From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Jun 28 15:37:57 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA19867 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Sun, 28 Jun 1998 15:37:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from jason03.u.washington.edu (root@jason03.u.washington.edu [140.142.77.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA19861; Sun, 28 Jun 1998 15:37:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jcwells@u.washington.edu) Received: from saul6.u.washington.edu (root@saul6.u.washington.edu [140.142.82.1]) by jason03.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id PAA34952; Sun, 28 Jun 1998 15:37:55 -0700 Received: from s8-37-26.student.washington.edu (S8-37-26.student.washington.edu [128.208.37.26]) by saul6.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.04) with SMTP id PAA12367; Sun, 28 Jun 1998 15:37:54 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 15:27:43 +0000 (GMT) From: "Jason C. Wells" X-Sender: jason@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" cc: Frank Pawlak , drifter@stratos.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Does it's true? In-Reply-To: <199806281732.KAA15832@hub.freebsd.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sun, 28 Jun 1998, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote: > based upon reading madison, jefferson and other FF's (founding > fathers), the second amendment to the constitution was enacted > in order to guarantee the citizentry's ability to oppose > a tyrannical government, and thereby prevent that government > from forming. Fair. > ownership of small arms is insufficient for the task. > if one embraces the purpose of the second amendment, rather > then just the language, we must allow the citizentry to own > heavy weapons. no one that i know of advocates this. I feel that a rag tag militia that has heart and the support of the population is incredibly difficult to defeat. I have heard commanders of the South East Asian theater make this statement. I feel that an auto loading rifle is sufficient for the purpose of opposing tyranny. This is a personal opinion. > what would it have availed the chinese students to have > small arms in tianamen (sp) square. it would not have > forestalled action by the gov't. No it would not have forstalled the government. Here I will avoid discussion (I am a proponent) of civil disobedience as an instrument of power. Still, if the citizens of the nation of China were given the weapons that the only the civilians of the US owns, there would be a shift in power. > the narrow reading of the second amendment leaves us with > the high death rate by shooting that we have in the US > without the means to effectively oppose the govt. > the worst of both. ugh. Ugg perhaps. Still, I will not disavow the rights granted me under the Constitution. Catchya Later, | UW Mechanical Engineering Jason Wells | http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jcwells/ | 206-633-5994 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message