MA Firearm Safety

Archive for May, 2009

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

   To the Editor: The advocates for gun control have another agenda, our Founding Fathers will enlighten you in a moment. Let me ask you this question; If a person with a mental disorder, (such as Hinkley has) tried to run over President Reagan with a car, and in the attempt severely injured Mr. Brady, would Sara Brady now be advocating a ban on cars all over the country? Would the same socialist politicians that back her call to ban guns, also back a call to ban cars? If in the same scenario the person with the mental disorder jumps from his car with a gun and shoots someone, is it now the gun’s fault? Sara Brady and her political backers all around the country would have you believe that. And they would use that part of the story to advocate a total ban on guns. But what about the car used in that crime? Never you mind about that car children, it’s the gun that was evil, certain politicians and Sara Brady say so.

   The liberal media will do it’s part to push that propaganda down our throats to back Sara and company. It must be understood that the Second Amendment is the only right which provides the people with a physical means of defending all of their other rights. Never allow it to be taken away. Without the Second Amendment, your freedoms are at the mercy of whom ever does have the guns. As intelligent as the media professes themselves to be, they should keep that in mind.

   This quote from a great patriot should enlighten you as to Sara Brady and her political henchmen/women’s scheme to disarm the American people. “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, There are many such quotes from our Founding Fathers, great men all. Politicians in our day pale in comparison. Patriot and Statesman 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”.

   I will leave you with one more quote in the same theme as the previous two, from yet another great American Patriot: “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.

   To Sara Brady, and all of her political hench people pushing hard for a ban on guns, the Founding Fathers fore warned us about people like you, and We The People are not naive to your attacks on our liberty. Mark Shean

NOTE;  The papers decided this rebuttal was not something the public should read.  http://www.nagr.org/UNTreaty_Pledge1.aspx?pid=4b

Written 11-15-1996  www.mafirearmsafety.com

UPDATE: 10-2-2011, The attacks on our Constitutional right under the Second Amendment to own firearms has only intensified since I wrote this article that the media ‘censored’.

NOTE: More wisdom and fore site from the past that we should consider. Submitted by Mark Shean, author of GUN SENSE on Amazon.

1. John Quincy Adams: “Posterity; you will never know how much it cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it”.

2. Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants“.

3. James Madison:“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation’s“.

4. Ronald Reagan: “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under”.

5. Abraham Lincoln: “I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it”.

6. Theodore Roosevelt: “Walk softly and carry a big stick”.

7. John Adams: “Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion….in private self defense”

8. Daniel Webster: “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy”.

NOTE; Abe Lincoln makes a very good point, someone who would mistreat helpless pets, is a hypocrite, and will have made himself an enemy of mine. M. Shean- author of GUN SENSE, on Amazon.

NOTE: More astute observations and fore site from people that paid attention to history and lessons learned from history. Mark Shean, author of GUN SENSE, on Amazon.

1. George S. Patton: ” Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.”

2. James Madison: “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”

3.John Adams: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence”.

4. Samuel Adams: “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy”.

5. Thomas Jefferson: “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms“.

6. Douglas MacArthur: “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within”.

7. James Madison: “A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or both.”

8. Daniel Webster: “A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures“.

NOTE; I think these men had a very deep concern and commitment to the United States, and it has appeared, as time goes by, to be justified.

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