gun control

Tom Lehman TLEHMAN at lor.net
Sat May 22 10:54:15 PDT 1999


I've never been into guns. I don't understand why owning a machine-gun is such a big thrill for so many people. I can understand the ownership of a shotgun or even a little pistol, but, some folks have to own enough firepower to invade a neighboring state.

One screwy reality about slavery is that the slaves in olde south not only owned guns, but, had very easy access to them. Every time that slave quarters are dug up by archaeologists this reality comes out of the historical closet. A lot of good it did them.

Also, I think that all of this hot breath anti-gun talk and federal criminal legislation will only make things worse in the long run for the poor, the ignorant and the stupid. They are the people who will end up in prison.


>From my perspective there is too much violence and slime on TV---we must remember
for a lot of people TV is their reality. TV is the world they live in. Don't forget the old adage: monkey see, monkey do.

Your email pal,

Tom L.

Michael Hoover wrote:


> > one of the founding myths of the U.S. - the weird
> > fetishized sacredness of the Constitution and the wisdom of its Framers.
> > Arguments from the Supreme Court on down to barstools are typically made by
> > appeal to its authority.
> > Doug
>
> as the Supreme Court decision in *Ex Parte Milligan* (1866) - proceeding
> for a writ of habeus corpus in which justices unanimously ruled that
> a military tribunal had no legal authority to try a man who was not in
> and had never served in military - indicated:
>
> 'The Constitution is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and
> in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of
> men at all times and under all circumstances.'
>
> and as Charles Miller, in _The Supreme Court and the Uses of History_
> (1969), asserts (p. 181):
>
> 'In the beginning was the Constitution; and the Constitution was with
> the Founding Fathers; and the Constitution was the Founding Fathers.
> This, without much exaggeration...describes the relationship between the
> American attitudes toward history and toward the Constitution.'
>
> so much for constitution as basis of government appropriate to market
> capitalist economy and protection of highly unequal class structure,
> that secures control, use, disposal, and enjoyment of economic and
> productive assets in hands of few, and that offers those with predominant
> economic power the freedom to - in Adam Smith's words - 'truck, barter,
> and exchange'... Michael Hoover



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list