...beat 20 kids to death with his fists would you finally consider securing the schools or resort to chopping everyone's hands off?

The original intent of the United States Government was to protect the inalienable rights of the citizens from those who would try to restrict them or take them away. That is why they were called "natural rights" or "God-given rights" in the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Thomas Paine. It is from the political philosophy of men like these which was ingrained in the thinking of Thomas Jefferson the that the phrase "inalienable rights" found its way into our Declaration of Independence when he wrote it in 1776. The idea was simple. These rights must come from Nature or Nature's God because if they come from any government charter, then they can be withdrawn by that same government. But if they come from Nature's God and are natural, then government cannot take them away.

These natural rights fell into three distinct categories: Life, Liberty, and Property. Nobody has the right to take away your life, restrict your liberty, or take away what is yours. Government's role, therefore, was to protect the rights of the citizens. The ten amendments found in Bill of Rights put into writing the protections that would be given to the citizens to ensure that the government didn't violate those inalienable rights. If you read them carefully, you will find that they are all there to protect your life, liberty and property from abuse by the government.

When you really think about it, if the nation simply lived up to these ideals from day one there would never have been the need for a "Civil War", we would have a smaller and less intrusive government, we would have avoided most of the wars we have fought, the land would likely be far more prosperous, and the USA would be probably be enjoying a golden age. The amount of money and lives we have wasted on destructive pursuits can never be replaced. But we must make a course change if we are going to survive as a people. Government today is nothing near what its original purpose was meant to be. Instead of life, liberty, property, or the pursuit of happiness, we have become a society of death, enslavement, confiscation, and the pursuit of destruction.

Today the government has restricted our rights in certain areas, thus endangering us in those areas. People dead all over in the Sandy Hook Connecticut Elementary School and NOBODY was armed except the gunman. WHY? Because schools are weapons-free zones. Didn't the gunman know he wasn't allowed to bring a gun to school? Does anybody else see the insanity of this? So I must ask, when will the goofy disarmers, anti-gun fools UNDERSTAND that even if they disarm everyone, the CRIMINALS will still be armed? 27 dead and NOBODY was there to protect them because they were in a sitting duck zone.

Please lay aside your biases and think this through. Wouldn't you think this outcome would have been less deadly if a cop was there? Well, in a very real sense, every licensed concealed carry holder is like having a cop at these scenes. The only difference is that he is a volunteer and cops are paid. Dreams of a world without violence are just that--dreams. There are many reasons why we have this violence. Guns are not one of them. Switzerland is more armed than the USA (by law) and has very little gun violence. Look at mental health. Look at the Hipaa laws. Look at Hollywood. I suspect they will provide you with the real answer.

Your comment reeks of ignorance of the history of this nation and the basis for the constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms. I won't waste a lot of time refuting your screed point by point because I doubt you will get it. But keep this in mind, it is not the government that has the power to tell us what we can and cannot own. The Constitution was written as it was to give the people the supreme power in this nation, and limit the power of the government. I will not have my rights taken away because some nut case isn't capable of living up to the responsibilities that come along with his rights. I did not spend 10 years of my life voluntarily putting it at risk in service to this nation to have my rights taken from me. So I will do whatever is necessary to prevent the government from taking them away. And before you respond with more ignorant rants calling me a nut case, you should know that I am an attorney, former military officer and Persian Gulf combat veteran. So I have earned the right to tell you that your argument in favor of a new "Obama assault weapons ban" is not only absurd, but devoid of any basis for support in the Constitution. I recommend that you actually read the document before offering ridiculous interpretations of it!

