The Right to Keep
and Bear Arms
"Our task of creating a socialist
America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally
disarmed."
Sara Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control, to Sen. Howard Metzanbaum, The National
Educator, January 1994, Page 3.
The right to keep
and bear arms is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of
the United States. More importantly, this right is not an individual
right, nor a group right or a governmental right. As with any right
guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, the government has no more legitimate
right to constrict or limit the right to keep and bear arms, than it does
to limit freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom of religion.
The Colorado Constitution
guarantees to every citizen the inalienable right
of "defending their lives and liberties,...and
protecting property." (Article II,
section 3). The right of self-defense and defense of others
is a long respected constitutional right. The right to keep and bear
arms is a method of protecting that right.
A citizen should
be permitted to exercise his or her constitutional rights without impediment.
That is, the burden of proof should be upon the government to prove the
unfitness of a citizen to exercise a right, rather than upon the citizen.
Likewise, a citizen should not be required to prove need.
As law abiding
citizens, we should not be prohibited from defending ourselves or our families,
whether in our homes or in places we own "corporately" as citizens and
taxpayers. -- Dave Stiver
Why I believe the way I
do...
| Gun Registration Restrictions |
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Registration is completely unnecessary as a crime solver.
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The current system allows for the identification of the manufacturer, the
dealer, and the purchaser.
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Registration amounts to confiscation.
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Criminals don't register their firearms anyway -- only law abiding citizens.
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Attempts to further regulate the already law abiding defies common logic.
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In Germany under Hitler the policy was simply -- Turn in your weapons or
be shot on the spot!
"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration
is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."
- Janet Reno
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Right to Carry
|
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31 states recognize a citizens Right to Carry.
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127 million Americans/60% of handgun owners live in Right to Carry states.
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22 states have adopted Right to Carry since mid 1980's (19 of those states
did so after 1995).
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In 1987, Florida enacted a "shall issue" RTC law, now the framework for
similar laws and legislative proposals in other states. The law was supported
by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement, Florida Sheriffs Assn., Florida
Police Chiefs Assn., and other law enforcement groups.
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States with Right To Carry laws have lower violent crime rates. On average,
they have a 24% lower total violent crime rate, a 19% lower homicide rate,
a 39% lower robbery rate, and a 19% lower aggravated assault rate, compared
to other states and the District of Columbia. The nine states with the
lowest violent crime rates are all Right To Carry states. (Data: FBI)
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Gun Safety
|
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Law abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals over
2.4 million times every year -- or 6,575 times a day.
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Each year, firearms are used 60 times more often to protect the lives of
honest citizens than to take lives.
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Of the 2.4 million times citizens use their guns to defend themselves every
year, in 92% of these defensive uses, the mere sight of a gun or a warning
shot scares off their attackers. Less than 8% of the time, a citizen will
kill or wound his/her attacker.
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Of the 2.4 million self defense cases, more than 192,000 are women defending
themselves against sexual abuse.
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New England Journal of Medicine (editorial) - the lower murder rate among
male gun owners ``may represent a true protective effect of handgun purchase
and needs to be considered seriously and examined further.''
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm
only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such
laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants;
they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed
man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria.
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Gun
Confiscation
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Allowing police to take weapons from people who haven't done anything wrong
violates their Constitutional right to bear arms. ``You don't forfeit your
rights just because you might do something bad,'' said Dennis Fusaro, director
of state legislation for Gun Owners of America.
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The law could lead to illegal searches.
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Confiscation legislation (such is in place in Connecticut), could lead
to a further abuse of the asset forfeiture laws -- wherein law abiding
citizens could actually lose their property without "due process."
“One man with a gun can control 100 without
one. ... Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms.”
- V.I. Lenin
“If the opposition disarms, well and good.
If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.”
- Joseph Stalin
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Source: FBI, GOA (Gun Owners of America),
http://www.youdebate.com.
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and programming copyright © 1999 - Taxpayers 2000. All Rights Reserved.
Taxpayers
for Dave Stiver
State
Representative - House District 15
Mary Ann
Louks - Treasurer
4562 Excalibur
Court
Colorado
Springs, CO 80917-1351
(719)
380-1484