Harwood Loomis
11th November 2016, 17:38
ELECTION 2016
A Wake-Up Call for all Americans
By Harwood Loomis for The M1911 Pistols Organization
I’ll begin by apologizing to our readers in countries other than the United States for penning an article about U.S. politics. Historically, M1911.org has tried to remain objective, neutral, and apolitical. However, the stakes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are so high that we feel we have to take a position.
It’s no secret that this year’s presidential election campaign has been one of the ugliest and nastiest in the history of the United States. It’s also a curious phenomenon: both of the major parties chose candidates who were DISliked by more people than they were liked. For the Democrats, über-liberals, and “social justice warriors” (a.k.a. SJWs), it seems they voted for Hillary Clinton because she ran as a Democrat, and for no other reason. On the Republican side, supporters of Donald Trump saw an opportunity to elect someone who really is a Washington outsider, not a career politician who only claims to be an outsider.
Here at The M1911 Pistols Organization, our primary (indeed, almost our exclusive) focus is the 1911 pistol in all its variations, from the collectable World War 1 M1911s, to today’s budget pistols like Rock Island and Metro Arms, to semi-custom pistols such as those by Ed Brown, Wilson Custom and Les Baer, and on to exotic offerings such as the “.50 caliber .45” Guncrafter Industries .50GI pistols, to the incredible works of art created by Cabot Industries. It’s a tremendously wide spectrum, but that doesn’t mean we exist in a bubble or in a vacuum. We are, after all, shooters; those of us in the United States are affected by the laws and we have to live by the laws. Since the United States is the source for many firearms and much of the ammunition sold world-wide, what happens in the United States potentially affects shooters and collectors everywhere.
This is why we are departing from our customary avoidance of political discussions to offer some thoughts about the possible effects of the 2016 presidential election.
Many of you may not like “the Donald,” or think highly of him. You are not alone. Many (and I do mean many) of those who voted for Mr. Trump don’t like him, and many who voted for him don’t even know if they trust him. But … a vote for Mr. Trump was a vote against Hillary Clinton, and that seems to be what drove the election. That’s the key point. We can’t be certain what Donald Trump will do as President, but we can be certain what Hillary Clinton would do … because she has told us. She’s out to take away ALL privately-owned firearms. She is on record as believing that the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Heller and McDonald were wrong and should be overturned. We know that, if elected, Hillary Clinton would pack the Supreme Court with justices who agree with her and who would be ready to destroy the Second Amendment in a heartbeat.
This would potentially affect every gun owner in the entire United States. Perhaps you don’t have a concealed carry permit but you “just” keep a gun at home, for defense against robbers or home invaders. Remember what the Heller case was about: all Dick Heller wanted was to be able to have a functional firearm in his home for self defense, and the laws of Washington, DC, didn’t allow even that. And Hillary Clinton thinks it was WRONG for the Supreme Court to have ruled that Dick Heller has a right to keep a functional firearm in his home.
Imagine life if the Washington model became national law. Collectors would have to field strip every pistol (and rifle) in their collections. Nobody would be allowed to keep even a nightstand gun in working configuration. And yet, this would not apply to criminals, for the fundamental reason that criminals don’t obey laws. A Hillary Clinton presidency would have left the entire country essentially defenseless against armed criminals.
Beyond the 1911 pistol platform, many of you may own one or more AR-15 pattern rifles. Never mind the “modern sporting rifle” nonsense, those of us who own AR-15s understand exactly what they are: semi-automatic versions of the full-automatic, select-fire M16. This is what Hillary Clinton wants to ban first. Yet, in reality, is there any firearm today that’s more appropriate under our Constitution than the AR-15?
Remember that when the United States was founded there was no standing army, and the Founding Fathers were opposed to the concept of a standing army. The national (and state) defense was based on the citizens’ militias, and the basis of the militia was that each man brought his own rifle and ammunition. The following is an excerpt from the original Militia Act of 1792:
http://www.constitution.org/mil/mil_act_1792.htm
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, … That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder; and shall appear so armed, accoutred and provided, when called out to exercise or into service, …
,,, and that from and after five years from the passing of this Act, all muskets from arming the militia as is herein required, shall be of bores sufficient for balls of the eighteenth part of a pound; and every citizen so enrolled, and providing himself with the arms, ammunition and accoutrements, required as aforesaid, shall hold the same exempted from all suits, distresses, executions or sales, for debt or for the payment of taxes.
