That it Wasn't in Vain, Part II

Ok, now where WERE we?..........oh yes, our judicial system as it pertains to guns.

First, let me say that we do not have a crime problem in America because of firearms availability. We have a crime problem because we have a judicial system that tolerates it.

There was a time in America when we hung horse thieves. Kids attended the public hangings, and unlike the video games, the "bad guy" DIDN'T come back to life in the next game, because there wasn't any next game. Most kids went back home, remembering what they just saw, and not wanting to dangle from a rope either, didn't steal horses when they grew up,(most of them anyway). By comparison, grand theft auto today is almost a misdemeanor.

Frontier justice was swift, and while it didn't totally eliminate crime (There will ALWAYS be a Jesse James out there), criminal activity was nowhere near the percentages per population it is now. A convicted killer didn't sit on Death Row through 20 years of appeals. Hanging for murdering someone wasn't considered "cruel and unusual", and nobody cared that an outlaw who shot up your neighbors and burned their ranch to the ground, might "feel a little pain and discomfort" during his execution.

Yes..........there WERE a few that were hanged by mistake, but justice back then was so firm, there weren't that many pushing the envelope out there to begin with.

Nearly EVERYONE packed a gun back then, too, I might add, and gangs didn't flourish as they do now. Trying to rob TWO banks, the Dalton gang was shot to pieces by not only the sheriff's boys, but a few armed citizens as well.

There were no psycho-analysts or "encounter groups" back then. You robbed a bank, stole a horse or killed somebody, you paid for it. We don't do that anymore, and thus, our prisons are overcrowded with felons who have long ago lost their fear of the law.

Today, we go after law abiding gun owners instead. Taking weapons from good people is somehow supposed to protect us from the bad ones our system won't prosecute............don't laugh....there are idiots out there who actually BELIEVE that!........and they vote........which is why it's important that WE do!

I want to talk to you liberals out there for a moment now: I want you folks to see it as WE see it for a minute, so put yourselves in our shoes for the next few moments:

YOU are the gun owner. You hunt, target shoot, keep guns around for home and national defense as the Minutemen did. You're a good citizen, respectful of others, and the laws of the land, which just happen to be our Constitution.

Now, in the midst of this, here comes this great media barrage. Oh, those dirty guns...we've got to ban everything that shoots. "Only police and military need guns" (see Hitler, 1934)....we've just GOT to get guns away from the people.

But there is a SECOND scenario going on at the same time............the courts are catering to the criminals. We see D.A.'s making deals with defense attorneys and prosecuters, we see some scumbag being parolled after 3 years, when he ought to be in for life, a mass murderer might not even have to go to trial, because of something in his childhood that "made him commit the crime 15 years later." Lawyers continue to find loopholes to get these guys off. YOU.......Mr. Gun owner, had NOTHING to do with ANY of this.

But rather than hang the BAD guys like they use to......the bureaucrats are coming after YOU. They think it is YOU who should have to pick up the tab, while they continue turning the hoods right back out the front door. It is YOUR gun that is the problem here, and if you'll only turn it in, crime will drop like a lead balloon.

Fact is, "Big Brother" will even "buy them back" (although they were never his to begin with). And because he thinks you really ARE dumb, he's going to offer you $50 for every gun you turn in. How's that!! Fifty bucks for a $600.00 Smith & Wesson............makes sense to ME!

.......OK...........how would that make YOU feel, Mr. Liberal?? They want YOUR gun, as some kind of crime prevention, but at the same time, they keep turning the criminals loose, or refuse to execute them because they "need help."..........hey, that Duncan character they've got locked up in Boise? Watch him slide through the system.

Gun owners don't see where they should have to pay for the acts of others. THAT'S why the resistence, Mr "Lefty."

Like facts? Sirhan Sirhan..........killed U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy in front of God and everybody.....1968.......FORTY years ago. He's still kicked back in California at taxpayer expense. His own brother Ted, DOESN'T support the death penalty. He DOES lead the attack on our gun rights however.......even though his car has killed more people than my Ruger has!.........and those idiots back there keep voting him back in.

Not enough? How about Patrick Purdy, the founder of the schoolyard killing movement, that began in Stockton, California? Prior to his little rampage, he'd been incarcerated 7 times in California from drugs to weapons charges. Their "system" had him locked up SEVEN times...........and SEVEN times he was turned right back

out on the streets. Stockton City Council's solution? A ban on semi-automatics..............Purdy should NEVER have been out there!.............but, it's always easier to go after the gun owners.

If that doesn't pan out, we'll bring lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Sounds logical doesn't it? If some drunk with a DUI record a mile long runs over your child with a Chevrolet, by golly you ought to have every right to sue General Motors for building that Impala in the first place. Right?

"That's not the same thing."

"The heck it ain't....it's a double standard."

"C'mon Bradbury, you don't really hold a shooter and a drunk driver in the same light, do you?"

"No I don't. A shooter usually has an intended victim, and sometimes it's even justified to a point........drunk drivers have taken out BUSLOADS of kids."

What about Virginia Tech....huh?....huh?......huh? 32 shot! What about that?"

"Concealed Permit or not, no guns allowed on campus. The guy KNEW he'd be un-opposed. ONE student with a CCW might not have stopped it initially, but that nut's "15 minutes of fame" would have been a lot shorter."

"And that would have made the difference eh? I don't buy that, Bazookaman."

"Then pop into a restaurant some evening where my wife and I are dining and try your luck."

"WONDERFUL!! So we just arm ourselves and bring back the wild west again eh?"

"Think as you will, but nobody in El Paso walked into a town hall meeting with criminal intent, when he knew there were 3 dozen Colt 45's that would NOT remain holstered. That was the difference at Virginia Tech, and every other campus during this "fad", until students are allowed to defend themselves."

You know.............I personally hate to see it come to this, but there is simply no other way. The cops can't be everywhere and the courts turn 'em loose. When you look at the outrageous miscarriages of justice nowadays, it is no mystery why there are now metal detectors at virtually every courthouse in America. Guards don't escort prisoners back and forth to the courtrooms because they're afraid they'll escape.

The system is broken. I remember watching a re-run of Dragnet not too long ago, where early in the episode, a hood walked out on a technicality. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) asked his Captain, "Why does the law always work for the guilty?".....to which his boss replied, "Because the innocent don't need it."

Part III next week.