'Nice gun'

(3:31:39 PM)
Ah, election season, and a young, insecure man's fancy turns to open carry laws.

Have you ever read the 'Bill Of Rights', the first ten amendments to the US Constitution? They were demanded by a few of the state delegations in order to get the Constitution signed and ratified to begin with, so these ten are particularly special. And if you read them as a whole, you'll notice that these say what governemnt can and cannot do, with varying degrees of specificity. They don't say why any of these amendments, these rights, are included. They just are. Deal with it.

Except one.

Remember, these were men (yes, only men) were born into a era of western culture when skill and training  rhetoric, debate, argument were required of an educated man. The written word was particularly chosen, a phrase was included in a formal document for a reason, the order of words in a sentence were chosen to underline the thoughts in that sentence. Arguments were built with craft and care.

So why is the second amendment only one that the founders thought needed an explanation, a justification? And that explanation of the need precedes the definition of the right, so the reader has to read 'why' before reading 'what' about the right.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

I'm not going to get into all the other discussions, the history, the 'shall not be infringed.' But I always find it interesting that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof' isn't explained, nor is 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, house, papers...', etc. You get the idea. Read through them all, it only takes a couple of minutes.

So the idea that the right to bear arms is just like all the other rights is, well, wrong. It had a situational restriction on it. And once a state was secure (in that it got to govern itself, and wasn't threatened by , at the time, the French, the Spanish or especially the English) this 'right' was expected to be unnecessary.

This all comes up because the SouthBayOpenCarry group had a table at the Hermosa Beach Art fair today. And the two of them (pathetic, huh?) were packing heat.

I rode my bike down to breakfast in Hermosa this morning, to enjoy its annual Labor Day street festival, without having to deal with parking. Lots of booths, selling jewelry, paintings, lawn furniture, vitamins, pet adoption, you've been to one of these. Roasted corn, tacos, bratwurst, Pink Floyd tribute band, followed by one doing Neil Young's early stuff....and in the strip behing the band's stage, the political booths.

I had friends staffing the South Bay Democratic Clubs' stand. And we reviewed the other operations in that semi-circle. Join me: The John Birch Society (no, I'm not kidding) had a full booth, preprinted vinyl banner, and a foam core sign: 'Stand Up For Freedom. Repeal Obamacare!' Well, at least they're consistent. Like Koch (founding) father, like Koch sons. There was the Southbay Republican Club, a surfing elephant their unlikely logo. They had several 'Meg 2010' signs. That's all there is on the sign. 'Meg' above, '2010' below. Of course, there was a Christian Evagelist booth.

Off across the bike path, some poor kid had apparently driven in from up north, set up a card table, and hung several small hand-made signs, some saying 'Legalize Marijuana' signs, a two saying 'Vote Nov 2nd',  and three clipboards of petitions. Not a single mention of Prop 19. A friend at the Dems booth and I whipped together three 'Vote YES on Prop 19' signs, and I walked them over, along with a roll of tape. The kid was surprised, happy, and promised to return the tape.

When my wife's with me, she lets me chat with friends, but makes me stay away from the other booths. After a few years, a wife's voice stays in a guy's head, even when she's in an all-day class 20 miles away. But not poking a stick at the OpenCarry Clowns was damned hard.

Two guys, both over-built, like the wannabecops you see parodied in movies, were standing in front of a pathetic cardtable, again with a couple of clipboard with petitions. Both were sporting holstered automatics. One wore purple Cons high-tops, I suppose to prove gun nuts are cute, too. The SouthBayOpenCarry 'militia'. Look em up, they do neighborhood clean-up, like Heal the Bay volunteers or the Girl Scouts. They just do it armed for Islamic (or Democratic) assault.

I'm standing there in black and yellow bike clothes, taller than either of these clowns. It was all I could do not to poke them with a stick, the old 'What part of "Well-regulated" don't you understand?' argument, just to see if I could get one to pull down on a longhair in spandex, thus ending their group's effort in the South Bay in one unfortunate photo.

I considered explaining to them the difference of the second amendment, as I did at the opening of this blog. But cowards with guns are not the most educable population.

Son I rode home instead, because my wife wants me at the house, not getting bailed out of jail.
(04:31:17PM)(04:52:03 PM)