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March 18, 2024

“Common Sense” Infringement


The RIGHT to keep and bear arms is just that. A RIGHT. After all the years, (I’ll call it 50+, using 1968 as a start point), of “But…but…but…” IT IS STILL a RIGHT. It’s not a “suggestion” and it’s not a “privilege”. Any position or argument to the contrary, (again, after all of these years), is absurd and indefensible. “Common sense” legislation almost always work to the erosion of that RIGHT.

Does it make “common sense” to disallow criminals, domestic abusers, the addicted or mentally ill from buying guns? Yes. It does. But even that much “common sense” is an erosion because our Natural, (G-d given, for some of you), right, guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is, at least partially, impeded. 

Have you ever bought a gun? Filled out an ATF* form 4473**? It’s a pain in the butt. Have you ever applied for a permit to carry? I have, (and been granted), in several states. Yet, even as INFRINGED on as our rights are, with just those “common sense” ideas, you feel that the only way to stop “gun violence” is by eroding those RIGHTS even further. Except for criminals.  They actually want you to win the argument.  Besides.  They don’t waste their time on those pesky forms. 

Okay, I get it. “But LOU! Guns are SCARY!” Only if you’re in front of one. Then, you’ll be glad I’m coming around the corner with my, (VERY scary), lawfully owned and carried .45 that I did go through all that “common sense” to get.  Unlike the one pointed at you or the clerk behind the counter that nobody filled out any silly form to buy and carry around. 

The people I’ve taken to the range for the first time come away exhilarated. Other people on my “friends lists” can certainly corroborate that! YES. The first time you hear that sound you’ll probably flinch. It’s okay. Damn near everyone does. That’s why there are anti-flinching techniques and drills as well as countless articles and book chapters on the subject.***  

“But LOU!  Civilians shouldn’t have military-style assault weapons!  You can’t use them for hunting anything but HUMANS!”  Well, people shouldn’t use “Italian style” spaghetti sauce, either.  But I digress… Please.  Are you really going to go with that benighted point of view?  You can’t buy an automatic weapon.  Well, you can.  But if you think the 4473 was bad?  Woo-hoo!  Wait till you see that one!  Throw in the special ATF “tax” stamp, (last I checked, $600), and the fact that a “real”, FULLY automatic M-16 goes starting at ten grand and the fact that people use the SEMI automatic AR-15 for hunting,  (everything from ranchers shooting prairie dogs to people putting meat on the table for their kids), et voile!  Argument dissolved.  Can they be used on humans?  Yep.  Ask the combat vet who used his lawful semi-auto AR-15 to stop the Synagogue shooting last year.  Throw in the fact that the “shot heard round the world” was an assault.  Assault is an action. Committed with a rifle.  That makes it an assault rifle.  Pretty much the same rifles that were pointed by the “Redcoats” at the revolutionary colonists.  Without them, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

*”ATF” is the colloquial term for the “BATFE”, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives”. Sounds more like a convenience store than a government agency, am I right?

** ABOUT that ATF 4473, make sure you have a pen that won’t quit. 

***Oh, and, I don’t care if you have fired a gun before…You owe it to yourself, me, and the populous-at-large to get training from a real, certified instructor.  Then, think of your weapon as a musical instrument.  Wait, hear me out.  Think of that old adage, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”.  PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

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2 Responses ““Common Sense” Infringement”

  1. Ann Marie
    May 11, 2019 at 10:34 am

    Fantastic and point on!! I liked the “Italian style’ analogy.. I’m still laughing!!

  2. May 11, 2019 at 12:45 pm

    Well…it’s TRUE!

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