Common Sense

In 1968 there was a lot going on. Detroit was still cranking out some of the hottest muscle cars yet. AM radio still dominated the rock music. The nightly news was full, start to finish with stories about the war, protestors and the racial unrest.

In the middle of all that was the fight going on in congress for the strictest gun control since 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968.

During that time the 90th Congress was controlled by Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives along with a Democrat President.

President Johnson was determined to get major gun control passed and he had plenty of help to get the job done. The number one point man was Senator Thomas Dodd from Connecticut, a gun producing state.

Years earlier Thomas Dodd, before he became a senator, was an executive counsel during the Nuremberg trials. He took an interest in the Nazi gun disarmament laws during his nearly year and half in Germany so much so that in 1968, according to a letter from the Library of Congress, Dodd had a series of those laws translated.

It was speculated that much of the 1968 GCA and bills that Sen. Dodd introduced during that time were based on those Nazi proven techniques.

There were plenty of warriors in congress on both sides. In mid year of ’68 Johnson appointed the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. The majority of that group wanted it all; registration, prohibition and confiscation of all guns and ammunition.

On October 22, 1968, when Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968 into law pro gun control people got most of what they wanted except for gun confiscation. As time went on there were proposed amendments to tame that law down such as Sen. Bennett’s S. 2718 repealing the ammunition record keeping. That was successful.

Up until that fateful day in October citizens in this country enjoyed a lot more gun rights. In fact, just a few months later in the spring of 1969 there is the story about the House Majority Leader at the time, Carl Albert, stopping into the Atlas Sports Store on E. Street in Washington to buy a 12 ga. shotgun and was infuriated when he had to fill out forms and have his picture taken as a result of DC’s new gun registration policy.

That gun shop is gone and so are many gun rights. Any advances in gun rights over the years pale in contrast to the impact that the 1968 GCA had on the Second Amendment.

Most of the players of that era are gone, but there’s been plenty of willing participants to take their place, in particular those who support gun control.

I say that in reference to this past election. The people in this country have set things in motion by electing a staunch anti Second Amendment president who in turn has brought together some of the worst of the worse who have the deepest contempt for the Bill of Rights.

People like Eric Holder for Attorney General will have unlimited executive power to bypass congress and he has proven his position of opposing private gun ownership with his amicus brief during the Supreme Court hearings this past summer.

The damage of this past election has been done and the federal government holds a choke chain on all the states. I hope that we can get enough Americans to wake up in their individual states and to work with any pro gun legislator trying to promote gun rights and oppose any and all state and local legislators who are set to push us back.

Indiana James

OK! All you people that have a lot of hard bark. You can cease fire on Indianapolis Mayor Ballard’s office. Based on just the e-mails and phone calls we got from all of you, they got drenched in phone calls.

The talking points you guys made to his office were beyond impressive. I got a call a few minutes ago from the Mayor’s office from a Jen Pittman, Deputy Director of Communications. She was very cordial and stated from the beginning that she was 100% on our side of this.

She explained that the Mayor, as many of you and I heard in our phone calls, supports the Second Amendment and claims he has no intention of pushing for more new gun laws.

She told me that TV Channel 8 edited that interview and added suggestions and references to “New York Gun laws” to imply that Indianapolis needs something like that.

Well, regardless of whomever implied or misspoke up there, it seems there’s been some scrambling to set the record straight. I wonder what could have caused that?

Innocent or intentional, we want folks to be careful when they talk about guns and crime. After hearing Ms. Pittman’s explanation I’ll take her word. Perhaps the Mayor really meant no harm and is just wanting to do something out of desperation.

However, I would like to re-channel the thinking that’s been going on in this country since the dinosaurs died about keeping guns out of felons’ hands.

The popular belief that more laws or enhancing existing laws is the answer. I’m afraid it’s not. Generally this attempt requires snaring good people into yet another web that the bad boyz always slip through.

If they really want to keep really bad guys from desiring to have a gun, then we need to do some precision work. A blanket law that reads all felons who are caught with a gun gets twice the prison time is all wrong.

How does that affect felons whose methods are to use a knife or a tire iron when they want to kill someone? Or what about the knot head who likes to set a building with people in it on fire?

Here’s another thing. What about the young, foolish young person who does a real dumb non violent act when they’re 18 or 19 years old, but gets classified as a felon because a state legislature upgraded a misdemeanor crime to a felony because it generates more money for the legal system?

What does putting someone like that, who when they grow up becomes a respectable citizen, husband and father, and is now 35 years old and wants to take his two young sons hunting is caught in the possession of a gun in the same boat as the gangster who kills a family of five accomplish?

No! No! No! Let’s be real careful and specific on how we control crime and not guns.

I asked Ms. Pittman if at some point Mayor Ballard would be willing to meet with some of our good pro gun legislators and some of you and maybe get our compasses pointing in the same direction. She told me she’s going to go to work on that. She explained the Mayor’s schedule to me. He books things 6 weeks out.

If someone, somewhere in this whole wide country could break out of this endless circle of the same old tactics of stopping crime and really throw the brakes on, wouldn’t it be nice if it happened here in Indiana?

