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From: pat@rwing.UUCP (Pat Myrto)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.constitution,talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: Some more about gun control...
Message-ID: <2071@rwing.UUCP>
Date: 17 Apr 93 23:36:01 GMT
References: <1993Apr16.010235.14225@mtu.edu>
Organization: Totally Unorganized
Lines: 53

In article <1993Apr16.010235.14225@mtu.edu> cescript@mtu.edu (Charles Scripter) writes:
<In article <C5Bu9M.2K7@ulowell.ulowell.edu>
<jrutledg@cs.ulowell.edu (John Lawrence Rutledge) wrote:
<
<> [ ... excellent exchange deleted ... ]
<> It seems to me the whole reason for the Second Amendment, to give
<> the people protection from the US government by guaranteeing that the
<> people can over through the government if necessary, is a little bit
<> of an anachronism is this day and age.  Maybe its time to re-think
<> how this should be done and amend the constitution appropriately.
<
<    Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861: "This
<    country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
<    it.  Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government,
<    they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or
<    their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it."
<
<    Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate
<    over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, 17 August
<    1789: "What, Sir, is the use of a militia?  It is to prevent the
<    establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. ...
<    Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of
<    the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order
<    to raise an army upon their ruins."
<
<So now we know which category Mr. Rutledge is in; He means to destroy
<our Liberties and Rights.

What I find so hard to understand is how come some people, apparantly
NOT connected with government or otherwise privileged, will
go to great lengths, redefinitions, re-interpretations, in a full-bore
attempt to THROW AWAY THE PROTECTION OF THEIR OWN RIGHTS under the
Constitution!!!

Almost makes me think of lemmings running into the sea during a lemming
year...

I really wonder that Jefferson and Madison would say to these folks?

<-------------------------------------------------------------
<"...when all government... in little as in great things, shall be
<drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render
<powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will
<become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we
<separated."   Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Excellent quote.

-- 
pat@rwing.uucp      [Without prejudice UCC 1-207]     (Pat Myrto) Seattle, WA
         If all else fails, try:       ...!uunet!pilchuck!rwing!pat
WISDOM: "Only two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity,
         and I am not sure about the former."              - Albert Einstien
