MA Firearm Safety

Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Maybe someone can help me out on this one, when did people start calling New Years Eve ‘first night’ and why ? If you stop and think about it, for a nano-second, you should know it is the last night of the departing year. The first night of the new year starts after 6 PM on the first full day of  January. The last day of the year is the ‘eve’ of the new year, no different than Christmas eve being the night before Christmas, duh! What am I missing here? Politicians like mayor ‘mumbles’ Menino of Boston  or mayor Bumbag of  NYC seem to think its the ‘first night’ right along with all the ‘lefty’ lame-stream newspapers/media that ignorantly print it/say it on every front page and channel as fact. I just don’t get it?

I remember, in the not so distant past, watching people wearing paper party hats using  little noise makers that you would blow into or spin in your hand, no one was ever heard calling it ‘first night’, ever. Guy Lombardo playing a countdown to midnight.  When did that simple ringing in of the new year turn into a freak show with people jumping around in weird costumes like, (in the words of Slim Pickens from the movie Blazing Saddles), “like a bunch of Kansas City fags“?  Its no wonder we come off as morons to the rest of a world that looks for any reason to hate us anyway.  I just don’t get it? Maybe that is why we are 47th in the world in education, and fading.

Have a safe New Years Eve, and hopefully a happy and safe new year. 🙂 M.S.

I was listening to the news the other day when they reported what I thought was an astonishing statistic, that there were 33 million people in the U.S.  still in debt from what they had bought last Christmas! This being twelve months later, do you find that as shocking as I do? I was never brought up under the good example made by my parents to think that Christmas was the one day of the year set aside which obligated everyone to go broke. That whole notion, I am sure, was the brainchild of retail stores and banks pushing  ‘easy credit’.

Christmas to me means a family get together, a very nice meal, going to the midnight mass thanking God for our blessings. It was never about how much money you could spend trying to ‘one-up’ everyone else. I know that commercialism is not the intended meaning of Christmas, never was. People have been brainwashed to think it is about the ‘things’ you get.

My mother has always said that you get what you need when you need it, at any time of year, and only if you can stay within the budget. I agree.  She is from an era that was devoid of the temptation’s of  credit cards, the ‘buy now pay later’ traps. She is from the era of pay cash or do without until you could pay cash. We need urgently to get back to that way of thinking.

I guess the 33 million people that are still in debt from last year have put upon themselves the added, (needless) stress of how to pay for this Christmas also. The best things in life are free…. It is hard to wean yourself from the ‘easy credit’ trap while trying to impress people with ‘things’….

Start by getting back to the basics,  just being glad that your family is together and well, by enjoying each others company. People do not love one another based on what they can buy each other, that is not love.  Simple thoughtful and caring actions are the real measure of love, not ‘things’.  The whole world would be better off  without the traps of  ‘easy credit’. May the true Spirit of Christmas find you and yours well.  🙂

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mark Shean, submitted 12-7-2010

       This is presented as a ‘hypothetical’, for your consideration, but is a true story.

        A home owner, on his day off from working continual 12 hour shifts, in order to provide for his family, is home one day minding his own business when he decides to run a quick errand.  He is only gone for about 35 minutes before he returns home. He puts up his garage door by remote control and enters the garage. Suddenly from the floor above his head he hears someone running through his home, he knows his wife and live-in elderly mother in- law are not home, they are out running errands today.

     The home owner goes around to the back of his house and discovers a window has been broken open! He quickly returns to his truck where he calls 911 then retrieves a pump shotgun from his truck. The shotgun is unloaded with a trigger lock on it, he was preparing to give a firearm safety course  within the next hour, (he is a state firearm instructor) and had put the shotgun in the truck already for the class. He decides that even though the gun is unloaded and locked, the criminal will not know this and decides to use it hopefully to bluff the criminal.

     The home owner goes around to the back of his home and looks up at the sliding glass doors, inside the house the criminal is looking out at him. The home owner holds the shotgun up for the criminal to see and says to come out of the house, instead the criminal retreats out of view into the interior. At this the owner runs around to the front of his home thinking the criminal is going to try to escape that way. When the criminal does not leave by the front, the owner positions himself  on the side of the house to watch both the front and back doors at an angle.

     Within about 30 seconds the criminal comes out the back door of the house, the owner see’s him and tells him that he has a shotgun, points it, and yells not to move! The burglar takes one look over his shoulder and bolts for the porch stairs! He drops a bag of stolen items on the porch as he runs. The home owner gives chase with the useless unloaded shotgun and is only about four feet behind the criminal but cannot gain ground on him. So he decides to use the shotgun to reach out and ‘touch’ the criminal. He swings it once, glancing the barrel off the burglars head, The criminal starts screaming and running faster. (In the movies he would have fallen down.) The home owner swings a second time glancing it off the criminals head again, this time the shotgun’s barrel breaks off!  The home owner is in utter disbelief about the barrel so he drops the useless gunstock and continues chasing the criminal.

     Now,while all this chase is taking place, the cell phone is still connected to 911, it is in the home owners left hand as he runs. The criminal is running next to a six foot high stockade fence behind two of the neighbors homes, with the home owner about ten feet behind, the crook turns a corner that will lead back to the street, then he stops and turns, the homeowner takes the corner and is confronted with the criminal about eight feet away facing him. The cell phone, 911 operator is still ‘listening’ when the criminal says to the home owner ” I have a gun, if you keep chasing me I will shoot you”, at this the home owner replies, “then you had better f****** use it!” and rushes the criminal, who turns screaming “I don’t have a gun!” “I don’t have a gun!”  This exchange was all caught on the 911 recording.

     The chase lasts about another fifty yards before the home owner catches the criminal with an upper body tackle from behind driving him down into the pavement on the driveway of a former assistant district attorney of the town. At this point the criminal is trying to wrestle free so the home owner knocks the steam out of him with some well placed  ‘incentives’, (punches) convincing him to stop moving. He pins him to the ground for about five more minutes before the police arrive and take over custody of this guy who turns out to be a very well known 38 year old serial burglar who has been in and out of jail since his early teens. Anyone who has lived in the neighborhood for ten years or more know of his extensive criminal history, as the home owner discovers later.

    Back at work, the home owner discovers that many people where he works have been burglarized within the last three weeks in the same general vicinity, one on the same day just a few hours prior.  At least three people know the criminal by name, (R. E. Thomas Jr.) for thefts he has committed against them over the years. He had some stolen jewelry the day of his arrest that belonged to a house only a few hundred yards away from where he was caught, he admitted guilt to that break in.  At the time he was caught by the home owner he was high on heroin and also on probation,(again)! He does not merely have a ‘rap’ sheet, he has his own volume!

   During  his forcible break-in and unforseen felony trespass of the locked home of where he was caught, while engaged in ransacking the home, he came upon an unloaded handgun along with an unloaded magazine the firearm instructor was preparing to bring to a safety class within the hour. He went through all the drawers and also found jewelry and a partially loaded magazine in another room which he evidently inserted into the handgun but had not chambered a round, as this was how it was discovered by police inside the bag of loot. Later a police officer says the home owner may be “cited” for the hand gun being ‘unsecure’!

    The home was locked and as secure as any house can reasonably be when the home owner had briefly run his errand! ‘Container’ is not defined  in MGL chapter 140 firearm law statutes, the gun was ‘contained within the locked home therefore it was secure. Unless the law is rewritten and specifies a size range for the word ‘container’ the home owner should be OK. A judge can not legally ‘legislate’, (rewrite laws) from the bench, that’s not his job. One has to wonder, at what point will a criminal be held responsible for his willfully unlawful intentions and determined actions that are beyond the control of any home owner? Is anything really ever ‘secure’, only reasonable attempts can be made to secure anything.

      The home owner was under a dark cloud of apprehension/anxiety with this police threat of  being ‘cited’ hanging over him. On the 21st of Nov. he received notice of his ‘hearing’ set for Dec. 23rd in the District Court of Plymouth, two days before Christmas, (Merry Christmas!).  He wonders if  his effort to catch the crook was such a good thing after all? No good deed goes unpunished? NOTE: Dec. 23rd, The charge against the homeowner was dismissed by the police, not bad for Ma..

   His wife was afraid to leave the house for fear another criminal the courts have allowed to roam free may break in, at least until the alarm system is installed. (It has now been installed).

      Should the home owner have been put through that stress for catching a known criminal? The gun within the house was secure, the doors were locked, the gun was initially unloaded, no children live there, trigger locks are only tamper resistant devices meant for children. 

