[antimedia] antimedia: You simply cannot....

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Posted by antimedia:
You simply cannot....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1157508820.shtml


   ....[1]make this stuff up. I'm serious. Even in your wildest dreams
   you couldn't come up with these arguments.

     A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Bloomington, a
     Minneapolis suburb framed by the airport and the Mall of America.
     On the hotel door was a sign: âFirearms Banned on These Premises.â
     The next day I drove to St. Joseph, an hour west of the Twin
     Cities, where I saw the same sign. Slowly the logical conclusion
     sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must
     not be banned in other places.
     Sure enough, a year ago the State Legislature passed a âconcealed
     carryâ law, which means that itâs legal to carry a concealed weapon
     if you have a permit. So that no one misses the point, the
     Legislature has also turned Minnesota into what is called a âshall
     requireâ state. If you apply for a concealed-weapon permit, the
     local authorities must grant it to you.
     I asked one of the state coalitions opposed to these laws whether
     it would attack them in the Legislature this year. The answer was
     no. It is too busy trying to defeat a âshoot firstâ bill, which
     would give gun owners the right to fire away instead of trying to
     avoid a confrontation. The way I see it, Minnesota is only one step
     away from requiring every citizen to carry a gun and use it when
     provoked.

   Pretty standard fare. He's a progressive. He's against people carrying
   guns. He thinks it's "primitive" and regresses us to "an earlier
   time".
   But what really concerns him? What eats away at him?

     Sometimes I think the N.R.A. isnât really about guns at all. Itâs
     about making certain that the public â our political and civil
     society, in other words â has no ability to limit the rights of an
     individual. That is really what the logic of the âconcealed carryâ
     and âshall requireâ and âshoot firstâ laws says.
     Guns make a perfect test case, because the end result is an armed
     cohort that is very prickly about its personal rights. The N.R.A.
     has armed the thousands of Minnesotans who applied for a permit
     once the âconcealed carryâ law passed. But it has disarmed the
     public by making sure that legislators will no longer vote for gun
     laws that protect the rest of us.

   My God! We can't have that! Imagine a bunch of citizens defending
   their individual rights! Imagine them up in arms about a government
   trying to take those rights away - by say....unauthorized spying on
   them...or..or...peering into the bank
   accounts.....or.....shudder....listening in on their phone calls!!!!
   That's the thing about that pesky second amendment. It exposes the
   hypocrisy of the liberals.

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/opinion/05tue4.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin