Great job, R&R!
I just can't help but think that we need to reinforce that the need to use arms against tyranny may not arise for 50 or even 250 years, if ever at all...although it was needed and used 242 years ago, in 1776. How do we know it can happen? Because it HAS happened. No one whom we are trying to convince should believe that revolution is imminent. I do not think, nor do I foresee, that it is, and I hope and pray that it is NOT.
In a similar vein, it was this nation's policy, since the 1940's, that caused us to spend billions if not trillions of dollars researching, developing, building, testing, stockpiling and deploying, and home and abroad, a nuclear arsenal to serve as a deterrent to a nuclear attack that thus far has never come. What the future holds is anybody's guess. Care to unilaterally disarm?
A perfect analogy ... and a point that is missed by Adam Winkler, who blames the increasingly extreme language used by the National Rifle Association for the insurrectionist theory of 2A.Great job, R&R!
I just can't help but think that we need to reinforce that the need to use arms against tyranny may not arise for 50 or even 250 years, if ever at all...although it was needed and used 242 years ago, in 1776. How do we know it can happen? Because it HAS happened. No one whom we are trying to convince should believe that revolution is imminent. I do not think, nor do I foresee, that it is, and I hope and pray that it is NOT.
In a similar vein, it was this nation's policy, since the 1940's, that caused us to spend billions if not trillions of dollars researching, developing, building, testing, stockpiling and deploying, and home and abroad, a nuclear arsenal to serve as a deterrent to a nuclear attack that thus far has never come. What the future holds is anybody's guess. Care to unilaterally disarm?
Where's my Stamp ?"The Framers understood the right to bear arms as an individual right, but it wasn’t a right to stage a revolution," Winkler said. "The Constitution doesn’t provide the seeds for its own destruction."
"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. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them." --Thomas Jefferson
Art. 6. That all persons invested with the Legislative or Executive powers of Government are the Trustees of the Public, and, as such, accountable for their conduct: Wherefore, whenever the ends of Government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the People may, and of right ought, to reform the old, or establish a new Government; the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
Hulbert's fellow Patriot Picket member Jim McGuire agreed.
"If we were close to the tipping point, these people and us, we wouldn’t be here," McGuire said. "We have the opportunity to speak our minds and have our voices heard and participate in the legislative process. It’s still working. If this place was empty, I’d be worried."
Just as important is this excellent comment in the USA Today story from one of my great friends in the Patriot Picket:
I will let him identify himself by his screen name if he wishes, but his quote is as thoughtful about our role as anyone could ask for. Bravo!
Thank you for the kind words. Just doin' my part ...I will let him identify himself by his screen name if he wishes, but his quote is as thoughtful about our role as anyone could ask for. Bravo!
It's interesting to see what made it into the final article. We camped on this reporter for two hours at the beginning of the session. The reporter's initial questions were aligned with "I'm more interested in how the 2A is applied in response to a tyrannical government." Damn. Wasn't sure if he was looking to write a hatchet-job, or was just angling for an edge that other reporters weren't exploring. Either way, I was careful to choose my words, and to emphasize that "we aren't anywhere near 'tyranny.' "Talking to the press is a risk, but I had a good vibe about this reporter when it came time to go on the record. I had given him a lot of historical perspectives to research, including the 1946 Battle of Athens (which the reporter had never heard of) and the situation surrounding firearm confiscation after the hurricane devastated New Orleans in 2005 (again, which the reporter was unaware of).