A man of true science uses but a few hard words… whereas the smatterer in science… thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.

Herman Melville
[A similar thing occurs with people that know virtually nothing about guns. They talk of “assault weapons”, “high capacity clips”, and other nonsense things. Then these bigots claim they should be allowed to regulate such things that they don’t even know the vocabulary for.–Joe]

It makes little difference how a bigot thinks, when it is plain that they are bigots.  Bigots must only be defeated.  Understanding what makes them tick is of purely academic interest.

Lyle Keeney
March 20, 2007
[I was initially going to disagree with a portion of this. I was thinking that knowing “what makes them tick” could be useful in defeating them. But then I realized that would only be useful in trying to get them to stop being a bigot. Defeating them is something different. Defeat involves making them social and political outcasts. This doesn’t involve converting them to a more open mindset. Until they want to be converted there is no point in trying to convert them. They will be a lot more motivated to change their ways when they realize society at large thinks of them as some sort of lower life form on the level of pond scum which is what we must work for to defeat these anti-gun bigots.–Joe]

If any citizen wants to possess arms, let him join the Party.

Adolf Hitler
[Stalin restricted access to weapons to those in the party as well.–Joe]

According to the Washington Post, which upon hearing of the decision had a small editorial seizure it called “A Dangerous Ruling,” the court’s plain reading of the Bill of Rights has given “a new and dangerous meaning to the 2nd Amendment.” Apparently, when the Post reads the amendment according to the ancient and safe interpretation (which goes all the way back to the 1970s) all it sees is:

The Population of the nanny State, being composed of irresponsible rednecks, rejects, and retards, must not be allowed to have Arms.

Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other ‘Rights’ May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007
[I added nine new quotes to my quote database from this article. I love making fun of stupid behavior from people that think they are smart.–Joe]

The Washington Post called this ruling “radical.” I suppose it is, in the sense that it goes to the root of what the Framers wanted to protect.

Jacob Sullum
March 14, 2007
Second Wind for the Second Amendment A federal appeals court revives the right to keep and bear arms.
[Yup. You are an extremist if you insist the Constitution should be interpreted literally instead of whichever way the political wind blows this week.

Thanks to S2 for the link.–Joe]

The 2-1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Parker v. District of Columbia striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun law is judicial activism at its worst.  By disregarding nearly seventy years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, two Federal judges have negated the democratically-expressed will of the people of the District of Columbia and deprived this community of a gun law it enacted thirty years ago and still strongly supports.

Paul Helmke
President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence On DC Circuit’s Ruling Striking Down DC Handgun Law
[Judaical activism? What chutzpah! He is the same type of person that would bemoan blacks being allowed to vote after a judge declared it a right guaranteed by the constitution.–Joe]

Tellingly, we think, the District did not suggest what sort of law, if any, would violate the Second Amendment today—in fact, at oral argument, appellees’ counsel asserted that it would be constitutional for the District to ban all firearms outright. In short, we take the District’s position to be that the Second Amendment is a dead letter.

Judge Laurence Silberman
March 9, 2007 in a decision that concluded the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right in the case of:
SHELLY PARKER, ET AL., APPELLANTS versus DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.