Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 17:59:56 -0700 From: r.destephens@WORLDNET.ATT.NET (Richard DeStephens) Subject: Re: Brotherton and Beyond To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
This is State Representative Bill Brotherton's lastest response to me.
Bill Brotherton wrote:
> Dear Ricky:
>
> I don't know what you do for a living, but you obviously aren't an
> attorney. I imagine if you were you would starve. I understand your
> sincere desire to have the law be as you would LIKE it to be, but the
> Supreme Court, Congress and various state legislatures and state
> courts have a different view. I think the Justices on the U.S. Supreme
> Court understand the law alittle better than you, an untrained layman.
> If I were anti-gun as you say, I doubt I would own firearms as I do.
>
> Granted I am not an extremist on this issue as you are, but by no
> stretch of logic does that make me anti-gun. As one he
> Vice-Presidents of the NRA said, its bad enough that they have to
> fight the anti-gun extremists, but we have to fight the pro-gun
> extremists too. You are in a DISTINCT minority, not only among the
> general public but among gun owners. I am a mainstream elected
> official who garners support from Republicans and Democrats alike.
> Reasonable firearms control legislation IS constitutional as
> determined by the courts. While you have a right to your opinion, you
> aren't on the Court so you don't decide. This legislation is also
> supported overwhelmingly by the public at large. One of the things
> you would know, if you were legally trained, is we don't run the
> country on every old quote of the founding fathers. The Constitution
> was designed as a flexible framework of government. If you really
> thought your view of the law and Constitution were correct I imagine
> you would file suit against these various pieces of gun control
> legislation and get them thrown out by the courts. You don't do that
> because you know your view isn't accepted by the courts or the public
> at large.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard DeStephens
> [mailto:r.destephens@worldnet.att.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 10:30 PM
> To: Bill Brotherton; azshooting; anti-antigun
> Subject: Re: Brotherton and Beyond
>
>
> Bill Brotherton wrote:
>
> > Arguing firearms control as a moral issue is a slippery
> > slope. I don't think it can be equated to slavery.
>
> It can be linked to slavery. How many armed slaves were
> there throughout history? One of the first things
> the southern states did after the 13 amendment was ratified
> was to insure that the newly freed slaves were
> unarmed. The term Saturday Night Special has its roots then.
> The term was not as PC then. The full term,
> as you may know, was "Niggertown Saturday Night Special" and
> was used to villify and outlaw the cheap guns
> that the negroes could afford to ath