NRA is the problem
January 29, 2012 at 1:19 pm in Accountability, GAN, House, News, Norman D. Dicks by Larry 22 Comments
NRA is the problem says 18 term Congressman
Larry Killion TPP Citizen Journalist. 1-16-12.
A gun-control proponent, whose voting record gets failing grades from the National Rifle Association (NRA), is frustrated. “It is just the political reality on Capitol Hill. The problem is the NRA’s got a majority in the House and Senate — that’s the reality of it,” said Norm Dicks, 70, WA-D.
Dicks complained about the lack of gun control in an article in the Seattle Times that discussed a recent candle light vigil for a Park Ranger killed by a gunman in Mt. Rainier National Park. Dicks wants Congress to overturn a law that took effect in 2010 allowing loaded guns in national parks.
On the other side of the debate about gun control, many like John Velleco, of Gun Owners of America, say “The more gun-control laws you have, the easier it is for criminals to commit crimes.” Does this concern the Tea Party?
Woody Hertzog, TPP Washington State Coordinator, said, “Religion, sexuality and gun control have not been part of the tea party movement or part of our three core values. I have no specific comments for this particular story.”
Jesse Young, a candidate running against Norm Dicks in the WA. 6th Congressional District, said, “I believe the 2nd Amendment is a fundamental right. It alone gives us the means to defend our individual liberties, and assures that our many other Constitutional rights are never taken from us. History has shown that restricting gun ownership does not stop crime – criminals don’t care about gun control laws. Whether in a national park or a city street, Americans have the right to bear arms.”
Although the Tea Party prefers to concentrate on a three plank platform of Constitutionally Limited Government, Fiscal Responsibility and a Free Market, many Americans are in agreement with the NRA and other 2nd amendment supporters regarding the freedom to defend oneself with a firearm if necessary. “On The Issues” has a page that shows the position of elected leaders on this and other important items.
Contact Norm Dicks:
Washington DC
2467 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5916
Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am – 6pm EST (6am – 3pm PST)
I would like to see the TPP support the 2nd Amendment (as the individual right of all citizens)… It is a fundamental right. Our founding fathers, especially George Washington, saw It as the means to defend our ourselves, our liberties, and assures that our other Constitutional rights are never taken from us (if we are actually willing to use firearms as the declaration of independance and constituion calls for). It is true that restricting gun ownership does not stop crime (it actually results in an increase in violent crime) – criminals don’t care about gun control laws. We should have the right to carry weapons, open and cancealed, anywhere except meetings of governmental bodies.
I wonder if Mr. Dicks has ever read the Constitution and precisely the 2nd Amendment. If not here it is, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”.
The reality of it Mr. Dicks, is you need to retire!
I have 2 points that I always bring up when talking to liberals who want gun control laws.
1. Criminals do not acquire their guns legally
o If they did they would get caught the first time they used their gun in a crime.
o Career criminals buy their guns on the black-market.
o Therefore, gun control does not restrict criminal access to arms, just the people they choose to rob, rape or kill.
2. The number 1 reason for the 2nd amendment is not for citizens to be able to enjoy the sport of hunting or to protect themselves against criminals:
o The main reason we cannot let our 2nd amendment right be stripped from us is:
o “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…” They are not going to be able to do anything about it if they don’t have the means to resist force…
To date I have not heard even a remotely logical rebuttal to these points.
I totally concur! Gun laws are an avenue for disarmament… which leads to increase of crime and lack of Liberties and Freedom! This is being pushed at the U.N. level. Democrats and liberals see people like us as being ignorant to the truth…
I have to agree to disagree with the the article and comments so far. The NRA concedes way too much to anti-gunners. They too believe in gun control. Say for instance I want to go pick up an M-240B. Is the NRA going to support that right, or are they going to go along with the tried and true methods of “why”, background checks, permits, and the like? I’m more prone to believe in the latter. If one professes to be FOR the second amendment, then they can’t concede to issues like concealed carry “permits” (which IS a form of gun control), or a million other hoops one has to jump through. Nobody wants VIOLENT criminals to have firearms. But guess what? THEY ALREADY HAVE THEM (just ask Eric
). And the NRA plays right into the hands of the anti-gunners saying they agree with background checks, waiting periods, permits, and licenses. If they were to concede NOTHING but the second amendment, I’m almost certain they would have a hell of a lot more backing and support.
Woody Hertzog, TPP Washington State Coordinator, said, “Religion, sexuality and gun control have not been part of the tea party movement or part of our three core values. I have no specific comments for this particular story.”
The right to keep and bear arms is actually a fundamental part of two of our three core values.
Police had not been invented when the Declaration or the Constitution were written. IIRC they were set up by private citizens to increase customers for the Theater District in London.
Limited Government. Remember the old black-and-white movies, where the unarmed Bobbie blows his whistle in the London fog and people come running out in their nightshirts, carrying whatever arms or implements were at hand? The Bobbie summoned the people to enforce their laws. The Bobbie did not enforce them himself. What could be a better and cheaper way to limit the overreach of government than to leave it to the citizens to decide what laws they were willing to risk their own lives to enforce? Compare this to the paramilitary police we have today.
Fiscal Responsibility. Why not have volunteers instead of expensive unionized Police? Police have been laid off in NJ recently because the municipality ran out of money. Why not completely eliminate retirement costs? Only private firearms freedoms will enable this.
Excellent comment, Ray.
