The Phantom Menace
As we move through these tricky times, we find people picking and choosing which bedrock principles they will choose to follow. These choices are based on fear. They are based on things that aren’t real and have never been real. Some of these choices are based on bedrock principles that are invisible.
Keep in mind, these were the jackasses that saw a group of protesters walking down their street. None of them actually came on the property, but what the hell, the second amendment saved their lives. Those protesters kept going after the McCloskey’s were standing on their porch with their ridiculously huge guns. Someone might take their guns from their cold dead hands, but it will be after they’ve accidentally shot each other.
Listen to any second amendment fanatic long enough and you will hear two inevitable “truths”. They need those big guns to protect them in case of a home invasion. They need those guns to protect them when the government goes rogue. Lost in the translation is the extreme unlikelihood of either of those things actually happening.
Lost in the translation is the near complete cancellation of portions of the first amendment. In particular, movement conservatives now want to cancel the establishment clause and want to tear down the walls between church and state. This isn’t rumor. This isn’t innuendo. They are saying this explicitly out loud.
We’ve discussed gun control and gun rights before. Certainly we can produce commentary from the framers that would seem to indicate a desire for unfettered access, but a broader look at history doesn’t back it up. Boil it all down and it’s all pure fantasy. It is about as meaningful as the need to protect ourselves from a rogue government or rogue home invader.
What we haven’t touched on is the seemingly randomness of holding some rights sacrosanct while others are ignored. Freedom of speech, religion, expression, and assembly is at the very heart of our political culture. The ability to travel freely and unfettered is there too. But by all means let’s have those big guns so we can protect ourselves from our neighbors and “others.” By all means, let’s protect us from a rogue government that would attack us while opening the door for them to take away our privacy and dominion over our bodies.
Let start a movement to abolish the Second Amendment.
1I don’t need no gun to protect my home! I got something better…a psychopath lives here and would love to get a fresh body to play with!! So I welcome break-ins, & I have a whole big forest to get rid of the results. Some people have the sign that says my dog can get to the property line in 3secs, can you?? Well mine says…psychopath lives here, please break in!!!
2#1… no need the 2nd Amend has nothing to do with outlawing big penis replacements. It requires a congress with courage. AR15s are not even mentioned in the 2nd Amend.
3Anyone who has had toddlers can see through most of the gun rights crowd. They miss the part of the Second Amendment that says “we’ll regulated.” Also, all those people who like to say ,”a good guy with a gun can take out a bad guy with a gun” should look at the Chronicle today and see the number of police from different agencies that came together at Uvalde and just stood around for an hour.
4I have yet to see or hear a plausible explanation regarding that “…well regulated militia…” thingy. During basic training, we were taught about the M-16. A truly vile weapon designed for a single purpose – to kill – not main or injure – human beings. These weapons of war should never be allowed into the hands of civilians. If these tough guy wannabees wish to play with such weapons, join the military.
5Nick, you should start summarizing the twitter stuff. Twit now requires one to have a twit account in order to read the stuff. Which some of us don’t and won’t have. So going to a twit page is pointless.
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6As far as being armed in daily life, I guess that’s just another major ‘city-country’ difference. I know for a fact that my carrying a pistol has saved my bacon more than once out here in the boonies.
Where even your distant neighbors are away at work and a couple of undesirables are cruising the area looking to burgle or worse. One time, the look of terrified fear in their eyes made the PITA of toting a heavy piece under my sweaty shirt made it all worthwhile… :] . Could have put a round right between their eyes and didn’t, let them run. Second time I’ve checked fire over just a property thing, the first time I had a shotgun. Next time, who knows… might be worth preventing future crimes for others, eh?
For dbtexas, if these schlubs were in the military, they wouldn’t be allowed to carry firearms around trying to look big. Rifles, pistols, ammo, etc are kept locked up unless one is at the range or standing duty/guard or on maneuvers. Even then, access to ammo is limited (and a senior NCO would have your butt if you used ammo without a genuine reason).
7Sandridge,
I’m not completely technically savvy. I often publish these at another site and the tweet shows up on the other one, but doesn’t always show up here. I thought it would which would have made the reference more visual and worthwhile.
So essentially, you had Mark McCloskey (jackass that brought out his huge gun with his wife holding a pea shooter to ward off those “dangerous protesters”) holding the huge gun saying that the second amendment saved their lives that day and that they could pry those guns from their cold, dead hands.
I liken guns to trucks. There are people that need guns where they live. When you live in unincorporated territories you often have wildlife issues you don’t have in the city. Even where we live we have pigs, armadillos, raccoons, coyotes, possums, and the occasional gator. So, I fully support the right to carry reasonable firearms for reasonable situations.
Some people work as contractors. They need to haul stuff. They might need to tow stuff. They need to carry equipment from Point A to Point B. By all means they should have a truck big enough to do the things they need to have done. Then, there are the jackasses that buy the monster trucks with the tires taller than me, but who don’t do any of that stuff. There are others who buy the full size trucks, never haul a damn thing, and then park in compact parking spaces. They are just being a jackass at that point.
No one needs a gun as big as what McCloskey was holding and I certainly don’t think a city lawyer really needs that kind of an arsenal. Boil it all down and what you get is raw, unadulterated racism. “This gun saved me from all of those horrible black people.” We all know what he was saying. So, we have something far too large for any legitimate purpose to save us from a threat that isn’t real. Yet, we are willing to cast aside rights that have very real consequences and effect far more people.
8But wait, folks! SIG-Sauer has just released the MCX-SPEAR, its civilian version of the military’s Next Generation Squad Weapon – Rifle. At $8000 each, it’s pricey but you can bet that there will be a waiting list for a rifle advertised to beat any existing and near-future body armor, fires bullets with twice the kinetic energy of an AR-15, and turns your target into “red mist.”
Welcome to Next Generation mass killing machine.
9Nick Carraway @8, Agreed 100%. We’re overrun with ‘penis compensators’ here too. Many of them are squealing about gas prices now, heheh. The marginal ones begin to sell off their big vehicles and you can pick up some good deals. At least it worked that way in the past.
Today’s conditions are different, and worrisome.
I’ve been predicting a severe cycle of “stagflation” for over a year, remember you heard it here first when it grabs everybody by the short and curlys soon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation
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10As far as ahole McCloskey, I thought that he was parlaying his brandishing stunt into a high profile run for a Congresscritter seat in Misery? If so he’ll be a cinch to win from almost any Miserian district, given the percentage of braindead MAGAots up there [% equal to Texass iirc].