The Patriot Post Brief 3-25-2013

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The Patriot Post Brief 3-25-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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Connecticut Legislators Get Schooled

March 25, 2013

The Foundation

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." --Cesare Beccaria

Inspiration

Editor's Note: Connecticut is the latest state looking to tighten gun control by infringing on the rights of law abiding citizens. On March 14, frustrated resident Robert Steed gave a powerful testimony in front of state legislators. The following are a few of Steed's remarks, which demonstrate a clear understanding of the Constitution and a willingness to stand up to those looking to exploit tragedies.

"This is the third day I've taken off of work to come here to, like so many of the rest of us, plead to you for us to keep our guns because of the actions of some wing-nut in Newtown, Connecticut. If that isn't inherently wrong, I don't know what is. That these bills are even in proposed form is scary enough. That any of you could be possibly undecided is scary enough. ... I can't for the life of me understand how this state can have as many gun laws on the books as it does and have members of its legislature need to take firearms 101. And as far as the, what I felt were potshots taken at the NRA earlier today: They've done more for gun safety -- they'll do more for gun safety this weekend than this committee will do in your careers. ... Sometimes things are beyond your control. You can't control everything. Evil exists. Adam Lanza commits a crime, and I'm here to grovel and plead for my rights and explain to you that my firearms are kept safely? I keep hearing the word 'solution' -- 'we need to find a solution.' You're not going to find a solution, it doesn't exist. You can't find a broad brush solution to evil. ... The reason that your jobs are becoming so difficult is that you're coloring outside the lines of constitutional parameters. That's the bottom line. You are trying to marriage up public safety with constitutional rights. The Constitution did not guarantee public safety, it guaranteed liberty. And sometimes what comes with liberty is tragedy, unfortunately." --Robert Steed

Watch the full testimony here1.

Opinion in Brief

"'I don't have the words to describe the cowardice of Congress or the depravity of the gun lobby, which conspired to kill the assault-weapons ban,' writes Ron Fournier of National Journal. ... 'I can't explain the apparent impotence of President Obama who vowed to "use whatever power this office holds" to convert the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School into commonsense common good,' Fournier continues. ... As Fournier puts it, Obama and his allies wished 'to convert the tragedy ... into commonsense common good.' We disagree on the merits and would put it this way: They cynically sought to exploit a horrific crime in order to promote dubious policies that they had long wished to impose but had refrained from pushing for fear of the political consequences. There was never very much to the argument other than demagogic appeals to emotion. ... Not only did the effort fail, it wasn't even close. ... Politico.com quoted Majority Leader Harry Reid as saying that 'her amendment, using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes.' ... Demagogy is a hazard of democracy; one reason we have a bill of rights is to protect individuals against the political temptation to offer up scapegoats to satisfy their constituents' emotions. ... But this effort failed notwithstanding the undeniable emotional pull of a horrific crime against children. Americans should be proud whenever our political system proves this resistant to unreason." --Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto2

For the Record

"We are told that one of the reasons that [Colorado] Gov Hickenlooper [signed] the magazine ban is the statistic presented by the Golden police chief that an increasing number of Law Enforcement officers have been shot with magazines that hold more than 10 rounds since the expiration of the federal AWB. Since most handguns ship with standard capacity magazines that hold more than 10 or even 15 rounds, that would make sense ... but what that statistic doesn't tell you is that the average number of rounds fired in a criminal homicide is less than 5 rounds. The capacity of the magazine never comes into play. It just happens to be what is in the firearm, regardless of how many rounds were actually fired. This is just another example of how the anti-gun lobby has to twist statistics in order to find support for their position. The real, objective facts support none of their agenda, so half truths and distorted statistics are used to tell the story they want to tell.... As this fight continues, ask for the whole picture. Ask how polls were conducted, and what questions were asked before believing their 'stats'. Question bias is another favorite tactic of the anti-gun lobby. Accept no statistic without the whole picture." --Magpul Industries Corp.3

The Gipper

"Since the dawn of the atomic age, we've sought to reduce the risk of war by maintaining a strong deterrent and by seeking genuine arms control. 'Deterrence' means simply this: making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he won't attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression." --Ronald Reagan4

Government

"After a series of debates beginning Friday afternoon and continuing for almost 13 straight hours, the Democratically-controlled Senate passed its first budget in four years. ... The plan calls for an immediate $100 billion to be spent on infrastructure 'to bolster the economy'.... A tax code overhaul aims to bring in another $975 billion over the next ten years with filibuster-proof legislation. Those taxes are coupled with spending cuts of $875 billion, generated by modest reductions to federal health care programs, domestic agencies and the Pentagon, along with reduced federal borrowing costs. Yet the net result is tiresomely familiar: ten years from now, the government will still be running a deficit in excess of $500 billion -- and more than $5.2 trillion will be added to our already unconscionable $16.7 trillion of national debt. ... Harry Reid ... blasted president Bush in 2008, when the former president submitted a 3.1 trillion dollar budget, later whittled down to $2.9 trillion, that contained a then-record of $458 billion in deficit spending. ... Yet as far as Reid is concerned, passing a $3.7 trillion budget that includes no plan whatsoever to bring spending and revenues into alignment ... is now considered 'a Herculean feat.'" --columnist Arnold Ahlert5

Political Futures

"Those who oppose term limits express fears of having government run by amateurs, rather than by people with long experience in politics. But this country was created by people who were not career politicians, but who put aside their own private careers to serve in office during a critical time. When President George Washington was told by one of his advisors that an action he planned to take might prevent him from being reelected, he exploded in anger, telling his advisor that he didn't come here to get reelected. As for the loss of experience and expertise if there were no career politicians, much -- if not most -- of that is experience and expertise in the arts of evasion, effrontery, deceit and chicanery. None of that serves the interest of the people. If we want term limits to achieve their goals, we have to make the limit one term, with a long interval prescribed before the same person can hold any government office again. In short, we need to make political careers virtually impossible. ... The whole point of presenting new ideas is to start a process that can make their realization possible in later years." --economist Thomas Sowell6