Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Issue 57 April 2006 Welcome to the fifty seventh issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter. This is the once-a-month communication from www.SaveTheGuns.com. Have you ever overheard a conversation between two people you're not familiar with concerning firearms. After listening for a moment, you realize that both of them have wrongheaded and misguided ideas about guns, lawful gun owners or even the Second Amendment itself? Have you had to restrain yourself from jumping into the conversation with both barrels blazing and give them a good blast of the truth? I tried to resist, but alas, I could not keep my big mouth shut. There was a conversation I overheard between a police officer and his own brother concerning something he was recently taught in college by a law enforcement instructor in a Criminal Justice course. This college law enforcement instructor taught his attentive students that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution was irrelevant for today. He said that it was written for a place and time two hundred and twenty (220) plus years in America's past and it no longer applies. He taught his law enforcement students that the Second Amendment is both inappropriate and inapplicable for today's America. He said it was written when Indians, wild animals and foreign nations posed a much more immediate risk to life and limb. Is the professor right? Does the Second Amendment not apply in today's America? Is the Second Amendment outdated, obsolete or antiquated? Read on and see what I have to say about it. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SAVETHEGUNS.COM QUOTES OF THE MONTH "Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe." -- U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) CA (Who at one time had a valid handgun permit in California.) "The attitude of people associating guns with nothing but crime, that is what has to be changed. I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms." -Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein But I don't think there's any doubt that in at least five states I can think of the NRA had a decisive influence. President Bill Clinton December 19, 2000 CBS Interview with Dan Rather "[i]t is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the States..." United States Supreme Court Presser V. Illinois (1886) "If it was up to me, no one but law enforcement officers would own hand guns..." Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Federal Gun Legislation Press Conference in Washington, D.C., November 13, 1998 "No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women." President Ronald Reagan "After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military." William S. Burroughs 1992 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SAVETHEGUNS.COM GUN SAFETY TIP OF THE MONTH My gun safety tip for April 2006 is to avoid the temptation to shoot at abandoned refrigerators, empty propane tanks, washing machines and junked cars that you might find in the woods when out target practicing. Who can be certain that a bullet won't ricochet off that junk propane tank and find it's way as an uninvited guest in somebody's living room wall? Yeah, I know it's hard to resist poking holes in a refrigerator with that new rifle. However, I do urge you to resist the temptation. Bullets, especially jacketed ones, can ricochet off the hard surface of an abandoned household appliance or junked vehicle and travel on their merry way for quite a distance. So unless you're safely enveloped within the high dirt berms of a firing range, it's my opinion that you should resist firing at these items. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AFFORDABLE LIFE NRA MEMBERSHIP Have you wanted to become a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, but the $750 price tag has stopped you in your tracks? You can have a Life Membership in the NRA for just $25 every three months. An NRA Life Membership for $750 is out of reach for many of us, but you can get one and pay incrementally at $25 a quarter until it's paid up. The Easy Pay Life (EPL) option is how I became a Life Member. Make the commitment today. Click the following link and select "Join the NRA" then select the Easy Pay Life (EPL Life Membership) option. Pay $25 every three months and before you know it, you're an NRA member for life. http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SAVETHEGUNS.COM LIST OF AFFILIATES Check out my list of affiliated online retailers. I've created a page listing my affiliates in alphabetical order. Check out the page. It's fun to browse!! Some of the online retailer's Web sites are just fun to "window shop" in. U.S. Cavalry has Official Issue military clothing and boots. SportsmansGuide.com has tons of stuff that's fun to check out. CheaperThanDirt.com is a place that I've spent so much money at lately, that I have had to restrain myself. Check out the "Affiliate Links" page: http://www.savetheguns.com/affiliate_links.htm NOW 75 affiliates!! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MINUTEMAN MONTHLY AIMING POINT FOR APRIL 2006 Question: Is the Second Amendment antiquated, obsolete and outdated? To begin addressing such a question we should not only examine the Second Amendment itself, but we must also examine the thoughts, letters, newspaper articles and speeches of the Founding Fathers. Only after very close scrutiny of the words and deeds of the Founding Fathers themselves can we begin to address the question appropriately. "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." The United States Department of Justice has spoken on whether or not the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals or a right of states to arm militias only. Please see my "DOJ Statement" page for a full explanation. The Department of Justice can explain it better than I can. http://www.savetheguns.com/doj_statement.htm The men of the United States are already in the militia. Whether you knew it or not, if you're between the ages of 18 and 45 (it used to be 16 and 60), you're in the unorganized militia. In 1886, the United States Supreme Court said in Presser V. Illinois: ""[i]t is undoubtedly true that all