Below is the response by Senator Rand Paul to my emails thanking him for his support of Second Amendment rights and opposition to anti-gun legislation:

January 28, 2013

Dear Mr. DaddyBear,

Sincerely,

Rand Paul, MD
United States Senator

President Obama is complaining that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is not willing to compromise on his anti-gun rights agenda, and opines that the Republicans are not listening to public opinion on the matter.  He again states that he has a lot of respect for the Second Amendment.  He says that he understands the traditions of hunting that most rural families have, but that the realities of how guns are handled in urban settings must trump such things.  Surprisingly, he asserts that he has used a gun in the past, and regularly shoots skeet at Camp David.

Mr. President, those things mean precisely diddly over squat to me.  Hunting, skeet, and the inability of your urban constituency to raise a generation of people who don’t maim and murder each other at will have nothing to do with my right to keep and bear arms.  To be perfectly blunt, my right to keep and bear arms is there so that when someone who holds your office decides to rule rather than govern, then people like me will have the instruments to contest that decision.

My gun rights aren’t for hunting deer or shooting skeet.  They’re for hunting dictators and shooting tyrants.  Until you learn the difference, the fact that you can knock a clay out of the sky and mourn the death of urban youths at the hands of other urban youths is worth nothing.

To the pro-rights crowd in Congress – Keep it up.  If the President is having to turn to his lap dogs in the media and whine, then you must be doing what I and millions of other gun owners have been telling you to do for the past several months.  Thank you and please keep up the good work.

Today, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, showed her hand in the latest round of the anti-rights fight that has been brewing in this country since 1934.  In a shameless attempt to capitalize on the murder of children in order to further her radical and absolutist anti-gun agenda, she is proposing the most sweeping, permanent gun control legislation I have ever seen.

Her new gun control bill would

• Require “safe storage” – Because who would want to be able to get to their gun in a hurry, even if there are no children in the home?
• Provide federal money for gun buy backs – Because they’ve been so successful so far. 
• Prohibit the manufacture and transfer of magazines that can carry more than 10 cartridges. – Because no-one could manufacture a piece of folded sheet metal or molded plastic in their garage.
  
• Classify 150 gun types by name as “assault weapons”, such as the popular AR-15 rifle platform. – Because no-one will think to call it an AyeAre-20 or a Russky Model 1947.
• Further classify other semi-automatic guns that have a detachable magazine and have any of the following features:
  • Pistol grip – Because being able to hold the gun securely against your shoulder is evil.
  • Forward handguards and heat shrouds –Because holding your gun steady and not burning your hand is evil
  • Threaded barrels – Because compensators, flash hiders, and gun mufflers are evil.
  • Adjustable stocks – Because having a gun that I can adjust so that both I and Girlie Bear can shoot is evil.
  • Grenade launcher or rocket launcher – Ummm, yeah, whatever.  You know, I have to get a bigger safe because all of my rifles have that big honking grenade launcher on it, and that RPG-7 that goes on a Picattinny rail is so sweet.
• Ban the manufacture, sale, or transfer of new ‘assault weapons’ – Because they’re evil.
• Require that the transfer of existing ‘assault weapons’ go through the same process and cost as are currently done for short-barreled rifles and shotguns, machine guns, and suppressors.  – Because people who want to let others own their guns are evil.
• Have no sunset –  Because a law that requires you to think about its impact after a few years is evil.

Ladies and gentlemen, here are the best examples of an ‘assault weapon’, as classified under Senator Feinstein’s bill, that I could find:

Friends and neighbors, both of those semi-automatic rifles use detachable magazines.  Both have forward grips, and the 10/22 has a threaded barrel.  By the definition of Senator Feinstein and her ilk, they are ‘assault weapons’, and would be treated in the same manner that this is when it comes to civilian ownership:

Of course, we all know that passing this bill into law will make all the bad things in the world go away, and eventually the ‘grandfathered’ guns will wear out or get seized.  Human nature will change, and criminals and crazy people will respect the new gun laws in the same manner they already respect the laws against murder, theft, and rape.

Now, they can’t hide behind the excuse that they don’t want to keep us from exercising our rights.  Now they can’t say that all they want to do is take away AR-15’s and AK-47’s.  They’ll classify the deer rifle with walnut furniture that you inherited from your grandfather in with my modern sporting rifle just to make life as miserable for gun owners as they can.  Their intent is fully in the open.  At best, they want to be able to dictate to us what our rights are, how we may exercise them, and allow them to dwindle with age and wear until all we have left is those rights they choose to allow us to exercise.

If you haven’t gotten angry yet, what in the name of all that is holy are you waiting for?  Get off your butt, get in touch with your senator and representative, and tell them exactly how you feel.  Just for kicks and grins, here is a list of United States Senators who are up for re-election in 2014, and of course the entire House of Representatives is up for a job review then too.  If your legislator is on the fence about this, don’t be shy to remind them about that.  Support organizations like NRA and SAF, which are at the forefront of fighting these laws in the legislatures, Congress, and the courts.

Hammer this message home:  No compromise.  No retreat.  Not one step back.

Senators Feinstein and Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, and President Obama, thank you for finally stepping out of the shadows and being honest and open about what you want and what you’re willing to do in order to get it.  You can propose so many laws and make so many emotional appeals that they block out the sun, but we will fight you in the shade.  Molon Labe.