Archive for April, 2009
“The power of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress.
My friends, it is not so, for the powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from 16 to 60. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible.
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people” Tench Coxe-
Note; I find that everything I read from the Founding Fathers, that their meaning of ‘militia’ and ‘people’ is irrefutably synonymous.
M. Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com
Posted in 
{“Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. 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
NOTE; There is that word “people” again, I am not confused about the Founding Fathers meaning. Why are today’s ‘enlightened politicians’ confused?
M. Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com
{“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 of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops”} Noah Webster
Note; There is that pesky word “people” again.
M. Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com
{” The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government”} Thomas Jefferson also wrote in an early draft of the Virginia constitution: {“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms in his own lands”} Thomas Jefferson
Note; He was specific about the right of the “people” would’nt you say?
M.Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com
{“They tell us that we are weak-unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Three million people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us”.} Patrick Henry
Note; The same holds true today, and the socialist progressives know and loath it.
M.Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com
Get Involved 10-7-08
Author: Mark Shean
To the Editor: Soon it will be time to vote again on November 7Th. America has a dismal turnout percentage at the polls, only 30-35% will bother to break away from their busy routines to be heard on election day. Only 30-35% will decide how the rest of the country will be governed, there is something fundamentally wrong with that picture. You could deduce from those dismal numbers a chronic case of national apathy. I can’t make the time in my schedule to vote, or, I have a golf engagement that day, or worse, they all cheat and lie so why should I waste my time? There are as many excuses as there are people who will not excercise their right to vote. By avoiding the voting booth you ensure that changes in the political arena will never happen.
Low voter turnouts do not translate into a need for politicians to change their ways. Educate yourself, what a candidate is saying at the moment to be elected does not necessarily reflect what he/she has done in the past, the older I get the less I listen to what politicians say and look more at what they have done. Study the persons past voting record, (a matter of public record) to see how a politician truly feels about issues. Weigh it out against your value system, then vote accordingly. His/her real stands on the issues in the past will indicate how he/she will govern in the future, regardless of what they are saying in the present.
I guess the main point is to vote, make time to vote, and when you do, cast an educated vote as opposed to an emotional vote, politicians play on your emotions, they hope your not paying attention to past actions or inactions. The party that stands closest to your core beliefs should be the party to go with, regardless of family tradition. Bring someone along with you, it is a good feeling to engage in a free political process. A process that so many have given their all to preserve. Mark Shean www.mafirearmsafety.com written 10-7-2008
Submitted by Mark Shean Sr. author of GUN SENSE, now on Amazon.
To the Editor: Stalin once said, “The masses do not chose their leaders, the ballot counters do“. I believe he would have been proud of the Democrats effort in Florida. Socialists found when they fielded a candidate under the socialist banner that they would inevitably lose in this country. Now they operate under the guise of liberal Democrats instead. Their philosophy is to use any means necessary to achieve the desired outcome, at any cost. Truth will always be the first causality.
We were given a glimpse of that philosophy in action last week when a concerted effort was made to discount the overseas military ballots of the men and women who put their lives on the line defending our freedoms. The Democrats manufatured specific guidelines to carry out this despicable act because they believed most of those votes would be cast for Mr. Bush. The liberal Democrats made no effort to discount overseas Israeli ‘duel citizen’ ballots, because they felt most of these would be cast for Mr. Gore. On 11-25 like manna from Heaven, an additional 500 Israeli ballots miraculously turned up, I will bet they are all counted,(twice) don’t you?
We were given another glimpse of their philosophy when Senator Liberman made a fool of himself and his party by saying Republicans who were demonstrating did a disservice to our Democracy! In case you did not know Senator Liberman, Democracy supports your right under the First Amendment to demonstrate, just ask your pal Jesse Jackson. Shouldn’t a Senator know just a little bit about the Constitution?
It will now be up to the U.S. Supreme Court to research the liberal Florida Supreme courts arbitrary decision to usurp law written by the Florida Legislature. The Florida Supreme court overstepped its scope of power by rewriting and then implementing election laws after an election, then making them retroactive. This should point out to everyone the arrogance of these under qualified, Clinton appointed, political hacks. This arrogance must be dealt with decisively if we are to avoid the chance of a very real Constitutional crisis.
The last eight years have seen our Constitution under constant attack. Clintons legacy will have been to openly and unashamedly undermine the rule of law. Of course it will not all be Clintons fault. Our Congress has lowered the bar of all that is honest and decent and expected of a President by dropping the ball in the impeachment process. Congress failed to show us that politicians are not above the very laws we must obey. The reason, that would have sent their entire house of cards crumbling! Every single “representative” sent from Massachussetts to Washington was guilty of this. Not something for us to be very proud of.
