ABOUT OUR RIGHTS

I was reading an article in AMERICA'S FREEDOM about how citizens, particularly those in the United Kingdom, have lost their gun rights.  As I read the article, it occurred to me that the principles outlined in the article applied not only to gun rights, but to other rights as well.  

It starts off rather innocuously.  For example, I think you and I would both agree that no one should have a gun in his hands until he has demonstrated knowledge about the safety aspects of it.  So, on that basis alone, we would agree that anyone who goes into a store to purchase a gun should have to provide some proof that he/she has sufficient knowledge about the safety aspects of using the gun; most conveniently for all concerned, he/she must provide sufficient written documentation to show they have taken a gun safety course.   So, we make a law that says just that, as is the case in California.  

We have now unwittingly given away some of the freedom... some minute portion of the 2nd Amendment.  Next came the required background check.  On the same basis, we should know that anyone with a gun in his hands is not a known bad guy or a looney tune.  Here's another infringement on the 2nd Amendment, albeit something that sounds reasonable; never mind that once you apply for the background check, you are putting all government agencies on notice that you are becoming a gun owner and are therefore a target should they decided to start confiscating guns. 

We then start enacting laws as to when you may carry a gun and where, how it must be secured in the home.... well, as in Britain for example... it gets to the point that gun ownership is so onerous and burdensome that when they finally say, "turn in your guns, they're now illegal," you are so numbed and conditioned that you just shrug your shoulders and say, "okay."  Gone are your gun rights... poof, just like in Britain.  

Well, this procedure to take away rights gradually, so that you don't respond to the shock of it all, is also being applied right here in the United States to the freedom of speech.  We'd all agree that you shouldn't be allowed to falsely yell "fire!" in a packed theater or to use the inflammatory word "nigger."  That has been followed by the political correctness of the Obama administration, where we're now afraid to say anything at all lest it offend someone.  So, we'd say it's not okay to spread false news, such as about the Clintons running some criminal enterprise out of a pizza shop in Washington, which causes some guy to load up his gun and head for the pizza store to take out some serious retribution.  So... spreading false news should be against the law, right?  

The first thing you know, we're going to be having public beheadings as punishment for calling the president an asshole.  That would undoubtedly please Obama. 

The point being: the reason we gun owners get our backs up when anyone mentions anything that might infringe in any way on the 2nd Amendment is that we know what comes next.  This methodology of stealing freedoms from citizens has been going on for eons, over and over again and in country after country.  Suddenly, you wake up one day and discover that all of your rights are gone.  

We must be vigilant at all times and in all respects.  We must question the real motives of proposed new laws regarding anything and everything that we take for granted in our everyday lives.  

Remember that when they tell you you can't fly the flag in your condo or display the cross in your yard. 

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.