   The home owner should never have met this serial burglar in the first place! Because, had the so-called justice system done its job effectively this criminal would have stayed in jail much longer instead of simply being ‘unleashed’ onto the unsuspecting public on probation, for ‘good behaviour’, over and over and over again. This ‘revolving door’ legal system seems deliberately designed to generate repeat business at the tax payers expense and more victims misery. The courts know he will be back, and that court appointed lawyers will continue to rake in our tax money because of him.  Every successful industry relies upon repeat customers……..in that light, the courts are very successful indeed.

   Tax payers as a whole are the real victims due to the sins of the court, sins of which the victims of repeat offenders should refuse to be made the scapegoat!

UPDATE: The criminal, Robert E.Thomas Jr.  received 5 years at Concord in February 2011 to be followed by 3 years probation. Of course 5 years in Ma. probably means 18 months…………… what an ‘industry’.

Submitted 11-13-2010

Mark Shean, author of #1 rated GUN SENSE on Amazon.

I initially got involved with giving the state required basic firearm safety course when my son became old enough,(15) to apply for his firearm identification card,(FID). I started looking for an instructor that would give the course, at that time it was a separate course than the one given for the license to carry, (LTC). I found instructors, but each one told me they only gave the LTC course, good only for 21 and older, “there was more money in it” an instructor told me. I retorted by saying to him, (because by then I was starting to get fed up) “when you dinosaur’s go extinct the shooting sports will go extinct with you because you ignored the kids”!

I could not believe how short sighted these people were. So I  became a state instructor, my son was my first classroom ‘victim’ for his FID card, then I began giving the course to the 15-20 year old group exclusively. Now the course will cover either age group with no distinctions.

I know how important it is to include our youth in the shooting sports, that is how I started,  it is the only way these traditions have any hope of surviving into the future. I think that we as adults kind of overlook how important it really is to talk to our children about their rights under the Constitution. If we don’t talk to them how will they ever know?        Share your passion of firearm freedom with them. Don’t depend on the public school system to educate them about their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Schools/teachers unions, are anti Second Amendment, their ultimate agenda is to rewrite history by leaving out, and/or ‘re-interpreting’ whole sections of our Constitution and passing it off as factual to our children.  By making the framers of the Constitution nary a footnote in history. So please talk to your children about their rights if you don’t want them to lose these rights. Home schooling is a good antidote to misinformation.

We fight hard to keep a certain class of politicians in line concerning our rights, we do not overlook their assaults on the Constitution, we can get very energized at the polls to ‘kick the bums out’ as we can on election day.  But stop and think, do you take the time to explain the way you feel about your freedoms to your children? Do you take the time to make sure they understand that these freedoms can only survive if they too fight someday against the agendas of a few bad people willing to abuse their powers while holding political office? It has to come from you, as the adult, as it did from your parents when the terror that was  WWII was very real in their lives. They held their freedoms very dear indeed.

The importance of this seems to become more and more diluted, as the years pass, than when I was young. Try a test to see what, if anything, has been taught to your children about the Constitution, the founders, or the Bill of Rights in school. Simply ask them if they have ever heard of the history behind the forming of American Independence, you may be shocked at their answers or lack thereof. It will be a clear message, and duty for you to teach them yourself in this area.

The Constitution is only as strong as the current generation who protect it. If our young have no idea it exists, their rights will cease to exist along with their freedoms in the not so distant future.  Firearm rights are the keystone of those freedoms.

Mark Shean,  Author of #1 rated GUN SENSE, found on Amazon.

written 8-27-2010

This is a quote from an original Patriot who understood this all to well;

” The voice of tradition. I trust, will inform posterity of our struggles for freedom. If our descendants be worthy the name of Americans they will preserve and hand down to their latest posterity the transactions of the present times“  PATRICK HENRY,   6-5-1788 

Submitted by Mark Shean Sr.

My new #GUN SENSE book, Rated #1 at AMAZON in the Shooting section!!

Back in November 2009, in my archives, I wrote an article titled;  ‘Zero Gun Sense= Uzi sub-machine gun tragedy in Westfield Ma.‘, it was written on 11-12-09. Fast forward, now in the Boston Herald on 8-21-10 I read that the former police chief of Pelham, Edward Fleury, the organizer of that fateful event where an 8 year old boy died, has filed a motion that the charges be dropped because he says that he could not have ‘forseen’ the accident. I find it fascinating that any judge would even consider the motion.

