VERBATIM
Let's talk about the stawmen in the current gun debate. The biggest one is: You don't need (fill in the blanks).
You don't need an AR15 for hunting. That's true. I've been a police officer for 30 years. During that time I served in both the National Guard and the Army Reserves. I carried an M16 during that time, the standard weapon of the infantryman. I'm very comfortable with that weapon and I understand both its strengths and weaknesses.
I also hunt deer, one of my favorite hobbies, and I don't bring my AR for deer hunting. I use a standard hunting rifle, a bolt action that holds three rounds. For many years I hunted with a muzzleloading rifle, a single shot musket just like the Founding Fathers used against the British interlopers, and it is a fine hunting instrument. However, this debate isn't about hunting. This debate is about the 2nd Amendment, which has nothing to do with hunting. The 2nd Amendment is about government intrusion and the Founders believed that the citizens should be armed as well as the government. In times of extreme need, when government breaks down and is unable to protect The People, the people have a right to defend themselves.
Do you want to live in a police state? I don't either, but when the police are better armed than the general public, you have the basis of a police state. I don't want to live in a place where the police have special exemptions, where the law writes particular exemptions for the police or the government. The law should apply to all equally, and if we don't need ARs on the streets, then the police shouldn't be allowed to have them, either. The police are simply citizens with power of arrest, paid to do full-time what every citizen should do on an as-needed basis.
Let me say this, for the record. In thirty years of police work, I have never had one problem with a law-abiding citizen who happened to be armed. Not one problem. Law abiding citizens are not the problem.
My guns are not the problem.
But, when you tell me "You Don't Need...", I wonder why you have the gall to presume to know what I need. I'm a free American and what I need is none of your business. How dare you presume to dictate my needs?
You don't need an AR15 for hunting. That's true. I've been a police officer for 30 years. During that time I served in both the National Guard and the Army Reserves. I carried an M16 during that time, the standard weapon of the infantryman. I'm very comfortable with that weapon and I understand both its strengths and weaknesses.
I also hunt deer, one of my favorite hobbies, and I don't bring my AR for deer hunting. I use a standard hunting rifle, a bolt action that holds three rounds. For many years I hunted with a muzzleloading rifle, a single shot musket just like the Founding Fathers used against the British interlopers, and it is a fine hunting instrument. However, this debate isn't about hunting. This debate is about the 2nd Amendment, which has nothing to do with hunting. The 2nd Amendment is about government intrusion and the Founders believed that the citizens should be armed as well as the government. In times of extreme need, when government breaks down and is unable to protect The People, the people have a right to defend themselves.
Do you want to live in a police state? I don't either, but when the police are better armed than the general public, you have the basis of a police state. I don't want to live in a place where the police have special exemptions, where the law writes particular exemptions for the police or the government. The law should apply to all equally, and if we don't need ARs on the streets, then the police shouldn't be allowed to have them, either. The police are simply citizens with power of arrest, paid to do full-time what every citizen should do on an as-needed basis.
Let me say this, for the record. In thirty years of police work, I have never had one problem with a law-abiding citizen who happened to be armed. Not one problem. Law abiding citizens are not the problem.
My guns are not the problem.
But, when you tell me "You Don't Need...", I wonder why you have the gall to presume to know what I need. I'm a free American and what I need is none of your business. How dare you presume to dictate my needs?
