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As I'm sure you know, the very first thing I'm going to do is refer you elsewhere. This is one of my very favorite subjects, and I've referred to it over and over again.
Under "The Law....itself!! Part Duex," where you can easily gather my general opinion of the NRA and the 2nd Amendment for yourselves, but also here in this series as well, where I begin slamming both as early as Day #10 - Justice, American Style. Not that I won't be repeating any part of either of these references, I probably will be. Or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof.
So, here we go kids. The National Rifle Association...the name itself only reinforces my cry for Constitutional (in addition to the groups that arose from said piece of paper) Revamp, not unlike about everything else I've been yipping about; in both this series and my other major blog; where bringing our Constitution up to modern day terms and sentences (yes, and words too, I haven't left anyone else out, have I? Syllabals? Verbs? Nouns? You all good, or what?), is becoming a much needed and massively overdue necessity.
In my personal opinion, the National Rifle Association should have elevated or re-invented itself as the National Gun Association...However, that would invite obvious mispronunciation (more of the "On Purpose" type, I'm sure) of the acronym, if you take a minute to reach out and catch that drift. If you can't, here it is, spelled out in black and white - The NGA. Say it out loud. You'll get it eventually. Really, you don't even have to do that, just stare at the letters long enough...it nearly jumps off of the page. Not a good plan. Not without a slew of race-rioting.
Besides, the NRA simply trips off of your tongue, doesn't it? And yet, there are other acronyms that are decisively easier on the eyes...the NHA (Handgun), the NPA (Pistol) or the all-encompassing type, and probably the best choices of all the aforementioned, the NWA (Weapon), or the NFA (Firearms.)
So now that we've covered all of that nonsense, let's move right on to the sense portion of the article, shall we?
I refuse to blah-de-blah the core of our 2nd Amendment. Every one of us has a pretty good idea what it says. The right to hold and bear arms...or is it the right to arm bears? They seem equally inter-changeable, since they both seem to make about the same amount of sense, anyway. The NRA's position on this is very obvious and very clear. We Americans have the right to have weaponry, up to a point, up to a kind of limited force, and up to and including the very obvious intent of the 3rd Amendment, which is the Amendment I like to call "The Forgotten Amendment." If someone hadn't stared so long at the 2nd Amendment, it would have probably been forgotten as well, considering the two were tied very closely together. But somebody looked at it too long, liked what they were reading, and pushed it down the throats of the rest of America at the time, and more so nowadays. No one talks about Amendment 3, because it's outdated, and applied to the times, very closely, as does the 2nd. The 2nd, however is important, because it gives us the right to own guns!!!! The 3rd however, doesn't give us anything, so it's boring and not of consequence. OK. Whatever you say then.
No, according to the NRA, guns are not only a fundamental right, but an imperative and crucial right....like the right to breath. To listen to them, we wouldn't SURVIVE without firearms. That it's not exercising your rights as an American...or really that it's as good as UN-American to NOT own a gun. According to these fanatics, there needs to be at least one in every home, or you'll be SORRRRRRYYYY!!
It angers me terribly to hear this kind of stuff, for truly. Because of guns, obviously, we have a real murder problem 'round these parts. We Americans are a very trigger happy bunch. And our law enforcement isn't much better, and a gruesome step above those yahoos is the military, an even more trigger happy bunch. The days of shoot first and ask questions later, as it was back in the days we look down on, the days of the wild wild west, is on the comeback. That was a lawless bunch wasn't it? Hate to tell ya folks, we may have become more civil since then, but we seem to be creeping back into an expanded and improved upon version of those same days. I'm sure all of us have heard of drive-bys, this sort of behavior rather mimics the gun-fighting right out in the street at noon...the only difference is that it's done more at midnight and usually happens between lots of people, instead of one on one. The intention is pretty much the same, it's kill to get your point across. Sounds like a modern wild wild west to me. Instead of rustler gangs we now have street gangs. The similarities to a lawless society is pretty scary.
Back then the sheriff was pretty much allowed to do whatever he had to, right down to gun-fighting himself to keep the peace...check mark on that one as well...our modern day jackboots like to think they're allowed to do whatever they want to keep the peace as well, up to and including killing people without a single expected right honored.
I'm not going to go either way on this subject at the moment. On the one hand, guns are a problem, of this there is absolutely no doubt, the numbers of murders every year in our country speaks for itself. On the other hand, the purpose of the 2nd Amendment, in its pristine condition was put in place to keep government in its place. But really, where do we draw the lines? We want to keep our sights set on our government, in case they, or their enforcers get too tyrannical. However, we want to keep the violent gun-related crime rate out of the history books.
The NRA does represent a lot of good in our country...they train our police forces, promote safety where firearms are considered, and do a good job of protecting one of our more important rights. They also promote self-defense measures and protect our hunting rights. The group has firm belief that guns deter crime. But if we didn't have as many guns, we wouldn't need to be trained in the safety of them, and crime would be diminished massively if guns weren't so readily available. Police forces seem to be making more of a move towards a police state, more than they seem to be worried about the "Protect and Serve" mottoes they sport on just about every police vehicle. I don't think I'm quite as thrilled with their being well-trained of late, that's for sure. Again, I refuse to directly lean any certain way here, but it's obvious that what the NRA promotes, unfortunately, also appears to promote a massive numbers of killing and other crimes we suffer at the hands of guns daily. For now, therefore, I'd have to say that supporting the 2nd Amendment produces more ill these days, and seems to outweigh thinking it's a wonderful and swell right to have, and serves us well. So I'm sorry gun rights advocates, I'm afraid I have to decline on joining your ranks today...even in the event another darker and less safe day occurs. The day I'll be happy for our right to bear arms will be the days they call martial law in effect, in our states or our nation...and to be honest, I don't really see those days as too far off. So for today, and quite possibly awhile to come, the 2nd Amendment, gun rights, and the NRA must remain in my list of deadly sins.
Last, but not least by any means, let's not soon forget that one of the four people whose hands you're forcing guns into suffers from some sort of mental illness, hmmm? See Yesterday's Post!!
Day #14? Spent. Toast. History. See all of you manana. :D