It is true that when we rise in the morning we really do not know what will happen to us, we have certain expectations of how our day will unfold, or hope it will unfold. We cannot control/foresee everything, of course not.  A drunk, or some nit wit texting, crosses over the center line and there is absolutely no time on your part to react…….you could not foresee this, this may kill you, this is one example, the list can go on and on…..

I do not believe for a second, (unless he is a complete imbecile) that Edward Fleury, who professes himself to be a ‘firearm instructor’ would not have foreseen that something bad would/could happen by putting a fully automatic micro Uzi into the hands of an 8 year old boy. If Fleury is actually telling the truth about not being able to ‘foresee’  this accident, why then was a complete imbecile allowed to run a firearms event of this nature?  As the Range Master/organizer, Fleury had final say in the events of that day.

To highlight the point in another way,…..  why not have Fleury give a child a hand grenade. Could Fleury claim he could not ‘forsee an accident? The child may or may not pull the pin, you cant really ‘foresee’ what he will do, but you can prevent something bad from happening by not giving the child a grenade in the first place! You can control certain circumstances like this by applying a smidgen of sense. The boy would have enjoyed being introduced to  the proper use of a .22 cal. bolt action rifle also.

If Fleury really did not understand the characteristics of a Uzi micro sub-machine gun, and that an 8 year old would not have the understanding, strength or physical coordination to control such a weapon, that would, at the very least, boil down to gross incompetence on his part, and for that he and others involved should pay. He allowed perceived ‘fun’ to trump safety and good sense. I hope the judge dismisses the motion and goes on with the trial.

UPDATE: On January 1, 2011, Fleury was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, and the three counts of furnishing a machine-gun to minors. He had organized the event and allowed a 15 year old with no instructor credentials to oversee the victim use a Micro Uzi. While I find it incredible that he was cleared of all charges, the Ma. jury has spoken. Two others, Domenico Spano, and Carl Giuffre are accused of supplying the Micro Uzi, they have pleaded ‘not guilty’ and await trial.

Mark Shean, 8-22-2010

NEW UPDATE: Nine year old girl accidentally kills instructor in Arizona with the exact same type weapon as in above story, a Mini Uzi, another case of ‘Fun’ before Safety gone very bad. See link;

http://news.yahoo.com/girl-nine-kills-arizona-shooting-instructor-uzi-accident-202638510.html

Rated #1 at AMAZON in the Shooting section!!

Two relevant quotes from one of our Founding Fathers.

  {“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion….in private self defense.”}

            {“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”}

                            -JOHN ADAMS- 

 NOTE: When I read these quotes, and others from the founders, I understand more clearly their warnings, and why enemies of freedom want to diminish and pervert the meaning of our Constitution today, there is nothing moral or religious about these people, many are in power in D.C., our Constitution is just a roadblock in their way. It is up to freedom loving Americans to be a roadblock in the ‘progressives’ way. It is up to you to teach your children to understand these threats for when they take control of things in the future. 

The Constitution, defend it always.  Mark Shean, submitted on 8-9-10  http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

    Eastern equine encephalitis or (EEE), a public health risk, certainly. Massachusetts health officials sent out an automated phone message on Tuesday Aug. 3rd. The message said that on Wed. the 4th and Thur. the 5th there would be aerial spraying from 8pm to 3am each night, and that you should keep windows closed and air conditioning  units off. Mind you, on these nights the humidity was very oppressive. I had to wonder what these ‘health officials’ were thinking in regards to the elderly who would have to sit in sweltering conditions while this spraying were going on? Could we wait for drier conditions? Maybe use OFF in the meantime?

    So on Wednesday night people turned off their AC units, buttoned down their windows, and sat in the heat, only to find out on Thursday that the spraying had been cancelled due to windy conditions. There had been no automated phone calls telling anyone of this, so one night of suffering in the heat needlessly, thank you ‘health officials’. Your looking out for us.

   On Thursday another automated phone message was sent out, this time giving the same warning as before, close windows and turn off AC units, again on yet another oppressively humid night. Wednesday night had been a trial run with no spraying,  now some more suffering for the elderly, and the rest of us.  Friday morning we find out that spraying had not been done in Plymouth Thursday night,  according to the police, that would be done on Friday and Saturday nights instead!  So, Thursday was another pointless night in the sweltering heat for no good reason, thank you ‘health officials’, again, looking out for the elderly and the rest of us once more.