Let’s look more closely at the second part of that quotation. What is it saying, really? It’s calling for standardization, that’s what it’s doing. It’s calling for each militiaman to equip himself with a musket capable of firing the same ammunition as all other militiamen. Now we get a glimpse into what the Second Amendment was saying when it spoke of a “well-regulated” militia. It didn’t mean a militia that was hamstrung and hogtied by regulations, it meant a militia that was standardized in armaments and in practice. And if we fast forward to 2016, isn’t the present-day equivalent having each private citizen (the people who comprise the “unorganized militia” under the most modern version of the Militia Act) equipped with a rifle that fires the same ammunition and uses the same magazines as the military-issue M16 rifle and M4 carbine?
The militiamen were responsible for arming themselves. If we are the militia today (and we are, there is an updated version of the Militia Act in force today, as this is being written), doesn’t it only make sense that the citizens comprising the militia should be armed with weapons compatible with those used by the regular Army? Of course it does; that’s why I own an AR-15. Yet this is precisely what Hillary Clinton wants to eliminate.
It has been said that the election of Donald Trump means the Second Amendment will be safe for at least another generation, and that’s probably true. Mr. Trump has promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who respect the Constitution, and that’s the only proper litmus test for a Supreme Court Justice. There should be none of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg’s references to “What would Europe do?” Who cares? It’s perhaps an interesting intellectual investigation, but our Constitution says that it is the highest law of the land. Our Constitution does not rely on European laws and European courts. It says what it says, and it must be interpreted solely on the basis of what the men who wrote it said and meant.
On this point, at least, it seems that we probably can trust Mr. Trump to keep his pre-election promise. Moreover, Mr. Trump’s two sons appear to be avid shooters, and it has already been rumored that one of them will be spearheading the Trump administration’s Second Amendment initiatives. All that sounds extremely hopeful.
What is playing out as the extreme irony is that supporters of Hillary Clinton have come so unglued over her loss that they are all over the mainstream media and Youtube expressing their “fear” of a Trump presidency. And, indeed there are riots in the streets and on college campuses across the country. But … who is rioting? Oh, yeah … people who claim they are Clinton supporters and who claim they “fear” the Trump presidency.
President Obama was elected because he promised to be, as the first black president of the United States, a great unifier. Having elected a black man as president, the United States was finally supposed to enter the era of color blindness. It didn’t last long. In fact, it lasted about six months. In July of 2009, a white police officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, arrested a man who was seen breaking into a house. The man was black. It subsequently turned out that the man was a professor, that he was the owner of the house, and that he had broken into his own house because he had lost (or forgotten) his keys. I can accept that – I’ve done the same thing.
But the professor was seen breaking into a house, by someone who didn’t know him. That person called the police. The officer was entirely justified in investigating. Since the professor refused to identify himself, the officer acted properly in arresting him. As soon as President Obama heard about the case, without (by his own admission) any knowledge of the facts of the case, he condemned the arrest as an instance of discriminatory policing. Since then, Mr. Obama hasn’t missed an opportunity to spread discontent, suspicion, and divisiveness where he should have been spreading mutual respect and unity. Those who claim they “fear” a Trump presidency should look at the past 8 years and realize that Mr. Trump can’t possibly make things worse than Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama personally set back racial relations in the United States by about 50 years – if not more.
So let’s give Mr. Trump a chance to move forward with his goal of making America great again. And let’s all breathe a sigh of relief that the Constitution has received a stay of execution.
Please go to this thread on the M1911 Pistols Organization discussion forum to discuss this article: http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?109306-Discussion-thread-for-our-E-zine-article-on-quot-Thoughts-on-the-2016-U-S-Election-quot
Find us on : http://forum.m1911.org/images/buttons/facebook2.png (http://www.facebook.com/m1911.org) http://forum.m1911.org/images/buttons/twitter2.png (http://www.twitter.com/M1911ORG)
Thank you!