To all you Democrats that think counting the dimpled ballots in direct violation of Florida state law is an acceptable way to win, Stalin would have been proud of you. It would seem by all indications in Florida that Mr. Gore and his legion of lawyer hacks have learned well the lessons of Clinton, and who knows, Stalin as well. We may be witnessing the last gasps of our Republic, or we may witness its resurgence. We are all living in a time of important history in the making. The U.S. Supreme Court must pick the ball back up and then slam dunk it by saying enough is enough!
Mark Shean written 11-26-2000
Gun FEE Increase 7-17-2008
Author: Mark Shean
To the Editor: If anyone knows a little bit about American history they would probably have heard the phrase ‘taxation without representation’, this is one of the main reasons the early colonists were to rise up and eventually drive the British from these shores.
Fast forward to present day. Now we have elected officials that we loosely call ‘representatives’. These ‘representatives’ here in Massachusetts know all about taxation without representation from our early history, and they have adopted a ‘stealth’ word so as not to be accused of the same crime the British were ousted for. That word is FEE, whenever our ‘representatives’ want their hands on our wallets without our consent, you can be sure that you will hear the word FEE. A FEE is a backdoor tax designed to skirt around the consent of the People, so, it becomes no less than taxation without representation. This has caught on like wildfire all across the state in every town and city. Proposition 2 1/2 is effectively voided by the FEE blitz. But, The People keep rewarding bad behavior by re-electing these phony ‘representatives’ and hoping for different results, when in actuallity they should all be booted out for new blood. Our ‘representatives’ in this state have never met a tax, or schemed up a FEE that they did not like. This is what happens when one party runs a state, or the country with a majority, and when the People do not take the time in their busy lives to PAY ATTENTION.
These ‘representatives’, when elected, all have to go through an uncomfortable yet necessary little formality, it is really quite an awkward affair for most of them, but something that is, after all, a requirement, and has been since real men like George Washington first stepped into public office. They must place their hand on the Bible, (shudder) raise their right hand and swear a solemn oath,(shudder) to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, (shudder, shudder) and when they lower their right hand they are relieved that this silly little formality is over. Most of them do not have a clue as to what is to be expected of them after taking this solemn oath, that is quite evident by their actions once in office. Look at our Governor for example, he is putting an appropriation bill before your ‘representatives’ soon that will raise the FEE on your right to self defense from $100 to $200 for gun permits for law abiding citizens, (criminals may carry free of charge).
When Romney was Governor, he, with the help of our ‘representatives’ raised that same FEE from $25 to $100, a 300% increase! Now, if YOU allow the Governor to raise it again with his new improved FEE of $200 that will be a total increase of 700% since Romney ‘represented’ the People. These ‘representatives’ have an agenda, they are trying to price you out of your Constitutional right to self defense! Gee, that does not sound like they are defending and upholding the Constitution to me, how about you?
We the People have the power, we have incredible power that can stop these ‘representatives’ cold in their tracks from their attacks on our Constitutional rights. We should never even need to pay for our right to self defense, (another argument, another day). For now, roll it back to the $25 it used to be to cover the cost of of processing permits, when your local police station used to do it. This was before a big white elephant was created in Boston to do it, which has only made government red tape more tangled, and your permits slower in coming! A background check to make sure we are good citizens, sure, pay through the nose, NO!
The people who now are most certainly hurt by these high FEES are in the low income bracket, these people are no less American citizens, they have the same Constitutional rights as the rest of us. The Governor and the rest of our ‘representatives’ have not been given a mandate to take away anyones right to self defense through a scheme of FEES! And I am quite certain that the solemn oath they were required to take did not give them that mandate. Call your ‘representatives’, dont ask them, (they work for you) tell them not to raise this FEE! Roll it back! Call your ‘representatives’, they are beholden to do your bidding, you keep putting them in office, and they need to be reminded. The number at the State House is, 617-727-3676
Mark Shean written 7-17-2008 www.mafirearmsafety.com
"Grampys Camp"
Author: Mark Shean
The following are some experiences and feelings of the times I have had and shared at the ‘camp’ over the decades, (built in ’42’ by Grampy) as written on a Fall evening in 2000, during hunting season at my camp, St. Froid Lake, Northern Maine:
My thoughts oftentimes turn to the camp throughout the year. The camp is a serene refuge within my mind that helps counter stress, a retreat that relaxes me and lifts my spirit from the dull routine. It would be difficult for me to imagine the camp not being there. As long as I can remember, the camp was always a part of my life, and hopefully will remain a part of my future. It is a rustic place in its simplicity, maybe this more than anything else is why I’m drawn to it.
