Josh Horwitz writing for Huffington Post and further to Jadegold's post of a few days ago.
When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building, he was wearing a t-shirt he purchased at a gun show. It had a picture of President Abraham Lincoln on the front with the words "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS [THUS ALWAYS TO TYRANTS]." On the back, it featured an excerpt of a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS." It's remarkable to think that, 20 years after we buried 168 Americans in a horrific of terrorism, we are hearing the same exact perverse philosophy being promoted by Republican candidates running for the office of President of the United States.
It's a grim reminder of the absolute grip the NRA has on the modern Republican Party, which has moved much further to the right than it was in 1995. It also makes you wonder just how many people are listening to folks like Ted Nugent and Ted Cruz, and whether one (or more) of them might go as far as Timothy McVeigh did to carry this nightmare vision to fruition.
Strange, it seems the purpose of the Second Amendment that Mr. Horowitz rails against isn't limited to Republicans.
ReplyDelete"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. ... The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be possible." - Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (1960)
http://www.commongunsense.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Guns_Humphrey.pdf
Watch out, SSG--Jack might come in and tell you that his good buddy Hubert would never have said such a thing ;-).
DeleteIt's amuzing you always have to go back before most Americans were born to make a point for today.
DeleteYes, Kurt, Hubert was a friend, that you make a joke of it like I was not just shows Mike will allow any slime comment here.
It's funny SS that you quote a person you just got done telling us was leader of the racist Democratic party, I guess that's the same reason you support Ted Nugent the racist. It's nice Mike lets you spew your bigotry here.
Delete"It's funny SS that you quote a person you just got done telling us was leader of the racist Democratic party,"
DeleteJack, do you mean the part where I gave Senator Humphrey credit for breaking the filibuster that enabled the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be passed?
"I would also argue that a larger influence on the legislation was Hubert Humphery a Democrat from Minnesota who was the bills manager in the Senate. He was able to break the filibuster and get the votes for passage.
By the way, he was also a pro-gun Democrat who also held to the belief that the Second Amendment was to provide a defense against a tyrannical government.
It was actually quite commendable that the Democratic Party was able to take on the issue at the time considering that it almost resulted in the formation of what amounted to a third party.
Also keep in mind that while the Democratic Party at the federal level was willing to take on this challenge, the Jim Crow laws of the era were as a result of state level legislation and there didn't seem to be much of a challenge to the status quo at that level."
http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2015/04/more-on-real-meaning-of-2nd-amendment.html
And as I said in my previous comment, Democrats at the federal level weren't the source of the Jim Crow laws passed and enforced at the state level. Though the federal legislators for those states didn't do a whole lot to go against the laws either.
"It's amuzing you always have to go back before most Americans were born to make a point for today."
DeleteWell, we are moving forward. Gun control advocates love to imagine back and make claims that the founders would have never agreed to allow citizens to possess firearms such has been developed in modern day. Including the claim that it only applied to state militias.
The expansion of gun rights during recent years readily points to the will of the people in the area of all individual rights to include gun rights.
Yes, Kurt, Hubert was a friend, that you make a joke of it like I was not just shows Mike will allow any slime comment here.
DeleteI made no comment about the veracity of your claim of friendship with Humphrey. My comment was. indeed, and remains, utterly slime-free.
I don't find a political quote from 1960 very persuasive.
DeleteI don't find a political quote from 1960 very persuasive.
DeleteIt certainly refutes the silly myth that the "gun lobby" invented the idea that the Second Amendment's guarantee of the fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms has always been intended as a hedge against tyranny, and that this argument only appeared some time within the last few decades.
1960. Wasn't that when the NRA wanted to license and register gunowners? Why, yes--yes it was.
ReplyDeleteI cant recall Jade. But this speaks to the labeling of anyone who considers the purpose of the Second Amendment as the above cited quote to be a radical right wing conservative out to resort to violence at the drop of a hat.
DeleteAnd this was even well back in the time when the Second Amendment was considered a collective right by the courts. As for the NRA's stance on registration and licensing at the time, do you really want to go there when it comes to limitations of rights during that period?
There were plenty of limitations of rights being exercised by the government during that time. And since then individual rights have become more and more consistently protected. To include rights under the Second Amendment.
If that was the NRA's stance back then, I'm glad they moved into the modern age.