Am I the NRA?
L. Neil Smith at The LIbertarian Enterprise - an oldie but goodie. What the National Rifle Association would do if they really cared about our unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission. [tle]
FOURTH, in the same context, I'd want the NRA to disconnect all future discussion of the Second Amendment from the totally unrelated topic of crime. My rights have nothing whatever to do with anything anybody else does, right or wrong. If the crime rate were only 1/10 that of today, my rights would be unaffected. Likewise, if the rate were TEN TIMES what it is, it would have nothing whatever to do with my individual right to own and carry weapons.
FIFTH, I'd want the NRA to reject all future argument about the "sporting use" of weapons--why look like an imbecile, pushing the AK-47 as a deer rifle, when it meets the Founding Fathers' ACTUAL criteria so elegantly?--in favor of frank and frequent public reference to the original Constitutional purpose for an armed citizenry, which is to intimidate the government.
SIXTH--and this may be the most important point I'll make, so pay attention--I'd want the NRA to adopt as its principal and publicly-acknowledged objective the repeal or nullification of every weapons law, at every level of government in America. The Second Amendment is explicit about this and requires no esoteric legal interpretation. Check the dictionary meaning of "infringe" if you doubt my word.
