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From the CCRKBA . . .

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms blasted recent public opinion polls showing support for bans on so-called “semiautomatic weapons,” noting that constitutionally-protected rights are not subject to what amount to popularity contests.

“Fundamental rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, must never be determined by the whims of survey respondents,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “We don’t have popularity contests to determine the rights of free speech or the press. We would hardly allow a public opinion poll to dictate whether people should worship in a church, mosque or synagogue. So, why would we think it’s allowable for a survey to tell us whether we should ban a whole class of firearms, when the Second Amendment has protected the rights of gun owners for more than two centuries?

“At the moment we allow ourselves to fall into this trap,” he continued, “we stop becoming a republic and start being an oligarchy, if not a dictatorship. This is not how rights are decided, because a right popular one week might fall out of favor the following week with a different polling sample, and then where would we be? Within a few weeks, we would have no rights at all.”

A recent poll in Washington State, for example, showed support for a ban on semi-auto rifles, based on a small poll sampling of fewer than 500 people. Previous national polls have shown varying degrees of popularity for outright gun bans or further restrictions on the rights of American gun owners. 

“Anyone who honestly believes a survey should justify the erosion of any right guaranteed by our constitution needs a refresher course in high school civics,” Gottlieb observed. “Rights are special. We don’t need government permission to exercise them, nor do we need the blessing of a vocal minority, because in this country, citizens do not answer to the wishes of a mob.”

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53 COMMENTS

    • Why don’t the anti-liberty people just move to repeal the Second Amendment?
      Because it won’t pass.

      • Repealing Amendment II would do nothing for the underlying right — the right exists independent of the amendment.

        Rights do not come and go w/ documents.

    • It is NOT called the Bill of Rights — that is a made-up misnomer. There are NO (natural) rights conferred or delegated by the amendments (or the constitution for that matter), nor can they be. If we are going to call it anything, we can call it a ‘bill of protections’ if anything:
      “THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added…” (ref. the preamble to the amendments).

  2. Public opinion does indeed have a strong influence on the corrupt courts. If not we would still have Right Wing jackbooted laws against interracial marriage, blacks would not be allowed to vote at all, any movies portraying blacks in a positive way would be banned from being shown in Red States, Blacks would still have separate drinking fountains and be forced to sit at the back of a bus. All this changed because of public opinion, not because of any redemption by the soulless and corrupt courts.

    The same will hold true of more restrictions on weapons of mass destruction. The court will have to give in or risk impeachment or be expanded to make the corrupt part of the court powerless.

    • dacian finally comes out of the closet. He wants race-marriage laws to come back, he doesn’t want blacks to vote, he doesn’t want blacks in movies, he wants his own white drinking fountain, and he wants blacks to sit at the back of the bus. All of those laws were popular with dacian, and he can’t understand why things changed.

      • He was promoting Eugenics a few days ago.

        Miscegenation laws are just a small step further.

        Lil’d is looking forward to his property rights.

    • Dacian, As I see it you and your ‘comrades’ are “collaborators” in this fight…. You will be severely dealt with in due time, Enjoy your cut and paste games little man while you still can. Guantanamo has a nice concrete cell ready and waiting for all you TRAITORS, right next to the clintons, pelosi,obummer and all the turncoat rhino’s and dimocats that are trying to destroy this great country. I hope you like the smell of urine… you will be swimming in it! You and your ilk will NOT succeed . We would rather die on our feet than live on our knees little brother.This is NOT a threat, It’s a promise.

      ‘The Tree of Liberty Must Be Refreshed ‘With the Blood of Patriots and Tyrants’
      Thomas Jefferson

      • Jim Crow. Slavery. Internment camps. Eugenics. And that’s just in the United States. The list of leftist crimes against humanity is long, tragic, and evil.

    • dacian the demented dips***,

      Say it ain’t so!!!! Say we didn’t have corrupt, racist local governments passing laws against interracial marriage!!!

      What party were they from, dacian the dips***????? OH, they were Dimocrats, weren’t they?

      Who supported slavery before, during, and after the Civil War?? Oh, yeah, it was the Dimocrats.

      How did the Civil Rights Act get passed?? Oh, yeah, by and overwhelming majority of REPUBLICAN legislators (while the Dims were filibustering it).

      You stupid, uneducated, ignorant, disgusting pile of dog vomit, you LEFTIST/FASCISTS are, and always have been, the party of racism, slavery, eugenics, authoritarianism, etc. The obvious, direct, straight line between you and der Fuhrer is clear to EVERYONE . . . even you, but you pretend, and lie about it.

      But take your Leftist/fascist lies and put them where the sun don’t shine. Preferably violently, perhaps packed in by a telephone pole. Lying @$$clown.

      • to The Lamp that went out in his head

        You flunked history classes. The democrats you mention were Southern Democrats who were very different than Northern Democrats.

