11-18-2008, 10:04 AM
hmm,
I thought the right to bear arms was placed in the Constitution to guarantee the people the right of a militia if the government became oppressive. Being as they were facing a situation of oppression by the British ... who wanted the people to be unarmed against soldiers.
the Wild West wasn't even conceived of in 1776.
Yes you have the right to bear arms now, derived from the 2nd Amendment, but to come off sounding like the Founding Fathers were ensuring a situation like we have today involving individuals using their guns to act in place of authorized law enforcement, comes off as not having a grasp of history.
The first case I studied in torts class, was a classic case about whether it is legal to inflict bodily injury in defense of property only. It involved a booby-trap, which meant the self-defense angle wasn't available. The property owner was found at fault.
The legal principle was that human life is more important than property, and it is wrong to injure, maim, and kill to protect STUFF. As a corollary, because all too many people are willing to kill over STUFF, criteria are necessary for determining whether force is justified due to fear of bodily harm or death.
All this talk of using guns to prevent burglary is counter-productive.
Neighborhood watch, burglar alarms wired in (that can't be cut) and improved police response time and prosecution of B & E's would help. Especially the latter, I think.
It irks me that the police know who are the bad apples and for whatever reason they don't set out to bust them, but they put stupid amounts of time into marijuana dealing stings.
I've told this story before, but when a neighbor got ripped off, I asked the police about it and they said, yeah, they knew who did it or at least had a very good idea. (but couldn't prove it?) I asked them, are you going to pursue them, investigate them? And the officer said "no" with a surprised voice like why would we do that? (But we'll take another report when it happens again, and maybe someday they'll be caught in the act?)
The officer's advice - watch your stuff. [
]
I thought the right to bear arms was placed in the Constitution to guarantee the people the right of a militia if the government became oppressive. Being as they were facing a situation of oppression by the British ... who wanted the people to be unarmed against soldiers.
the Wild West wasn't even conceived of in 1776.
Yes you have the right to bear arms now, derived from the 2nd Amendment, but to come off sounding like the Founding Fathers were ensuring a situation like we have today involving individuals using their guns to act in place of authorized law enforcement, comes off as not having a grasp of history.
The first case I studied in torts class, was a classic case about whether it is legal to inflict bodily injury in defense of property only. It involved a booby-trap, which meant the self-defense angle wasn't available. The property owner was found at fault.
The legal principle was that human life is more important than property, and it is wrong to injure, maim, and kill to protect STUFF. As a corollary, because all too many people are willing to kill over STUFF, criteria are necessary for determining whether force is justified due to fear of bodily harm or death.
All this talk of using guns to prevent burglary is counter-productive.
Neighborhood watch, burglar alarms wired in (that can't be cut) and improved police response time and prosecution of B & E's would help. Especially the latter, I think.
It irks me that the police know who are the bad apples and for whatever reason they don't set out to bust them, but they put stupid amounts of time into marijuana dealing stings.
I've told this story before, but when a neighbor got ripped off, I asked the police about it and they said, yeah, they knew who did it or at least had a very good idea. (but couldn't prove it?) I asked them, are you going to pursue them, investigate them? And the officer said "no" with a surprised voice like why would we do that? (But we'll take another report when it happens again, and maybe someday they'll be caught in the act?)
The officer's advice - watch your stuff. [
]