MA Firearm Safety

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   To the Editor: This letter is not politically correct, mainly because it deals in truth and ‘common sense’, the latter being a quaint old term rapidly fading into history. For a long while now I have been witnessing anti Second Amendment ‘spin’ spew forth from the major media outlets. It seems no one wants to address crime control, only gun control, regardless of the spin, they are not one and the same.

   When our public servants swear their oath to office, to uphold the Constitution, then some of them turn around and try to diminish your Rights by passing gun control measures, that my friends is an affront to you and the Constitution they swore to uphold! The Second Amendment truly is our first Right, the only Right that ensures the rest will endure. I am using emphasis on the word ‘Right’ so it can be clearly understood that it is not a privilege. There is no Bill of Privileges! In this country if you are convicted of a felony, you forfeit your Right to firearm ownership along with your Right to be free.    http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

   The media would, and does, imply, strongly,  that by definition legal gun owners are criminals. WRONG!! We do not always agree with another person or groups point of view, but agree or not, we should all defend the Right under the First Amendment for everyone to express their view. You or I do not have to own a firearm, that is our free decision, but as an American, you should defend your fellow Americans Right under the Second Amendment to own firearms if they so choose. It is an American birthright. To erode any of our Constitution in an unconstitutional manner is to invite the collapse of the entire document and all of our freedoms. I do not understand our public servants, the media, and certain lawyers who feign ignorance?

   The communists would use any means to justify the end result. This was not lost on the media, they embrace the strategy. When anything goes to get what you want, the truth is the first victim. In this country a push for total gun confiscation is underway, driven by the media elite and bad, (i.e. treasonous) politicians. For every story where a crime is committed with a gun it is heralded by the media, there are other instances, (reported by the NRA) where a crime is prevented, and the intended victim who saves himself, or others, goes unreported. This kind of discrimination on the part of the media is very thoughtfully designed to build negative public opinion against gun ownership, the media works extremely hard trying to manipulate how people think about the subject of gun control.

    There are greed driven trial lawyers that have their sights set on legitimate gun makers who are engaged in lawful commerce. These greed driven trial lawyers claim that if a gun makers firearm is used in a crime then the gun maker should be liable for any consequences the criminal may have caused! Ridiculous but true. These suits should be laughed out of every courtroom at every turn, otherwise what other type of ludicrous law suits will spring up next, on what other legitimate business manufacturer? These suits violate constitutional and civil Rights, including the First, Second, and Ninth Amendments. This is just another way to circumvent the Second Amendment unconstitutionally. By trying to bankrupt gun makers that make the only constitutionally protected consumer product, these lawyers try to do away with a source of protection for all Americans.

   As can easily be shown in England, Australia, and Canada to name a few, crime has skyrocketed in all areas after gun confiscation took place. You may guess correctly that criminals fail to turn in their guns! This goes unreported by the media, it is a lie by its very omission. The trouble is, it will be your Right to self defense that certain trial lawyers, the media, and some of your public servants are trying to take from you. There were bad people before guns were invented, and there will be bad people, (with guns) even after the guns of every law abiding citizen are confiscated, you cannot legislate evil intent away.

   On the whole, sadly enough, the police only serve as the ‘clean-up crew’ after the crime is committed. It really is your first duty and your Right to be able to defend yourself and your family. You should NEVER allow anyone to take away your Right to self defense! Call your public servant, let him or her know how you feel, remind them of their oath, the gun control legislation that they block today may save your life tomorrow. Mark Shean {Note; submitted on 2-29-2000 – to 3 papers, but not printed, no surprise there!).  www.mafirearmsafety.com

   To The Editor; The Clinton/Gore administration is now on a big push for more gun control laws with the help of the media ‘spin’ machine. There is a hard drive now for gun registration, (to be followed closely by confiscation, as history teaches us) in California, by a few communistic California politicians, (it’s always the democrats). History has taught them this method of unilateral disarmament worked wonders for the likes of Lenin, Stalin, J. Gomez, Hitler, Castro and many other Clinton role models.

   At the same time the Clinton/Gore administration wants to disarm America, it goes out of its way to aid communist China with missile technology! The Clinton/Gore administration should be more concerned with rebuilding Americas military, that the last seven years have decimated, and be less concerned with building Red China’s military potential. What better way could Clinton/Gore find to soften the beachheads for their buddies in Beijing than to disarm the largest free and armed civilian population in the history of mankind? Would you really feel more comfortable knowing you live in a police state? Ask the peasants of any country living in a police state how they feel about it, choice is not an option for them.

