For REAL!??????

[Quail_Antwerp]

I wasn't on this line last year. I would be willing to bet there were no postings about lost freedoms during the last 8 years. I know George kind of got disowned by most of the people that voted for him. But I'm sure there was a lot of adoration in the ranks. You have the same rights as you've had for at least the last 20 years. I believe there has been a property tax for at least the last 30 years. Same with every other freedom that you never had that you think you lost. The problem is the right wing rhetoric you listen to without trying to see if there is any truth to it. For verification you go to a different right wing source who is spouting the same nonsense designed to incite and manipulate you. Sorry, without government you have anarchy. If you want no government controls you'll have to go back about 150 years or so. Then you could be really self sufficient and not have to worry about Uncle Sam. Your taking years off your life. If you can't see the truth then put on those rose colored glasses you wore from 2000-2008. The truth will set you free.

Well, to be honest, I've been discussing the rights we've lost with family and friends for several years. Our rights have been slowly removed from us for the last few decades, not just in the last year, 8 years, or even the last 15. And it isn't all just because of who the president is at the time.

I think we need to boot a few of those old farts out of Congress. :/

 

[FarmerDenise]

I believe that we should have the right to bear arms as stated in the second amendmend. It is part of what makes us America.
There will always be people who want to force everyone to follow their extreme belief, whether to the right or the left.
What makes this country great, is that we get to vocalize our opinions. And in the end hopefully end up with a workable middle ground.
"Criminals" will always figure out a way to bypass the law.
For me, I don't see a need for a gun beyond self protection and hunting for food.
Some may feel that hunting for sport is a given right. I personally think it is a stupid and cruel thing to do. My SO watches "stupid" hunting shows all the time. I don't hate his guts, but I won't watch the shows, nor do I hunt or fish for sport.
Guns intended for the sole perpose of killing people should be contolled, to say the least.
Yet they are needed, and should government agencies be the only ones to be able to have them?

In order to use a gun, we need ammo. I don't have a problem with ammo being regulated or checked on in some way. There are way too many people being shot in our country. If there is a way to help the detectives find the shooters, I am willing to show my ID when I purchase ammo and have the ammo batch I purchase recorded.
I don't want to have to pay more for the priviledge, because there has been a system in place to do this. I also don't care to be told what kind of ammo I can purchase or how much.
There has to be a balance, between helping to solve crimes and the right to bear and use arms.
It will be a fight between two extremes as always.

This is America. We get to voice our opinions,?...still.....maybe? well ... sometimes!

 

[me&thegals]

Well said, FarmerDenise.

I find it very helpful to understand gun control by having both perspectives in my life. I would tend to be liberal in my views about gun control, but my husband and both our families are fairly into hunting. So, I can see that very decent, responsible people own guns.

But, there are plenty of idiots and criminals out there who own guns, too. I agree that you have to balance freedom (guns and ammo) with responsibility (finding murderers).

I think when the NRA and hard-core gun control people refuse to move even one mm, it makes them look unreasonable and scary. I've read some of the NRA literature and Ted Nugent's rants, and they are scary.

Like FarmerDenise says, how about a little middle ground? Moving to middle ground does not mean guns are about to be confiscated.

 

[Blackbird]

Yes, it does help to see both sides, but I think I'd rather take my chances with all the 'dangers' and things they are trying to protect us from than have any of my rights taken away, or even proposed to be restricted..
That's all I've got to say about the subject..

 

[FarmerDenise]

That may be fine and dandy where you live, but not for those of us who are surrounded by brainless idiots who brandish guns to make themselves feel like bigshots.
There is nothing funny about having a gun put to your face while you're at work and having someone demanding you hand over money. This happens to store clerks and bank clerks on a regular basis. It makes you feel helpless, when it happens to someone you know, as it has me on several occasions. My ex husband was held up at gun point in the middle of the night at a stop sign. He was coming home from work. My stepson's half brother brought a sawed off shotgun over and stashed in my stepson's room. How the he#$ did this kid get that gun!! My SO happened to find it! You don't want to know what he did, besides explode!
What about the 5 police officers who were shot in Oakland! And we are not even counting all the civilians in that city, who were shot at. The rest of them have to live with the constant knowledge and fear of these stupid gun toting people.
We all live in this country together, and I wish we did not need rules to tell us what is legal and what is not. You and I may know not to use that gun to kill someone, but there are too many idiots out there who don't get it. And it is because of them that we need to have some sort of regulation. Unfortunately.

