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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tortoise Tom" data-source="post: 149550" data-attributes="member: 27883">Thank you for asking and being polite about it. I will respond in kind.Much of this is opinion based on flawed human perception and my personal experiences. What is fact is that our Constitutional Amendments have never changed. More have been added along the way, but the originals are still there and have never been changed.There are many thoughts running through my head regarding how to explain this to you. Its a question that has been asked to many an American by many a Brit, or other Europeans. My career has taken me all over the world, and I've had this conversation with Brits, South Africans, Frenchies, Dutch and a few other nationalities too. There seems to be a perception by many people from your side of the world that the Government must be obeyed. There seems to be this perception that government is good and whatever they say is best for the people. There is a willingness to accept whatever the government dictates to you. I had a conversation with a German about those speeding cameras on the roads. If you drive to fast, it takes your picture and sends you a fine in the mail. I asked him what happens if you don't pay it. He said, "You must pay it". I said, "Yeah, but what if you don't?" He said, "I don't understand. There is no option to not pay it. You have to pay it." I asked him, "What if I am a defiant criminal and I tear up the ticket and throw it away? Then what happens?" By the look on his face, I had blown his mind. He could not conceive of defying the government and not paying the required fine. The ramifications of those kinds of thoughts were clearly very uncomfortable and distressing to him. Here in the States, about 80-90% of those tickets go unpaid. We give them the finger and proclaim, "FU! I ain't payin' !!!The ideals that you were raised with and that you subscribe to over there (Speaking in general here...) Are the very ideals that we over here decided to literally revolt against. We had a bloody war that we were pretty sure we would lose, because England was the greatest military power in existence at the time, but we would rather be dead than live under what was perceived as King George's tyranny. Let that sink in for a moment. We'd rather be dead than do what your king was telling us to do. To say Americans are defiant, would be a gross understatement. We adhere to the greater principals of right and wrong, vs. the principals of what the current government says is legal or illegal. Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our Amendments were and are a monumental and ground breaking concept. The greatest experiment in human freedom the world has ever seen. No longer would a monarchy or ruling government tell the people what the deal was. The PEOPLE would tell the government what the deal was. A system of checks and balances was put into place to make sure that government, as it always does, couldn't grow too powerful and wrest the power to govern away from "the people". Our founding fathers recognized and put in to print the recognition of certain Natural Laws. These Natural Laws say that all men are endowed by their creator will certain unalienable rights. These God given birthrights and not granted by the government and cannot be revoked by any government. Our documents that you think we are "obsessed" about enumerate these rights and explain how the government recognizes and is supposed to protect these rights. Our whole system of government was created in response to and in defiance of your whole system of government. THIS is why our system doesn't make sense to most Brits. Its the reason we separated from you and fought an awful war to do so.One of these inalienable, irrevocable, God given birth rights, is the right to self defense. Self defense against the common criminal, and self defense against a tyrannical government. "The People" are supposed to be as well armed as the standing government armies, so that if the government leaders order their standing armies to act against the will of the people, the people have the means to fight back. Who are you to tell me what means I am allowed to have to fight back? What gives any government the right to tell me what tools I may use to defend my family? There is no such right. Not in America. For decades our elected "leaders" have been defying their oaths of office to defend our Constitution and its supporting documents, and they've been infringing upon our freedoms and our God given rights. We've allowed this. The current crop of evil-doers is openly and obviously trying to break down what our founding fathers built and replace it with their totalitarian concepts. Over the last few decades, they've gained control over our schools, the entirety of the media, and all levels of local governments. They are brainwashing our kids from an early age and right on through college, using the media to dupe you and about half the people over here, and using our own governments to abuse us and implement their illegal, unconstitutional, nefarious policies. The half of America that isn't duped is a tolerant bunch. We don't want a violent confrontation. We are doing everything possible to avoid violence over these issues, but we are quickly reaching and impasse: They won't stop forcing their ideals on us through any means they can exploit, and ultimately we are not going to accept their ideals, just as we didn't when King George attempted to levy his might against us. To avoid bloodshed "they" have to give up and quit trying to force their flawed ideas upon ur country, which isn't likely since they've been trying and failing since the first world war, OR, we have to accept their will and do what they say, which as you can see from some of the responses here on this very thread is never going to happen.So there are the broader concepts in general. Now I'd like to speak more philosophically on the concepts of disarming everyone because of the actions of a small number of criminals or madmen. As you've seen above, it doesn't matter how you or I, or even a majority of any group of people see this issue. Its not debatable. You and I were born with these rights, and even if one of us doesn't recognize that fact and chooses to try to vote our rights away, it can't be done. Any laws to that affect are null and void, and must be defied. Having said that, what is your favorite treat? Lets hypothetically say its a cupcake. Chocolate with chocolate frosting. Mmmmm... Let's say one day someone gains access to the queen and smashes a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting into her face. They really smear it in there. In response to the act of this crazy cupcake marauder, the queen decrees that all chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting are banned from the land. You can no longer buy, own, possess, make, transport or eat chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. BOOM! Done. The problem of the scourge of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting is now solved forever, right? But wait... Why do you no longer get your favorite treat? You didn't do anything wrong? You'd never waste your cupcakes by smearing them in anyone's face, and certainly not the queen's face! What about all the other people that have never and would never use their cupcakes for illegal or immoral purposes? What about the threat of vanilla cupcakes? Its already illegal to smear a cupcake in the queen's face and this person did it anyway, so what is banning cupcakes going to do? If someone wants to do it again, they'll just go get a cupcake and do it. The queen's new policy is words on a piece of paper. Those words won't protect her or anyone from nefarious cupcake smashers if they choose to break the law anyway. Its pointless. Everyone has lost their freedom to enjoy chocolate cupcakes, but no one is safe from chocolate cupcakes, and all the other cupcake flavors can still do the same thing. If someone has evil intentions they can still get or make a cupcake and no law will stop them. Did the queen's new law make chocolate cupcakes harder to come by? Maybe, but it would still be a very easy thing to get or make.I'll end with this: Our system of government was intended to make this country free, not safe. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights is supposed to guarantee your freedom in this country, not your safety. With freedom there is inherent risk. A lunatic can get a gun and do bad things here, but if you look around, lunatics are doing that all over the world, and always have. Trodding upon the freedom of hundreds of millions of people will not stop the madmen or make anyone safer. Bad people will always find ways to do bad things. Trodding upon our freedom will disarm the good guys and the good guys only, and it will allow yet another episode of government atrocity that we have seen so many times throughout human history.If you pass a law to disarm everyone, the criminals will ignore it. The effect will be defenseless victims at the mercy of lawless criminals. My preference is to allow the good guys to be armed and fight back. This is exactly what we do and have always done here, and the fear of certain death forces many criminals to re-think their strategy and choose a safer course of action which is why you keep seeing heinous crimes occurring in "gun free zones". These signs should say "Helpless Victims With No Means of Defense Zones", because that is what they are, and that is EXACTLY how deranged criminals see them.Questions, debate and conversation is welcome.</blockquote>

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