The "paper of record" once again makes like a broken record with another prosaic call to take away guns from the average American. The New York Times again displays its complete disregard of the Constitution in an editorial titled, "The Court and the Second Amendment", claiming our founding law is out of date and doesn't "confront modern-day reality." In another editorial filled with extreme language, untrue definitions and arrogance, and cementing its reputation against self-defense and American principles, the Times addressed the recent decision by the Supreme Court to soon take on the DC Gun banning reversal case.
Hitting all its best low notes and filled with propaganda-laced verbiage, the Times again made the case that you, Mr. and Mrs. America, are too stupid and filled with bloodlust to be trusted with a firearm... quite despite that musty, stupid old, out of date Constitution thingie.
It's hard to believe such a small editorial can have so many lies, distortions and misconceptions but the Times really packed them into this rant. Nearly every paragraph has something that is either incorrect technically, or just plain propagandistic. I'll take each paragraph one at a time here:
By agreeing yesterday to rule on whether provisions of the District of Columbia’s stringent gun control law violate the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the Supreme Court has inserted itself into a roiling public controversy with large ramifications for public safety. The court’s move sowed hope and fear among supporters of reasonable gun control, and it ratcheted up the suspense surrounding the court’s current term.
The Supreme Court "inserted itself into a roiling public controversy," New York Times? Like most cases, this one came TO them, the SCOTUS didn't go out to actively seek this case. And, notice the soft selling of their attempts to advocate for a reversal of the Constitutional right by calling the issue a "public safety" issue? No, it is a rights issue, not a "public safety" issue, Times, and you know it. By trying to reframe this debate as a "safety" issue, you are purposefully trying to pretend it has nothing to do with your plans to eliminate a Constitutionally guaranteed right to self-protection. It is also amusing that you call your gun grabbing "reasonable." I am sure that totalitarians everywhere, in every age termed their desires to disarm the public "reasonable" before they undertook that outrage. It was quite a smooth propaganda effort there, though, Times, so props for trying to hide behind misleading language. I am sure your attempts at subterfuge might fool some.
The hope, which we share, is that the court will rise above the hard-right ideology of some justices to render a decision respectful of the Constitution’s text and the violent consequences of denying government broad room to regulate guns. The fear is that it will not.
Again, terming this court one of "hard-right ideology" is amusing, not subtle, but amusing none-the-less. Your extremist language was followed by an even more amusing claim that your efforts coincide with a desire to be " respectful of the Constitution’s text." I'm sorry, but that is just an outright lie. You want guns removed from the hands of We the People, yet the text you claim to "respect" says that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." So, um, What part of "shall not be infringed" implies that guns can be banned, exactly?
At issue is a 2-to-1 ruling last March by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that found unconstitutional a law barring handguns in homes and requiring that shotguns and rifles be stored with trigger locks or disassembled. The ruling upheld a radical decision by a federal trial judge, who struck down the 31-year-old gun control law on spurious grounds that conform with the agenda of the anti-gun control lobby but cry out for rejection by the Supreme Court.
There's even more propaganda in this paragraph. Notice the "The ruling upheld a radical decision" part? Sorry, Times, but it is only a "radical decision" because you disagree with it. But, it's nice that you can keep the extremist language up in every paragraph. At least you are consistent!
Much hinges on how the justices interpret the Second Amendment, which says: “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.”
Well, OK, not every paragraph is filled with propaganda. They got one out of 7 sans the extremism.
Opponents of gun control sometimes claim a constitutional prohibition on any serious regulation of individual gun ownership. The court last weighed in on the amendment in 1939, concluding, correctly in our view, that the only absolute right conferred on individuals is for the private ownership of guns that has "some reasonable relationship to the preservation of efficiency of a well-regulated militia." The federal, state and local governments may impose restrictions on other uses -- like the trigger guards -- or outright bans on types of weapons. Appellate courts followed that interpretation, until last spring’s departure.
Again, with the couched terminology, this time calling gun bans "serious" as if those who are more interested in Constitutional rights are not serious.
Next the Times goes into its assumptions that the Constitution isn't any good anymore because it has somehow gone out-of-date.
