Assignment for an English class - Federal policy and the war on gun ownership

[Kalamity023]

There is no such thing as "faith" in the system!
The point you should look at undertaking is more in how gun legislation, while generally following public opinion is a) unconstitutional, and b) ineffective. As my thesis in college was how the Brady Bill was ineffective, I can tell you that there's plenty of info out there to support this. As a matter of opinion where I differ with a point made in your paper; there have been more that sufficient examples of times when BHO and Holder have lied and deceived to achieve their goals. These are all public instances and are readily substantiated.
When your essay labels that the current administrations attempts to strip the public of its gun rights a "conspiracy"; it becomes dismissive. Hence everyone is stating you're anti gun. If you do enough research (and I do not mean using blogs and fringe sources but FOIA documents and other released communications) you might change your papers opinion, as I'm confident you will find a trend of mis-remembrance and miscommunication. If you're fortunate enough to look at the AG's personal papers I'm sure you'll find documents ordering Fast and Furious as well as the reasons behind it including BHO's approval. There is no such thing as coincidence that this happened under this administration.
If you truly love your 2A rights you should re-word and re-arrange to show the spirit of the 2A, and how over the last 40 years our rights have been under attack by those who feel superior to others; enacting ridiculous legislation that gives the Govt more contro,l makes it easier for criminals to perpetrate acts of violence, and law abiding citizens less apt to defend themselves against these increasing attacks.

[localgirl]

I think the essay is right on target.

It's nice and fuzzy to think that the NRA and anyone with an (R) after their name is looking out for your best interests, including your gun rights, but it just ain't so. It's also nice and empowering to think those dirty liberals are doing whatever it takes to tear down our nation, but that also just ain't so.

The fact is, politicians and political groups can and will prey on your fears to pad their bottom line. This isn't to say they don't so some good--I think the NRA has done a lot of good. But they do employ fear-mongering, and they will take your money hand over fist no matter what the current political climate is.

And you can say Obama is anti-gun all you want, but the only "proof" you have are second-hand whispers and conjecture. His legislative record actually shows neutral and gun-friendly actions. Not saying he might not do something next term, but a giant green gorilla might fall out of the sky and *** you up the *** too. Wanna worry about that?

Like all things in life, these issues aren't black and white. They need to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Domineaux]

The thing about the federal government falling in line with public opinion though is that our country is based on a constitutional republic in which there are very specific rules about what the federal government is permitted to do. It has repeatedly exceeded these rules in the past and continues to do so today. Also that "public opinion" is very heavily influenced by media coverage, and when there is almost zero national media coverage of the entire fast and the furious (gunwalker) operation and the congressional hearing and DOJ stonewalling, only a small part of the population is intimately familiar with such an egregious abuse of the public trust and government power.

The Supreme Court took over 30 years to finally do anything about the unconstitutional ban on guns in D.C., the very capital of our nation....that is nothing more than dereliction of duty as far as I (and a great many constitutional patriots) am concerned.

Feel free to write about what you like, but please do us all a favor of first becoming much more familiar with the subject material before you spread disinformation among your peers.

[mspt_99]

For an English class I had to write a letter or paper that would be sent to a newspaper or posted to a public forum. I know that opinions and responses are likely to be strong so I wanted to preface it with this. Please keep in mind the following few things before posting a reply: All the information in this paper has been thoroughly researched and verified with legitimate sources. While I have and express my opinion in this paper it is not in keeping with my typical political views but is based on that research, so please don't try to dismiss this based on what you might come to think my political beliefs are. And ultimately the purpose of this is not to change anybody's mind but to make people think before they make up their mind, so please don't be offended if you disagree.

It is quite long, so thank you for taking the time to read it. Also I would be grateful for any constructive feedback you might have on the topic, as the next part of this assignment requires that I write some kind of public proposal relating to the topic discussed. So, here it is...