        And you are speaking of the past not the present, the Republican party changed drastically not once but several times not only are they polar opposites of the Party of Lincoln but today the are not even close to the Republican Party of President Eisenhower. Today the Far Right call Eisenhower a ranting liberal.

        Try again Lamp that is out of his head. You no more graduated from College than you have any degrees in Law.

        • Oh, PUH-LEEZE, not even YOU are stupid enough to trot out that completely insane, historically inaccurate bulls*** about “party switching” and how the “modern Republicans” are REALLY the “old Southern Democrats” idiocy, are you????

          Yes, you are really that stupid.

          OK, challenge for you, dacian the dips*** – LIST all of the “southern” Dimocrats who switched parties to Republican. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

          You’re not just a liar, you are a STOOOPID liar.

          DIMOCRATS – the party of racism, slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, internment, and prejudice, since the 1830s. And STILL reliably so, today.

      • “In the second half of the 20th century, the Republican party used the so-called “Southern strategy” to win the votes of white southerners.

        White southerners had traditionally been Democratic voters, in part because the Republican party was closely associated with abolitionists and with the civil war and with the post Civil War reconstruction agenda.

        The south’s Democratic party loyalty was partially fractured during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tenure, because many southerners resented his support for unions and for a larger government. For the most part, though, white southerners continued to vote for Democrats until the 1960s.

        In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a sweeping bill that banned segregation in public places and protected Americans against discrimination based on race, religion, or national origin. The Act was so divisive that after signing it, President Johnson supposedly said, “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican party for a long time to come.”

        The Republican southern strategy can, in fact, be traced back to 1964. That’s when the Republican candidate for the White House, Barry Goldwater, tried out his “operation Dixie,” undertaking a sweeping tour of the south to try and win over white voters.“

        https://politicaldictionary.com/words/southern-strategy/

        • So, you lying propagandist s***sack, LIST the Dim politicians who registered as Republicans. GO ahead, we’ll wait. We’re tired of your LIES about “the Southern Strategy”. You Dimocrats are, and always have been, the party of racism, discrimination, Jim Crow, “affirmative action” (racism wearing a suit), and hypocrisy.

          And you are a sanguinary perpetrator of terminological inexactitudes. Otherwise known as a bloody liar.

    • Does Soros pay lil d and his/her ilk, per word, for their posts or ALSO for responses to their drivel? I suspect the latter as it’s sermons are getting shorter/more incendiary and moronic.

    • So small arms are “Weapons of Mass Destruction”? Do you know what this means?

      Bush was right about Iraq all along!

    • Dacian, we are talking about rights. We did need opinion polls to get people to realize that some of those things you mentioned are rights. As to whether a writer/director/studio want to show blacks in a good or bad light is protected by their right to free speech. Also a majority of people don’t know the difference between a semi-auto and full auto. And pollsters for the most part will not inform them. Hell, the president doesn’t even know the difference.

  3. It’s like the old Hebrew National hot dog commercial.
    The .gov sez we can do this, the .gov sez we can do that………

    Sorry, not sorry.
    We answer to a HIGHER authority.🤔

  4. The question is…How many of those with a favorable opinion of Gun Control do not realize or know the agenda they bow to is rooted deep in racism and genocide? 30%? That’s too short. 55%? Still too short. 75%? Short again. 98%? Bingo…And it all happens while most Gun owners sit there scratching their behinds wondering why.

  5. The analogy of the two wolves and the single armed sheep discussing dinner plans comes to mind…

  6. Didn’t you hear? Everything is to be decided by majority opinion now. From monetary policy to pandemic response to scientific research results to your rights and liberties. It’s the new democracy. What the mob wants the mob gets.

    Tocqueville saw this coming and warned us but it’s just so much fun being part of the mob. All those agreeing faces hitting on the serotonin, getting to sit at the “cool” table, being able to claim you’re expressing your individuality while doing the same the things everyone else is doing and who wouldn’t love diverting wealth and property away from those outside the mob back into your own pocket?

    #moblife

    • *Everything is to be decided by the expert class, and the mob obediently follows because, well, they’re the experts! Woodrow Wilson’s dream is finally a reality.

      • This. The only time public opinion polls are mentioned in this context is when they show that the public agrees with the experts.

        That said, things keep going the way they are and there probably won’t be a .gov expert class much longer.

  7. ” “At the moment we allow ourselves to fall into this trap,” he continued, “we stop becoming a republic and start being an oligarchy, if not a dictatorship.”

    We’re there right now, unfortunately.

    • I don’t know when or what will be the trigger, but at some point a great many people will take up arms and set things right.
       

      • that may prove delusional…as they continue to nibble away at your 2A rights…every time you express that view you strengthen their position…

  8. “When it comes to civil Rights…Neither public opinion nor a risk presented by that Right. Is a Moral or Ethical reason to curtail the Right itself. “Quoted from a post made by strych 9

  9. When was the last time you believed a pollster?

    Polls are always rigged to provide the results for which the pollster was hired.

    There are no honest polls.

    • Stripper polls are as honest as they come.

