Gun Control

"In 1776 all rifles were assault rifles." P. J. O'Rourke
"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) asserts that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." Thomas Jefferson
"The Second Amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary days. It has no meaning today." Lisa Simpson
"I don't care if you think it's your right. I say: Sorry, it's 1999. We have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun I think you should go to prison." Rosie O'Donnell
"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans . . . And so a lot of people say there's too much personal freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it. That's what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the public housing projects, about how we're going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make people safer in their communities." Bill Clinton

In my opinion all sane, law abiding citizens who can demonstrate their knowledge and proficiency should be able to carry any weapon they choose, including any weapon the police or military carry, concealed or unconcealed. Barbaric? Maybe, but the idea that government "allows" you to have certain weapons and forbids others sticks in my craw. How would it be if they "allowed" certain religions, certain newspapers or prohibited you from meeting with certain people? I may feel different if the people passing gun control laws had demonstrated any clue whatsoever of what they were doing. Back when they wanted to outlaw assault weapons like the Colt AR-15 they allowed it to be continued to be sold if Colt got rid of the bayonet lug. The bayonet lug? WTF, how many people in North America have been bayoneted since the Civil War? You hear certain members of congress speaking of "high powered assault rifles, designed to do nothing but kill." Well they're partially correct, all weapons despite any peaceful use are designed to kill, but assault rifles are not high powered. In fact when the cartridges of many of the most popular assault rifles were designed they were powered down to cause injury rather than death to force the opposing force to expend extra manpower to care for the wounded. More importantly all gun control laws have more to do with appearances and politics than fighting crime. Quite simply I'm tired of politicians tinkering with enumerated constitutional rights in order to appease people like Rosie O'Donnell who will never be placated with anything less than complete confiscation.