citizens capable of bearing arms constitute the reserved military force or reserve militia of the United States as well as of the States..." When you consider that all able bodied males between the ages of 18 and 45 are currently in the "Unorganized Militia", the statement that the Second Amendment is obsolete is already in trouble. The Declaration of Independence asserts that we have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to life, is a basic human right. We have the right to defend our own life and the lives of our family, with the best modern-day methods of defending that life. In other words, we have the right to carry a concealed firearm in public under the founding documents of the United States. It's not a stretch of the imagination to include firearm ownership, with the notion of a right to life itself. I ask the reader, what good is a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, without the power and will to defend it? Without private firearm ownership, the very foundation of freedom itself would begin to crumble. If someone attempts to take away our life and liberty, how are we to properly defend it without private firearm ownership? The Founding Fathers ALWAYS intended the general population of the United States to be able to overthrow their own government. They had a lot of trepidation over having a powerful central government that controlled a standing army. It might sound somewhat distasteful to modern-day Americans, but the overthrow of our own government is protected by the vision set forth by the Founding Fathers. It's abundantly clear in their letters and speeches that this is a fundamental right of Americans. Please take time to point someone to my "Quotes" page to prove these points. http://www.savetheguns.com/quotes.htm When you think that many of the Founding Fathers thought that there would be fresh revolutions every few decades in the newly born United States, the answer is very clear. The right to keep and bear arms is not obsolete at all. When you consider that every study I have ever seen says that there are anywhere from 600,000 firearm related instances of self defense to as many as 2,500,000 each year, the answer is crystal clear. The Second Amendment is not outdated. Countries such as Great Britain and Australia are waking up from their dreams of a gun-free utopia. As they awake from their nightmares, they're realizing that disarming the law-abiding citizen does not stop violent criminal thugs from ruling the night with rapes, robberies and murders. The only thing they've managed to do is to make the life of the career criminal a lot safer and more rewarding. Let's imagine for a moment an unlikely, but however very possible scenario. China, Japan and many of the other world industrialized powers no longer need the United States to spend money on their products. They get together and form a pact, aiming to do away with the pesky United States. They agree to begin selling off trillions of dollars in U.S. Treasuries that they've been buying for the last sixty plus years and in a relatively short period of time, are able to bankrupt the United States government, which leaves us ripe for invasion. With the utter devastation this would bring to the U.S. economy, we couldn't afford to have a military operating to defend us. What then? Isn't that scenario, however unlikely it may be, a good reason for the people to retain the individual right to keep and bear arms? A fully armed and prepared country is one of the main reasons that Hitler did not invade Switzerland. Let's keep this in mind when we consider whether or not the right to keep and bear arms is antiquated. Let me briefly mention the hunting factor. Let's face the facts ladies and gentlemen, we human beings have been taking the lives of animals to feed our families for a very long time. How can our right to own and carry firearms be obsolete, when millions of us feed our families with our firearms every year? The best way I can answer the question on whether the Second Amendment is obsolete or outdated is by looking to the words of the Founding Fathers themselves. I will end this month's Minuteman Monthly Newsletter by using only twelve (12) quotes from the Founding Fathers. I could use quite a few more, but that would make this newsletter too long. You can go to my "Quotes" page to see the rest. http://www.savetheguns.com/quotes.htm +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE QUOTES These are twelve quotes that support my contention that the Second Amendment is not outdated. "The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals." President James Monroe (November 16, 1818) "I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances." Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98 "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." Thomas Jefferson "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson, in letter to William S. Smith, 1787 "Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can." Samuel Adams "A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." James Madison "Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense." John Adams "...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..." Alexander Hamilton Federalist 29 "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." George Washington "The power of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." Tench Coxe, writing as "the Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1788 "The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England" "The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of the republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." Joseph Story, United States Supreme Court Justice, 1833 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Once again, you may post, print, distribute, quote, forward, blog or otherwise use this newsletter as you see fit, as long as you mention somewhere in your material where you got it. Marc Owner and Founder www.SaveTheGuns.com Thank you for registering as a Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Recipient. If you don't want this newsletter or the legislative alerts anymore, just send me an e-mail with "Unsubscribe MMM" in the subject line to: info@savetheguns.com