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Old May 14, 2009, 12:11 PM   #26
Glenn E. Meyer
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Since we know that the AWB had NO effect on any measurable crime indices, I'm willing to bet that a armor ban would be similar. It's just a feel good measure for those in that banning paradigm.

The NY Times has an hysterical rant editorial about an attempt to allow EBRs in DC. How dare folks allow battle rifles in the home? Right now, my EBR is tied down as it is struggling to get loose and cause mayhem. When I shoot a carbine match, those guns go home. How dare TX allow this!!

Just BS - the general principle of not having bans is separate from someone who is ninja-ing up and waiting for the Apocalypse. There is no need for such a ban.
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Old May 14, 2009, 01:59 PM   #27
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firearms are constitutionally protected, body armour is not
I think you may be wrong about that, eel-man.

I'll see if I can find it later, but I'm pretty sure there was a chunk of Heller that talked about armor as being a classification of "arms".

People have always tried to stop bullets with various protective stuff. That was true when the Bill o' Rights was written, well before it was written, and well after it was written right up to the present day. Armor has never been unusual, and I think any argument that it is dangerous is pretty flimsy also.
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Old May 14, 2009, 05:44 PM   #28
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Found it:

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b. “Keep and bear Arms.” We move now from the holder of the right-“the people”-to the substance of the right: “to keep and bear Arms.”


Before addressing the verbs “keep” and “bear,” we interpret their object: “Arms.” The 18th-century meaning is no different from the meaning today. The 1773 edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary defined “arms” as “weapons of offence, or armour of defence.” 1 Dictionary of the English Language 107 (4th ed.) (hereinafter Johnson). Timothy Cunningham's important 1771 legal dictionary defined “arms” as “any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another.” 1 A New and Complete Law Dictionary (1771); see also N. Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) (reprinted 1989) (hereinafter Webster) (similar).
Take that, fishy!
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Old May 14, 2009, 05:48 PM   #29
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Take that, fishy
Obiter dicta droog

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Old May 14, 2009, 07:17 PM   #30
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The difference is that firearms are constitutionally protected, body armour is not.
So absent 2A you'd be OK with gun bans?

There are no fundamental differences between the arguments raised in this thread against body armor, and the Bradyite arguments against classes of guns, and in fact against guns in general. The position of your eyebrows is immaterial and uninteresting.

And if someone decides to ninja up and wait for the Apocalypse, what business is it of yours?
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Old May 14, 2009, 07:17 PM   #31
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The difference is that firearms are constitutionally protected, body armour is not.
Hmmm...don`t forget about the 9th Amendment. One could make a strong arguement for our right to keep our skin and viscera intact. In fact, even the 4th amendment could be construed to protect body armor.

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Dangerous and unusual wot wot. Civilians who need body armour due to their unique circumstances need body armour. Folks who don't but buy it anyway get the eyebrow. the LRH syndrome is probably the most psychologically innocuous in that crowd.
If I can recall properly, many years ago, there was a clothing manufacturer marketing a line of Kevlar lined coats for children. At the time, it was selling quite well, but like all things... News reporters were interviewing parents who bought the coats. Guess what their reasons were for their purchases

Try telling those parents that they do not have a right to coat their children in adamantium armor.



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Old May 14, 2009, 08:26 PM   #32
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I can see the possible usefulness....

Albeit limited, of enhanced penalties for wearing of body armor during commission of a crime of violence (bank robbery, etc.), but other than that, I see no purpose or good that can come of any restriction on lawful citizens owning and wearing (if they so choose) body armor.

After all, don't we, the people, have as much right to protection from gunfire as someone who makes their living going in harms way?


And I, for one anyway, am sick of hearing anyone talk about need. Particularly when they use their opinion of what I need as justification for what I should be allowed, under law to own.

You can live naked in a mud hut (or not naked in an igloo) and only ingest the bare minimum of calories for survival, if you choose. After all, thats all a human being needs. But don't even think of trying to make a law that says I must do the same. As the bard has been oft quoted, "Man does not live by bread alone".
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Old May 14, 2009, 10:37 PM   #33
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So absent 2A you'd be OK with gun bans?
Your implication that I am is Post hoc ergo propter hoc

By the way, I would argue that certain gun bans would be constitutional

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There are no fundamental differences between the arguments raised in this thread against body armor, and the Bradyite arguments against classes of guns, and in fact against guns in general.
Reductio ad bradium

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The position of your eyebrows is immaterial and uninteresting.
Not to normal folks

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And if someone decides to ninja up and wait for the Apocalypse, what business is it of yours?
I'm entitled to be bemused by the antics of my fellow fleshbots. And as they have the right, to date, to ninja up, so too do I have the right to condescendingly smirk and point out their vagaries to my fellow norms.

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Guess what their reasons were for their purchases
Tell, pray tell......


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Old May 14, 2009, 10:48 PM   #34
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Ironically, criminals who commit a crime using firearms and body armor are more likely than any other offender to be killed by police at the scene.

By armoring those areas, they prevent law enforcement from delivering an incapacitating (as opposed to fatal) shot, meaning the only way to take the guy down is to introduce mr. JHP to mr. brain matter.

On top of that, a crime with an armored bad guy is a pretty strong cop magnet, so there will be lots of extra firepower aiming at said brain matter.
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Old May 14, 2009, 10:59 PM   #35
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Even if I had access to body armor I would not use it, no matter how vigorously Wildalaska furors his brow....