I had not thought about the “Bobby” example. Very good.
I read the best thing I have ever seen about what Guns should always be legal. here it is
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Written by Marko Kloos 23MAR07 link
NOT Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret) link
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
Very perceptive, Larry…
Thank you, Larry.
Now to get the folks who AREN’T in the choir to read these comments. ☺
Ray your comment is interesting. However, our nation seems to have lost its civility and under such circumstances we must retain our police forces. They also must be under the scrutiny of the people they serve. Just like all government agencies we must be ever vigilant as to what is going on and not be like lemmings or processionary caterpillars just following and trusting as we have gotten so accustomed to doing.
RE: James C’s remarks – no rebuttal, because what you stated is correct. And if anyone has watched the reality police shows, it shows that when citizens are able to defend themselves, others, business’, etc. the “bad guys” usually flee. And one of the biggest reasons the government wants gun control is not to control the guns – they want to control the citizens and tear down the Constitution. If WE the people don’t continue our fight to control the government – they will control us. Look at what is happening right now with the First Amendment – the left controls most of the media and now through the guise of Health Care, they are starting to take on religion. Look what is happening with the Catholics. WE are at a crossroads here with this election. We need to continue to stand strong and un-elect King “George” Obama. We need to protect our Constitution – every word!
The issue of gun control, civilian disarmament, cannot be seperated from the concept of limitted constitutional government. “An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man is a subject.” Our founders recognized this, and having started, fought, and won a long difficult revolution, they were determined that no American would ever again be treated as a subject. Thus the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the Big Government polititians and bureaucrats have perverted the meaning of the Bill of Rights, they now insist that these are rights to be granted and limitted by the government. Nothing could be farther from the truth: these enumerated rights are preexisting, God given rights inherant to each individual, they are neither granted by government nor subject to restriction by government. These power hungry polititians and bureaucrats must be removed from office before they destroy all of our liberties. Tyrants prefer unarmed peasants.
Amen, Paul. Amen.
The topic of gun control – citizen disarmament- cannot be seperated from the issue of a constitutionally limitted government. ” An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man is a subject.” Our founders recognized this, and having started, fought and won a long, difficult revolution, they were determined that no American ever again be treated as a subject. Thus the Second Ammendment. Unfortunately many polititians and bureaucrats believe that Big Government is supreme and that all rights are to be granted by, limitted by, and subject to revocation by, you guessed it, government. These Big Government elitists refuse to accept or acknowledge that the rights enumerated in our Bill of Rights are natural God given rights inheritant to each individual: they predate government and cannot be limitted or revoked by government. These Big Government elitists who have such a perverted view of the meaning and intent of our Constitution must be voted out of office before they can destroy all of our liberties. Tyrants prefer unarmed peasants.
I can just imagine what would happen in some communities if citizens were called out to protect themselves with weapons they had on hand. Some areas would be like watching the Key Stone cops doing there hillarious antics, while others would be like watching the new Black Panthers at the polling place in 2008 holding clubs to intimidate voters only the clubs would be replaced by Mac 10′s or AK47′s. From one extreme to the other.
I don’t think this idea would work in our nation today, primarily because too many new immigrants come from countries were gun ownership is illegal like China, while in others it is expected such as Eastern Europe or Russia or the Middle East. I can see it all now. Chinese engineers at Microsoft hiring Russians or Sunnis to gaurd them by carrying AK47′s all the time.
It makes sense to leave law enforcement up to the pros so the rest of us can get on with our lives and jobs. Even if the law is currently controlled by unions it is still woth the cost in taxes to have thow folks doing what they do. Ask yourself this one question. Would you put your life on the line in today’s urban environment for what these pulic servants get paid? I sure as hell wouldn’t. Every time they pull over some jerk who can’t control his drinking or drug use, they put their lives on the line, to write a ticket. Really? Would you do that?
If they take away our right to own a gun how are we suposse to protect ourselves from them when this turns into a socialist state or a dictatorship? plus, i don’t want to have to call 911 and be shot while on the phone with them because i had no way of protecting myself or my son.
For sure, Mia.
When seconds count, help is only minutes away…..
Or as we say around here: 911 is government sponsored dial-a-prayer. ☺
Yeah, the NRA is the problem. A problem for gun control &%^# like him.
I have no problems about gun ownership by all but before one owns a gun people should really learn how to carry it first without pointing it loaded toward people unless its being fired for life saving situation. I cringe everytime when I’m at a hunting site with the newbee that does the crossover move past me with their gun since they know no better.
I am a 58+ yr. old Granny from W. Texas. Out in this part of Texas on the farm or ranch, you learned about guns @ a real early age. For any of you, that DID NOT grow up around guns…..I suggest you take a Concealed to Carry Class by a reputible gunsmith/instructor …even if you don’t plan to get your permit to carry…the classes are very important if you plan to buy or own guns!!! It’s a refresher course for those who already own guns & a great class for new gun owners!
If you can get the right instructor it is worth the time & money spent. If you own guns –you owe it to yourself & everyone around you to put Safety @ the forefront of owning a firearm and #1 thing to remember is to ALWAYS, ALWAYS, treat any & all guns as if it is loaded….I’m with NAGR—-National Association for Gun Rights……because of the NRA’S kissing up to the liberal’s who want to take away MY/YOUR gunrights!!!!
Does anyone know who said “An armed man can be killed, but he can not be enslaved”?