WASHINGTON - The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.
Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.
In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."
I was never a supporter of the Second Amendment, since I find it useless nowadays for us to have a militia when we already have our own national military. The Second Amendment was only useful during the beginning of the nation when it was impossible for soldiers to come to the aid of some area if it was hundreds of miles away. The only valid reason to have a gun now is for hunting.
The United States already has the highest murder rate in the Western hemisphere, and an underlying reason is our lenient gun laws. Why not lower the number down by preventing the sale to terror suspects or any dangerous person? There's a reason why the UK and Australia banned the sale of certain firearms to anyone for a reason, you know.
Now, shouldn't it be common sense to not give a deadly weapon to anyone that could be a threat to society? Seriously, why should it matter if the government is violating their Second Amendment rights for the sake of the public's safety?
Maybe it's time for the Second Amendment to be removed. A person can still have a gun but it would be a priviledge instead of a right. If that person screws up or if it is discovered that the person is a threat to the general public, then no guns for them. The government repealed the 18th Amendment after it miserably failed during the Prohibition Era, and I find that the Second Amendment is already failing miserably in modern society.
SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18494626/
There was a story posted at BBC that was talking about Europe's murder rates, which is higher than the United States despite their stricter gun laws.
I'll see if I can find it and post it here for you.
Lax gun laws aren't what's bringing up our murder rates; Think about it, would you rob a gas station if you knew that the attendant was packing a gun? (for argument's sake, this is assuming that you would rob a gas station at all) or would you go down the road and rob the one where the attendant doesn't have a gun?
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/fanaile-essence
I'm all for the second amendment. In my opinion, we shouldn't rely on our national military to take care of us all the time, because they can't be everywhere at once. Just like Fanaile said, if someone's going to rob you, as soon as they see you pull out that shotgun against their little handgun or .22, they'll either think twice, or walk away with a serious injury, or no life at all.
And I also agree with the NRA on this one. Just because someone is 'suspected' of being a terrorist doesnt mean that we can throw the constitution out the window (does this remind anyone else of the Red Scare?). The whole purpose of airport security and military base security is to make sure that guns aren't brought anywhere where they could be a threat. So, just owning one doesn't do you any good as a terrorist if you can't take it where you want to go kill people. Besides, people buy and sell guns illegally every day. So just preventing them from getting a permit for one, or buying one from an authorized dealer doesn't mean that they can't get ahold of one at all.
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"Get off the cell phone!"