   Rational people realize, (as did our Founding Fathers) that giving up our freedoms under the guise of public safety is the governments convoluted scheme for eventually subjugating its citizens. It does so with the help of clever media distortions which lead to a misinformed public approval. Our Founding Fathers had the incredible foresight to span the centuries. Most of our political ‘leaders’ today do not have the foresight to see past their own special interests, to do what is right for the sake of national sovereignty, they will not even defend the principals of the Constitution that they swore to uphold!!

   Where have the leaders with backbone gone? What is this nation becoming? Someone should step up to the plate and take charge again before its to damned late! In the case of China, Teddy Roosevelt would have carried a big stick indeed to show the Red Chinese military, that is the only thing they understand and someone had better start talking their language! All of the unpatriotic, self serving, empty suits elected to Washington D.C. need to be reminded they are duty bound to uphold the Constitution regardless of party affiliation, and that they work, (within the confines of the Constitution) for us, WE THE PEOPLE!

   I part with a grim reminder from two of our Founding Fathers, NOAH WEBSTER:{“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”}. PATRICK HENRY:{“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”}.

   { NOTE; The U.S. Attorney General prior to JOHN ASHCROFT was Janet Reno under Clinton. She was in no way qualified for that post, she argued to the Supreme Court that no one had the right of firearm ownership. Now Obama is in, and he has put Eric Holder in the A.G. post, Holder worked hard in the Clinton administration with Janet Reno to ban ALL firearm ownership in America but was stoped by a Republican majority in Congress, now he is back, do you think for a second his priorities have changed, do the spots on a cobra change? I guess Holder is another example of ‘change we can believe in’.  http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

 Mark Shean  www.mafirearmsafety.com   [note was written 5-18-2009]

   {Note; This next piece I had written and circulated for a rally that I attended with my wife in Carver on 3-25-2000 protesting the police chief’s policy of not issuing gun permits to anyone, including retired Carver police officers, (“they don’t need them any more”), quote, unquote. The rally was a huge success, people from around the country came. {She had yellow eyes, I swear to God, yellow eyes! M.S.}

   [Hear Yea! Hear Yea! A Royal Proclamation! Her Eminence, thee exalted one, Police Chief Skoog of Carver MA., has decreed that henceforth and forever more in Her realm, only thee peasants that meet with thee Royal criteria, and only after Her Eminencie’s critical approval, may they be allowed to have issued unto them permits to carry / possess firearms for personal protection. First and foremost of thee Royal criteria: Said peasant must bring forth proof positive that he or she has undergone previously an attack of a violent and nearly deadly nature, (and survived adequately) before Her Eminence Skoog will consider bequeathing thee privilege to defend oneself in thee future. Her Eminence Skoog reasons, quite logically, that many may not survive thee initial violent attack, and therefore, far fewer audiences with peasants will need to be granted to test Her Royal patience. Judge O’Malley of the Royal Court, a loyal liberal Tory, and a Skoog confederate, arbitrarily discounted thee Bill of Rights and Constitution in general, in their Royal scheme to disarm the peasant populace by increments. Oh how we the people long to rid the land, (like in 1776) of thee scourge of Skoog and her evil tory allies once and forever more.]

   {NOTE; This handout was well recieved by the peasant rabble that was assembled outside of the Carver police chief’s Castle that day, and honest to God, that reason was the only one she would even consider, you had to have been nearly killed first to ‘qualify’!} Mark Shean- Arbitrary Discretion, ain’t it great !  written 3-20-2000  www.mafirearmsafety.com 

   {NOTE; Within 18 months of this event in front of the Carver police station, the selectmen gave Skoog a pink slip, she simply was not cost effective as the town was losing court case after court case to pissed off citizens. The chief that replaced her has people skills and is more friendly to honest citizens. This is a good example of the power we possess if we demand change. M.S.

1. Donald Rumsfeld: “Visit with your predecessors of previous administrations. They know the ropes and can help you see around some corners. Don’t needlessly repeat their mistakes”.

2. THOMAS JEFFERSON:” Those who beat their guns into plows will plow for those who don’t”.

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

4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it”.

5. GEORGE PATTON: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country”.

6. RONALD REAGAN: “Man is not free unless government is limited”.

7. ALEXANDER HAMILTON: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything”.

8. JOHN ADAMS: “Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people”.

9. THOMAS JEFFERSON: “When people fear government, there is tyranny; when government fears the people, there is liberty”.

