COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Do We Have the Right to Bear Fake Guns?

Toys
United States Constitution

Bill of Rights

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."


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As a member of the NRA, an owner and user of several firearms and a staunch believer in second amendment rights, I would resist any state sponsored infringement on that right. However, I would not want to be a cop and have a thirteen year old point one of these "toys" at me. I do not have a problem in these "toys" or any slightly modified version, designed to skirt the law, manufactured in China, being outlawed. They are bad news. They do not defend or protect.

Any responsible owner of a weapon respects what a gun can do. You do not show a weapon unless there is immediate and grave danger. If you raise a weapon, it better be loaded, and you better be prepared to use it. If you use it, you better be prepared to kill. If you kill, you better be prepared for the consequences. The possible consequences should be less than the pending and immediate alternative.

These "toys" should have no protection in law.

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States looking to curb toy guns
Associated Press Washington Times
May 4, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Concerns that realistic-looking toy weapons are confusing police and threatening safety have led 15 states to try going beyond gun control and cracking down on fake firearms.

Officer Michael Hoover knows a fair amount about guns as a sniper instructor for a Tennessee SWAT team. He recalls the night two years ago when a car pulled up beside him on a highway, and the passenger waved what looked like an Uzi.

"It scared me," he said. "If anyone is in their right mind, I don't see how it wouldn't."

Officer Hoover was off-duty and called for police help. A 20-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault after police found a black plastic Uzi submachine gun under the car's passenger seat, but he was acquitted because jurors felt the officer should have been able to tell it was only a toy.

Lawmakers across the country are coming to a different conclusion, deciding that it is so hard to differentiate the toys from the fakes that public safety demands they take action.

Among those 15 states, seven bills limiting fake guns are pending this year, and 21 have been enacted since 1990, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some states have enacted or are considering multiple measures. They range from prohibiting imitation firearms in vehicles to banning the toys from convenience stores.

Tennessee lawmakers are considering a proposal by state Rep. John Deberry, a Democrat, to make it a misdemeanor to intentionally display or expose "an imitation firearm in a public place in a threatening manner." Exceptions include justifiable self-defense, lawful hunting, and displays such as a museum collection.

Mr. Deberry said he wants to prevent incidents like the one last year in which a 12-year-old boy was killed in West Memphis, Ark. DeAunta Farrow was shot by a police officer who said he thought the boy was carrying a gun and that the youngster refused to obey orders to halt. Investigators later said DeAunta had a toy gun.

"It's important that a child cannot walk into one of these little convenience stores, plop down a dollar and walk out with something that can get him shot on the spot without question," Mr. Deberry said.

A spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association declined to comment on the trend toward anti-toy gun legislation but referred a reporter to its Web site, which states that it "emphatically rejects the scenario that casts toys as villains."

Federal law requires toy guns or imitations to bear an orange tip to indicate they're not real. However, lawmakers say those tips are often disguised or removed.

"It only takes 30 seconds for a kid to either take a marker or some paint, or shoe polish, and that orange tip is gone," said Mr. Deberry. He said the imitation guns are nearly identical in size, design and color to real ones.



27 comments:

  1. I've asked John Lott--"More Guns, Less Crime"-- if he might make a comment on your post, deuce.

    My own views are in line with yours.

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  2. If you like aircraft, you will enjoy this slide show.( it is not automatic)

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  3. Made in China, right?

    I'm against legislation, very time consuming and ineffective.

    Bomb the toy factories!

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  4. Cutler:

    As I'm sure you're aware, merely having a messed up Iraq is in some ways an optimistic scenario that I'd accept on the overall merits if it were guarenteed to me.

    Sun May 04, 02:14:00 AM EDT

    The trick, cutler, is in knowing what the Iranians are offering and besting the offer. In the event that it's a vision, a plan, you bring a better one, all the while acknowledging - rather than trying to artificially sever - the various and considerable relationships of two neighbors.

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  5. tish tish, Trish:
    How can we possibly outdo Aquavelvajihad on the vision thing?

    His Charisma alone is a WMD.

    ...and then there's the Mullahs for the young'uns.

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  6. You give the Iraqis what they would have gotten - and more - if they had said yes to the Iranians.

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  7. Reigning in the Iranians in Iraq is no mean feat, Doug.

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  8. "The trick, cutler, is in knowing what the Iranians are offering and besting the offer. In the event that it's a vision, a plan, you bring a better one, all the while acknowledging - rather than trying to artificially sever - the various and considerable relationships of two neighbors."

    The Iranians are only part of the problem. -If- the U.S. is to leave, there'll be a lot more pieces in play than just them. I don't think we'll have all that much control over subsequent events, for better or for worse. A deterioated Iraq will have state and sub-state level reverberations throughout the region that noone can predict at this point.

    A lot of supporters of the enterprise used to talk about how Iraq was fantastic an asset, smack dab in the middle of everything. As if we could pivot and clean up the entire region from there. Wasn't an asset, but a potential prison, with us seperating the prisoners.

    ...Or the logs can go into the ditch.

    Unknown-unknowns are just too damn tough to call at this point.

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  9. I look forward to your post though.

    Back in the old days you just used to leave cryptic sentences that left me wanting more. Hearing you speak freely is always a pleasure.

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  10. Cryptic was my foremost complaint!

    Felt like Charlie Brown and the football many times after asking a question.