Anyway, you guys sprayed the weed killer on this before it got too far. Someday we hope that liberals in this country will be afraid to close their eyes at night for fear of being overheard talking in their sleep about gun control.

Margie and I want to thank all of you “old timers” who’ve been with us for a long time and all the new friends who have saddled up with us since this Indy flap who described your phone calls to us. GREAT JOB. That’s how we do it. That’s called a joint effort.

Lastly, I want to post a letter we received which is a sample we get from so many of you good Patriots.

Jim,

Thanks for what you do. My wife and I really appreciate it. We live in Northern IN and am friends with Mike Lycenski.

I regret that in the past I always let things go by. It was someone else’s responsibility. What could I do? I am too busy. Last summer when Mishawaka was going to pass the law about no guns on city grounds. I received multiple emails from you and a few phone calls from friends who had already been alerted by you. I went to that meeting.

I have called the mayor and left a message with Mr. Vane. I will call again tomorrow. Let me know when your next get together is and my wife and I will try to come. I need a group of good men I can stand with. Because by myself I am easily overlooked. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.

From all the Patriots down here, thanks John and many thanks to all of you who have decided to STAY UNITED.

Indiana James
2ndamendmentpatriots.org

Welcome to the Twilight Zone. We now have reached the confluence of corruption and incompetence at its zenith. I’m convinced there’s no one on earth who has any idea to untangle this mess.

Nevertheless, we got a manure wagon load of politicians who stand in front of the camera play acting like they’re gonna just hop off the planet for a minute and take a look under the hood and see why it ain’t running right. Maybe they’ll just pop open an access panel and find a wire loose and 700 million dollars of electric tape will fix the loose connection.

We’re all falling and no one’s going to catch us. It’s just going to come down to how hard we hit the ground. If that’s not bad enough there were just enough idiots in this country to arrange for us to have a loser from Illinois and a loser who wants to keep reaching across the table to prove he’s bipartisan to choose from. I’ll tell you if I was reaching across the table, it would be to jerk someone out of their chair and put a knot on their head.

I still predict that Obama will get the job and not only that; he’ll get it for 8 years. I hope I’m as wrong as wrong can be and if I am you can all tell me so on Nov. 5th.

As far as the government goes we’re on our own, but among us we can STAY UNITED.

We are grateful to all those who have been attending our 2nd Amendment Patriots meetings in the past as well as our rifle shoots. Unless our Almighty God steps in and saves us from this quicksand we’re up to our necks in we may very well have to put to practice all of the instruction and advice we’ve all shared with each other in those meetings.

At our October 25th 2nd Amendment Patriots meeting, we’ll have Indiana Secretary of Treasurer Richard Mourdock as our guest. I have it confirmed. Given the recent developments in our financial demolition the timing couldn’t be better. We welcome Secretary Mourdock’s visit. In the past ten years we’ve applied a lot of effort to bringing visitors to our meetings. We appreciate those of you who join us at these meetings because it gives us the comfort of knowing there are Americans still around who want to know what the score is.

Though it’s been disappointing that some who started off with us strayed away, it’s been inspiring to have so many who have teamed up and swelled our numbers to the level this group now stands at.

Anyone wishing to receive my e-mails can sign up by going to www.2ndamendmentpatriots.org

Indiana James

This past Wednesday September 17th was another anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. I had the distinct privilege of being invited to Vincennes University Jasper Campus and participate in a debate of allowing licensed conceal carry on Indiana colleges and universities.

My opponent was a city police officer. I chose to go last. He did a nice presentation on explaining the oppositions stand against campus carry.

I then had my turn. The lecture hall held 90 seats. I think we had about 75 to 80 students and teachers. The audience was a mix of people who had never heard our viewpoint straightforward, others who agreed totally and those who were die hard against us, mostly the teachers and professors.

I cannot emphasize enough how gratifying it is to stand before an audience that contains our opponents and giving a 45 minute presentation of the importance of being able to defend yourself and doing it without tip toeing around about it.

If that’s not satisfying enough then you get 45 more minutes of questions. Some of those questions were information seeking and others were land mines hoping to trip me up. Taking those loaded or irrationally questions and firing back with an answer that sinks their ship is like being the lead car in a race and getting all the clean air.

This is our goal; this is where we may win a convert. It’s nice to be in our comfort zone and surrounded by our friends who are always in agreement with us. But, if we’re to win the battle to preserve liberty, we’ve got to plant our feet square in front of those marching our way.

You don’t need a catalog of statistics or glamorous charts to drive your message home. Shoot from the hip. Present it point blank. When logic meets emotion in these kinks of engagements we should never lose the debate. NEVER! We will not lose these debates.

The session lasted much longer than expected. The first speaker talked about 25 minutes and took about 10 to 15 questions. There were less than 20 in attendance.

When it was my turn the doors opened and the room filled up to near capacity. I don’t know what that was all about, but I was pleasantly surprised. This event was open to the public as well.

I will stress once more how vital it is for all of us to take advantage of every opportunity to get into our opposition’s camp and drill our logical and factual ideologies square in their soil.

You don’t need to be a Harvard graduate to do it either. If you truly believe in what you know is right, then stand on your own two feet, hold your head high and look ‘em straight in the eyes and state your case. Be polite, but firm.

Indiana James