A Wake-Up Call for all Americans
By Harwood Loomis for The M1911 Pistols Organization
I’ll begin by apologizing to our readers in countries other than the United States for penning an article about U.S. politics. Historically, M1911.org has tried to remain objective, neutral, and apolitical. However, the stakes in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are so high that we feel we have to take a position.
It’s no secret that this year’s presidential election campaign has been one of the ugliest and nastiest in the history of the United States. It’s also a curious phenomenon: both of the major parties chose candidates who were DISliked by more people than they were liked. For the Democrats, über-liberals, and “social justice warriors” (a.k.a. SJWs), it seems they voted for Hillary Clinton because she ran as a Democrat, and for no other reason. On the Republican side, supporters of Donald Trump saw an opportunity to elect someone who really is a Washington outsider, not a career politician who only claims to be an outsider.
Here at The M1911 Pistols Organization, our primary (indeed, almost our exclusive) focus is the 1911 pistol in all its variations, from the collectable World War 1 M1911s, to today’s budget pistols like Rock Island and Metro Arms, to semi-custom pistols such as those by Ed Brown, Wilson Custom and Les Baer, and on to exotic offerings such as the “.50 caliber .45” Guncrafter Industries .50GI pistols, to the incredible works of art created by Cabot Industries. It’s a tremendously wide spectrum, but that doesn’t mean we exist in a bubble or in a vacuum. We are, after all, shooters; those of us in the United States are affected by the laws and we have to live by the laws. Since the United States is the source for many firearms and much of the ammunition sold world-wide, what happens in the United States potentially affects shooters and collectors everywhere.
This is why we are departing from our customary avoidance of political discussions to offer some thoughts about the possible effects of the 2016 presidential election.
Many of you may not like “the Donald,” or think highly of him. You are not alone. Many (and I do mean many) of those who voted for Mr. Trump don’t like him, and many who voted for him don’t even know if they trust him. But … a vote for Mr. Trump was a vote against Hillary Clinton, and that seems to be what drove the election. That’s the key point. We can’t be certain what Donald Trump will do as President, but we can be certain what Hillary Clinton would do … because she has told us. She’s out to take away ALL privately-owned firearms. She is on record as believing that the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Heller and McDonald were wrong and should be overturned. We know that, if elected, Hillary Clinton would pack the Supreme Court with justices who agree with her and who would be ready to destroy the Second Amendment in a heartbeat.
This would potentially affect every gun owner in the entire United States. Perhaps you don’t have a concealed carry permit but you “just” keep a gun at home, for defense against robbers or home invaders. Remember what the Heller case was about: all Dick Heller wanted was to be able to have a functional firearm in his home for self defense, and the laws of Washington, DC, didn’t allow even that. And Hillary Clinton thinks it was WRONG for the Supreme Court to have ruled that Dick Heller has a right to keep a functional firearm in his home.
Imagine life if the Washington model became national law. Collectors would have to field strip every pistol (and rifle) in their collections. Nobody would be allowed to keep even a nightstand gun in working configuration. And yet, this would not apply to criminals, for the fundamental reason that criminals don’t obey laws. A Hillary Clinton presidency would have left the entire country essentially defenseless against armed criminals.
Beyond the 1911 pistol platform, many of you may own one or more AR-15 pattern rifles. Never mind the “modern sporting rifle” nonsense, those of us who own AR-15s understand exactly what they are: semi-automatic versions of the full-automatic, select-fire M16. This is what Hillary Clinton wants to ban first. Yet, in reality, is there any firearm today that’s more appropriate under our Constitution than the AR-15?
Remember that when the United States was founded there was no standing army, and the Founding Fathers were opposed to the concept of a standing army. The national (and state) defense was based on the citizens’ militias, and the basis of the militia was that each man brought his own rifle and ammunition. The following is an excerpt from the original Militia Act of 1792:
http://www.constitution.org/mil/mil_act_1792.htm
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, … That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder; and shall appear so armed, accoutred and provided, when called out to exercise or into service, …
,,, and that from and after five years from the passing of this Act, all muskets from arming the militia as is herein required, shall be of bores sufficient for balls of the eighteenth part of a pound; and every citizen so enrolled, and providing himself with the arms, ammunition and accoutrements, required as aforesaid, shall hold the same exempted from all suits, distresses, executions or sales, for debt or for the payment of taxes.