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  11. A sick, sad, twisted story that is bizzare beyond words:
    (The above ground children meet the subterranean siblings for the first time)
    Josef Fritzl: The monster in the cellar

    Josef Fritzl is the new face of Austria’s shame.
    How was he able to trap his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and father seven children with her?

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  12. The more things change:
    Goldman came out on top BEFORE FDR's Glass-Steagall Act,
    and again NOW, 10 years after Clinton repealed it.
    Galbraith and the Supremes, among others, outline History in brief.

    Bill Clinton's Role in the Mortgage Crisis

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  13. Here in Idaho, if I am not mistaken, the mere display of a fake or toy weapon during a robbery or any other crime is as serious a legal matter as the real deal. For awhile years ago there was an issue with this--well, it wasn't a real gun. Now, if it looks like a duck, even if it doesn't quack like a duck, it is legally a duck, during a crime.

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  14. Cutler: A lot of supporters of the enterprise used to talk about how Iraq was fantastic an asset, smack dab in the middle of everything. As if we could pivot and clean up the entire region from there. Wasn't an asset, but a potential prison, with us seperating the prisoners.

    Top Ten Good Things To Come From GW2:

    10. The no-fly zones are a thing of the past. No more risk of Saddam shooting down one of our birds and parading a beaten and raped female Air Force captain on al-Jizzeera.

    9. Saddam is gone, along with his two spermazoid sons.

    8. The Marsh Arabs have their land again, and Kurds aren't sucking mustard gas.

    7. The Sunni Arabs have rejected al-Qaeda In Iraq and stabilized the giantic Anbar region.

    6. Iraq is only the second real democracy to take root in the Middle-east.

    5. Training exercises can never take the place of actual combat. American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, and the technology of their weapons, have been honed to such a keen edge that China or North Korea would be insane to even contemplate taking us on now.

    4. The bloodlust of all Americans in the wake of 9-11 has been quenched.

    3. Iraq is no longer a threat to the region. There will be no Iraqi participation in the next Arab-Israeli war.

    2. The US military is now positioned between Iran and Israel, and can reach out to touch Syria at any time.

    And the number one good thing to come out of GW2:

    1. The US military is sitting on the world's second largest oil reserve (and is within striking distance of the largest one) just when the rate of oil production is peaking.

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  15. hmmmm, the right to bear arms, just not fake ones. "Kid, if that is not a real gun stuffed in your pants, man are you in trouble!"

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  16. Why Teresita, spoken like a true neo-con. Take note, Ash.

    --------

    Which reminds me of an joke with Jack Benny. Guy puts a revolver in his face and says, "Your money, or your life."

    Jack, chin in hand, contemplating,

    "Hmmm....'

    "Your money or your life!!!"

    Jack, a little inrritated,

    "I'm thinking about it!"

    hardeharhar

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  17. Pretty soon Teresita will be seeing the good sense contained in an article like This

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  18. Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me, or is it a toy gun?

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  19. Doug: Josef Fritzl is the new face of Austria’s shame. How was he able to trap his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and father seven children with her?

    It's things like this that make people want to believe in the afterworld, where the Creator can make it up to the daughter and really stick it to Josef.

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  20. When toy guns are outlawed, will kids only have real guns?

    When toy guns are outlawed, will only outlaws have toy guns?

    I used to have a nifty little bow and arrow as a kid, with a 'child safe' tip. I suppose today the toy makers would make it look like Braveheart's crossbow, and there would be a problem with that, too.

    "Hey, you there, kid..."


    Don't worry T., Fritzl's gonna get his. "It is better for that man to have a mill stone around his neck..."
    A universal sentiment.

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  21. Bobal: Pretty soon Teresita will be seeing the good sense contained in an article like This

    I'm center-left. If I was hard left my blogroll would link to Daily Kos and Huffington Post. I'm a truth seeker, and one can not complain about the Occupation 24/7 without recognizing that there are good things happening there too. From your article, Bobal:

    "It took the Democratic frontrunner 20 years--and 50 days since videos surfaced of Wright's incendiary sermons--to discover that the man who helped him become a Christian, officiated at his marriage, and baptized his two daughters is a conspiracy theory-loving self-publicizer. What does that say about Obama's "judgment," on which he largely bases his claim to the presidency?"

    There is a principle in Catholicism called Sacramentality, and it can be described as man interfacing with the infinite God through the agency of finite tokens which function as carriers of grace. Water for baptism, rings in weddings, oil for healing the sick, sharing a meal of wine and bread to express oneness with other Christians. When a Catholic confesses their small sins on Saturday afternoon, the priest could be the worst pedophile in history, and be absolutely damned with mortal sin, but this does not render the absolution he proclaims invalid, because the priest is only a channel for God's forgiveness.

    Obama's church could be looked at as a little like the Belmont Club, it's more about the comments inspired by Wretchard than Wretchard himself or his own comments. If Wretchard went loopy and started spouting Cedarford-like anti-Joo stuff, people would scratch their heads, but not necessarily leave in droves, and this would not reflect on their judgment, because their M.O. might well be to react to the comments of others besides Wretchard.

    Obama attended that church to check off his black credentials, and to get in a social network that would lend him legitimacy in the eyes of the black community. What Reverend Wright believes or was actually saying was quite incidental.

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  24. No hurry, no worry.

    (And fully steeled for the always potential stacheldraht besen behandlung.)

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  25. ...we used to call that a GI shower.

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