Surge in concealed-carry requests in Colorado

Never forget that the primary mission of the British administration and British army in 1775 was "gun control" for the citizens of Boston, Concord and Lexington. "Gun control" means government taking your guns, and that is a prerequisite for government imposition of tyranny or totalitarian control of the citizens of any nation.

The citizens of Lexington told the British redcoats to "come and get them," and what happened next is our proud history of the establishment of liberty through great struggle and sacrifice. Like the citizens of Lexington, we the people are the militia in our own communities. Neither the police nor the army are the militia - we the people are the militia, and we the people have the sacred responsibility for protecting the lives of our selves, our families and our neighbors. It is immoral not to defend innocent life.

The police are helpful, but they usually get there after all the murdering is over - the police are not the militia mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

Any law in America which violates the second amendment to our Constitution is illegal. It dosen't take a lawyer, politician or a scholar to understand the Constitution, it just takes common sense and a moral sense of right and wrong - something many scholars, lawyers and politicians don't have.

Read it for yourself: "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."

It seems like the post and the comments are very one sided. An escalation of guns in the public's hand is similar to an escalation of arms in the worlds military's hands. More precisely, a direct coroloation can be made between arming the whole USA to help control random acts of gun violence and arming all the world countries to prevent wars. I am not sure, but that sounds illogical to me. I think that the removal of guns from ordinary citizens will almost completely illiminate the chances of ordinary citizens who are fed up with the world going out, buying guns legally, and shooting up their school/university.

Zhann you are blind. Law abiding citizens are not the ones who went out and shot up schools. Liberal whackos like you are. Had people been excercising their GOD GIVEN, CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED RIGHT to defend themselves, there would have been 1 casualty at Virginia Tech, that piece of crap psycho, and not 32 students. And you misspelled COROLATION and ELIMINATE. If more private citizens have guns, cowards who prey on the defensless will have fewer people to prey upon, and knowing they face retaliation will likely stay home, or do us a favor and stay home and kill themselves. Taking guns away from people does NOT work. Virginia Tech, the malls and churches that have been shot up are proof. Except for the ARMED lady in Colorado who shot back at the killer. An ARMED CIVILIAN saved lives, not gun control. The average criminal does not buy a gun legally. They steal them, or buy them after they are stolen. Do you seriously think those same criminals will obey your liberal fantasy land gun control laws, when they are already breaking the laws we have now? WAKE UP and stop being such a pussy(read:liberal)

zhann,

You do have one thing almost right - there is a correlation between armed nations and armed citizens.

Totalitarian and tyrannical nations such as Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union were armed to the teeth, and it required the liberty-loving and armed United States to destroy their military forces in order for our liberty to survive. My father fought in that war and was lucky to have survived.

Armed criminals and terrorist cells must, in like manner, be confronted and defeated by armed citizens. As I said, the police are helpful, but they are not the militia in America. The citizens of Lexington and Concord were not police officers, they were armed citizens - they were the militia of the U.S. Constitution - and so are we.

It has been my experience that the vast majority of Americans look only at America, and have no real concept of how the world really works. It may be the fact that you two are different. Militias are an archaic relic of American Revolution. There is absolutely no need for them, and they serve no real purpose. Reflecting on event that happened long ago also serves no purpose. It is important to look at the world today, and to look outside the borders of the USA every so often.

The USA is currently leading the world in gun crimes. This is a fact that is hard to ignore. Likewise, to date all school shootings were done with guns bought legally. I assume that they can be considered criminals, no? Do you propose we arm the children at the schools too? Maybe the teachers? This doesn't solve the problem, it only makes it worse.

It is also an interesting fact that a large number of gun owners have no intelligent defense for gun ownership, so they throw out baseless claims like "if the students at Virginia Tech were armed ... ", and resort to profanities to try and intimidate those that are arguing against them.

I am not arguing that Drug Dealers, Gangs, or other violent crime organizations go out and buy their guns at their local Wal-Mart. However, if guns were completely outlawed in citizens hands, there would be far fewer illegal arms on the market, which would in turn drastically reduce gun related crimes.

