Saturday, April 28, 2007

Criminals don't register their guns; why should we?

Ran across the article titled in the headline, and thought it more than worthy of attention. Especially when considering the credentials of the author. Following are some pertinent quotes, (emphasis added), from this very timely piece;

“...Giving the government more information about our lives and the guns we own does nothing to stop criminals with guns, who will disregard gun registration requirements just as freely as they disregard the life, liberty and property of their victims....”

“...After all, personally owned firearms have been used to stop school shootings. Five years ago at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., a disgruntled law student killed two faculty members and a student and wounded three others. But in this case, the killer was eventually restrained and held captive for police by two courageous law students who each retrieved their own handguns from their vehicles....”

“...Our Founding Fathers believed that, as Alexander Hamilton once said, "the Supreme Being ... invested (man) with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety." Supreme Court Justice James Wilson - a signer of both the Declaration and the Constitution - wrote that taking the life of an attacker is allowed "when it is necessary for the defence of one's person or house," and that this "great natural law of self-preservation cannot be repealed, or superseded, or suspended by any human institution."”

“The right to keep and bear arms is not just a means of protecting life, but also an indispensable safeguard of our liberties against oppressive government. History has indeed proved what every oppressive government knows, from Nazi Germany to communist China: You must take away the people's guns before you can take away their rights and liberties. Our Founding Fathers enshrined in the Second Amendment that this right of the people "shall not be infringed" because "the security of a free state" requires a "well-egulated militia."”

“...To begin to surrender, in the wake of the events at Virginia Tech, one of our most valuable rights, the inalienable right of self-defense, is unwise and dangerous. Our right to keep and bear arms not only keeps us free, it keeps us safe....”

- Roy Moore, Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, April 28, 2007.[Criminals don't register their guns; why should we?. Article in The BirminghamNews.]

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is the president of the Foundation for Moral Law and author of "So Help Me God."



Now that has got to be one of the best modern opinions from an eminent legal authority that I've yet seen. We can only hope that the very astute former Justice's colleagues take it to heart, and mind....

1 comment:

E. David Quammen said...

Thank you, to whoever linked the posts together! Hat-tip!