In <v02130500ae79cef28e84@[10.0.2.15]>, on 10/03/96 at 09:02 PM, azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear) said: .It is ludacrous to expect citizens armed with no more than side arms, .bolt-actions and shot guns to resist the actions of a modern military or law .enforcement which citizens may find in violation of their inaliable natural .rights (whether mistaken or not). aah, but it certainly suits the government who was mandated to be *our* servants, does it not? after all, how can they usurp the power to rule us if they are denied the 1,000,000 times overkill they have deemed necessary to "govern," rather than serve, us. 2000 years ago, the wag Marcellus said: "...the lowest element of our [Roman] society is the police...." we talk about the 'thin blue line' between us and the criminal element --it is thin because far too many of our supposed pro- tectors are on the 'wrong' side of the thin blue line; basically, they have been granted, by an illegal government, a legal right to break our heads with their night stick... at their discretion. .In my opinion, all citizens should be be .able to keep and bear any arms (without registration) which the state might .use against them. To do so now is a criminal action. So be it. . essentially, assault weapons are illegal; in california (where else), the possesion of a weapon with a flash suppressor is illegal; as is possesion of the older 10 shot clips for the .223 class weapons (not to mention the 20 and 30 shot clips or the double sided bananas at 40!). the government is just being realistic --why should they grant us a right which we might use to protect our constitutional rights and topple their corrupted government? crap! --or, maybe galloping prairie muffins! I'm not sure I want my neighbors to park a loaded panzer in their front yard... or indulge in clipping every midnight (exhausting a clip in wanton fire)... or store 5+ gallons of liquid nitroglycerin (which should be interesting in our 120 degree summer heat)... my neighbors and I might be justified in gently placing one big mutha of a blast mat over the neighbors property --even if that might be prior restraint, but to go so far as to say let's kill him before anything happens is certainly preempting his rights. unfortunately, those are the same arguments our imperious government uses to justify limiting or prohibiting our personal armaments, no matter how small. even BB guns are facing regulation now.... ...and to think I received my very own .22 rifle and 4-10X scope for my sixth birthday! the life expectancy of the local 'herd' of jack rabbits took a sudden nose-dive! by 10 I had a semi-automatic and the ratio fell again --multiple kills before the field was clear! the arrival of the .223s years later made it exciting --the explosive level suddenly became satisfying! am I begging to sound like one of our famous online personalities yet? <g> .Unfortunately, it is common for groups especially governmental to be .come statist, mean spirited and eventually malevolent. . power is intoxicating power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely or, in other words, 'what else is new?' .I hope jim bell or his ilk are soon successful at putting up functional, .anonymous and active AP sites. I can't wait to wager! have you been smoking something special these days? and why only wager? --are you not planning to participate? after the first shower of a bloody head shot, the rest are easy. as tanatlizing the argument for AP may be, it is a childish and petty display, a temper tantrum: the cowardly exercise of revenge. very little, in anything, warrants revenge; there are needs to redress legitimate wrongs, and therefore ways. what has fundamentally gone wrong in our society is there is little justice, particularly v/v our corrupt elected officials and their paymasters; and execution takes over 10 years by the time every bleeding heart tries an appeal for the occasionally condemned. Big Ed Davis, who preceded Daryll Gates as LA police chief, had a perfect solution for airline hijackers: Big Ed Davis actually parked a long semi-trailer in front of the American terminal at LAX for the purpose: at the front was the judge's dias, a jury box along one side, lawyers opposite, and a gallows at the far end. there would be an immediate trial by selecting a jury of 12 of his peers, chosen as they cleared the arriving flight doors, and even places for the 3 judge appeal required by CA capital punish- ment laws. very efficient --and it would not cost the state $10-15 MILLION to execute just one criminal. --the execution would be public, obviously, immediately after the appeal! I mean, you could do the whole deed and serve justice on your lunch hour! you should have heard the liberals scream about what was nothing less than poetic justice! even a jury of his peers, real peers! Big Ed left it parked in front of American until the ACLU filed and successfully obtained a permanent injunction against him. Big Ed was a bit colorful <g>; interesting; and definitely not unintelligent --he was my CA state Senator for years after retiring from the force. Anybody wanna guess his party affiliation? --at one time he was on the ballot as both a republican and a libertarian. you should hear Big Ed on privacy issues --he makes all of you sound like lost jacklegs and pikers. *************************************************************** CAVEAT: under no conditions could I ever condone Jim Bell's Assassination Politics --it may be anarchistic in and of itself, but it is a thinly disguised criminal amentality, not only from the extant of trying to 'moralize' murder, but a form of power politics (and shadow government) which actually exceeds the abuses of our supposedly democratic republic run amuk with abusive police powers. Not only is revenge politics immoral, but AP is a corruption of society by lawless and arbitrary behavior of a few players who can afford the price of entry (to the betting pools). *************************************************************** -- "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." --Will Rogers