Archive for April, 2009
To the Editor of The Washington Times: In your January 1-21-2001 issue, Mr.Sobran wrote a commentary titled “Excessive taxes are wrong and Unnecessary”.
Mr. Sobran hit the nail on the head when he said of us lowly tax payers, “that even slaves have to eat”. Citizens today mindlessly pay nearly six months of their hard earned money to pay layers upon layers of taxes. When do you suppose they will wake up and get angry? When it reaches seven months, eight months or more?
It reminds me of a classic movie taken from a book written by Jules Vern, The Time Machine, where citizens in the distant future mindlessly do the bidding of their masters at an excessively high cost. High taxes are the real reason politicians are in such a frenzy to strip away our Second Amendment rights. It has absolutely nothing to do with crime on the streets, (there are already laws for those) it is because the thieves we put in office are afraid the tax paying public will wake up, like the Patriots did in 1776.
Mark Shean written 1-24-2001 www.mafirearmsafety.com
Posted in 
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I am not an Irish-French Canadian-American, I am an American descended from Irish-French Canadian ancestry. Ireland and Canada have no hold over me. I am an American, and Americans are what my children will be. I was born in the land of the free. When someone says they are Mexican-American or African-American or German, Italian, French or any other country American, what they are really saying is they are not proud to be an American first and foremost.
While it is important to know about where your ancestors hailed from, and important to pass on traditions, don’t lose sight of the fact that desperation, in many more instances than not, drove our ancestors to America. They came to this country because they were fleeing socialistic and or religious oppression, and in many cases, starvation. They came because of a lack of opportunity and an excess of tyranny in their countries of origin. So while it is important you should know your family history, you live in America, and you are an American.
America is still the greatest country on the face of the earth, and will always be, so long as Americans remain unified and self-governing. America is not perfect, but it is the best this world has to offer. If you want to be proud of a country, start with where you live first, for me it is AMERICA!
Mark Shean, written Oct. 1996 at “Grampy’s Camp” St. Froid Lake, Maine
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No On Gun Tax ! 8-1-2008
Author: Mark Shean
To the Editor: The governor and his henchmen, (your representatives) want to tax your right to self defense to where many will not be able to afford firearm permits to protect their families. They want to more than double the fee from $100 to $250 every six years. It had been $25 for many years until Romney got in and increased it by 300%! Now our “representatives” want to do it again.
Firearms are the only consumer product specifically protected under our Constitution in the Bill of Rights under the Second Amendment. The same Constitution that our elected officials swear to uphold upon entering public office. Our Constitution doe’s not protect cigarettes or alcoholic beverages or gasoline, therefore this makes these products easy targets to tax; to tax them does not infringe on our constitutional rights. To tax, (a fee is a back door tax) our constitutional right to keep and bear arms is an infringement and attack on that right. It becomes a deliberate scheme by politicians to deny your constitutional right by making you pay for it, and if you can not afford it…to bad. It is a right already bought and paid for since the time of the American Revolution to the present day, bought by the blood of American soldiers and patriots.
If you are not able to come up with enough money to pay for a right, then these politicians have, in an unconstitutional and illegal way, been successful, (but only momentarily) with their scheme/attack. This alone should make these politicians prime candidates for the chopping block in the next election cycle, if not sooner in a recall vote. Of all the people that you would think should be trustworthy, it should be people elected to an office of public trust. These should not be people bent on tearing down our rights block by block! We should not have to be at odds with them over our Constitution, that apparently they falsely swore to uphold and defend. So why are we? A background check to make sure we are good citizens, sure. Another “fee” to pay through the nose to help pay for the Big Dig, (Pig) because of political corruption? No. Try as our “representatives” may, their petty agendas do not, and will not, supersede this nations Constitution! Remind your ‘reps’.
Mark Shean written 8-1-2008 www.mafirearmsafety.com
To the Editor: I am writing in response to a front page article that was in the 3-4-07 The Sunday Enterprise. “Guns Are Us”, the strongest argument for taking away discretionary power from police chiefs was unwittingly made by Chief Crowley of Quincy. His policy requires that people applying for a hand gun license have, quote,”some reason more than self defense“. Say again?
Well, survival is mankind’s strongest instinct, and self defense is at the top of that instinct, Mr. Crowley. It is our first priority to our family and ourself. It is our governments first priority to its citizens. There can be no better reason for the honest citizen to obtain a license to carry than self defense! People that want to obtain their pistol permits are not the problem, a background check is all that is needed to verify that. They should not be treated with, in many cases, contempt, such as Crowley does. Politicians and police need to realize that these citizens are not the reason for crime, and treating them badly is not a solution to crime. Why do they pretend not to know this?