   Now mind you, the automated messages tell us to close our windows and turn off our AC units while spraying is taking place between the hours of 8pm and 3am. This sounds dire, the spray must be bad for us to inhale, one would think. But the ‘health officials’ now wanted to spray, according to the message, on Friday and Saturday nights when the most people are out at restaurant’s, the movies, malls, weekend get-togethers having a good time. This is when the ‘health officials’ think its a good time to spray, on everyone’s head!  Wouldn’t the middle of the week, when most people are at home because they have to work the next day be a better time? Thank you once again ‘health officials’, your just looking out for us?

    From the governor who gave the ‘green light’ for this, right on down the line, it must be a prerequisite, that in order to be a public official, you must already be brain dead.

 Mark Shean, written on 8-7-10

By Mark Shean Sr. author of #GUN SENSE, on Amazon.

Common sense used to mean to me, in an overall general way, the prevailing notion of what was the right, proper or safe thing to do throughout many varied real life situations. These days I view the term ‘common sense’ as a misnomer. I don’t want to be associated with the ‘common’, as in generally accepted ‘sensible’ notions of today.

What is common sense today? I don’t believe that common sense, intended in any good way, exists much anymore. It now defines a whole new concept in the overall social mentality. Using good sense now is actually very uncommon behaviour. For instance, someone who pulls off to the side of the road to call or text is using uncommon sense, as in ‘good’, ask yourself, do you see that happening very often? ‘Common ignorance’ more aptly describes, and has completely eclipsed the ‘common sense’ of old, especially with the advent of cell phones, used on our public   roadways.

Driving distractedly/ ignorantly is now the norm, not the exception where cell phones are concerned. Vast numbers of people, everywhere you care to look, appear oblivious to the necessity of paying undivided attention to their surroundings as that one ton (or more) missile they are behind the wheel of, hurtles blindly along. Blindly? Sure, ask yourself,… while your texting, who is driving? Texting behind the wheel must be more important to people than life itself,… theirs, or anyone elses. FACT; People are dieing on the roadways all across the country due to driving and texting, or are victims of it. Depending on your speed, when you take your eyes off the road to text, your vehicle can travel anywhere from 50 to 300 feet in one second before you look back at the road! On some unconscious level I guess many people are in a hurry to go to the ‘bone yard’, sadly, they can bring innocent people with them in many cases!  ‘Common sense’, now translated, is really ‘common ignorance’, and it is prevailing. For it to be said that you have ‘uncommon sense’ would be a compliment, your not being part of the ‘herd’.

When I notice a vehicle moving along erratically, (which is often) invariably the driver will be texting or yapping on a cell phone.  How in the world did we ever make it from point  A to point B  before cell phones were invented? I guess maybe we just had to pay attention to the road. When/if we  make it to our destinations today, it is much less safely now than it was in the shaky past, your surrounded by what is now the prevailing ‘common sense’, that’s spooky. The drunks are still out there, as they were in the past, but they now are also yapping/texting on cell phones as they weave happily along, double jeopardy for you and I !! Pedestrians, cyclist’s, children, motorcyclist’s, their lives are in your hands….are your hands on the wheel… and your mind on the road?

On the political front, when I hear a politician exclaim that, (this or that bill) is the common sense thing to do, I cringe and wonder if any of the clowns will actually read it first before taking a vote. Their collective ideas on what is ‘common sense’  are now leading the nation down the road to financial ruin at this very moment. What we need now are politicians with ‘uncommon’ sense, certainly not the status quo. You cant keep voting for the same buffoons and expect different results! That only means we are not paying attention, or using good sense!

On the topic of  ‘common sense’ in the shooting sports, I will tell people in my class that before they ever fire a gun to be certain of their target and of what is beyond it. Not only at the shooting range but also while hunting, not to get so caught up in the excitement of shooting at a deer that you have ‘tunnel vision’ of what or who may be beyond. That is just common sense someone will usually say. I counter that with, if it is such ‘common sense’ why are we always reading, on a fairly regular basis, about accidental shootings in the woods? Please, don’t use the prevailing ‘common sense’, today, as individuals, we need to start exercising more ‘uncommon sense’.