Let’s look more closely at the second part of that quotation. What is it saying, really? It’s calling for standardization, that’s what it’s doing. It’s calling for each militiaman to equip himself with a musket capable of firing the same ammunition as all other militiamen. Now we get a glimpse into what the Second Amendment was saying when it spoke of a “well-regulated” militia. It didn’t mean a militia that was hamstrung and hogtied by regulations, it meant a militia that was standardized in armaments and in practice. And if we fast forward to 2016, isn’t the present-day equivalent having each private citizen (the people who comprise the “unorganized militia” under the most modern version of the Militia Act) equipped with a rifle that fires the same ammunition and uses the same magazines as the military-issue M16 rifle and M4 carbine?
The militiamen were responsible for arming themselves. If we are the militia today (and we are, there is an updated version of the Militia Act in force today, as this is being written), doesn’t it only make sense that the citizens comprising the militia should be armed with weapons compatible with those used by the regular Army? Of course it does; that’s why I own an AR-15. Yet this is precisely what Hillary Clinton wants to eliminate.
It has been said that the election of Donald Trump means the Second Amendment will be safe for at least another generation, and that’s probably true. Mr. Trump has promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who respect the Constitution, and that’s the only proper litmus test for a Supreme Court Justice. There should be none of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg’s references to “What would Europe do?” Who cares? It’s perhaps an interesting intellectual investigation, but our Constitution says that it is the highest law of the land. Our Constitution does not rely on European laws and European courts. It says what it says, and it must be interpreted solely on the basis of what the men who wrote it said and meant.
On this point, at least, it seems that we probably can trust Mr. Trump to keep his pre-election promise. Moreover, Mr. Trump’s two sons appear to be avid shooters, and it has already been rumored that one of them will be spearheading the Trump administration’s Second Amendment initiatives. All that sounds extremely hopeful.
What is playing out as the extreme irony is that supporters of Hillary Clinton have come so unglued over her loss that they are all over the mainstream media and Youtube expressing their “fear” of a Trump presidency. And, indeed there are riots in the streets and on college campuses across the country. But … who is rioting? Oh, yeah … people who claim they are Clinton supporters and who claim they “fear” the Trump presidency.
President Obama was elected because he promised to be, as the first black president of the United States, a great unifier. Having elected a black man as president, the United States was finally supposed to enter the era of color blindness. It didn’t last long. In fact, it lasted about six months. In July of 2009, a white police officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, arrested a man who was seen breaking into a house. The man was black. It subsequently turned out that the man was a professor, that he was the owner of the house, and that he had broken into his own house because he had lost (or forgotten) his keys. I can accept that – I’ve done the same thing.
But the professor was seen breaking into a house, by someone who didn’t know him. That person called the police. The officer was entirely justified in investigating. Since the professor refused to identify himself, the officer acted properly in arresting him. As soon as President Obama heard about the case, without (by his own admission) any knowledge of the facts of the case, he condemned the arrest as an instance of discriminatory policing. Since then, Mr. Obama hasn’t missed an opportunity to spread discontent, suspicion, and divisiveness where he should have been spreading mutual respect and unity. Those who claim they “fear” a Trump presidency should look at the past 8 years and realize that Mr. Trump can’t possibly make things worse than Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama personally set back racial relations in the United States by about 50 years – if not more.
So let’s give Mr. Trump a chance to move forward with his goal of making America great again. And let’s all breathe a sigh of relief that the Constitution has received a stay of execution.
Please go to this thread on the M1911 Pistols Organization discussion forum to discuss this article: http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?109306-Discussion-thread-for-our-E-zine-article-on-quot-Thoughts-on-the-2016-U-S-Election-quot
Find us on : http://forum.m1911.org/images/buttons/facebook2.png (http://www.facebook.com/m1911.org) http://forum.m1911.org/images/buttons/twitter2.png (http://www.twitter.com/M1911ORG)
Thank you!