Before I begin, we hear the old adage that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people;” however, what is not said is that guns make it a whole lot easier. Every gun is a potential murder weapon and gun manufacturers are murder weapons manufacturers. Everyone in the gun supply line is in the murder weapons trade and everyone that possesses a gun possesses a murder weapon. There is no such thing as a safe gun and no matter how you store it all guns are unsafe and dangerous weapons by their inherent nature. In the days since the horrific action up in Connecticut, we have seen photographs of what appears to be weapons of war that one can buy in a local Walmart store. The military version of the weapon is known as the M-16 and variants of this weapon have been used by the military for years. The civilian model is termed the AR-15, and that has been around as long as the M-16. The M-16 is capable of semi and automatic fire; whereas, the AR-15 is only capable of semi automatic fire. One would need to be an expert gunsmith and machinist to make an AR-15 function like an M-16. The so called assault weapons that you see in local stores are semi automatic guns and not military weapons. Hence, unless someone has a federal firearms permit, they do not own a machine gun, and you can’t buy a machine gun at Walmart. The Walmart gun is a semi-automatic gun made to look like an M-16. Now look at one of these semi-automatic guns and imagine the same gun on a conventional gun frame of iron and wood without the pistol grip. A popular gun is called the Mini-14, and in a sense it is a semi automatic weapon as an AR-15. Another type of weapon that needs to be discussed (please do not laugh) are BB or Pellet Guns. Variants of these guns look like the M-16 and M-4 assault rifle, but fire only BBs or Pellets, and some of the higher end weapons manufacturers market themselves to police for training because of the low cost of the BBs. A police officer in training can use $25 worth of BBs instead of $1,000 worth of ammunition in a day of training. Because BB or Pellet guns are not considered lethal weapons, because they don’t break the skin, you can get fully automatic BB guns that have a capacity of hundreds of BBs. Even though they can’t break the skin, they can perforate ear drums, put out eyes, and possibly break teeth. Shooting somebody with a machine BB gun may not kill but it can seriously injure them. Everyone praises the Clinton assault weapons ban, the Clinton assault weapons ban was a joke. An assault weapon was an assault weapon if it had a pistol grip, detachable magazine, bayonet lug, and a flash suppressor. You could have any two of the four to comply with the Clinton assault weapon ban, and Clinton type AR-15s had a pistol grip and a detachable magazine, but did not have the bayonet lug, or a flash suppressor, but the business ends of the guns were the same. The reason why the Clinton assault weapons ban was a joke is because I haven’t heard of anyone sniping at night with an AR-15 requiring a flash suppressor or fixing bayonet and charging someone. Most, if not all, automatic and semi automatic weapons are known as gas actuated weapons. Typically, when a firing pin strikes a bullet that is chambered in a weapon, the expanding gas from the explosion of the gun powder propels the bullet and the noise that you hear is a combination of the explosion and the bullet leaving the muzzle at supersonic speeds. In automatic and semi automatic weapons (rifles and pistols) a portion of this gas is diverted back to open the bolt and chamber another round making it ready to fire when you pull the trigger. Regardless of whether a weapon is fashioned to look like a NATO or East Pac weapon of war or put on a conventional rifle frame, it works the same way and is in-fact the same weapon. Depending on the quality, one of these weapons will cost between $500 and $1,500. A BB, Pellet, or Paint Ball gun works on the same principle except instead of gunpowder the force to propel the projectile comes from compressed air or compressed carbon dioxide, and a portion of the compressed air or compressed carbon dioxide is used to operate the weapon. The price of these weapons ranges from $25 to $500. My recommendations for the first phase of the Obama Weapons Ban are that the manufacture and sale of all gas actuated weapons to the civilian market be banned, and no weapon be capable of accepting more than 6-rounds of any ammunition. Current ammunition used by NATO or East Bloc Countries to be banned. Gas can be defined as propellant to operate the weapon whether derived from chemical or other sources. The possession of existing gas actuated weapons or the capability to hold more than 6-rounds of ammunition be subject to a yearly licensing fee of $2,000 per weapon. To prevent 2nd or 5th amendment or due process challenges, a person that currently owns one of these weapons can turn them in and receive reasonable market value payment for a limited time. This is not charity, an entitlement, welfare, or pork; it is a narrowly tailored payment to achieve the compelling governmental interest of providing for the safety of the people by getting murder weapons out of people’s hands. For you lawyers out there, any ban based on the 2nd amendment must survive strict scrutiny. For all other weapons, speed loaders (a device to load more than one round at a time in a revolver) shall be banned or all weapons owned by that individual subject to the $2,000 yearly licensing fee per weapon. All other weapons be subject to a nominal $25 licensing fee per weapon, and a surtax of 1,000% put on all legal weapons and legal ammunition sales. Because of the old adage that “when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns,” those who possess an unlicensed weapon or a silencer be subject to 20-years imprisonment and the statute written around this shall be strict liability meaning that there will be no defense to possession. A person under the Phase 1 Obama Weapons Ban will still be able to have a legal weapon for their defense. The second phase of the Obama Weapons Ban will be more difficult to implement. The Supreme Court must interpret that the second amendment refers to the National Guard and Police, and the civilian population do not have a right to possess and bear arms. The Phase 2 Obama Weapons Ban should be complete disarmament of the civilian population by making possession of all firearms illegal. The same buyback period for all other weapons should ensue, and efforts made to confiscate the firearms not turned in during the buyback. Being caught with a weapon will result in 20-years imprisonment, using a weapon for any purpose will result in life imprisonment to death. After the buyback period, there should always be an exception from prosecution for surrendering a weapon to law enforcement. One should be able to buy and legally use the daisy type single cock and fire BB guns provided the capacity be limited to six BBs, the weapon is brightly colored, and a stiff licensing fee is paid. All licensing fees shall increase 25% per year. My recommendations for the Obama Weapons Ban is the only model that would have worked and that would have kept the Connecticut children and teachers safe. Chances would have been good that under this type of ban the murderer’s mother would not have had weapons because ownership of weapons would have been too expensive for her. The second amendment does not say that gun ownership needs to be cheap. You might also think that a single shot hunting rifle is innocuous. As said above every gun is a murder weapon and hunting rifles were used by the military as sniper rifles before they went to custom made weapons. Case in point: With the right optics and murderer behind the trigger a hunting rifle can be good up to 4,000 feet. At this distance the bullet will strike its intended target in 1.35 seconds; however, the sound of the shot will be heard in 3.55 seconds. The murderer can kill his/her intended victim and witnesses at the murder scene will not hear the shot for 2.2 seconds after the bullet strikes. Hunting rifles are not innocuous. In addition, the preferred weapon of choice for criminals is surprisingly not the assault weapons, but pistols. As one can clearly see, a complete weapons ban is necessary as soon as possible. What also needs to be addressed but is beyond the scope of this article are archery weapons, competition sling shots, combat axes, swords, knives, baseball bats, violent video games, TV shows (nothing on but violent cop shows), and movies (all with violence to be NC17) and the like. More money must also be put into the mental health system and civil commitment made easier.