Our constitutional rights are under assault by Jim Butler

Our constitutional rights
are under assault

Jim Butler
President SCRA
August 2005 GunNews

Like many of you I believe that many of the changes we see today will only serve to weaken and eventually lead to the downfall of this great nation. We are being conditioned to accept the loss of our Constitutional rights and freedoms, all in the name of public safety. Fear of crime which the government seems unable or unwilling to control is used as an excuse to make us more subservient. The anti-gun lobby has become the unsuspecting ally of crime in our streets by helping to provide criminals a safe environment to operate and thrive in.

Get involved in the fight to protect the legacy of freedoms and rights handed down to us by our Founding Fathers. Many of them put their lives on the line and made great personal sacrifices to produce one of the outstanding documents in world history, the United States Constitution along with the Bill of Rights. Beware of those who call them "living documents." The Framers deliberately made it an arduous process to change the Constitution to keep it from being changed at whim by unscrupulous people seeking to tyrannize our country.

Some people say that things are different today and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth. Communications and travel may be faster, but the thirst for power and control by unscrupulous people trying to subjugate us never ends.

In spite of the propaganda put out by those who would advocate gun control, our country has survived for over 200 years with the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

You don't fight crime by disarming the potential victims as the City of Wilmette, Illinois tried to do to Hale Demar. He defied the ban and shot a career criminal who was trying to burglarize his home for the second time in two days. Unfortunately, city leaders in Wilmette still haven't lifted the ban.

How about Bernie Goetz? He saved his own life when he shot four young black men who tried to rob him on a New York subway train. All four had extensive criminal records including rape, armed robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon. These were not just ordinary rambunctious youths, though that's how the national press tried to portray them at the time.

Six months later one of Goetz's assailants, James Ramseut, was arrested and later convicted of the rape and robbery of a pregnant woman. Forty stitches were required to close her wounds and she was hospitalized for four days.

There was a substantial decrease in subway robberies in the weeks and months after Goetz shot and wounded the four would be robbers.

At one time I read in the papers that 70% of Illinois homicides were committed in Chicago. But Chicago has had a handgun ban since the early 1980's, which was supposed to stop this carnage. How can this be? IT DIDN'T WORK!