      People just don’t like what they have to say or how they usually smell.

  10. Rights are not determined by majority, nor minority nor any particular individual- including the author- except by statute and by judicial ruling.

    The Supreme Court:

    Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

    Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.

  11. A sampling of fewer than 500 in Washington State. I bet it wasn’t in NW Washington State!
    Seattle maybe? How pathetic to even post the results of such a biased poll by the pollsters.

  12. the only poll that matters is the one where you answer your own question … do I want to exercise my constitutional right or not?

    its not up to anyone else’s opinion or poll and they do not get to decide the answer for you or anyone else. The founders made that pretty clear with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”.. and the Bill of Rights.

    so it doesn’t matter what this fools poll says. it does not say “…shall not be infringed unless a poll or another opinion or the government says it can be.”

  13. that may prove delusional…as they continue to nibble away at your 2A rights…every time you express that view you strengthen their position…

  14. the left has used the court to legislate in the past…now that no longer seems possible and even previous decisions may be reversed they have become alarmed and are seeking alternate means to achieve their ends…

  16. Rights, any of our commonly accepted rights are not subject to popular opinion, nor judicial decision or legislation. Are any of those here, on either side of the gun issue willing to accept government censorship of their freedom of speech? or their freedom of religion?
    I may not like what someone has to say, or their life choices, but, until they harm someone in the practice of those beliefs or choices, or incite violence or criminal acts, they have the right to say, or do what they will. And, anyone not under court order, or legally prohibited from possessing firearms should be able to purchase whatever arms they wish and can afford. Want to tote around a M60 or M16? be my guest. Want to carry an MP5 or an UZI machine pistol? Have at it. Want to drag around a cart load of ammo and show up with a Gatling Gun? Go for it.
    If you can afford to feed the pig, or can afford to put fuel in a Tank or armored vehicle, have fun with that.
    However, there should be severe consequences for criminal use of any weapon. Use a weapon in the commission of a felony crime and you get caught, you go away for at least 20 years. Kill someone and can’t make a reasonable claim of self defense, your life is forfeit.
    Harsh? maybe, but the understanding that there is a cost for criminal use of any weapon, not just a firearm, would do more to bring street crime under control than any gun control law ever will.

  17. Our system of law in this country is based on informed opinion. Every decision made by SCOTUS is opinion. It isn’t about what the majority thinks but it must be understood that as the positions change within the general population, those that get elected also change. That also means that Supreme Court Justices with a different perspective get appointed. That’s why it’s so very important for a Justice to adhere to traditional Constitutional interpretation.

    It is NOT someone’s opinion that 1+1=2 or that someone is born male or female. These are matters of stone cold fact. Losing touch with reality should not be acceptable. That is how civilization dies.

  18. Bruen sets a standard of strict scrutiny for review of gun control laws. All the gun controllers who are pumping out idiotic legislation (like NY State’s, NJ’s) and crowing about how they’re going to evade Bruen sound very much like the state AG’s and governors who flaunted Brown v. Board of Education.

  19. Sorta gotta wonder about a bunch of shit these days…

    A poll people in the 2A community will like:

    “Majority Support Concealed Carry Without Permit”

    https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/january_2023/majority_support_concealed_carry_without_permit

    And one that no one should like because… well, is the court system even going to matter if this keepings going in the direction that it is? As I’ve said quite a bit, “this is how governments fall”.

    More Dems than R’s think they know someone killed by a jab and other fun, social unrest causing stuffs:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoIOZRXESlI

  20. Common opinion in my small town in southwestern Oregon is never enough guns, never enough ammo . Also common to see people Open Carry, guess what ? zero crime !

  21. “Sample Size Neglect,” the statistical anomaly of Cognitive Bias that comes from drawing false conclusions by failing to recognize the sample size of the data in question. It’s a well documented and accepted anomaly that occurs in surveys like the one mentioned in the article, but it makes the survey irrelevant, as it doesn’t take a wide enough selection across the participants views, ideology and experiences to give an accurate cross section of the populations views.
    The survey in question is guilty of Sample Size Neglect, therefore it doesn’t represent an unbiased or untainted opinion. Go to any State College or Institution today and ask 500 people your question, and the answer will predictably be higher percentage wise due to Cognitive Bias in the population group you sampled. Most Liberal Pollsters today are guilty of this (some on the Right do it as well). Predictably, politicians seize on this and run with it saying the poll is representative of the population as a whole, when the reality is it’s obvious Cognitive Bias at play. This is the main reason Polls are worthless, as we’ve seen time and time again.
    Over 16.5 million new guns were purchased in 2022 alone. That number proves the poll in question is Cognitively Biased. It doesn’t show reality in the population, only the reality of a small Sample group with little diversity of beliefs.

  22. My rights are guaranteed with the Bill of rights. If you take one when will they take another. “Shall not be Infringed ” when will politicians realize they can not just take what they want. Or when will they declare them all void ;this smacks of communism , National Socialism , Dictatorship.

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