A lot has changed since the nation’s founding, when people kept muskets to be ready for militia service. What has not changed is the actual language of the Constitution. To get past the first limiting clauses of the Second Amendment to find an unalienable individual right to bear arms seems to require creative editing.
Yes, NYT, a lot has changed in 200 years. The Founders didn't imagine that Newspapers would be transmitted electronically, either. Should we throw out the 1st Amendment because the Founders didn't know about that technological advancement or should we realize that the basic rights of a free press are sacrosanct and correct? See, we can use the "living document" theory the Times subscribes to for eliminating or "updating" any right at all can't we? Of course, that would make them suggestions and not rights, now wouldn't it?
Beyond grappling with fairly esoteric arguments about the Second Amendment, the justices need to responsibly confront modern-day reality. A decision that upends needed gun controls currently in place around the country would imperil the lives of Americans.
So, as the Times tries its level best to cloud this issue with their couched, misleading language, they have the gall to say the argument is "esoteric" as if you lowly citizens out there are just not up to the challenge of the discussion. And with the final lie in the face of facts, the Times claims that gun bans help prevent gun crimes when study upon study shows just the opposite. In fact, the very city from which this case hails, the District of Columbia, has some of the highest crime rates and murder stats in the entire country and yet some of the most strict gun laws. Just on its face that fact says loads about the falsity of the Times' argument.
I agree with the Times on two points, though. It will be an interesting case and there truly is "fear" surrounding this important issue for this case is one fraught with implications for our nation, its laws, and our status as free citizens. Do we follow the Times down the path to an America that finds that its citizens have become as chattel slaves to a government that has summarily removed their right to self-defense as befits a free people? Or do we uphold the real language of the Constitution as well as the intent that the Founders had for the individual right to bear arms?
Sadly, we must wait for an unelected few to make that determination. Just as sadly we have one of the oldest papers in the country angling to eliminate our rights.














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Here's what this paragraph should say
November 21, 2007 - 12:19 ET by misterbee241To get past the first limiting clauses of
the Second Amendment to find an unalienable individual right to bear
arms seems to require creative editing.
Here's my take on it:
To get past the first limiting clauses of the First Amendment, to find an unalienable right to print any kind of anti-American rubbish we see fit to print, seems to require creative editing.
When the Second Amendment goes, the others wont be far behind it. We're not too far from that now.
The second amendment
November 21, 2007 - 12:23 ET by MikeBThe second amendment doesn't confront modern day reality? Are they insane? Given that privately owned firearms are used an estimated 2+ million times per year to foil crimes in this country?
But, let's neglect the implied self-protection aspect of the second amendment for the moment. Have second amendment rights being exercised, or the threat of such exercise, ever caused the government to revise an unpopular policy in modern times?
The answer to that question is "Yes!" It wasn't too long ago, the legislature of the State of Oklahoma realized that renters were not paying the personal property tax. The reasoning of the non-payers was that "I paid sales tax on my television, electronics, appliances, etc., when I bought it. It's mine. I'm not going to pay the state for the use of my own purchases." So, the state legislature in its infinite wisdom, passed a law, which the governor signed, authorizing the state's county tax assessors to enter a dwelling, without a search warrant, in order to inventory and assess the value of the personal possesions therein for the purpose of taxation. The state legislature and county tax assessors recieved several thousands of letters and phone calls telling them to hire a bunch more assessors, because "If the s.o.b. comes in my house, I'll kill him." The assessors refused to enforce that law, and the legislature repealed that very short-lived law.
How is that for "confronting modern reality" NYT?
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan
Modern reality is that the
November 21, 2007 - 13:09 ET by fosstenModern reality is that the Federal and local governments have never been larger or more powerful.
Modern reality is that we have never needed to be an armed citizenry more than we do now.
Modern reality includes Waco and Ruby Ridge, the failed AWB, and 9/11 which could have been prevented if passengers had carried guns.
Forget 911, I dial 10MM.
