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Exactly. You get my point perfectly. A reasonable restriction on a right does not deny that right. I can still hold my rally, just not outside your window at 2 AM.
I also can't slander, libel, use copyrighted material without permission outside of fair use, or blab military secrets.
Actually you can, but you are just held accountable in civil or criminal court. Nobody loses their tongue or a piece of it due to the first amendment, you have a right to use your voice and you also have the obligation to use it wisely or be held accountable. This is the way it should be with firearms, criminals could care less about laws written for honest people. In fact they love them, the majority of criminals and prison populations SUPPORT reasonable restrictions(anti-gun laws).
And there is my point, if yet another is needed...
Everything has repercussions, or should. As I said, things sort themselves out in MY yard.
In discussions like this, we inevitably bog down in out of context excerpting, finger waving and the lather we create around such issues. Mostly, we are guilty of simply wanting people to hear our viewpoint, and to be right - especially on issues we are emotionally invested in. The last thing we need, however, is emotion.
Some few people get it, from what I've seen so far. It isn't about gun control - that's just the smoke from a much bigger fire. What we are really talking about at every level, from compulsory taxation to government health plans, is people control - and the willingness of the people to submit to it.
Instead of taking care of ourselves, for good or bad, we have embraced the notion that it is the government's job, any government, to control outcomes for us. From crime to retirement, we believe the government should be the leader in action that affects us. THAT is not where we started, but it is where we are rapidly heading. Ultimately, it will be the undoing of the free thinking, free acting man as we have known him.