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Tell us how you really feel Ted! From PBS!
Up until a couple of years ago, I didn’t understand Charlton Heston and thought he was a kook. Then a friend told me about gun control history, another about ‘gun free zones’, and McDonald v Chicago showed how ineffective gun bans are.
“Delivered with unedited authenticity reflecting a deep love for his nation, Mr. Heston’s eloquent message radiates truth as it lights the American way.”
Crime in Chicago
It’s great to see how well the gun ban is working in Chicago 
Taken from page 43 of the McDonald v Chicago ruling:
Second, petitioners and many others who live in high crime areas dispute the proposition that the Second Amendment right does not protect minorities and those lacking political clout. The plight of Chicagoans living in high-crime areas was recently highlighted when two Illinois legislators representing Chicago districts called on the Governor to deploy the Illinois National Guard to patrol the City’s streets.31 The legislators noted that the number of Chicago homicide victims during the current year equaled the number of American soldiers killed during that same period in Afghanistan and Iraq and that 80% of the Chicago victims were black.32 Amici supporting incorporation of the right to keep and bear arms contend that the right is especially important for women and members of other groups that may be especially vulnerable to violent crime.33 If, as petitioners believe, their safety and the safety of other law-abiding members of the community would be enhanced by the possession of handguns in the home for self-defense, then the Second Amendment right protects the rights of minorities and other residents of high-crime areas whose needs are not being met by elected public officials.
I wonder how repealing the gun ban will affect those statistics. Here is a little history of gun control.
McDonald v Chicago: 5-4
As a person who has recently become familiar with our Constitution, I am puzzled that McDonald v Chicago got as far as the Supreme Court. It follows the Heller Decision which held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for private use in federal enclaves, in this case, the District of Columbia. The decision did not address the question of whether the Second Amendment extends beyond federal enclaves to the states.
Why is the right to bear arms even a question? Why is the obvious even being debated at the Supreme Court level? Does this mean that freedom of speech could be disputed as well? Read more »
Now I Feel Safe!
When tragic events such as school shootings occur, some people seem tempted to call for “gun free zones”, in which it would be unlawful to have a firearm, and/or where the penalties for having a firearm would be increased dramatically. The belief that these “gun free zones” will prevent crime relies upon flawed reasoning, namely the belief that criminals will be deterred by these new “gun free zone” laws, even know they are not deterred by longstanding laws against murder, armed robbery, rape, etc. Perhaps looking at a few high profile shootings will better illustrate the point. Read more »
Second Amendment and You
You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.
At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.
In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. Read more »
A Little Gun-Control History
Disarmed people are neither free nor safe – they become the criminals’ prey and the tyrants’ playthings. When the civilians are defenseless and their government goes bad, however, thousands and millions of innocents die.
In the 20th Century, governments murdered four times as many civilians as were killed in all the international and domestic wars combined and murdered millions more people than were killed by common criminals. Check out this genocide-chart.
The origins of the Second Amendment was not merely the product of a “frontier mentality,” as some gun-control proponents have suggested, but the outgrowth of a long and well-established English tradition favoring an armed citizenry as a defense against tyranny. Fox News discusses the history of British gun control and concludes that disarming honest citizens produces more crime, not less.