 

[Beekissed]

I think the hard core gun rights people realize that to give even one mm on this issue will give the gov't the go ahead to take a 100 miles. That's how all of these things are done.....a little at a time, slowly chipping away at our lives until we are suddenly looking around wondering what in the world happened!

I talked to a fellow who sells chicks yesterday...said a "state guy" was asking to draw blood from his chicks~just for testing purposes to see if they have any diseases. The fellow is going to let them, said he has nothing to hide.

That's how it starts...then they feel they have the right to test, then the right to confiscate or eradicate as they see fit. Do you know who sent the state fellow his way? His next door neighbor~a commercial poultry grower who carries his dead chickens out by the handsful each day to the incinerator.

Like water on a stone....dripping slowly over time...pretty soon the course of the river is changed.

No middle ground when it comes to my basic rights. No compromise.

 

[Blackbird]

That may be fine and dandy where you live, but not for those of us who are surrounded by brainless idiots who brandish guns to make themselves feel like bigshots.

You don't have to convince me twice! As I posted on BYC one time, when my parents and I went to rent a goat buck for breeding, the guy who owned the buck made 'persuasive comments and movements' you could say, about and with his hand gun. Little did he know, that innocent little me was in the pickup with a shotgun tucked under the seat. Just in case. Nothing esculated, but thats what I'm talking about, I'd rather know that I have the possibilty to protect myself at all time, rather than have restrictions on it. Personally, I think people who do use weapons in unnecessary ways and to make themselves feel better shouldn't be allowed the even touch one, but you can't take the jelly out and still have a PBJ.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Don't get me wrong, I believe in having and using a gun to protect myself or someone with me. I have done so. And will do so again. Nothing like the sound of the click of a shotgun to let someone know this little lady means business. And there are times when that is what it takes.
I just hope we can come up with something, that still allows us to track people who use guns for criminal purposes. Without restricting the rights of those of us (which is the majority) who don't use guns for criminal purposes. We always have to watch out for our rights. I agree that "they" will take it all away, if given half a chance.
But there has to be something that can be done, to track the guns and therefore the people who use those guns for wrongfull purposes. And hopefully prevent the deaths of many people, and the agony their deaths bring to their loved ones.
I won't mind a little inconvenience, if I never again have to look at the blood left on pavement from a body of someone who had been shot. The young man was 22 years old. Shot multiple times and left in the driveway of the vinyard where I was working at the time. The murder had nothing to do with my employer. It was an out of the way spot to dump the body. I cannot imagine the agony his family must have felt. We were all sick and had a hard time going passed the spot. It took a very long time for the blood to get washed off.
And yet I am willing to pick up a gun an point it at someone in order to defend myself or someone with me. I think I might even pull the trigger. The one time I pointd a gun at someone, was to protect my young SIL from being molested. It worked.
So you see I go both ways, but I strongly feel that we (the intelligent people of this country) can come up with something that would work for all of us. We all will have to give a little. That does not mean I want to give up a lot!! Certainly not my gun and ammo!!

 

[Blackbird]

Well you certainly made a point there, and very well said! I understand what you mean too, coming from that angle. I admit, my entire family contains avid hunters, including myself, but if guess I'm forced to have a PBJ with the crust taken away, and a little less jelly, I might be able to handle it..

Hmm.. I'm starting to like my PBJ analogies.

 

[Big Daddy]

I don't see the problem with registering guns or ammo. From a law enforcement perspective it's a no brainer. Of course I don't have a deep seated fear of the Feds taking my guns. If I was afraid of that, then I wouldn't want to register anything either. Taking away millions of guns would be quite an undertaking though. Be a lot of dead people having guns pried from their cold dead hands. Probably a lot of dead law enforcement people too. So I don't see it happening.