Not learning from past mistakes

Former D.C. criminal prosecutor Jeffrey Scott explains why draconian gun-control laws don’t work, citing, as an example, our nation’s capital.

The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454.

Criminals are, above all else, opportunists. They like easy pickings, and the more defenseless the population is, the broader their scope for action.

Elsewhere, Jeff Goldstein – one of the most articulate and passionate defenders of our constitutional liberties writing today – pours a bottle of clarity over the Democrat auxiliaries at NBC:

We the People have families as well. What we don’t have is the ability to sign into law permanent armed protection for the rest of our lives paid for by taxpayer money. Politicians in a constitutional republic are servants of the people. They aren’t our betters.

This President and any temporary Congress has no authority to take away our 2nd Amendment rights. The amendment doesn’t exist to allow for hunting or target shooting, or even home protection: those are useful appendages to what the amendment as written and ratified does provide for: an armed and prepared populace set up as a deterrent to foreign invaders or a tyrannical turn by their own government.

This may prove unpalatable to some, but that is beside the point: the amendment is what it is and does what it does. If progressives wish to change that, they can try amending the Constitution. Otherwise, they lack the authority. And we mustn’t allow them to chip away at our rights and consider the “compromise” worth the ending of the headache.

By the way here are the 23 executive orders. Taken all together, these orders have the appearance of a nothing burger; however, we should never discount the ability of government bureaucrats to abuse the stated scope of their mission through the magic of “interpretation”. Obama’s big proposals – a scary-looking-rifle ban, and limits on magazine capacity – would need congressional approval. I’m thinking that won’t happen – and I personally pledge financial support to any candidate who primaries a Republican representative or senator who does support Obama’s more toxic legislative recommendations.

I had a dream last night that I ordered a Ruger SR9c 9mm semi-automatic pistol with a 17-round magazine, and a Winchester Super X Pump Defender 12 ga. shotgun, having a capacity of 5+1…just in case.

Only a dream, of course, only a dream.