10. JOHN PAUL JONES:“I have not yet begun to fight!”.

11. NATHAN HALE:“I ONLY REGRET THAT I HAVE BUT ONE LIFE TO GIVE FOR MY COUNTRY”.

12. PATRICK HENRY:“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”.

13. JAMES MADISON: “Where a excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected, no man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions”.

14. THOMAS JEFFERSON: “When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property”.

15. GEORGE PATTON: “Better to fight for something than live for nothing”. “Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets”.

16. DANIEL WEBSTER: “The peoples government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people”..

NOTE; This was a smattering of what has made the fabric of our United States.

M.Shean, author of #GUN SENSE, on Amazon

Forward: {This is a copy of the letter that the United States Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT wrote in response to Mr. Baker of the NRA, when he was asked what his stance on the Second Amendment was, 4-10-2001.}

Dear Mr. Baker; Thank you for your letter of April 10,2001, regarding my views on the Second Amendment. While I cannot comment on any pending litigation, let me state unequivocally my view that the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms.

   While some have argued that the Second Amendment guarantees only a “collective” right of the States to maintain militias, I believe the Amendment’s plain meaning and original intent prove otherwise. Like the First and Fourth Amendments, the Second Amendment protects the rights of the “people,” which the Supreme Court has noted is a term of art that should be interpreted consistently throughout the Bill of Rights. United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 u.s. 259,265 (1990) (plurality opinion). Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.

This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers. See, e.g., Federalist No.46 (Madison); Federalist No.29 (Hamilton); see also, Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution,1764 (“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms”); George Mason at Virginia’s u.s. Constitution ratification convention 1788 (“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people…To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them”). This is not a novel position. In early decisions, the United States Supreme Court routinely indicated that the right protected by the Second Amendment applied to individuals. See, e.g., Logan v. United States, 144 u.s. 263, 276 (1892); Miller v. Texas, 153 u.s. 535, 538 (1893); Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 u.s. 275, 281-82 (1897); Maxwell v. Dow, 176 u.s. 581, 597 (1900).

Justice Story embraced the same view in his influential Commentaries on the Constitution. See (3) J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution ~ 1890, p. 746 (1833). It is the view that was adopted by United States Attorney General Homer Cummings before Congress in testifying about the constitutionality of the first federal gun control statute, the National Firearms Act of 1934. See The National Firearms Act of 1934: Hearings on H.R. 9066 Before the House Comm. on Ways and Means, 73rd Cong. 6, 13, 19 (1934). As recently as 1986, the United States Congress and President Ronald Reagan explicitly adopted this view in the Firearms Owners Protection Act. See Pub. L. No. 99-308, ~ I (b) (1986).

Significantly, the individual rights view is embraced by the preponderance of legal scholarship on the subject, which, I note, includes articles by academics on both ends of the political spectrum. See, e.g., William Van Alstyne, The Second Amendment and the Personal Right to Arms, 43 Duke L.J. 1236 (1994); Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, 101 Yale L.J. 1193 (1992); Sanford Levinson, The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 Yale L.J. 637 (1989); Don Kates, Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment, 82 Mich. L. Rev. 204 (1983).

In light of this vast body of evidence, I believe it is clear that the Constitution protects the private ownership of firearms for lawful purposes. As I was reminded during my confirmation hearing, some hold a different view and would, in effect, read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution. I must respectfully disagree with this view, for when I was sworn as Attorney General of the United States, I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. That responsibility applies to  all parts  of the Constitution, including the Second Amendment. Thank you for your interest in this matter. Sincerely, John Ashcroft, Attorney General

{NOTE; This is the letter the Boston Globe refused to print, instead the Globe pretended Ashcroft was trying to reinvent the Second Amendment. You Decide.}

Submitted 5-10-2001, M.Shean, author of GUN SENSE, on Amazon

1. JAMES MADISON:“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government“.

2. GEORGE WASHINGTON : “We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience”.

3. JAMES MADISON: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms“.

4. GEORGE WASHINGTON:“Firearms are second only to the Constitutional in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty, their teeth”.

5. JAMES MADISON:“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. We are right to be alarmed at the first experiment upon our liberties”.

