OK, all you anti-gun liberal types out there

[unixronin]

(Not meaning to imply that all liberals are anti-gun, by the way.  I'm just talking to the "Ew, Guns Are Icky" set here.)

Remember all the times we evil gun-totin', NRA-decal-displayin' gun nuts have said that the Second Amendment is the most important of all the amendments, because it protects all the rest?

Well, having become one of the most strictly anti-gun states in the US, Massachusetts is now going after the right of peaceable assembly.

Yeah, yeah, I know; it says it's only for use against gangs and only in "safe zones".  But as metahacker points out, the devil is in the details.  Surely you folks remember "designated free-speech zones", right....?  Remember the first rule of legislation:  Any law, no matter how clear its original intent, sooner or later succumbs to "mission creep".

"Yeah, I know this law was passed for X.  But we're already using it for Y.  Why don't we use it for Z as well?  I bet we could, especially in front of Judge J."

Speaking of which...

mazianni found these two articles on the 9th Circus's ruling that US border agents can search laptops and other personal electronic devices for evidence of crimes without a warrant or cause.  Once again, "security" trumps liberty, and another little piece of the Fourth Amendment is whittled away.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."  ...Unless we want to.

Comments

[koyote.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I'm not positing that gun ownership is bad because some of the pro gun crowd are anti-liberty, nutjobs, or bad.

What I am saying is that I don't see the (IMO) prime reason for the second amendment as ascendant in the minds of much (how much? who knows?) of the "standard" pro gun crowd. Obviously, this is more than a simplistic binary issue. Nonetheless, I won't ally myself with so called conservatives who promote a fascist (or ragbar redbeard) trend in our country. Said trend being observable to me in a lot of segments of the polarized gun debate (on both sides).

That DOES NOT mean I favor gun cuntrol legistlation. As stated, I'd like to see an end to ALL paperwork and tracking on semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I'm not positing that gun ownership is bad because some of the pro gun crowd are anti-liberty, nutjobs, or bad.

I didn't think you were; I'm just saying that's where that kind of argument leads.

What I am saying is that I don't see the (IMO) prime reason for the second amendment as ascendant in the minds of much (how much? who knows?) of the "standard" pro gun crowd.

Yeah, true. There's an awful lot of people out there who couldn't care less about handguns or "them ugly black plastic rifles" as long as their 'huntin'n'fishin'" is secure. And trying to explain that to a gun-grabber liberal, their scoped deer rifle (or their varmint rifle, or their beanfield rifle) is an Evil Sniper Rifle With No Use Other Than To Kill People From As Far Away As Possible is just like talking to a wall.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

or my bench target rifle. (which you recall) which IS an easy step away from reclassification as a sniper rifle.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Did you ever get that sorted out and shooting decent groups again, BTW? I was really pissed off at the guy in Sportsman's Supply screwing it up, but couldn't have proved anything. :p

[koyote.livejournal.com]

pretty much, yeah. complete disassembly and reassembly by a gunsmith up near oroville seems to have sorted it out.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good news at least. I'm glad it wasn't permanently ruined.

I still miss that rifle and the insanely right groups it'd shoot. But I think when I finally get another rifle capable of that accuracy, I want one that does it with a fluted barrel, rather than a solid bull barrel.

Did you have him drop a better trigger in while he was at it? Or at least lighten the existing trigger?