Mark Shean,

written 7-16-2010

     I see in the Patriot Ledger the other day that our ‘glourious’ governor has proposed a gun bill, and is trying hard to push it through the legislature before the legislative session ends July 31. This gun bill would limit legal, law abiding, gun license holders from buying more than one gun per month. It would also take away our right to sell guns among ourselves, as we have done for decades, with the proper paperwork obtained from the police department,  instead makeing us go through a gun dealer so that we will need to pay additional fees and taxes on each transaction. Something, I am sure, offered as a bone to the gun dealers so as not to fight this legislation.

   This bill only targets the law abiding citizen, I can say this with complete certainty, as we are the only ones who can walk into a gun store to legally buy a gun in Massachusetts’s. The criminals don’t have a gun license, therefore cannot buy a gun legally anywhere, at any time! How will this stop gun crimes? Answer; it will not do a thing to stop even one gun crime, ever. And like the other three nit-wit states that have passed this foolishness, there are NO statistics to show gun crime has been curbed, and there never will be.

     Under this bill, lawfully licensed people who buy more than one gun a month would receive a maximum fine of $1000 and a  2 1/2 year jail sentence on a first offense! That is tougher than the state is with repeat drunk drivers or perverts that molest our children!  This bill  is specifically aimed at legally licensed gun owners that have already jumped through the ‘hoops’ in order to exercise a RIGHT under our Constitution! You know, I think that for a second offense, our ‘glourious’ Representatives should consider reinstating the Death Penalty, that seems reasonable to me………how about you?

    I  read that Mary Elizabeth Hefferman, Deval’s secretary of  ‘public safety’, claims that “anyone who has entered a plea by reason of insanity, or has had a mental health hearing in the court system would be prevented from getting a gun license”. Nothing wrong with that, but she goes on to say, “right now, that information is not kept in a database accessible to licensing authorities”. That is a falsehood, or, if she really believes what she said, she is not qualified for her job. By law, it is a requirement that doctors, who make these assessment’s, are to report this information, and that it is stored in the (NICS) National Instant Check System.  Come now, dishonesty, in order to get an anti gun rights bogus bill passed? Has that ploy ever been used before? Is that our elected servants working in our best interest folks? If you think so, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale……..

  Here is an interesting question our ‘glourious’ servant’s have not touched upon in this bill. What if there are multiple, legal gun license holders in one family, under one roof, lets say…. five people. That would mean each person could buy one gun per month under this bogus law. Wow five guns per month, 60 guns per year, oh my God! The humanity! Think of the children! Crime run amok!

   I think it is time for the governor to put his energies towards important issues like the economy and jobs, leave lawful citizens alone. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment is the law of the land, what part of “shall not be infringed” is it that politicians like Deval Patrick don’t understand? Please read the two quotes below, in your mind which one best reflects our ‘leaders’ , and how they like to “operate” today.  Mark Shean, written 6-28-10

  “It will be an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it” -GEORGE WASHINGTON-

  This next quote is from the founding leader of the Russian Communist Party. ” It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed“. Vladimir Lenin

You decide. MS

“It will be an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it” -GEORGE WASHINGTON-

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States” -NOAH WEBSTER-

“The Constitution shall never be construed…to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms” –SAMUEL ADAMS-

“To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them” –RICHARD HENRY LEE-

“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined” –PATRICK HENRY-

“Arms discourage and keep the plunderer in awe, they preserve order in the world as well as property…horrid mischief would ensue were the law- abiding be deprived of the use of them” –THOMAS PAINE-

“There are more instances of the abridgment of  freedom of the people by silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation’s” –JAMES MADISON-

“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” –BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-

“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government” –GEORGE WASHINGTON-

    In 1774, British Brigadier General Lord Hugh Percy, stationed in Boston, commented,“What makes an insurrection here always more formidable than in other places is that there is a law of this province which obligates every inhabitant to be furnished with a firelock, bayonet, and a considerable quantity of ammunition“. 

NOTE:    I am sure that this same view, now, because of our Second Amendment, also ‘troubles’  all those ‘progressives’, (democrats) who would like the United Nations (ATT) Arms Trade Treaty to be passed, not only to disarm us, but to strip away our national sovereignty, and to turn us from being citizens into easily controllable ‘subjects’ to push around, good luck.   Americans are not pushed around for very long before they shove back……  http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

Mark Shean, submitted, 6-24-2010