There will probably be police chiefs screaming that they need discretionary power over this issue, no, they do not. They need clear concise direction from the legislature. Arbitrary discretion does a disservice to the honest public. Not everyone may want to keep a firearm(s) for protection, but every American should support the Constitutional rights of all those who do, (including politicians and police chiefs) by not allowing discretionary “tactics” to strip away their right under the Second Amendment. There is a common thread that runs through arbitrary discretion, that thread being “absurdity“.
There needs to be set criteria in positive law, from Boston to Lenox and from Gloucester to Province town, without variation, so that anyone anywhere knows what is expected when applying for a carry permit. As it stands now it appears extremely arbitrary and archaic, simply because it is. The blame for this falls directly at the feet of a lazy legislature. Maybe the new Governor will show some leadership on this issue, (not a chance). This is where lawmakers have a bipartisan opportunity to demonstrate that they actually understood their oath to office, (that may be a stretch).
There should be no other reason for issue other than “Any Lawful Purpose”, that covers any/all reasons one might want a firearm. The Second Amendment is not about hunting, hunting is a ‘spinoff’, it is about your Constitutional right, your unalienable right to self defense. If you think this makes sense, call your state Representative at: 617-722-2000, ask them to represent you on this issue, to make this a ‘Shall’ issue state. That is their job, remind them they are there because you put them there to work in your best interest.
Mark Shean written 3-8-2007 www.mafirearmsafety.com
Opportunity Lost 8-21-08
Author: Mark Shean
To the Editor: Recently the MA. State Senate was handed 2 golden opportunities to (1) demonstrate an understanding of the oath they took upon entering office, (2) to follow the example set by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan move to reduce the onerous tax imposed on your right to self defense. The Senate failed on both counts. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre said he would support the proposal to lower the fee (tax) but he did not know how it would fare in the Senate. Donald F. Hamasun Jr., R-Westfield, said “its the right thing to do” “We’re talking about a constitutionally guaranteed freedom to keep and bear arms”.
These two men are exactly right. The Senate could not even bring themselves to pretend that they represent anyone other than their own overly inflated egos. They quit being Representatives when they decided to be pompous politicians, putting their personal agendas ahead of the will of their constituency. In this case the scheme is to tax the People to the point were we can no longer afford to exercise our right to self defense! To tax you on a constitutionally guaranteed right is in and of itself, an unconstitutional and illegal act by these so-called “representatives”.
All Massachusetts Representatives have a firm grasp of the short memories of the electorate, and that they will always escape political punishment for bad, (even illegal) behavior. They know and like the fact that people are more wrapped up in entertainment of all sorts, than real problems in the world, this is the reason they will continue to survive each election cycle.
Mark Shean, Note; {This is what we get in a one party state.} www.mafirearmsafety.com
To the editor of The Enterprise: I am beginning to become very intolerant of people who expect me to give up any of my constitutionally guaranteed rights. It is not just about the Second Amendment anymore. To all those people who make unconstitutional demands for infringements on my rights, I have a suggestion: If you don’t want to live with rights in America, go to another country that will accommodate you. For instance, go to Canada or England. You may like Australia or Cuba. How about China? You don’t want a Constitution? Go to these or many other countries not mentioned here and you should be quite happy. Leave the rest of us alone.
To the politicians who insist on illegally passing bogus legislation intentionally designed to undermine our Constitution, as Americans we need to say BACK OFF OR BE GONE! I think all political candidates should be required to take a litmus test, to test their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution they are going to swear to uphold. This would weed out the confused politicians up front, before they go into office, before they have a chance to weaken the foundation of our freedoms. This would not only be for our sake, but also for the sake of our great great grandchildren.
Our forefathers thought of us; let us not allow the rights and free will of future generations be lost through apathy. As hoped by one of our Founding Fathers: {“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 –
Mark Shean written in 1998 www.mafirearmsafety.com
In the wake of the V.T. campus shootings, and the like, one thing should be abundantly clear to all reasonable people, that evil people will commit evil acts regardless of law. Laws cannot stop evil people, laws can only punish the perpetrator(s) after the fact, but not in all cases, as at V.T. where the predator committed suicide.
