Text 11275, 93 rader
Skriven 2008-02-18 12:26:25 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
     Kommentar till en text av Martin Atkins
Ärende: Shootings in USA
========================
17 Feb 08 22:17, Martin Atkins wrote to ROY WITT:

 RW>> 16 Feb 08 11:28, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe:

 RW>>  MvdV> So what? Did that come from God?

 RW>> Now that you mention is, yes. It is a God given right to protect
 RW>> yourself, your family and your possessions. It used to be rocks,
 RW>> then clubs and eventually bow and arrow, but then the gun came
 RW>> along. In Europe, the peasants weren't allowed guns because the
 RW>> nobles reserved all game for themselves. All the power they
 RW>> possessed was because the peasants weren't allowed to have guns.
 RW>> Eventually that led to the demise of a few million people because
 RW>> they didn't have guns to thwart attacks on them because of their
 RW>> religious beliefs.

 MA> In the wake of a series of high-profile shootings, an observer might
 MA> assume that guns are suddenly pouring into the UK for the first time.

Just as the Australian gun ban caused crime to increase, not decrease as
they hoped, it was a disaster. As is the Brit gun ban.

 MA> But gun control is a relatively recent phenomenon in Britain, where
 MA> ownership of  firearms was relatively common a century ago.

Sixty years ago, the British citizen's firearms were voluntarily given to
help the Brits get off the beaches at Dunkirk. What would they have to
offer today?

 MA> The contrast between UK legislation on gun ownership - among the
 MA> strictest in the world, and that in the United States - among the
 MA> most relaxed, might appear stark.

Considering the following, it is.

 MA> But in fact both countries' firearms laws can be traced back to the
 MA> same source.

Do Brits believe in God Given Rights too?

 MA> The right to bear arms was guaranteed in the 1689 Bill of Rights, in
 MA> which the new King William of Orange enshrined a series of rights for
 MA> his subjects-Catholics were famously excluded.

Gun control is not a new idea, but an old one. English kings, starting at
least in the realm of Henry VIII, attempted to limit who was allowed to
own guns. Henry VIII, for example, prohibited poor people from shooting
crossbows or guns. If you were a king, wouldn't you want the rabble to be
disarmed?

In the seventeenth century, Charles II and James II passed various
measures to disarm untrustworthy sorts, required gunsmiths to register
guns that they worked on, and limited imports of guns.

Unsurprisingly, when the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place, and
Parliament invited William & Mary to become the new monarchs, they wrote a
Bill of Rights that guaranteed a right to keep arms:

"That the subjects which are protestants, may have arms for their defence
suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law."

What about the Catholics?! They didn't get the right to own arms.

 MA> This was enshrined in common law during the early years of the US,
 MA> and later informed the second amendment of the US constitution, which
 MA> explains why the right to bear arms remains so strong a factor in
 MA> America. :-

In Colonial America, however, things were a bit different. The colonies
were far enough away that uppity colonists with guns weren't any threat to
the king (though they sometimes were to the king's governors and
soldiers).

Besides, the colonial governments recognized that they needed an armed
population, not only for protection from the Indians, but also from
foreign armies and pirates.

 MA> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7056245.stm

 MA> I suppose you think the above are just more lies. You really are the
 MA> biggest bullshit artist on the Fidonet.

From what I gather of your writings, you're just another mis-informed
ignorant Brit with a big mouth. Not to mention that your version of
history has a bias that only a stupid Brit would believe.


                R\%/itt



--- Twit(t) Filter v2.1 (C) 2000
 * Origin: SATX Alamo Area Net * South * Texas, USA * (1:397/22)