Never Forget
November 21, 2007 - 13:09 ET by RovinWe should never forget that the New York Times believes that they are the "pulse" of the nation and their deliberate intent to shape the debate is critical to its agenda. The Times attempt to proclaim that the constitution is out-dated on this issue speaks volumes as to what level the Times think they have more intelligence than what the founding fathers intended, which was to insure the right of individuals to keep and bear arms so that no government would be in a position to become a monarchy or a dictatorship by force of arms.
The Times overlooks this basic principal that our founding fathers understood to protect the individual. This error in judgement by the Times proves their questionable intelligence.
Rovin
Gun control? No.
November 21, 2007 - 14:24 ET by ThalpyThere is sorrow and disgust associated with the NYT, its role in the attempts to undermine our civilization, and its disregard for the founding principles of our country. There are profound differences of opinion about what our constitution is and should be. Is it a "living document" or a sound and constructive template upon which to build a lasting society? When there is little or no accommodation between these disparate beliefs, serious conflict can occur, and no doubt will.
The level of intelligence among our elites and government representatives today is inadequate to even consider changes to our constitution. Of course, this doesn't phase the judiciary or executive today; one is making up law, while the other is ignoring law.
And then, there is Pinch-hardly worth mention except when thinking about what the NYT is and what it should be.
Maybe the NYT...
November 21, 2007 - 14:35 ET by EmmyjuneYahoos should check out some of these statistics... I can't believe the stupidity and ignorant assertions Moonbats make. We couldn't expect any more from NYT, though, could we?
http://www.nraila.or...
http://www.nraila.or...
There's a LOT more where these came from, but these caught my eye...
A MUST READ
November 21, 2007 - 15:50 ET by JohnMhttp://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.pdf
Sorry NYT. This is the Department of Justice's research report on the 2nd Amendment. It discusses the language and intent of the amendment, and clarifies that RKBA is an individual right, and is NOT contingent on such entanglements as service in a militia. In fact it traces how such interpretations crept into popular thinking, and how they are aberrations of the original intent.
PLEASE read it! It answers all the anti-gun arguments.
In fact, don't just read it - download it, keep it handy, and make use of the info it contains. You might consider sharing the link with other interested parties, so that the info gets out where it's needed.
Oh, and remember, the Constitution and Bill of Rights do NOT "grant" rights. They affirm rights that are ours inherently ("endowed by their Creator"). The reason for enumerating them was to make it difficult for those in governance to ignore them or brush them aside.
Can someone help me understand this????
November 21, 2007 - 18:21 ET by planetrepublicanThe NY Times, salivating over a decision outlawing guns. Of course then only criminals will have guns but the Times doesn’t care one iota about that; as long as American are disarmed, that’s fine by them. More violent crime? That’s OK too, more government dependency, laws, regulations. Now, I’m just a stupid redneck gun owner and certainly not a lawyer but I just don’t get something. These are three (3) of the American constitution amendments (emphasis mine).
1st amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
2nd amendment: A 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.
4th amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized
If the founding fathers put “the right of the people” into the 1st and 4th and it means an individual right, why not the 2nd?
Does the NY Times want the 1st or 4th amendments gutted the way they want the 2nd amendment gutted? Of course not because then they would not be able to print any kind crap they want, including but not limited to, this bogus editorial. Shame on them. In my opinion, they are very un-American.
NYT Hopes For SCOTUS Gun Grab
November 23, 2007 - 15:48 ET by Der AlteWhat if some body, some day, during a Hillary Clinton administration ruled that the 1st Ammendment "doesn't confront modern-day reality" and that all journalist, especailly those who have voiced opposition to her administration must be controlled for society's greater good! Who would come to their aid and with what? Back issues of the NYT?
The 2nd Ammendment was part of the 10 Ammendments of the Bill of Rights that the Founders put into the Constitution to protect "Individual Rights". They are not to be subjected to "modern-day reality" interpetations.
The Founders wisely knew that we had fought a war against a tyrannical goverment that tried to opress its own citizens and guns in the hands of private citizens play a very big part in that struggle and that is why it is part of the Bill of Rights. We had better guard our rights no matter what they nay sayers spout because anyone who says it can't happen in "modern day" America is a fool!