6. DANIEL WEBSTER:“It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever”..

{ NOTE; An apt warning in view of the current world situation and this administration under Obama, who has an anti gun voting record, though he swears to uphold the Constitution, go figure. Watch what they do, NOT what they say.   http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

M. Shean  www.mafirearmsafety.com

To The Editor: This is in response to a recent Boston Globe article written by a Globe staff writer, Anne E. Cornball, [Ashcroft pushes New gun policy, reinterprets the Constitution]. I am sure that most would agree something over 200 years old could hardly be called ‘new’, the Second Amendment is as relevant today as in the day it was written.

The Attorney General declared what most Americans already know and have held as true since the inception of the Constitution, socialists withstanding of course. It is nothing less than a rare, but honest government officials stand on, and affirmation of an individuals right to lawfully keep and bear arms as guaranteed under the Constitution. Furthermore on July 9Th this stand was reiterated when Undersecretary of State JOHN BOLTON told the United Nations, {“The United States will not join consensus on a final document that contains measures abrogating the constitutional right to bear arms”}.

The Boston Globe did not see fit to print the Attorney Generals letter, to do so would mean the unwashed masses could decide for themselves if Mr. Ashcroft’s letter is really a re-interpretation of the Second Amendment, as the Boston Globe would have us all believe. Attorney General Ashcroft’s letter should be printed in its entirety, as it concerns all Americans. The Attorney Generals letter is not, by any stretch of imagination, merely a personal opinion. It is in fact an inescapable and honest conclusion based upon extensive research and footnoted with documented case histories in chronological order through the years since our Constitution was ratified,….honest men will find it irrefutable.

I would challenge the Globe to show some backbone by actually printing the entire text of the Attorney Generals educated conclusion concerning the Second Amendment, (copy enclosed for your convenience). It deserves at least a fraction of the space your paper dedicates to over paid pro athletes or cartoons. The media in all of its forms should not be so quick to wish the Second Amendment out of our Constitution. It has been, and so far remains the only barrier that allows us to retain our freedoms, (including the First Amendment) from foreign enemies, and increasingly, certain domestic politicians.

{NOTE; I wrote this letter to the Boston Globe on 7-19-2001, the Globe did not see fit to print it, this is because of the far left slant of the Globe that it is now on the brink of bankruptcy at this date 5-16-2009, a mere 8 years later. At the same time I came across a brief two sentence article buried on page 29, of the Boston Herald, (Justice Touts Gun Ownership) it should have been on the front page. The Boston Herald also did not print Mr. Ashcroft’s letter, I guess they decided to shield us from our rights, lest we gain knowledge. I made the same challenge to the Herald, which was not printed by the cowards. People are sick of prepared statements/propaganda instead of unbiased news, because of this I predict many more “fish wrappers” will fail.}

Mark Shean, author of GUN SENSE on Amazon

1. CHESTER W. NIMITZ: “A ship is always referred to as “she” because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder”

2. RONALD REAGAN:“One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let government run it”.

3. THEODORE ROOSEVELT:“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer “present” or “not guilty”.

4. ABRAHAM LINCOLN:“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.

5. RONALD REAGAN:“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15Th“.

6. DANIEL BOONE:“I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks”.

7. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:“Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”.

8. DANIEL BOONE:“All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife”.

9. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN:“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do”.

10. RONALD REAGAN:“You know, its been said that if all the economists in the world were laid end to end they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion”. “I’ve been criticized for going over the head of Congress. So what’s the fuss? A lot of things go over their heads”.  www.mafirearmsafety.com

More sage observations.

1. RONALD REAGAN: “Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty“.

2. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert…..to fleece the people“.

3. JOHN ADAMS: “There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be; trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty”.

4. THOMAS JEFFERSON: “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from to much government“.

5. DANIEL WEBSTER: ” God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to defend it“.

{NOTE; Watch now for power grabs resulting in government going into a tailspin. M.Shean, author of #GUN SENSE, on Amazon

1. THOMAS JEFFERSON: “The democracy will cease to exist when you take from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not“.

2. RONALD REAGAN:” The people that created the mess still cannot bring themselves to admit that the culprit that wreaked such havoc and hardship on our people was their very own policies”.

3. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people”.

4. JOHN ADAMS:“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as down right ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation“.

5. THOMAS PAINE: “The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in a peoples fear of resistance.”

6. GEORGE WASHINGTON:“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness”.

7. Daniel Webster:“Falsehoods not only disagree with truths, but usually quarrel among themselves”.

NOTE; Do you see the resemblance today in their warnings? You should if you don’t live under a rock.

M. Shean, author of #GUN SENSE, on Amazon