Frederick Su - On gun rights and the Second Amendment

First published by Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattle, March 23, 2013

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Following the Sandy Hook shootings, gun control is back on the books, with Obama and like-minded people pushing for an “assault weapons” ban. They decry such weapons as high-capacity, high-powered arms designed to specifically kill people, implying the 2nd Amendment is for hunting.

Yes, weapons kill. That is their purpose. For good, they kill other animals for meat and kill criminals, enemies, terrorists, or tyrants and their soldiers. America was born and remains free through force of arms. Realize, too, pacifists live by the grace of warriors.

Think “assault weapons” (semiautomatic rifles) don’t have a defensive purpose for civilians? Think again. In April 1992, Korean business owners armed themselves with AR-15s and AK-47s in South Central Los Angeles when riots occurred following the acquittal of four white policemen in the Rodney King beating. Businesses were being burned to the ground and police were nowhere to be found. As Richard Rhee said, “Burn this down after 33 years? This is my market and I’m going to protect it.”

The 2nd Amendment is not about hunting. It was framed because the colonists had fought a war against tyranny. Tyrants confiscate weapons. General Gage, Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in North America, had confiscated weapons from citizens in Boston and then later tried to confiscate arms and ammunition in Concord and Lexington in April 1775. That ignited the Revolutionary War. If hunting is implied at all, then the implication is to hunt tyrants and their minions.

Another specious claim by liberals is that the Founders would never have allowed semiautomatic rifles to be owned by private citizens. Well, consider this. King George’s redcoats are coming down the road intent on pillaging and killing colonists in an attempt at subjugation. Wow! Should the colonist go get his bow and arrow or should he get the most up-to-date weapon he can so as to repulse this attack and, hopefully, survive?

The founding generation spent blood and lives fighting tyranny. They wanted to ensure that the progeny of their genes would remain a free people and that their ideas would become a beacon of freedom to the world.

Hence, the Constitution was born, the greatest document ever conceived by man. The Founders were touched by God. The 2nd Amendment provides teeth for all the other rights in the Bill of Rights.

A recent New York law, pushed by Governor Andrew Cuomo (D), requires registration of assault weapons.

Cuomo favors gun confiscation. If that occurs, many liberals, like Cuomo, mistakenly expect American gun owners to relinquish their guns, as the citizens of the U.K. and Australia did. The liberals will be abetted by the news media, who will show Joe Gunowner turning in his weapons, making America a safer place.

Not so. Many American gun owners hold the 2nd Amendment near and dear to their hearts, a principle they will fight and die for. If gun confiscation becomes law, three things can happen. One, nothing changes because the law cannot be enforced. Two, if enforcement begins, civil strife will ensue, perhaps with martial law. (Think Prohibition—and alcohol wasn’t even guaranteed by the Bill of Rights — with its black market and widespread lawlessness.) America will now have become a more dangerous place, not only for gun owners, but also for the general population at large, as well as for law enforcement personnel, the National Guard, and the military—the latter three who will be tasked with enforcement. Though all of the latter three have sworn an oath to the Constitution, including the 2nd Amendment, there will always be myrmidons. Third, in the worst case scenario, civil war will erupt. Last time, 600,000 Americans died.

As Larry Correia wrote in his WordPress gun-rights blog, “How many of your fellow Americans are you willing to have killed in order to bring about your utopian vision of the future?”

We can work to reduce gun violence by imprisoning criminals, executing convicted murderers, institutionalizing violently unstable people, and arming teachers. We don’t need to make more gun laws, thus making the uber-majority of gun owners criminals.

Gun control advocates had best tread carefully. Many New York gun owners have blogged that they will not register their assault weapons under Cuomo’s new law. So, the ball is in Cuomo’s court.

America, overall, is a safe, peaceful place. The idealistic vision of registering, banning, and confiscating weapons to make America safer may, instead, slide us down a slippery slope toward civil strife and, perhaps, civil war.

Please. Let’s step back from the abyss.

Frederick Su

Frederick Su is an ex-Marine of the Vietnam era, holds a Ph.D. in physics, and is the author of An American Sin, a novel about an Asian American and Vietnam. He is also an NRA member, characterizing the NRA as “The greatest civil rights organization in the world.”

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Michelle Malkin - Exposing Obama's Secret Plan to Confiscate Guns

New York State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin revealed other measures that were removed from the final bill that was eventually signed into law.

These 15 measures were pulled from the final bill:

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1. Confiscation of "assault weapons"
2. Confiscation of ten round clips
3. Statewide database for ALL Guns
4. Continue to allow pistol permit holder's information to be replaced to the public
5. Label semiautomatic shotguns with more than 5 rounds or pistol grips as "assault weapons”
6. Limit the number of rounds in a magazine to 5 and confiscation and forfeiture of banned magazines
7. Limit possession to no more than two (2) magazines
8. Limit purchase of guns to one gun per person per month
9. Require re-licensing of all pistol permit owners
10. Require renewal of all pistol permits every five years
11. State issued pistol permits
12. Micro-stamping of all guns in New York State
13. Require licensing of all gun ammo dealers
14. Mandatory locking of guns at home
15. Fee for licensing, registering weapons

Originally Aired January 2013

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Gov. Cuomo Signs Nation's Toughest Gun Control Legislation Into Law

1/15/13 - ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The New York State Assembly passed the toughest gun control law in the nation and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting Tuesday. The Assembly voted in favor of the bill 104-43. The bill was passed by the Senate 43-18 late Monday. It was immediately was brought to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed it into law.

January 15, 2013

Provisions in the sweeping gun control bill include:

1. Further restrict assault weapons to define them by a single feature, such as a pistol grip. Current law requires two features.
2. Make the unsafe storage of assault weapons a misdemeanor.
3. Mandate a police registry of assault weapons.
4. Establish a state registry for all private sales, with a background check done through a licensed dealer for a fee, excluding sales to immediate relatives.
5. Require a therapist who believes a mental health patient made a credible threat to use a gun illegally to report the threat to a mental health director who would then have to report serious threats to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. A patient’s gun could be taken from him or her.
6. Ban the Internet sale of assault weapons.
7. Require stores that sell ammunition to register with the state, run background checks on buyers of bullets and keep an electronic database of bullet sales.
8. Restrict ammunition magazines to seven bullets, from the current national standard of 10. Current owners of higher-capacity magazines would have a year to sell them out of state. Someone caught with eight or more bullets in a magazine could face a misdemeanor charge.
9. Require that stolen guns be reported within 24 hours. Otherwise, the owner would face a possible misdemeanor.
10. Increase sentences for gun crimes including for taking a gun on school property.
11. Increase penalties for shooting first responders, called the “Webster provision.” Two firefighters were killed when shot by a person who set a fire in the western New York town of Webster last month. The crime would be punishable by life in prison without parole.
12. Limit the state records law to protect handgun owners from being identified publicly. The provision would allow a handgun permit holder a means to maintain privacy under the Freedom of Information law.
13. Require pistol permit holders or those who will be registered as owners of assault rifles to be recertified at least every five years to make sure they are still legally able to own the guns.

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