I recently purchased a handgun. Since I have that right, I felt I also had the responsibility to ensure I kept and used it safely, so I took a concealed weapons class. Not really intending to carry my gun regularly, I thought it would be good to learn about the laws, how I needed to carry and store a firearm when going to the range, and general safety issues I might be unaware of.

I did learn those things, but I learned a lot more along the way, having had no idea the level of indoctrination I would undergo as I found myself entering American gun culture. I was especially surprised when I learned about a mass conspiracy by the Obama administration to take away our guns!

That’s what I was told anyway. That and how the National Rifle Association (NRA) is the only thing stopping them. I was also offered a $10 discount on the price of an NRA membership. But I didn’t buy it, the membership or the conspiracy theory. I researched instead.

It turns out that the number of Americans in favor of increasing gun control increased from 72% in 1972, to 79% in 2008, according to the General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. However, according to social polls conducted by Gallup, the number of people in favor of a ban on guns has decreased by more than 10 percent in that same time frame to less than 30% of Americans being in favor of making firearms illegal.

This is interesting when compared to laws that were passed at the federal level during the same time period. From 1972 to 2008 there were six new federal gun laws enacted. All of these laws increased gun control with provisions such as establishing harsher penalties for illegally possessing or discharging a firearm in a school zone, and requiring trigger locks on newly made handguns. One law also lessened restrictions on the sale of some guns, while another established a system that made it possible to have background checks performed over the phone so that guns could be more easily purchased.

It could be argued that two laws crossed the line between gun control and gun prohibition. One made armor-piercing, “cop-killer” bullets illegal, and the other banned guns that were classed as assault weapons. However, many people were in favor of banning armor-piercing rounds, all attempts to renew the ten year assault weapon ban have failed, and the federal government even overturned a local ban on handguns in Washington D.C.

So it certainly seems as though federal gun control policy has fallen in line with what the public wants. Yet last year, the President of the NRA was still talking about “a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the second amendment.” Despite these claims, he also admitted that President Obama has not pushed for new gun control laws and has put off calls from the Democratic Party to renew the ban on assault weapons.

When I read about how Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took the stage to address the NRA in April, things started to come a little more in to focus. Romney warned that if Obama were to be elected for a second term he would be “unrestrained by the demands of re-election,” and, supposedly, ready to start this long awaited war on the second amendment.

And it has been long awaited. The war against gun ownership should have happened by now. In 2008 the NRA spent millions of dollars on ads that warned of how the Obama administration would take away the guns of law-abiding citizens all over the country. Gun and ammo sales went through the roof, and even led to a national civilian ammunition shortage. But the war never happened.

Now they are doing it again. The NRA is being even more insistent because they seem to think that a President in his second term can go unchecked. Once again engaged in fear-mongering, they are proselytizing the end of gun rights as we know them. But if there really is no threat, then why cause such a panic?
The NRA had an income of $227.8 million dollars in 2010. This was raised by people paying membership fees, buying merchandise, and making donations so that the organization will keep defending their gun rights. One of the main reasons to become an NRA Member is to help fund their efforts to shape public policy through political lobbying. So the more people think the second amendment is in danger, the more money they are willing to give to the NRA.

Mitt Romney wants to be President. There are many people that feel strongly enough about a single issue that it dictates how they vote. Politicians know this and often use it to their advantage. The media has exposed us to many people that would have us believe that if their opposition takes power it will ultimately lead to national disaster.

But just like the right to own a gun, the right to vote comes with responsibilities. The main responsibility of which is to make an informed decision. This should be done by analyzing facts and not listening to hyperbole. If you are going to vote based on any issue, then look in to the facts surrounding that issue and don’t just listen to the political rhetoric.

The NRA wants to keep making money and the Republican Party want to win an election. One of the ways for both of them to attain those goals is to make you think that there is a serious threat to your second amendment rights. But history has shown that federal gun regulations fall in line with public opinion, which is more strongly in favor of keeping our guns than it has been in decades.

You should decide who you vote for. But know that if you vote based solely on claims that there is a conspiracy to take away your right to bear arms, you are most likely wasting your vote. There are so many other things at stake, things that can and will actually happen depending on who is elected.

