Excellent 2A News!

A divided 3-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held today that the 2A right to bear arms is an individual right, independent of one's militia status. Duh! Who knows if this ruling will stand, or be overturned en banc, or make it all the way to the Supreme Court. If it goes to SCOTUS, the 1939 Miller precedent in favor of individual ownership of military type weapons will weigh heavily.

Here's what the DC court said, in striking down some of DC's onerous gun laws:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right
to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new
government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms
for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as
resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical
government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear
arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the
citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the
Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their
Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by
ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need
when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second
Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited
to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent
upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.

I love the smell of a judicial opinion with a clue. It's the smell . . . of . . . LIBERTY!

Click here for the full opinion.

Political Speech Worth Reading

I predict that Mitt Romney's speech given at CPAC will go down in history as a pivotol event in his campaign and eventual victory in the 2008 presidential election. If you don't read the speech, you are either the kind of citizen who doesn't deserve to be one, or a hater. So read it. NOW!! (trust me it's good)

Random Thoughts on Liberty

If I wanted to be owned by a socialist government, I'd move to Europe or Canada.

Here in the USA, ultimate power remains in the hands of adult, non-felon citizens. May it ever be so. Convicted felons lose their privilege of voting, and it is also illegal for them to own guns. It makes perfect sense that these two important rights be taken away from an adult who chooses to prey upon society, even after a prison sentence is served. They may have paid for their crimes, but that is not a reason to trust them again with the levers of power.

Where a politician stands on the issue of gun control tells you just about everything you need to know about how they view the people they represent: Whether he or she views you as a capable free-born citizen, worthy of self government and able to make one's own choices about protecting and providing for one's family; or as part of an unruly mob of peasants that needs to be lorded over, nurtured, and controlled by the state.

The recent mall shooting in SLC, Utah took place in a posted "gun free zone." Now that rule was sure effective at keeping a maniac from bringing in guns now, wasn't it? Perhaps he thought that since he was entering a "gun free zone" his actions would be unopposed until police finally arrived. Thank goodness an armed CITIZEN was there to stop him before more damage was done. Too bad there weren't any armed teachers at Columbine, another "gun free zone." Israel has the sense to allow its teachers to be armed. Guess how many school shootings have taken place there, where numerous radicals would love to wander in and shoot up a schoolyard? NONE.

It has been shown time and again that laws that restrict the general citizen's ability to purchase and carry firearms have done nothing to prevent crime, because it is only the law-abiding that follow such laws. The criminal element is emboldened knowing that their vicitims are less likely to be armed, and crime predictably increases, as it has in Chicago, D.C., Britain and Australia following gun bans that were supposedly enacted "for the public safety."

Something more sinister is obviously behind each legislative attempt to deny citizen's access to guns, no matter what kind of "EEEvil assault rifle" rhetoric is used to confuse the masses. Theses socialists eventually want all guns banned, facilitating the creation of their totalitarian utopia. Supporters of such legislation might not all be potential dictators like Hitler and Stalin, who effectively used gun control to retain their power, but they are certainly useful idiots for those that would rule with an iron fist if given a chance.

Again, if I wanted to be owned by a socialist government, I'd move to Europe.

Words of Wisdom from a few Dead White Guys:

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
-James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves."
--William Pitt in the House of Commons November 18, 1783

"The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes."
--Thomas Paine

"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."
–Vice President Hubert Humphrey

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
– Thomas Jefferson

"What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long."
– Thomas Sowell