RE: Blame

>The right to bear arms,
>interpret it how you will, is even enshrined in our Constitution.  It was
>meant to guarantee freedom from the tyranny of the state.  Unfortunately, it
>has guaranteed the more general tyranny of any and every kook with a gun.
>(mmize)

+++++---------------
	I'm sure non-US people will never understand. I don't consider
myself a supporter of the National Rifle Association. But.........
	There are still many of us here who are getting on in years. I'm
77. I was a teenager in the '30s. While I can't document it, one memory I
have is a story in the earlier 30s of Nazi storm troopers knocking on doors
in the early morning hours demanding the surrender of registered guns. This
stripped the people of any means of self defense. This was the start of the
tyranny that many of us remember so well. It took five years out of my life
and the lives of many friends. I was one of 17 young green
wet-behind-the-ears fighter pilots that returned out of a group of 45 sent
to the Mediterranean.
	Whether we are right or wrong, who knows, but we feel that THE ONLY
TRUE GUARANTEE OF A FREE DEMOCRACY IS AN UNCERTAINLY ARMED POPULACE. We
feel that governmental uncertainty about the amount of arms secreted away
in the homes of the citizens is the only real deterrent to governmental
excesses. I believe this. People are people and we know what WILL happen
when any one group is given total power.
	I believe it was Churchill that said that democracy was a terrible
form of government, except for all the others!
	Surely you can see examples around the world, Jugoslavia, for instance.
	I do not want to repeat what we went through n the 40's. I don't
want my children or any of you young people to have to go through that
again. This, I believe, is why it will be difficult, and not necessarily a
good thing, to remove guns from our society. Does one need a a rapid fire
automatic weapon to hunt game? Of course not. But it may be the only thing
we have to fight a tank. Some people believe we came close when Nixon was
president.
	I knew a young man that fled Hungary in 1958?. He was one of the
ones that tried to help an anti-government campaign. He escaped with his
life. Others didn't manage it.
	One of the problems here is that the country is so large. One has a
better chance of controlling things on a relatively small island like
England. The problem becomes enormous when one has around 10,000 miles of
border!
	I believe the writers of our Constitution were an odd mixture of
realists and idealists. They conceived of a society that gave freedom of
choice to the individuals but were realistic enough to realize that people
could not be trusted to give that freedom just because it was the right
thing to do. The single phrase that best explains this is the idea of
"checks and balances". I'm sorry but an armed populace is the only check
that will give ultimate balance!
	I do not own a gun. But if they became illegal, I would interpret
this as the first step and I would immediately start collecting them and
ammunition and.......
	Sorry about that. This is not meant to offend anyone but only as an
explanation of what I believe to be a reality.
	Whatever you feel your chances of being killed are, here in the US
now, the chances were much higher during WWII.		Charles E. Dills
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        It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
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