The camp was never intended to be more than it is. The only improvements should be maintenance, nothing more, Grampy told me that years ago. I agree. With all the worlds ever changing technology and constantly faster pace, the camp remains a still picture of old. Hewn from rough timber, a refreshing remnant of times past, times in the greater scheme of things all but forgotten now. I love the sight of the lake as a sudden storm whips the surface into whitecaps, when the boom of thunder and the crack of lightning fills the sky over the adjacent hills. The sky by night, enormous, unfettered from artificial lights, one can see clearly an amazing and limitless number of stars, a very different night sky from what I see back home. On a cool clear early morning I have enjoyed the beautiful Aurora Borealis shimmering across the heavens with my son.
The air is clean and crisp in October, filled with the fragrant scent of pine. The eyes are dazzled by Jack Frost’s artistry among the hardwoods, this is my favorite time here. A calm morning with the lake mirroring the hills. The eerie lullaby of a loon as he calls his mate on the mist laden lake at dusk, and the equally eerie reply. Listening to sounds coyotes make while ‘talking’ among themselves somewhere back in the woods, or the lonely howl of a wolf, deep in the night, echoing across the hills. Spying the silhouette of a mighty bull moose at the mouth of fish river moments before dawn, a brief glimpse of our national symbol traversing his lofty heights. The deep raspy call of a raven or the whistle of a midnight freight train at Cushman’s crossing and its soon to follow rumble and clatter as it passes behind the camp, the sound slowly receding into the night past the bend. Good memories.
I feel right at home when I step off a dirt road or train track and the familiar forest closes around me. I may follow a crystal clear murmuring brook and see speckled trout dart into the shadows beneath the banks. I have watched a partridge drumming in the deep woods as he played to an audience of three hens roosted in the pines, and listened to the nocturnal, cavernous croaking of huge bullfrogs among the water lilies at the mouth of the river. The absence of electricity bothers me not a bit, I do not come here for creature comforts, but rather for the comfort I get from seeing so many of God’s varied creatures. All of these things add to the allure of the camp for me.
A canoe is my choice of travel on the water, and due to its silent advance I have observed many a moose or deer around the ‘next’ bend on the rivers edge. It was from my Old Town canoe my younger brothers and later my son were all able to spy their first moose up close and personal. My youngest brother Art and I narrowly avoided an angry cow moose advancing on our canoe in defense of her calf. My son and his friend Eddie were with me as we rounded a bend on the back channel and came upon a stodgy black bear as it rapidly crossed a submerged beaver dam. Got a picture. From a canoe we have seen the otter playing their watery games and watched startled beaver slap the water with their broad tails in hasty retreat. With a little stealth a canoe can bring you these sights and more.
The brief times I have spent at the camp with relatives, and the times spent there alone, the pleasure of being in the company of old friends, and new, the sharing of fishing yarns and hunting tales next to the warmth of the old pot bellied wood stove. I thought I knew my way around until one snowy November day when I followed the fresh tracks of a huge buck,(found just three yards from the porch door) he gave me a grand tour from before sunrise to after sunset, I only had one glimpse of him as the last light of day gave out. Never came across another human track. I finally came out of the woods about ten miles down the tracks and arrived back to the camp to meet a worried looking George Wild after 10 pm.
The sun sets early don’t ya know, so out comes a cribbage board, checkers or chess, or simply a book to wile away the time. Maybe some tall tales told to wide eyed youngsters as we toast marshmallows and hot-dogs around the campfire at twilight. Some will remember the call of Bigfoot echoing from across the lake as he returns bent on destruction, or the ghost of the Swede! Others may remember the dreaded Billiard!!! (no one knew what a billiard was but when someone at night screamed it was coming it scared the hell out of us kids). And then there are no end to practical jokes, with a new one hatched just about every visit from some twisted mind, (a tradition). There are ‘turkey shoots’ at the town of Eagle Lake each Sunday to pit your skills against the locals. (I won a few over the years). The smell of brook trout or smelt rolled in a mixture of cornmeal and flour sizzling on an iron skillet atop the wood stove, mmm!