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Old May 14, 2009, 11:38 PM   #36
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While the 2A protects the right to own guns it doesn't include CCP's... Most folks do not need to carry a concealed firearm any more than, and likely less than, the average person needs body armor. So WA, you would cock an eyebrow to anyone who applies for a CCP unless they need one due to certain special circumstances...
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Old May 14, 2009, 11:38 PM   #37
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Even in the north hollywood shoot out I have read a number of views of it that they did not get hit for some time. That they hid behind overwhelming firepower (that ran out) and did not start getting hit until they lost their firepower advantage. And correct me if I'm wrong but their vest had been stolen right?


I'd own one if I had the money. I would not wear it all the time or even that often, just keep it handy if things ever got more lawless. Crime rate here has been going up pretty fast, kids (18-25) are carjacking and chopping the cars for cash. I'm guessing that these are junkies needing a fix doing the carjackings, probably lost their crap job months ago when everything slowed down.
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Old May 14, 2009, 11:45 PM   #38
AZ Med18
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What exactly would constitute a unique need for body armor?

Last time I checked most crimes were committed against the private citizen.

Or EMS never gets attacked....

London for example

http://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/ne...k_paramed.aspx
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Old May 15, 2009, 12:30 AM   #39
Ricky B
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Sometimes being bullet-proof is not a good idea

Not quite responsive to the OP, but somewhat on topic is my post in the thread "Sometimes being bullet-proof is not a good idea."
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Old May 15, 2009, 12:41 AM   #40
B. Lahey
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dicta
Yeah, but it's still a nice historical argument for us originalist/founder's intent nutjobs. Armor is "arms", and always has been, so the 2nd applies.

Scalia agrees with me, who agrees with you?
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Old May 15, 2009, 12:42 AM   #41
THEZACHARIAS
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-"Sometimes being bullet-proof is not a good idea."

True, but its relevant only to felons. Joe Schmoe gun owner is, in a legal sense, unaffected.
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Old May 15, 2009, 05:16 AM   #42
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my right eyebrow raises over the thought of an ordinary Joe buying body armour
Ah, the anti-armor sentiment. "You don't need no armor, but we will sell you a gun."
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Old May 15, 2009, 12:16 PM   #43
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Scalia agrees with me, who agrees with you?
Me

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Ah, the anti-armor sentiment. "You don't need no armor, but we will sell you a gun."
1. Misconstrues my comment. 2. Guns have purposes other than "defense"

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Old May 15, 2009, 12:43 PM   #44
Wildalaska
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Most folks do not need to carry a concealed firearm any more than, and likely less than, the average person needs body armor.
Where do you get that conclusion from

Quote:
So WA, you would cock an eyebrow to anyone who applies for a CCP unless they need one due to certain special circumstances...
Many folks get CCPs to avoid the NICs check. And quite frankly, I do cock my eyebrow over some folks getting CCPs...DLs too

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Old May 15, 2009, 01:38 PM   #45
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I am quite suprised how much opinions differ in this forum as to how much freedom a person should have. every body has there right to an opinion, I would think that most of us would not want any of our rights limited.
I also worry that some people think something that is right to them is a "privilege" to everyone else
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Old May 15, 2009, 01:51 PM   #46
Wildalaska
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I am quite suprised how much opinions differ in this forum as to how much freedom a person should have.
isnt America great?

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every body has there right to an opinion, I would think that most of us would not want any of our rights limited.
Bet ya 90% of the folks here agree it's OK to limit "rights"...the question is not whether, but how much...

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Old May 15, 2009, 02:02 PM   #47
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Just for the record...

No one in this thread has said body armor should be regulated, or that any law-abiding citizen should be legally barred from owning it. Some of us think it's a bit silly to want it, absent a good reason, but I haven't noticed anyone arguing for legal restrictions. Whether or not it could be, or whether armor is protected by the Second Amendment, are completely different questions from that of whether it ought to be, which, unless I've missed something, we've all answered with a resounding "No."

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Exactly. Well tmesified, WA. I envy you the eel, by the way.
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Old May 15, 2009, 04:06 PM   #48
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As fleshbots (Wildalaska, 2009) we are weighed down with personal and political ideologies. Most agree that body armor is a right protected by some vague aspect of the BOR. Others feel that that is a no no. If I see someone walking around in chain mail (other than at Medievel Times) with a sword strapped to his belt at the local shopping mall, I will raise an eyebrow. If I see someone walking out of a gun show with 5 SKSs, 4 Remington 870s, and 10 Glock 17s (that`s a lot to carry) I will raise an eyebrow. If I see someone at the supermarket check out with groceries and he is sporting a flak jacket with 2 1911s and a Kabar strapped to him, I will raise an eyebrow.

Now just because I raise my eyebrow does not mean that I have the right to deny that individual the right to be unusual. We raise our eyebrows because we experience events that go against everyday norm. Things that shock us may also plauge our logic circuits which can cause us to say silly things like:

1) "What do you need that for."
2) "There oughta be a law against that."
and my personal favorite...
3) "Why doesn`t the govt get involved."

I have personal convictions but I try to keep them to myself (even though I have a right to voice them). However, I do not have the right whatsoever to use my convictions to physically deny the convictions held by other fleshbots (Wildalaska, 2009). Please let the fleshbots (Wildalaska, 2009) have their body armor...if you scratch their backs, maybe they will scratch yours



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Last edited by Al Norris; May 15, 2009 at 04:56 PM. Reason: Edited out response to deleted post
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