I read the news today oh boy! Page 1,793

It's a school Bill kids have to be able to get in and out quickly.

Besides any system like that will trap kids indoors.

Probably the best solution is maybe a more structured form of gun control.
Want to own a gun? Fine first prove you're a responsible, safe citizen.
Then join some kind of volunteer police force and do a shift once a week at the school or cinema.

So, Jerry Hall has got her man and sorted her pension fund - all she's got to do now is to shag him to death.

I like to think it's an elaborate plan to rid the world of one of its richest twatboxes. And when he's passed on, she'll donate every penny of his money to a charity that would make him turn in his grave.

Cool Cool

I wonder if she calls her fanny "Wolf Hall?"

Quote: sootyj @ 11th January 2016, 5:31 PM GMT

Probably the best solution is maybe a more structured form of gun control.
Want to own a gun? Fine first prove you're a responsible, safe citizen.
Then join some kind of volunteer police force and do a shift once a week at the school or cinema.

The Second Amendment

"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."

Often quoted only partially. The second part is clearly linked to the often unquoted first part.

It would look like the founding fathers intended "the right of the people to keep and bear arms' was intrinsically linked to the concept of "a well regulated Militia".

How many legitimate gun owners are part of any Militia? Well regulated or otherwise.

(Definition of militia in English:

noun

A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency).

Maybe the right to own a gun should be dependent on the obligation to be educated and trained in it's proper use by being a member of a 'well regulated' Militia?

Quote: playfull @ 12th January 2016, 3:33 PM GMT

How many legitimate gun owners are part of any Militia? Well regulated or otherwise.

The Supreme Court has ruled time and again that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to possess firearms.

Quote: playfull @ 12th January 2016, 3:33 PM GMT

Maybe the right to own a gun should be dependent on the obligation to be educated and trained in it's proper use by being a member of a 'well regulated' Militia?

Nearly one in four American men are military veterans, so there are already tens of millions of well-trained gun owners out there.

Quote: DaButt @ 12th January 2016, 3:50 PM GMT

The Supreme Court has ruled time and again that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to possess firearms.

Nearly one in four American men are military veterans, so there are already tens of millions of well-trained gun owners out there.

Hi Da Butt - I am not having a go - I understand the court thing, but it is just the fact that the 'right to bear arms' is used in isolation from the actual Second Amendment as drafted. Like some 'cast in stone' religious mantra. Many Amendments have been 'amended' and in the case of the missing 13th Amendment even disappeared!

I just feel that the founding fathers intended one thing and it has now been usurped into another. Do you feel that a well armed Militia is still essential to the security of a free state?

As to your veterans point - a) that means over 75% (of presumable gun owners)are not military veterans but also b) those veterans would make an ideal core for a 'well regulated militia' wouldn't they?

what was the 13th ammendment? Sounds like something out of Indiana Jones.

what was the 13th ammendment? Sounds like something out of Indiana Jones.

Quote: playfull @ 12th January 2016, 4:05 PM GMT

I just feel that the founding fathers intended one thing and it has now been usurped into another. Do you feel that a well armed Militia is still essential to the security of a free state?

The amendment is rather short on words, but the founders left little doubt about their intention. Back in the days when there really wasn't much of an organized, professional military, it was clear that they wanted to ensure that Americans could always rise up to fight a hostile attacker, both foreign and domestic. As for the latter:

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Co-author of the Second Amendment
during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ..."
Richard Henry Lee
writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic, Letter XVIII, May, 1788.

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; ..."
Samuel Adams
quoted in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789, "Propositions submitted to the Convention of this State"

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
Richard Henry Lee
American Statesman, 1788

"The great object is that every man be armed." and "Everyone who is able may have a gun."
Patrick Henry

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defence? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
Patrick Henry

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that ... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; ... "
Thomas Jefferson
letter to Justice John Cartwright, June 5, 1824.

So do you feel a 'well regulated' militia is still essential?

The odd thing DaButt is that all sounds like a cogent argument for national service, not recreational gun ownership.

Quote: sootyj @ 12th January 2016, 4:23 PM GMT

what was the 13th ammendment? Sounds like something out of Indiana Jones.

what was the 13th ammendment? Sounds like something out of Indiana Jones.

(disputed) It is claimed that the original 13th amendment has been replaced. It originally stated that anyone who accepted an honour or gift from a foreign entity or power would no longer be an American Citizen and could not therefore hold any political office. I think it's aim was to prevent lawyers (who at the time were accredited from London) from holding any official office.

You mean Barrack shouldn't be president?

To the bat bird sanctuary Robin!

Quote: playfull @ 12th January 2016, 4:43 PM GMT

So do you feel a 'well regulated' militia is still essential?

Quote: sootyj @ 12th January 2016, 4:54 PM GMT

The odd thing DaButt is that all sounds like a cogent argument for national service, not recreational gun ownership.

Anti-gun activists are the only people who like to point out the "well-regulated militia" wording, using it as an indication that private gun ownership is unnecessary and/or unconstitutional. If gun owners were to form an actual armed militia of millions the anti-gun crowd would lose their minds.

It is quite clear that our founders believed that an armed populace helps to prevent a government from turning on its citizens. I doubt it'll happen anytime soon but, yes, I do think it's important that Americans retain their right to bear arms. If our government were to turn the military against us (also unlikely, as they are big proponents of the Second Amendment and personal freedom) the citizens could and would rise against them.

As I've said many times, the idea of politicians disarming Americans (for our own good, of course) is unacceptable, especially when those politicians are protected 24/7 for life by heavily armed bodyguards.