With Rights Come Responsibilities
Categories: The Second Amendment
Tags: Building Communities
If you would like to check out the stories go to the SF Comical online, a fine paper with a horrid web presence which they really need to do something about.
Anyway, today we find more on the probable source of the guns that were used in the crime. From Matier and Ross:
High-powered assault rifles aren't that hard to find - even for a convicted felon like Lovelle Mixon.
The kind of AK-47 that Mixon used to kill Oakland police officers Saturday can be had on the street for as little as $400.Often they come from Nevada, where selling assault rifles is perfectly legal, unlike in California. Then they are brought to the Bay Area and resold.
If the buyer has a criminal past, "they have a friend - usually a girlfriend with no record - buy three or four," said one San Francisco narcotics cop who didn't want his name used because the department has not cleared him to speak publicly.
"Sometimes they all pitch in to buy them. Other times someone will go up, buy four guns, then come back and sell three of them to cover the cost of the one they keep."
"It's a right-to-your-door deal," the cop said.
Sometimes the crooks don't even bother with a middleman. Federal agents have a video from 2005 of a suspected West Sacramento gangbanger walking out of a Reno gun show with a newly purchased AK-47 strapped across his chest.
Now given the current state of national politics Wonks Anonymous has no great hopes of seeing the laws governing this trade change in the near future. He would, however, like to address some thoughts to the people who run gun shows, sell guns at them and attend them, the gun show community.
Wonks Anonymous would not be far from wrong if he identified the members of this community as largely conservative, most likely people who believe in individuals taking responsibility for their actions and for the impact these actions have on their community and the nation as a whole.
Wonks Anonymous would like to ask that those who go to gun shows take responsibility for their actions and begin, through individual efforts, to build a safer nation.
Gun dealers need to think about who they sell weapons to. As businessmen they are likely to be reasonable judges of character and they should use this judgment. If a dealer doesn't like the look of a potential purchaser he can ask for ID and tell the guy to come back tomorrow after he runs a background check. Wonks Anonymous would do this with anybody he did not know but Wonks Anonymous is a pinko liberal. He will, however, suggest the following question: If this guy lived in your town/neighborhood, would you feel comfortable if he had an AK-47?
People who go to gun shows pretty well know the dealers. They need to think about who they patronize. They know the guys who are pushing weapons across the counter to all and sundry. They need to avoid these dealers and tell their friends to avoid these dealers. They need to effectively snub them, get up from the table when they come by and so on.
People who run the gun shows should also take some responsibility here. If they know that a dealer is a bad actor or they suspect that a customer has criminal connections that can make that person persona non grata. Don't rent them a booth, have the security guards follow them around with cameras . . .
Now Wonks Anonymous is aware that some members of the second amendment community will think that this is an infringement on their rights to sell guns to whomever they please and whenever they like. They will go on to assert that, because the police and the courts have not managed to arrest and execute every criminal and potential criminal in the nation, they have no personal responsibility to try to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of crazy/violent people. That is not their job.
But this is just the sort of whiny, dependent thinking that you would expect from a weak, pinko-liberal like Wonks Anonymous. No self-respecting conservative should sink so low.
Wonk, I should be your archrival or nemesis, as conservative as I am.
But I labor under the (mis?) conception that our liberal friends are not inherently bad people, just all-to-often misguided and sometimes ill-informed, though that is not always the fault of the individual liberal friend.
I would urge our friend Wonk to read, no, make as his homepage for the next six months my homepage:
http://www.outdoorsunlimited.net/
Read two or three items from the center column every day. Some comes from the "evil" NRA, other pieces from "almost evil" FOX News, but many items come from across this nation, its local papers close to our homes.
See what this news says. Learn about the real firearms laws and how they serve to protect us as well. Understand that wherever one goes, there will be evil people around.
Some will cloak themselves in "conservative sounding" names or "conservative looking" businesses. While they may be cashing in on conservatism, they are not conservatives. Do not brand me with their liberalization of conservative principles. They are using us and using your gullibility as well.
Above all else, a true conservative abides by the law.
Often, the tragedies cited by those against our second amendment are defined by illegal acts characterized as though they are legal. These acts are often committed by people possessing firearms outside the laws of both the country and the state.
What we on this side of the issue can not understand is how anyone can believe that even more laws will finally persuade the bad actor to give up his life of crime and become a model citizen once and for all. It is not going to happen.
So, when a government agency observes this or that illegal act, why do they not apprehend each individual?
Why is it that there is always some bigger fish to fry, making apprehension of EVERY observed illegal actor somehow inappropriate? Why is we hear of incidents where BATFE resources are wasted chasing minor punctuation errors at a remote gun shop in Montana when they know there are hundreds of illegal firearms making their way across the southern border every week/month/year?
Don't you fish at the hole with the most fish? Well, our "enforcers" don't do that...it's almost as though they are afraid to catch the real bad guys.
Once again, there are no legal automatic weapons allowed in the United States. I could look it up for you, but you need the experience. It was during the 19302 after the St. Valentine's Day massacre and all that gang violence.
Oh, gang violence? In the '20s and '30s? Yep. We don't speak of it much because it was committed by mostly Italians and Irish then and we wouldn't want to offend. But it was true.
We have never been free of the violent element. The violent element knows its place, for the most part, here in the US and rarely operates outside its own circles BECAUSE of our ability to own and carry firearms.
Think of that for a while.
In fact, if we had more law abiding people willing to go against their personal gain to do what is right we would need a lot fewer laws. This post was about doing it without laws.
Laws are at best clumsy and cruel means of establishing civilization. Sometimes they are the only way.
Sure automatic weapons are illegal but can someone use that as a defense for selling a semi automatic weapon to someone who is likely to convert the weapon and use it on the street. If you suspect that you are providing something lethal to a criminal don't you have a moral responsibility not to do it?
As for "your communities" I am happy that it is working out so well for you but does your comfort absolve you from caring about the welfare of others.
WA
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