Well, zhann, it appears we'll never agree on this. You say that the militias of the American Revolution are a relic of the past - wrong. The struggle for God-given liberty is essentially the same from generation to generation, and the struggle for liberty will always require weapons of one sort of the other. Rest assured, the many enemies of liberty will have their weapons - only a self-loathing or suicidal fool would try to defend life or liberty without outgunning those enemies. Criminals are the enemies of life and liberty on a smaller scale than national tyrants or terrorist organizations, but the same reasoning applies.

You will probably never come to understand this wisdom until you are stuck in some so-called gun-free zone with someone seriously trying to kill you - so live in your utopian dream world as long as you can.

Gun crime may be higher in America than in Europe, but Europe won't last long in its current form. Europe is going down the drain to tyranny once again. Liberty in Europe is thin and it is reversable. In Europe there is no Declaration of Independence, and so there is no acknowledgement that their liberty, such as it is, is God-given. Their watered-down liberty is actually a list of privelidges granted by the state, and of course, one missing privelidge is gun ownership. Europe is a setup for tyranny. Will it be Socialist/Communist, or Nazi-like or will it be Islamist? Does it really matter? In America our liberty has been declared to be an irreversable and sacred human right and a gift from God, and the second amendment is an essential safeguard for this - so says our founding fathers - but of course you disagree.

One of the first steps that Nazi Germany took to consolidate their unjust tyranny was to implement strict gun control - same story in the Soviet Union. If ordinary citizens don't have guns you will have tyranny - the founding fathers understood that, and they incorporated that wisdom into the Bill of Rights.

Storm-Rider, I understand that our viewpoints on this matter are from completely different angles. I don't think that I can convince you, nor anyone like you, that your methods are wrong and mine are right. In all honesty, I don't believe there is a truly right or wrong in this argument, only opinion. I base my opinion on the fact that when comparing the USA to the rest of the world, the USA has an insatiable thirst for guns, and in effect a high level of gun violence.

One fact that I must argue, however, is your claim about Europe being a watered down democracy of sorts. I assume that you have little knowledge of Eurpoean government when you make this claim. Europe is a far more peaceful place than the USA, and this also plays a large part in why the USA is currently the most hated country worldwide. I assume that you are aware of this fact. I am slightly deviating from the subject, but it definately stems from the mentality of the poeple of the USA. This dependence on guns, and this open minded approach to gun ownership plays a large role in the administrations decision making process when declaring war on other countries. If the people were less likely to shoot at one another, the country would be less likely to shoot at other countries.

Now, I would like to ask you a simple question. Why do you relate Nazi's to Socialists? Is this something that you were taught, or do you have some argument for this?

Zahn, thanks for continuing the thread.

I actually share some of your concern regarding gun violence, but I just believe it is the price we pay for having liberty. Good guys, like the men at Concord and Lexington, must have guns to protect sacred life and liberty; but we could do a better job in keeping guns out of the hands of criminals - there I can agree with you.

I don't believe we are the most hated country - why are so many people trying to get here? Why are they so desperate? Do you think it has something to do will that silly old notion of individual liberty in America? Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that so many countries suffer under tyranny and the absence of liberty? Isn't it those same countries where there is an absence of liberty - with a corresponding prevalence of poverty, indecency, and suffering - that supposedly hate us? Isn't it really the tyrants and the supporters of tyranny - the enemies of liberty - that hate us? Don't all those "little people" speak the truth by wishing to come to America and voting with their feet - and aren't the enemies of liberty always liars? The United Nations is an organization dominated by tyranny - I don't want their approval, because I've considered the source - and the source is tyranny.

You don't have to scratch the surface very deeply in regards to Nazi Germany and socialism. They called themselves "National Socialists" as opposed to International Socialists of the Soviet Union. Little distinction here, as they both had world-wide aspirations, and they both used the tools of evil in their operations of state: Lies, hatred of liberty, and violence which was not in self defense.

