6.23.16

It is dangerous to have an overt political opinion these days. You are bound to upset somebody you like and respect. My cohorts reach across the political spectrum and not all of them are totally doctrinaire or easy to figure. Many of them disagree with me. Guess what, we're still friends.

I got a big "evil Hillary" lecture from a good bud the other day but hey, that decision is easy compared to some conversations.

It is a little tougher to talk about guns.

Please understand that I have been a registered gun owner for over 40 years. I own several of them and believe quite strongly in the second amendment.

But do I think that means that citizens owning any and all types of weapons is legitimate, that our founding fathers would advocate for the right of Joe citizen to affix a shoulder fired missile, let alone a nuclear capped one, to his Dodge dart? Heck no.

There are practical limits to every right and I personally think that Obama and the left is on the right track in trying to ban "assault style" rifles.

Now what I find truly incredible is my conservative friends who think that those rights are absolute, that these types of weapons are exactly what the founders had in mind because the citizenry has the ultimate right, duty and obligation to take down tyrannical despots who may run afoul of our sacred constitution.

To those people I just have one thing to say; forget it. Walter Mitty, your posse is not taking down the government, they will grind you up and spit you out. You are heavily outgunned and outmatched, I don't care what you are packing. And the simple matter is that no matter how much the Bundy style wack jobs grouse about an overreaching federal government and their desire to bring it down, I got news for them, the rest of us can't stand you worse than you can't stand the government.

We don't think you have a right to graze your cattle on federal lands for nothing, to bulldoze indian artifacts, to take over federal land, to drive your atvs over forbidden trails and create all the environmental damage that you can muster. We keep the feds around to keep people like you in check.

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Amazing that the John Cornyns of this world are more concerned with protecting the rights of people to own assault weapons to such a degree that we can't get the Republicans to even agree not to sell nasty arms to people on no flight or terrorist watch lists. That proposition is fine with me. One innocent man can't buy a gun, it won't keep me up at night, if we can keep the rest of these guns out of the hands of the lunatics.