Frank Baumgardner

Assault rifles, multiple-round clips of ammo and the NRA's current (12/26/12) stand

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In the month of December, 2012 the nation already witnessed two multiple murders in two separate locations, Newton, CN and Webster, NY. What is most unique about these two separate multiple murders by a lone gunman is that in each case the same weapon was used. The weapon, made by a company by Bushmaster and sold all over the country in gun shows, online and elsewhere, can spray a large number of bullets in a very short interval of time. As a father and grandfather myself, I am compelled by my conscience to say, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, DAMN IT!"

The current leadership of the NRA has said on many occasions that the rationale and legal basis for its stand against the banning of this kind of military killing machine is the Second Amendment. If you examine American history even for a second you'll find out this is one of the core concepts of the American Revolution and independence achieved by Gen. Washington in 1781 at the Battle of Yorktown. This resulted ultimately in the adoption of the US Constitution in the late 1780's when the only weapon available, on the market, was a kind of single shot shotgun called by scholars the "blunderbust." To kill an animal such as a bear or deer with it one almost HAD to be within six feet of less in order to able to hit the animal's head or heart. Note that I did not include human enemies but the only enemies faced by the Founders who conceived of and wrote the American Constitution were either the British, French or Spanish Governments or Native Americans, now known simply as Indians. There were no weapons such as the one currently being sold in great numbers to the public that could kill many victims just by pulling the trigger many times in a short space of time.

American citizens today, whether they be elderly, adults, school children such as the twenty cut down earlier this month in Newton, CN, or babes in arms, face an entirely different, much more deadly challenge. Sudden, unexpected death by a lone gunman carrying such a deadly piece of advanced technology.

After the attempted but failed attempt to kill Pres. Reagan in the early '70s Congress with Pres. Ronald Reagan, Pres. HK Bush's and for part of Pres. Clinton's term, support of the president, instituted a kind of limited gun control law. it was effective in preventing any such horrific event as Columbine, Tucson, again Columbine, Milwaukee and now, still in 2012, Newton and Webster. Guns such as this one were banned with strict controls on who might own, collect or buy one.

The real question we face as a nation of freedom-loving people today face is really quite simple: can we live with this same kind of mass killing of our citizens or not? I say it is time, really past time, to make changes to preserve the safety of all Americans.

What does this have to do with my two already published books and one on the way you ask? If you have read either of my two books= Killing for Land in Early California OR Yanks in the Redwoods- you cannot escape noting the anti-violent tone and themes of each.

Do you like my web site?

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Hi, Frank. I very much like the site. Re this post: as a gun owner and daughter of a man who ate every deer he killed, every fish landed, and so on, I must say that there is NO reason for multiple-clip assault weapons in anything that can clearly be called hunting. They destroy human beings in war; we have no "right" to them in peace, at home.
Carol

Hi Frank,

I like your site, you have some interesting posts. My site www.myperfectpitch.com compliments yours, consisting of interesting articles and a free writers yearbook with over 1000 book publishers currently accepting submissions. Keep up the good work.

Regards, Brian.

I like it very much!
-- Susie from Idaho