Whenever I see a headline like this:
Thousands of gun control advocates are expected to rally Saturday in Washington, DC, and across the country in a nationwide “March for Our Lives” protest following the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
…what I would really like to see is a counter-protest of, say, ten million gun owners descending on Washington D.C. — no funny stuff, just an immense crowd of people holding hand-painted signs saying non-contentious things like “We Love Our Second Amendment”, “First And Second Amendments — Our Two Pillars of Freedom” and “Over 1 Million Violent Crimes Prevented Each Year By Law-Abiding Gun Owners”, etc., so that for once, the world can see the depth of our support for the Second Amendment.
But we don’t do that, do we? And by our silence, we give the stage to the gun-confiscators and -controllers, and the world says, “See? See? Even Americans want gun control!” when in fact we don’t.
And when some crackpot like Michael Moore thunders:
“Repeal the Second Amendment. Repeal the Second Amendment.”
…we just chuckle, because we know that such a thing would require a two thirds majority in both House and Senate, and a three-quarter majority of all the states — ergo, it ain’t gonna happen.
In the near future. But further down the road? You sure about that?
I cannot tell you how tired I get of the Second Amendment types that are constantly blathering about all their gunz and the eleventy trillion rounds of ammo they have thst “pertects our freedumz” but won’t, you know, actually DO anything do protect anything. There isn’t a single leftist in the USA that is scared of America’s gun owners, nor should they be.
Soo… a few years ago in Virginia tens of thousands of gun rights supporters showed up to the capital in Richmond to lobby for gun rights. Most were armed, the rally was peaceful, the grounds were kept clean.
Prior to the rally, our blackface, klan-outfit wearing racist Democrat governor, Ralph Northam, declared a state of emergency. After the rally, they passed radical gun control, banned guns in and around the capital, and booked the venue for anti-gun demonstrations the following year (in violation of their own regulations which don’t permit booking the venue more than 6 months out).
I remember that. The powers that be were shitting bricks. Didn’t change their vote, but scared the living shit outta them.
The 2A is one Supreme Court decision away for de facto repeal.
Wouldn’t SCOTUS “repealing” the 2nd-A be UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
Last time I looked it took a 2/3rds vote of both Houses of Congress, plus ratification by 3/4ths of the Several States.
But, that’s just me, and I’m bereft of an Ivy League Edumacation.
The SCOTUS willed away the Privileges and Immunities in the Fourteenth Amendment more than 130 years ago. It willed away equal protection in 1897 with Plessy v Ferguson, and once it learned that changing definitions of the protective words was the way to further the Leftist goals, once they dodged Roosevelt’s Court Packing bullet, it’s been goodbye to one protection against big government overreach after another. Substantive due process is another concept that means just what they say it is, nothing more, nothing less (A true Humpty-Dumpty reference).
I expect that so long as SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, can fulfill the licensing requirements for Militia or keeping or bearing arms, then it will be deemed not an infringement, but a reasonable exercise of a rational governmental interest (non-risible reason).
Considering the formation of the Federal Government by the states using the constitution, every attempted limitation on the rights and protections of individuals, or every attempt by the federal government to exercise powers not expressly and narrowly delegated to it should be examined with strict scrutiny.
Given the level of election fraud we allowed in 2020, it may be MUCH sooner.
+1
Protests are for hippies.
> what I would really like to see is a counter-protest of, say, ten
> million gun owners descending on Washington D.C.
Not going to happen for three reasons:
* We don’t have billionaires funding the sorts of organizations that can plan and execute such things. Those aren’t spontaneous events, they’re organized and guided.
* We have duties and obligations in our own lives that we value highly.
* Have you seen the price of gas recently? See the first point.
What could be done is to stage a bunch of *local* counter protests in the various state capitals. But even that would be pointless.
Because what these sorts of protests rely on is favorable press. 100 protesters in DC with anti-gun placards becomes a huge rally demanding action. 10 million pro-gun activists would be an insurrection against the democratic process.
What SHOULD happen is to organize local gun clubs and private shooting ranges across the country and have every gun club in the country hold a “open house” on the same day. Maybe a community barbecue, maybe free shooting classes, whatever the local crew wants.
> But further down the road? You sure about that?
“Further” is a big vague. 4 or 5 generations? Maybe.
10 or 20 years? Remember, 34 months (soon to be 35?) of 1 million or more gun sales a month. Even if most of those go to existing gun owners, that’s a LOT of new gun owners.
Call Tamara Lich, the Canadian lady who organized the cross Canada truck protest convoy.
All gun owners have to do is drive to DC, park their cars and maybe honk their horns for a while, a couple of days maybe.
How hard can that be?
Then the accounts are frozen, as it happened in Canada.
Could we do a “go fund me” to pay to burn down the New York Times?
That might get their attention.
There were several rallies in Hartford after Sandy Hook. Mike Vanderbough spoke one year and John Lott spoke another year. We had several thousand people attending. The rallies were very interesting but friutless. We wrote to our representatives and testified 5:1 or more against further erosion of our rights and our testimony had no effect on the politicians in office. The only thing politicians understand is contributions and getting thrown out of office.
JQ
…what I would really like to see is a counter-protest of, say, ten million gun owners descending on Washington D.C. — no funny stuff, just an immense crowd of people holding hand-painted signs saying non-contentious things like “We Love Our Second Amendment”, “First And Second Amendments — Our Two Pillars of Freedom” and “Over 1 Million Violent Crimes Prevented Each Year By Law-Abiding Gun Owners”, etc., so that for once, the world can see the depth of our support for the Second Amendment.
It surely is a great idea, without a doubt. It would show the world that there are responsible citizens on the side of Freedom who will not be cowed by the loud-mouthed whiners who are trying to reduce America to just another cry-baby socialist state.
But isn’t that what we tried January 6th, 2021? It was a great idea, right up till when it wasn’t.
I’d sell signs to the effect of “Blacks and Women need assault rifles and concealed handguns to protect themselves from violent evil white men.”
But I’d only sell them to white men.
Then I’d video the exploding heads all over the place.
Don’t bother to replicate Jan 6, again. That would be stupid. 10 million, armed to to teeth, to clean house in DC, should be the only reason to show up. Won’t happen, of course. Total fantasy. Half-assed measures are worse than useless, they are counterproductive.
However, give it a couple more years of increasingly worse inflation and idiocy from DC, and people might be more inclined to try turning things around. Not holding my breath. I suspect things will have to get a LOT worse before the people are willing to get off their ass and get directly involved in removing bad players.
Of course, with such idiocy working in DC and various states and cities, they could touch off a revolt unintentionally. Frankly, I would expect that to be what happens.
And here I sit, with a TBI that never healed, unable to handle so much as driving a tack with a little hammer. The thought of shooting a gun is now frightening, as the recoil might be enough to kill me, sigh… Not a happy camper.
“But we don’t do that, do we?”
We don’t do that because we have jobs.