Storm, being a Jew and knowing many people living in Israel, I appreciate the fact that an armed nation is a stronger nation. Being an armed nation also allows the people of Israel to protect itself. The vast majority of Israelis own guns, and know how to use them. But, that is Israel, a country that is constantly under siege by Islamic extremists. One of my fears of an armed America is that it has the chance of breeding extremists as well. You have mentioned that you are in a militia. I assume that you know people not only in your militia, but in various other spread across the USA. Can you honestly say that none of the men you encountered have a spark of extremism in their eyes? Have you never heard someone make a remark that left you to wonder where his allegiances lie, be it with the USA or with some extremist mentality such as a strong Arian race? I know very well that the vast majority of people you encounter are not like that, and most likely despise people like that. These people are worse than viruses, they search out people that they can recruit or convince, and what better place to do that than in an armed militia?

I know that I may be searching for extremists prematurely, primarily because the USA is still very strong and doesn't look like it will waiver at any time soon. However, all super powers throughout history have had their downfall, and the USA will at some point be bumped to #2, or maybe further. I hope that I don't live to see this, but it is inevitable. At that time, extremists in American may take it out on whoever makes it to #1, which now looks like it may be China. Can you imagine if militia members begin to target Chinese? Of course, I in no way believe that this will happen, I am merely suggesting a possibility.

I have spent the last 3 years of my life living in Europe, more specifically in Ukraine. I have traveled throughout Europe and parts of Asia and know first hand how people view the USA and its people. The vast majority that want to come to the USA do so for one simple reason, money. Likewise, many that do come use the opportunity to rape the country of its resources, and send it back to their homeland. Of course, not everyone, but many. I am doing somewhat the opposite, and when Americans like me do this we do it on a larger scale, so it balances out. But, please do not be fooled, America is a very hated nation. Not only in ex-soviet states, but also throughout Europe and throughout the world. US imperialism (nazi state? world-wide aspirations?) has crossed the lines many times, and we would require a different thread to discuss this further.

But, I truly feel that this has something to do with American's mentality towards to world, and American's violent nature. Everyone in the ex-soviet states are required to go through military training, conscription is in full effect. Very few here, or in other non extremists states, feel that the people need to be armed. I personally feel that people need to be armed in extreme situations. The USA will never be in a situation again that the people need to take up arms and defend the country. The USA is so strategically located that if an attacking country managed to make it to shore, the people on that shore would likely be long dead.

Well, first of all, I'm not in any specific militia. The men of Concord and Lexington were ordinary men, just like me. It is the ordinary American man and woman who I consider "the militia." It is not a macro or micro organization - the militia in my mind, and as it operated in 1776 is purely grassroots and it operates on the basis of the unscripted unity of ordinary individuals - individuals united in love of liberty - individuals whose only playbook and only charter is the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. There are no "militia meetings" - you have a rather small and paranoid idea in your head that the ordinary American man is your enemy. The ordinary American man is the defender of life and liberty. The militias you speak of may exist, and they may well become a problem, but that is not the militia of the Bill of Rights.

Hatred of America comes from Americas natural enemies: Socialists/Communists and Islamists. Both are totalitarian at heart and the enemies of our liberty. Let them hate us. I don't hate them per-se as individuals, but I hate their totalitarian evil.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the people of those countries will not have guns - they would become a threat to tyranny. Ordinary individuals with guns under tyranny are a threat to tyranny. Ordinary individuals with guns under liberty are a threat to criminals and again also to tyranny - but not a threat to liberty. Our founding fathers have stated in the second amendment that ordinary armed Americans are an essential guard for liberty - one of the ways liberty is in fact secured.

Tyranny will attempt to make its play in America, but, as the Declaration of Independence says, our liberty has been endowed by the Creator - it does not come from the government. We'll see who's right here, but I say American liberty won't be defeated until the radius of the sun expands to the point of erasing life on earth.

I've decided to stick with the American founding fathers rather than with you, but good luck to you in all your ventures.