A mayor was assassinated in Japan a few days ago, there is a total ban on guns in Japan for all of its subjects, so how could that happen? Evil people. England and Australia have imposed total gun bans on their subjects. Crime committed by guns in those nations is higher now than it was at any time in history prior to the gun bans. How can this be? Evil people. In other countries around the world gun bans were a prelude to genocide, orchestrated by governments. Evil people.
Our Founding Fathers added the Second Amendment to our Bill of Rights, not as a means to go hunting, though hunting is a spin-off enjoyed by many, and a useful wildlife management tool made possible through the Second Amendment. The Second Amendments original intent and meaning was and is to ensure American citizens the right to self defense against criminals, invading armies, and yes, even in case their own government turns tyrannical. Let us not be so foolish or quick to discard these hard fought rights, which history proves to be futile anyway. It only opens the door to increased evil.
Mark Shean written 4-19-2007 www.mafirearmsafety.com
In response to “Concealed Carry Conundrum” (Newsbreak,Oct.), I am not a lawyer, but I have read the Constitution. Perhaps we as gun owners and citizens need to take a different tact on the issue of concealed carry. *Article lV, Sec. 1 of the Constitution reads: “Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state. And Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.”
The scenario could go something like this… Hypothetically, lets say a tourist from Iowa is driving in Massachusetts and is pulled over on the highway for a burned out tail light, when the trooper comes to explain why he was stopped, the driver does what he believes to be the correct thing, not only does he produce his drivers license but also his Iowa carry permit, as he has a pistol for protection with him. Massachusetts does not recognize his state issued carry permit and he is arrested. He has now been injured by a state law, this could very conceivably make it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The argument presented would hinge on the Second Amendment but mostly on Article lV, Sec.1 .
The defense would present the case that Massachusetts must give full faith and credit to the Iowa carry permit. The case must be made that it is an unreasonable burden for any individual to apply for a carry permit from every state; therefore, like a drivers license, marriage license, etc, all states per Article lV. Sec.1 should recognize carry permits issued from any other state. In further support of this argument, the defense would point out that it is unlawful to possess multiple drivers licenses at one time. Thus, not only would it be an unreasonable burden to obtain any large number of carry permits, it would also be illegal.
The upshot of this of this is that we already have the grounds for carrying concealed in any state with a permit issued from any other state. I would hope that all major gun-rights organizations would seize the golden opportunity to put this issue to rest once and for all by supporting his defense financially. Written by C.D.Corbin, Edited by M.Shean, NOTE: (Conundrum: a question or problem having only a conjectural answer). This is what a dishonest media and many politicians would have you believe. Our citizenship is not restricted only to the state we each live in. Our citizenship and our constitutional rights extend from coast to coast, let your so-called Representatives hear that, often, and while your at it remind them who they work for! This is not a state rights issue, it is about individual rights, it is about every American’s rights.
Mark Shean, Submitted 2002 www.mafirearmsafety.com
Submitted by Mark Shean Sr. author of GUN SENSE, now on Amazon.
To the Editor: The Democratic majority in the MA. legislature want carry permits issued only to those who can prove a “need” for self protection. What if, because of these political morons, that when you ‘need’ it you don’t have it?. These politicians should be made to explain their “need” to restrict our freedom! Burdens of proof should never be placed on the honest U.S. citizenry to show a “need” to exercise our right to self defense.
Elsewhere, politicians in Washington would turn all of America into a “gun free” zone. This would only allow all manner of human predator the unobstructed ability to cause mayhem at leisure. These political Socialists, (progressives) and all of their scheming ilk obviously find this inescapable fact to their liking! When the economy crashes crime rises. When politicians run for office they never promise that once you elect them they intend to shred our Constitution, that they will do their level best to diminish our rights. Of course not, would we vote for the politician who ran on such a platform? Why then do politicians actually think they have a mandate to strip away our Second Amendment freedoms, or any of our rights under the Constitution once they get elected?
Democrats single handily pushed through an eleven hundred page “stimulus”, (I say porkulus bill ) WITHOUT EVER READING IT!! This irresponsible form of “representation” will be the total downfall of America’s financial stability, in the very near future. By watching how politicians treat the Constitution in general, I am quite certain our glorious “representatives” have never bothered to read the Constitution they solemnly swore to uphold and defend either! Even if we removed all the charlatans from office today, the damage to the economy has been done. It will now take a miracle, and generations to reverse it, to stave off hyper inflation. Never willingly, follow like sheep to the slaughter, by giving up your rights, as politicians will undoubtedly suggest as the economy grows worse.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN once wisely said:{ “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty or Safety“}
Mark Shean written 3-20-2009