Old times reminisced, new times planed, it has all been, and will continue to be, enjoyed by me. Savoring a piece of my wife’s famous apple pie and homemade oatmeal raison cookies, or still-hunting deer along the base of Hedge Hog mountain, taking wing shots at partridge, or just chopping wood for the stove to fend off the cold northern nights, I feel like I fit the place and regret when its time to go. If your of a mind to ice fish, have at it. There are many reasons, some to intangible to put into words as to why I love the camp. The trip to it flies, the knowledge of returning to work and the trip back drags. But still I am always happy to see my wife’s smile upon returning, I guess there really is no place like home after all. ‘Harry’, mounted on the wall, will keep a glass eye on the camp until the next visit.
The Camp is a place to momentarily slow down our lives and appreciate natures intricacies, (cell phones do not even work). Many have come here through the years since it was built by Grampy in ’42’. I appreciate the camp and all this simple place offers, it may not be to every one’s liking, but if I were asked to sum it up in one word, it would be, ‘priceless‘.
Mark Shean written 11-15-2000
Author of GUN SENSE, on Amazon
To the Editor: On 1-20-2000 Judge John C. Cratsley, quietly gave the Attorney General of Massachusetts powers to regulate the gun industry under the guise of “consumer protection”, so the A.G. may unilaterally strip us of our gun rights. On 4-3-2000 it went into effect with media fanfare!
I could only hope this is the only politically dysfunctional state in the Union, (sadly there are 11 more). I have to wonder what goes through the minds of politicians bent on legislating our freedoms away? Doe’s it ever cross their minds that scores of Americans have died for their right to live free? That the Constitution has been and is being paid for in blood, do they know this?
My father died from wounds received during W.W.II, a brother was disabled from wounds received in Vietnam. They and scores of military personnel like them did not fight here and abroad to preserve our freedoms just so some ’empty suit’ domestic politicians could take our rights away simply because these rights impede their agenda! Our armed forces did not sacrifice in vain, in all the bloody wars and “conflicts” of this nation, so that one pompous judge, (crafty Cratsley) could grant any Attorney General the power to ride roughshod over the entire legislative branch, a branch that was duly voted into office by the people to make laws. Where now are the checks and balances? Where is the legislature saying ‘enough‘?
The A.G. Thomas Reilly is not suppose to be a law making body unto himself, accountable to no one. Law made without representation is the same as taxation without representation. There are two elitist groups whose agenda A.G. Reilly subscribes to, Stop Handgun Violence and Handgun Control Inc.. They represent intentions that are detrimental to our Constitution and consequently our overall freedoms. Who are these people that believe their title entitles them to circumvent, through deceit, the Second Amendment?
Let us pause for a word from a framer of the Constitution, and one of our greatest Founding Fathers: { That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from the people; that magistrates are our trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.}– GEORGE MASON-
Who does A.G. Thomas Reilly think he is to place discriminatory and racial measures on gun ownership?! Discriminatory and racial because he knowingly prices honest, low income people from all backgrounds out of the gun market. It is an A.G. Reilly, Stop Handgun Violence, and Handgun Control Incorporated scheme to keep honest people of limited means from their right to self defense. They would make it impossible for the people of the inner cities, where the highest crime is shown to be, to afford a firearm to defend their families from criminal intruders. The Founding Fathers would view A.G. Reilly as the criminal intruder, intruding into your right to self defense, and ultimately your right to freedom!
In the military, a soldier is not obligated to follow what he knows to be an unlawful order, in fact it is his duty to reject it and to report it. Parallel to this, citizens of these United States are under no obligation to obey bogus unconstitutional laws aimed at taking away their freedoms. I for one do not remember voting to give Thomas Reilly dictatorial powers…DO YOU? The People are protected under the Constitution to keep and bear arms. The ‘militia’ refered to in the Second Amendment was every able bodied man from 16 to 60 capable of bearing arms, they were citizens, not conscripted soldiers.
One of our Founding Fathers stated: { I ask, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.}–George Mason–
In every application where the “people” is used in the Bill of Rights, no one seems to misconstrue the meaning. Only in the Second Amendment is there a feigned misconception by those trying to disarm the public, to bring our great experiment called a Republic to a close. Let us honor all who have died defending this nation, through all its wars and “conflicts”, they sacrificed to preserve liberties they themselves did not long enjoy.
Call your public servants, ask them, no, tell them to take away A.G. Thomas Reilly’s unprecedented dictatorial powers, now! Will you allow any of your rights, and future generations rights to end without so much as a whimper? In the spirit of the Founding Fathers I hope not!
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”. –THOMAS JEFFERSON-
Mark Shean written 4-5-2000 www.mafirearmsafety.com