The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - How do you register an unregistered firearm without getting in trouble?

Stagger Lee · August 2, 2008, 08:52 AM

AK103,

You're missing the meaning of the stuff that you're cut-pasting. As so often happens when we try to use one paragraph of a lengthy document to justify a position, the context is lost.

Case in point: You don't even know the NAME of the case that you cribbed that from, do you? You don't know the judge who said that or what he was referring to when he said it, either. No, that particular paragraph is just cut-pasted from one internet anti-government site to another and cited blindly by all sorts of different extremists--from gun lovers anti-tax nuts to gay marriage advocates--and few if any of them even know what the case that they cite is really about. And when it comes to citing legal cases, the context of the case and the reason for the decision is everything. Without that, the actual words mean nothing.

So using that as a reference doesn't help you. In fact it makes you look misinformed.

But that aside, it doesn't change the fact that nowhere in the Constitution does it specify that every individual shall have the right to decide for himself whether or not a law is constitutional. That's a function of the courts. And until you take a law into court and challenge it and have it declared unconstitutional, then it's still valid and you're bound to obey. And you know who says so? Thomas Jefferson. He's the one who said that we're a nation of laws, and that in this country, laws can be obeyed or laws can be changed, but they cannot be ignored.

Bottom line: You're a member of society. You have rights, but so does everyone else, and a government was created to protect everyone's rights equally and everyone in society is under the authority of that government, like it or not. That's what the founders of this country intended and that's what they created. They gave everyone means to petition for change if they didn't like something but nowhere did they say that people are free to ignore whichever laws that they personally disagree with. Determining whether or not laws are constitutional is the job of the courts, not any one person.

But for the record, the day that you decide to challenge the laws on machine guns, and walk into the nearest federal building with a fully-automatic SKS that you just converted and demand to be arrested and tried, I will send you some money for your battle.

August 2, 2008, 08:52 AM	#25
Stagger Lee Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2007 Posts: 342	AK103, You're missing the meaning of the stuff that you're cut-pasting. As so often happens when we try to use one paragraph of a lengthy document to justify a position, the context is lost. Case in point: You don't even know the NAME of the case that you cribbed that from, do you? You don't know the judge who said that or what he was referring to when he said it, either. No, that particular paragraph is just cut-pasted from one internet anti-government site to another and cited blindly by all sorts of different extremists--from gun lovers anti-tax nuts to gay marriage advocates--and few if any of them even know what the case that they cite is really about. And when it comes to citing legal cases, the context of the case and the reason for the decision is everything. Without that, the actual words mean nothing. So using that as a reference doesn't help you. In fact it makes you look misinformed. But that aside, it doesn't change the fact that nowhere in the Constitution does it specify that every individual shall have the right to decide for himself whether or not a law is constitutional. That's a function of the courts. And until you take a law into court and challenge it and have it declared unconstitutional, then it's still valid and you're bound to obey. And you know who says so? Thomas Jefferson. He's the one who said that we're a nation of laws, and that in this country, laws can be obeyed or laws can be changed, but they cannot be ignored. Bottom line: You're a member of society. You have rights, but so does everyone else, and a government was created to protect everyone's rights equally and everyone in society is under the authority of that government, like it or not. That's what the founders of this country intended and that's what they created. They gave everyone means to petition for change if they didn't like something but nowhere did they say that people are free to ignore whichever laws that they personally disagree with. Determining whether or not laws are constitutional is the job of the courts, not any one person. But for the record, the day that you decide to challenge the laws on machine guns, and walk into the nearest federal building with a fully-automatic SKS that you just converted and demand to be arrested and tried, I will send you some money for your battle.