PA Bill Number: HB2235
Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...
Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...
Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024
Ignorance & dereliction on guns :: 07/05/2015
A couple of years ago, President Barack Obama said he had “a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations.” That's a vision shared by many Americans, namely that the Framers gave us the Second Amendment to protect our rights to go deer and duck hunting, do a bit of skeet shooting and protect ourselves against criminals.
The following are some statements by the Founding Fathers. You tell me which one of them suggests that they gave us the Second Amendment for deer and duck hunting and protection against criminals.
Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. ... If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government.”
Thomas Jefferson: “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”
James Madison: “(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
George Mason: “To disarm the people — that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. ... I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
There are some historical anti-gun statements that might please America's gun grabbers. “ Armas para que?” (Translated: “Guns, for what?”) That's how Fidel Castro saw the right of citizens to possess guns.
There's a more famous anti-gun statement: “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” That was Adolf Hitler.
At the heart of the original American ideal is the deep distrust and suspicion the Founders of our nation had for Congress, distrust and suspicion not shared as much by today's Americans. Some of the Founders' distrust is seen in our Constitution's language, such as Congress shall not abridge, infringe, disparage, violate or deny. If the Founders did not believe Congress would abuse our God-given rights, they would not have provided those protections.
Maybe there are Americans who would argue that we are moving toward greater liberty and less government control over our lives and no longer need to remain an armed citizenry. I'd like to see their evidence.
Walter Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/8653027-74/americans-arms-armed#axzz3f1n4c1iP
