When the Declaration of Independence was written and our Constitution adopted, a new way of life was established that the world had never before experienced. After the Revolutionary war, the average citizen gained the same rights and freedoms as the King of England. Could the King pray as he wished, speak as he chose, and (horror of horrors) keep and bear personal firearms? Of course! And now, so could all citizens of our new Republic.
Yes, at one time America was a free country. Citizens were free to do just about anything they wished until (and unless) they stepped on the liberties of another. A wise and decent Government trusted the people to use common sense and punished them only when they failed to do so. The rational, law-abiding man could possess and use no end of dangerous explosives, and carry his firearms wherever he wished. He taught his children to use any number of hazardous materials and devices, but also taught them to respect the property of others and to do no harm. Since the statesmen of yesterday trusted the people, the people, in turn, reciprocated by accepting the responsibility imposed by that trust.
Then for some reason, the population began giving birth to idiots. As they matured and gained public office, they allowed more idiots to immigrate. These implemented alien politics from their countries of origin, and as a result, many things that we have an absolute right to own and use were made illegal by the resultant anti-Constitutional laws from the alien countries from which the new immigrants came.
In the evil, anti-American 1934 Roosevelt socialist period, firearms silencers were outlawed. Gangs that shot each other up with Thompson submachine guns (and did us all a favor by eliminating crime among themselves) provided the flawed reasoning for government violating our 2nd Amendment right and outlawing fully-automatic weapons and certain "destructive devices."
In the Soviet-style, drug-crazed riots of the sixties, the hippie, anti-America slime that built and used bombs from then-legal fireworks caused those once legal fireworks to be outlawed. Since these were now illegal, there was no parental guidance, and since their normal, open use was now out of the question, their abnormal, destructive use was the rule.
Is it selfish of those of us who are sane, sensible and responsible to want the sentence to go only to the moron responsible for the act? Are we wrong in demanding that we not be penalized by a government that, at least at one time claimed to represent the "land of the free and the home of the brave?" Is it improper to want the meathead and the psychotic to bear the penalty for his crime instead of "society?" I think not.
The past election cinched it for us. We now live in a vast mental institution. The lobotomized politicians and bureaucrats who refuse to read and understand Article 1, Section 8 of our Constitution and the first Ten Amendments are the nuthouse attendants - seeing that none of us have anything sharp, lest a real sickie hurt someone. To hell with that!
Before the passing of prohibition in the twenties, alcoholics and improvident drunks caused a reaction in those weak minds in DC which brought about that idiotic legislation banning alcohol. This took the freedom of the responsible drinker and built a criminal class which is still a fixture today. Even the experimenter, who wants to investigate alternate fuel for his car, cannot produce alcohol without an unconstitutional, anti-America "license" issued by the DC bureaucrats.
Today, right here in this country, a citizen can be jailed or even murdered if he exercises his Constitutional rights. A glaring example of this question can be found in the massacre of an entire church congregation that had the audacity to exercise their first and second Amendment Rights.
Let's take our chances and practice our freedoms. Let's hold these DC Hitlers and Stalins to the Constitution. Let's defy the anti-America statutes they create, and stake our claim to the protections and promises afforded us in our Constitution - our Supreme Law of the Land. Let's hold these politicians and bureaucrats to their oath of office, and treat violations of that oath as capital crimes that warrant their punishment.