Tuesday, July 17, 2007

What limits the 2nd amendment?

So a popular discussion is the 2nd amendment, and what defines the limits. It's original purpose was to defend yourself, and I still believe in that today. But where do we draw the line on what is suitable and what is just a bit overboard? After all, citizens running around with nukes isn't a good thing no matter how you want to spin it.

For most, they seem to think it's just what the majority of people deem is ok, even if that means none at all. That is a total violation of the 2nd amendment. So what defines that is property and individual rights. You can't have a nuke, because you could never set it off without infringing on the property rights of millions of people. It goes way beyond the realm of self defense, hunting or anything other than straight warfare. This would apply to many explosive weapons, they would all infringe on other peoples properties, even with just sound waves alone.

But do rifles and such do this? The answer is no. They do not automatically infringe on property rights of other people. And yes, they are for self protection. The immediate comment is, how can you let people run around with these? My answer is, have you looked around, if they are a criminal, they aren't paying attention to the laws. We've all heard it before, it only takes them out of law abiding citizens, the ones who have legitimate reasons to have them in the first place. Which is worse, 30 citizens with automatic weapons, and 1 criminal with one, or 30 unarmed citizens with 1 criminal armed with even just a couple of pistols? Who are you really helping here? Unfortunately, that has been answered too many times in slaughters in our schools. I'm certainly not saying kids need to bring weapons to schools, just that it is an example of what could happen anywhere if all law abiding citizens give up their weapons.

So does that mean people will be walking the streets with these things? I highly doubt it. What is to stop them? You. Private businesses who own their property, also have every right not to allow them on their property. Pretty much every business is not going to allow it. And if they do, you can let them know you will not give them business as long as they allow it.

Statistics keep showing over time that areas that have the strictest gun laws carry the highest amount of gun related crimes. Because the victim is less likely to be able to defend themselves. In places that allow concealed weapons, the crime rate is much lower. Because there is a much higher chance the victim is able to defend themselves.

If we could rid the world of guns tomorrow I'd be in favor of it. But that just isn't realistic. They are here to stay, the only thing we can reduce is their effectiveness, and the less people who have them, the more effective they are.

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