Most likely we’ve already forgotten the two cases of a 19-year-old and 18-year-old purchasing powerful weapons here in the world’s Dodge City: USA.
Nicholas Cruz legally purchased an AR-15 from Sunrise Tactical Weapons outside Highland Park, Fla. after getting a background check, which he passed with ease. Though very troubled, and many around him knew it, he had no “psychiatric history”, which would not have made a difference anyway. Seventeen Marjory Stoneman High School students died from a military-style assault with a military-style weapon akin to the M-16 U.S. Army rifle.
Sol Pais, the 18-year-old Florida girl obsessed with Columbine, obtained one-way airfare to Colorado on a “pilgrimage” to her obsessional “shrine,” and was soon considered extremely dangerous by the local Colorado sheriff’s office. She handily shot through the screening process conducted by Josh Rayburn of Colorado Gun Broker in Littleton, to become the proud owner of a pump-action shotgun.
This is the same young lady who made public threats to schools in the Denver area. End of story, she took her own life with this same weapon and, thankfully, hadn’t carried out her deadly mission against the Colorado teenage peers she’d never known.
What begs saying is that the killing power of the firearm isn’t even the issue. Why would any person of this age need any gun at all, never mind the AR-15 (except our youth of tender age our Congress sends to fight their wars – all regrets to come, alas, retroactively)? What’s more, why should any adult be allowed to carry a handgun or long gun without some legal clearance for reason, as in Australia?
By the way, there’s nothing sacred about the Second Amendment. Back then it was meant to ensure that farmers (predominantly), simple merchants and laborers could be available at short notice as a standing militia should the British start banging at their back door.
What kind of nation are we that we can’t even protect our young? Who’s running our country that you and I are voiceless in a democratic nation where Main Street America wants to change gun laws, overwhelmingly.
Why am I thinking it all goes back to where the money flows?
This calls for a day of mourning for those past deceased and future deceased-to-be in the path of random bullets. Let’s pick a date.
Paul Scollan, a Vietnam veteran, lives in Meriden.
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In liberal bizzaro world, a 19yr old adult is a “baby”, and a rifle that shoots one of the smallest bullets commonly available is a “big gun”. When your viewpoint is skewed that far from facts, it’s impossible to even take you seriously.
One man’s opinion is just that, whereas the entire history of our common law and jurisprudence contradict and rule otherwise thus leading to all of our Civil Rights that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights and made sacred by the Founders and Framers for the very good reasons that none could ever know better then they.
The Second Amendment is the most simple, obvious, and important Civil Right of them all; the civil right that guarantees all of our other Civil Rights.
Additionally, adults of any age should not be infantilized, whether they be 18 or 108; inappropriate expectations can result in inappropriate behavior. Limits, Boundaries, and Expectations are important factors in all responsible human behavior and essential to the development of children into well-adjusted adults.
“What’s more, why should any adult be allowed to carry a handgun or long gun without some legal clearance for reason, as in Australia?”
Because US citizens have a fundamental enumerated right incorporated against the states under the 14th Amendment due process clause to keep and bear arms.
Didn’t Vietnam veterans swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic? I surely did, and mine had no expiration date.
First and foremost, speaking as a proud American parent of military members, thank you for your service to Country.
1) 18 and 19 year olds are adults, not babies
2) The 2A doesn’t include the need to provide a reason
3) If you read the various Federalist Papers, you would learn that your ‘reasons’ for the 2A were NOT as you stated…and the Bill of Rights was included AFTER we defeated the British. The government The Founders feared was our own gone wild
4) We are not a democratic nation. We are a Constitutional Representative Republic
5) (this may be the most unsettling) You say “Why would any person of this age need any gun at all, never mind the AR-15 (except our youth of tender age our Congress sends to fight their wars)? ” As a veteran, you must be aware of the fact that the US Military does NOT send people to war armed with AR-15s. If they did, their life expectancy would be darned near nil.
What exactly were the “public threats” made by Sol Pais? Sadly this troubled teen was on a mission to kill herself. She had no clue that she put Denver in turmoil.
Per the New York Times, Pais had an online journal with several troubling entries, “including one with drawings of one of the Columbine gunmen, Dylan Klebold.” Authorities, at least in part because of these public writings, “believed her to be ‘infatuated’ with the mass shooting at Columbine High School in April 1999, and that she had flown to Denver on a ‘pilgrimage.'”
More here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/us/sol-pais-columbine.html
To be precise, there were no public threats made by the girl that were found by the police. She showed a troubling obsession which now appears to have been a suicide fantasy. The police took precautions which was probably wise, but the author of the viewpoint has twisted it into ‘threats’ made against others.
And you would have the police ignore this obsession?
Why are our children being neglected by their parents so that they can not deal with life. Could it be that all of the “participation trophies” and never being told “No” has not prepared them for the real world where people have different views and opinions and people need to be able to accept and discuss differences of opinion without melting. Why do college aged children need to have “safe spaces” and coloring books after a serious event? Why are they so mentally unprepared to deal with life?
The irony is, people like this will claim 18 year-olds are children who should not have access to alcohol, nicotine or firearms but 16 year olds should be able to vote due to their maturity.
I agree with Paul. The “2nd Amendment Right” is being used to justify policies that would be considered INSANE in any normal society. I know: militants in Africa do give AR-15’s to children to turn them into killers. But we shouldn’t be doing the same.
Somewhat surprising from a vietnam vet like myself. We carried around M-16s which IS a real assault weapon. too much gun to shoot a rabbit, but you are somewhat accurate in the original purpose of the second amendment. But not completely, and it doesn’t have to be revoked just because we no longer have to worry about the British “knocking at the back door’”, because it wasn’t only the British the Founders were worried about. The Founders had just fought a war against tyranny, and, unlike today, these legislators put everything they had on the line. If we lost that war every one of those signatories would have been taken back to London and gibbetted.
The fear was of tyranny not of the Brits. Today, we see the government grabbing more and more power away from the people. The tenth amendment is pretty much ignored in fact, it is treated as just the opposite, all powers not enumerated herein, goes not to the people, but to the government.
I cannot think of a more dangerous era than today when our freedoms are in danger, yes babies, if you believe a 19 yo is a baby (and some of them are) should be armed.
This also points out what the underlying motive of those with this unnatural obsession with weapons like the Ar-15 are. The murders, suicides, shooting by handguns far outnumber the events by AR-15. The AR-15 is the most popular hunting gun in the country. You never see a hunter hunting deer with a handgun. More people have been shot with handguns than deer have been shot with handguns. The number of people killed with AR-15s is miniscule.
However, 50 years from today (maybe less) when the government police come with real assault rifles to stop a demonstration by citizens, the citizens will be much better off defending themselves with AR-15s than with rocks and sticks. The real objective is to disarm the citizens so that only the government has weapons. Very scary.
Hi Nicholas, we welcome your comments but please note that our guidelines require that comments be limited to 1,000 characters. We will not be able to approve comments that exceed that limit going forward.
How ’bout moving it back to 2,000 chars like it was originally.
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