7/12/2010

“Don’t retreat, instead — Reload!”


"Gunpoint is the point where our ignorant armies trade Matthew Arnold for Benedict Arnold. We do not and we will not live in a country where the armed can ignore the law and bully the unarmed with threats of violence. You cannot say to us, you may have the votes and the Constitution, but we have the guns. When Sarah Palin chants “Don’t retreat, instead — Reload!” she’s already way over the line. If anyone on the Left talked this way, they’d be called terrorists, not patriots, and fall afoul of Homeland Security. We’ve heard enough. Bill Clinton judiciously chose the 15th anniversary of the mass murders committed by Timothy McVeigh, a kind of spiritual ancestor of the Tea Party, to speak out forcefully against the armies of the night. “We do not have the right to resort to violence — or the threat of violence — when we don’t get our way,” he wrote in a Times op ed piece. “Our founders constructed a system of government so that reason could prevail over fear. Oklahoma City proved once again that without the law there is no freedom.”

Progressive Populist

2 comments:

Roadkill said...

“We do not and we will not live in a country where the armed can ignore the law and bully the unarmed with threats of violence.”

How very true. Sounds like Progressive Populist is getting on board with the Heller and McDonald decisions.

Those Supreme Court cases were brought by law abiding citizens of Washington DC and Chicago Il, cities which heretofore banned private gun ownership, because the criminal element in those cities – who of course by definition do not obey the law – were bullying and threatening the unarmed citizenry.

Washington, with the strictest gun laws in the country, has been the gun-murder capital of the US for many years. Chicago, where gun laws are modeled after the Washington ordinances, also has inordinately high gun-murder rates, and recently (18 – 21 June 2010) endured a wild-west weekend consisting of at least 52 shootings and 10 gun deaths. (Remember, its against the law to own guns there) Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Detroit also have extremely restrictive gun laws and, at the same time, extremely high gun-crime rates.

All this in jurisdictions where it is illegal to own guns, and where the armed can ignore the law and bully the unarmed.

We do not and will not live is such a country!

daniel noe said...

Interesting, I just left a blog that claimed violence was more likely to come from the left and listed anecdotes to prove it. I just got through saying that the distinction between left and right is often hard to define and both sides use (and threaten) violence. We should be able to agree that both sides say silly things, both sides are often called on it, and both sides claim the other side isn't being called on it enough.

I read the list here.