The Angry Liberal Commentary Archive:
The NRA: Second Amendment Wimps
I can't believe what a bunch of passivist, pantywaist wimps you National Rifle Association members are. You claim to be such staunch supporters of the Second Amendment, and yet your rights under this amendment have been spat upon by the mean ol' government for better than a half a century. You see, since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, not a single one of you has been allowed to own any sort of nuclear weapon . And yet there you sit, claiming to enjoy Second Amendment rights while this national disgrace continues unchallenged by the NRA.
Just for background purposes, let's take a look at the Second Amendment. Here it is:
There. That's the whole thing. Let's skip the "well regulated militia" part and concentrate on the rest. What part of the phrase "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." does the NRA not understand? Let's see: The "people" are us. You and me. Decent folks, kids, mental cases, mass-murderers, all of us. Nuclear weapons are clearly "Arms." The fact that the government recognizes this is borne out by its recognition of the START II Treaty (Strategic ARMS Reduction Treaty) signed by President Bush in '93 and later ratified by Congress. And yet the NRA has not once taken the government to task for this clear and blatant restriction of the Second Amendment. I mean, what if Russia were to launch an all-out nuclear strike at the United States right now? How would the average patriotic citizen be expected to defend his family with nothing more that a few hundred semi-automatic hunting sticks under his mattress? We can't possibly expect help from the same government that didn't even have the stomach to drop the big one in Grenada back when the Gipper was in charge. To really deter nuclear war, the Russians would have to know damn well that any nuclear first strike would be met with American citizens throwing their atomic weapons in the back of their '76 Chevy pickups, driving to Moscow, and slugging it out with Ivan, toe-to-toe. Right now, the sissy Republican-controlled House of Representatives is not even discussing this issue. The NRA should put its foot down: Either its Republican lackeys in Congress begin a REAL defense of the Second Amendment, or the money that props up these creeps at election time stops cold. Let's see these guys try to get elected with just the support of a few rich people and religious nuts!
In short, America is on the brink of catastrophe. By restricting the ownership of nuclear weapons, the Second Amendment is teetering on a slippery slope that, if unchallenged, could lead to the NRA's worst nightmare: The citizens of the United States could someday rationally examine the Second Amendment and determine that it no longer applies to a modern civilization in which death may be dispensed with an ease and speed never contemplated by the amendment's authors. Let us stop this now! All real American patriots will not rest until the Second Amendment promise of nuclear weapon ownership for all citizens, including mass-murders, the mentally ill, and two-year-olds, is a reality. Our forefathers would have wanted it that way.
. . .The Angry Liberal
11/04/01