So please, take time to learn the truth. Think for yourself. And vote.

this is not a research paper but an op/ed. Your writing shows it to be an opinion piece. If it was well researched and documented, those FACTS would have been apparent in the writing and would have needed no prefacing to your writing. As it standings you wrote a nice opinion piece with only slightly subtle digs against the NRA and republican party. If the assignment was to post something that would provoke strong reaction you did that. If your assignment was to write a PAPER as you described you failed.
If your point was to shed light on a greater conspiracy within the NRA and republicans you failed due to a lack of facts/references.
if your point was to encourage everyone to "learn the truth and think for yourself" then you are headed in the right direction you will just need to make the intro, body and conclusion focus more on that point.
If you call this piece what it is you will have more productive discussions than trying to pull off an op/ed under the guise of a school PAPER.
mspt

[rdm6680]

The point is that the NRA is just another shitty lobbying group wallowing in the swamp. They care about who gets elected, not about gun control. It's big and lucrative to have ur hand up the puppets ass.

[BC1]

A more appropriate subject might have been Fast-n-Furious. Bring to light the refusal of the highest law enforcement official in America to obey a Judicial committee subpeona. Disclose Eric Holder's position... he was either ignorant of the operation, in which case he should be fired, or he was in on it and is lying, in which case he should be fired. Show the lengths some elected and appointed officials will go to meet their agenda.

[Mark Chitty]

I can see how the term "conspiracy theory" is dismissive. But please understand that what prompted me to write about this was all the talk at my ccw class about how we had to join the NRA because Obama was going to do all this crazy stuff. It came across as a conspiracy theory. This was better explained in my first draft, but that was twice as long as this draft so it had to be edited a lot, and the first thing I cut out was most of the story that led up to me writing about this issue.

There seems to be a lot of opinions that I should change some of the things I'm trying to say with this paper, one of which is that we should be skeptical of what we're told by the Republican Party and the NRA. Yes, this is true for pretty much all politicians and special interest groups but that doesn't make the point any less valid, and this is what I chose to write about.

I definitely don't believe there is no such thing as faith in the system. But don't think that because I have faith in the system that I don't recognize that being a part of the process is necessary to ensure that it works.

As for my preface, I did research this information and wanted that to be known before people read it and argued with the facts that surround my opinion on this issue. This was because I genuinely want constructive opinions of what I wrote, and to promote legitimate debate about the issue. After reading some of the posts in some of the forums here I was a little worried that I'd be dismissed and insulted by people that like throwing around made up words such as "libertard." So I am very pleased and grateful for the fact that I've received nothing but constructive and educated feedback.

[longslide10]

It is really not so much a push by presidents, it's what those whom the presidents answer to want. We have a Zionist/Pretend Jew luciferian new world order trying to disarm this country and using politicians to enact laws that restrict the freedoms of citizens in this country and the one thing that they desperately need is for us to be disarmed. Only an armed populace is a free populace. They will try and make it happen in some form or another. The best thing we can do is resist the tyranny by standing our ground, use our rights and push back or fire back if needed. Just remember this country was founded as a Republic NOT a Democracy. We are the last bastion of freedom because of the 2A and other countries such as England and Australia beg us not to relinquish our most precious of rights.

[longslide10]

there's no way the UN small arms treaty will get two thirds of the votes necessary for senate approval, aren't these both proof that the system of check and balances is working in this regard? Would a piece about having more faith in the system be more appealing?

With the demoncrats controlling much of the senate and the senate is the only entity needed to ratify this bill, you really can't say that it couldn't or won't get 2/3 vote. People have lost faith in the govt, that's why the major changes in politicians and why some or all of Obozo's policies are failing. Obozo has brought to light the full intent of the progressive commie left NWO agenda and has awakened people. The one thing he will get credit for. More people are involved with politics today and is why some of the so called checks and balances are present

[Ringo]

We have a Zionist/Pretend Jew luciferian new world order trying to disarm this country

Explanation please.