Hurrah! 2nd Amendment Gains Ground

Dear Friends,

For the first time since 1939, the Supreme Court has seen fit to hear and rule on a case involving the 2nd Amendment.

For the last 68 years, individual rights have been losing ground, not just with regards to personal weapons, but in general.

Let's hope that this landmark ruling, modest as it may be, is the start of a trend re-establishing the supremacy of the principle of individual rights that this country was founded on.

Any biologist will tell you that the prime instinct of every animal is that of self-preservation. We, the "tool-using-animal" typically use a variety of artifacts to accomplish this goal.

Further, in ancient Rome, it was easy to distinguish Citizens from Slaves while in the marketplace: Citizens carried swords, Slaves didn't. No self-respecting Citizen would think of venturing out without their personal weapon.

Today, there is a growing division among modern societies. In one camp you find the attitude that resistance to aggression is almost as bad as the aggression itself (I refer you to the bizarre English phenomenon of convicting the resistant victim for more jail time than his attacker). This camp naively believes that tools are the cause of violence and simply removing the tools will undoubtedly make lambs of us all.

The other camp, to which I freely admit I belong, believes that there have been, are and always will be those miscreants who live to predate on those who allow it. We have made a fundamental decision to accommodate ourselves to this reality and take prudent measures to prepare for it. This means carrying a handgun.

Empirical evidence supports our long-held intuition that guns, in the hands of law-abiding citizens reduces crime. Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming anti-gun bias of the elite media (New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Tribune and Chicago Tribune to name a few) this news never makes the front page. Neither do stories of the nearly 2 million incidents of law-abiding Americans using firearms to defend themselves from attack each year.

Hopefully, this is the start of a very good thing; re-establishing the sanctity of the individual against the predations of others.

Sincerely,

Erik S. Olson

The Horror...

Dear Friends,

We are now seeing the depths of depravity that come with the demise of freedom. Today, a rag-tag militia of Strongman Robert Mugabe supporters committed an unspeakable crime.

In the first somewhat free and fair election in over 20 years, Zimbabweans overwhelmingly chose the leader of the Opposition party to lead the country back from the hell that it's been thrown into by Mr. Mugabe and his vicious brand of thuggery.

The Opposition leader, Patson Chiprio had just been released from political detention. A group of Mugabe loyalists stormed up looking for him. His wife said that he would be back in a few hours.

They left, only to return sometime later, grabbed Mrs. Chiprio, chopped off one hand and both of her feet - then tossed her into a hut along with a fire bomb. She was mutilated and burned alive.

I've never met Mr. or Mrs. Chiprio, but tonight I grieve for them.

Some might say, "Give Peace a Chance"... but to this, I reply, "A Piece of Lead... and Plenty of it!".

Once again, we see proof positive what happens when a populace is disarmed and relegated to the status of indentured servants.

Amidst all our foreign policy boondoggles, missteps and outright hypocricy, here we are faced with a burning example of despotism at its most vile.

For all the posturing and puffery done in New York and Capital Hill - the inanities and personal aggrandizement - we have nothing but talk and pomposity about this abomination... but no action at all.

I hope the screams of anguish and cries of bereavement haunt the deep nights of those who would DO nothing .

Sincerely,

Erik S. Olson