utbagpiper
Banned
It absolutley isn't clear that it wasn't a proper exercise of the 2A especially when you understand what the 2A is.
Is it absolutely clear that it isn't brandishing? Because that was the claim you made.
But let's be clear, of course it is clear what happened. Long guns in hand with exposed triggers, especially shaken over head, is brandishing. Go read the speeches. It was very much an act intended to intimidate government. And it backfired.
I understand perfectly what the 2nd amendment is. And I understand that a couple of you are here to provoke law abiding, civil, sane, rational gun owners to engage in illegal, unnecessary, immoral, counterproductive armed rebellion against the governments of the Several States and of the USA. Anyone who knew anything of the Declaration of Independence would know that we are no where close to where the men who wrote and ratified the 2nd amendment would go anywhere near a war.
Those men kicked the question of the importation of slaves down the road almost 2 decades just to ratify the constitution and get all States to sign on. The great question of slavery itself was left unsettled for 80 years. They made several other compromises in the name of forming a functioning government. They put down the whiskey rebellion that sought to avoid all taxes and encroachment into supposedly personal matters by government. You don't go start an armed rebellion because things are moving slightly slower than you want them to, or because government doesn't perfectly reflect your view of how society should be ordered. We've got 300 million persons in this nation, each with ideas of how government should operate. Many of them are flat out wrong. Some would happily infringe your rights simply to enslave you. But a whole lot of them are decent, hardworking, honest and thoughtful people whose views on how to best order a functioning, stable, prosperous society that will protect their rights are every bit as worthy of consideration as are your own.
What is amazing to me is that the same tinfoil hat fools who claim the NSA is monitoring their every email and phone call, feel perfectly free to so frequently and openly encourage armed rebellion. Either you are agent provocateurs, or else you have so many internal inconsistencies in your world view that one might conclude your anger is caused more by your own mental dissonance than by any supposed injustices imposed on you by government.
sudden valley gunner said:There you go blaming citizens for the erosion of rights by the state.
Pretty ironic coming from a guy who diminished the attrocities of the Soviets by claiming the US was responsible for killing millions of innocent persons during the cold war:
sudden valley gunner said:What helped kill millions was the prolonged cold war, sanctions, and subterfuge of the western nations.
I'm still waiting for you citations to even attempt to back up that offensive claim.
That you are incapable of applying the same logic of "blowback" to illegal or highly offensive conduct in the name RKBA that is so often applied to various mistakes made while fighting a war, is your weakness to overcome.
And if you want to start a war, either be prepared to win it, or don't be surprised if the results are not pleasant for you. Shots over the bow are for ships. Saber rattling is for nations. Private citizens who screw around with overt threats of deadly force (as opposed to the implicit threat that is the ownership and peaceful possession of guns) against their government are fools. Keep your gun holstered until you need it, and then don't fire warning shots, and don't give criminal predators verbal warnings.
The Black Panthers' conduct confirmed the worst fears about them held by the majority. Not only was it arguably illegal. It was demonstrably politically, tactically, and strategically stupid. It did nothing to advance RKBA nor any other right. In fact, it set back the advancement of their civil rights by years, and of their RKBA in California by decades. And it wasn't just their RKBA, but the RKBA of every regular citizen of California. So yes, I'll blame them and their jack hatted move for generating the political will to grossly infringe RKBA. It wasn't just the politicians who voted to infringe RKBA in California, it was the vast majority of the State who supported them in doing so. That there were obvious, racist reasons for that support is a fact that should have been calculated, not an excuse that makes any material difference in whether the conduct was stupid and counter-productive, which it was.
Charles
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