for just a second. Our ancestors were literally fighting to continue to keep human beings as slaves and continue the unimaginable acts that occur when someone is held against their will. I am not proud of this heritage. These practices were inhumane and were wrong, wrong, wrong.
Now we have these hate groups and the symbols that they use to remind African Americans that things haven’t changed and that they are still viewed as less than equal human beings. Well, let me tell you: Things have changed. Overwhelmingly, people are not being raised to hate or to believe that they are superior to others based on the color of their skin. My generation was raised to respect all people, of every race, religion, and gender.
I have often wondered what is my purpose here, in the Senate. I’ve asked God to guide me and strengthen me. I have prayed that I will be able to make a difference for this state. I have prayed that I will leave this place better for the future generations. I am proud to take a stand and no longer be silent. I am proud to be on the right side of history regarding the removal of this symbol of racism and bigotry from the statehouse. But let it not satisfy us to stop there. Justice by halves is not justice. We must take down the confederate flag, and we must take it down now. But if we stop there, we have cheated ourselves out of an opportunity to start a different conversation about healing in our state. I am ready. Let us start the conversation.
Wow. What a beautiful speech. Thank you for sharing that.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
In their 1977 song "I'm So Bored With The USA" The Clash sang "Yankee detectives are always on the TV cause killers in America work seven days a week."
Nothing's changed.
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
.... Guys. I was responding to wexy's post. Chill out. I am not denying that gun control is a mess and that mass murders are all too common. Simply have an issue with the lyrics of that song and wexy's praise of them.