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To
Arms!
To
the Editor:
You
were right to warn us about Poindexter’s Total Information
Awareness system and no-fly lists [“O Big Brother, Where Art
Thou?,” Dec. 5]. But when you discussed guns, you missed the
boat. If we want to be safer against terrorists, we need more,
not fewer, guns, and it needs to be easier for people to arm
themselves, not harder. Had only a couple of passengers on
each of the 9/11 flights been properly armed, the Twin Towers
would still be standing and three thousand victims would be
celebrating with their loved ones this holiday season.
The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, the
law of the land, does not allow you to implement any system
to close any imagined “loopholes” in the existing, blatantly
unconstitutional gun laws. The Second Amendment is very simple,
very clear: “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.” You can argue all
you want, but what this means, in the words of L. Neil Smith,
is that “Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable
individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain,
own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon—rifle, shotgun,
handgun, machinegun, anything—any time, any place,
without asking anyone’s permission.”
And why may you not close those loopholes? Mr. Smith again:
“Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It
doesn’t say what any of us thought it said. What it
says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and
bears arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers
‘the security of a free state’? And if it’s treason, then
it’s punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials,
and public hangings.”
The reason our Constitution has a Second Amendment is not
well known, anymore. Yes, it affirms our right to hunt. Yes,
it affirms our right and duty to defend ourselves, our families,
and our communities against criminals and terrorists. But
the major reason for the existence of the second amendment
is to guarantee that we always have at our disposal the tools
to overthrow the government, should it become necessary. With
the recent passage of the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and the
Fatherland, er . . . Homeland Security Act, it’s getting mighty
close to necessary.
There, that should get me on the no-fly list.
Bill
St. Clair
New
Lebanon
Metroland
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