A Nurse with a Gun

Saturday, September 27, 2008

An Appeal to Reason(s)


Dear Xavier:

I saw on your blog that you were getting frustrated with Blogger. I just wanted to send you a note expressing my appreciation for you sharing your knowledge on your blog. I have been reading your blog for years. It is the first one I check on my daily round of the Internet. I have learned a lot from reading your thoughts.

After shooting competitively for many years and teaching friends and family informally, I decided to become an NRA-Certified Instructor in April of this year so I could teach even more people responsible gun ownership. I'm now certified in Pistol and Personal Protection in the Home. Before the year is out, I will be certified in Personal Protection outside the Home as well. Next year I will add Shotgun for good measure. This past weekend I taught my first CWP course.

I thought it might cheer up your day to know that four more responsible citizens will soon join the ranks of CWP-holders, partly because you inspired someone you have never met through your blog. Many more are soon to follow. Please keep sharing your thoughts.

Also, if you ever visit Columbia, SC, please let me know. I'd be honored to show you around.

Cheers,

a reader from SC

A day or two ago I received an email from a reader that I have asked to publish here. Permission was granted.

While the issues I am still having with blogger are unresolved, and the internal strife at The High Road is on my mind, there are more important issues at hand. At this time in the history of the United States, gun owners face a turning point concerning who we place in office as president. This presidential election has the power to irreversibly impact the rights of gun owners, both with the power of Presidential veto and through placing a blatant anti-gunner in office as the President of the Senate. At present there is a 2 or 3 vote pro-gun majority in the US Senate. We do not need a confirmed vote against us as a tie breaker.

The next US President will likely appoint at least one, perhaps three Supreme Court Justices who will consider the meaning of the second amendment in upcoming legal battles. The narrow SCOTUS majority for gun owners shown in Heller v DC could be overturned by a single appointment. At least three appointments are likely. Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years old. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75. Justice Antonin Scalia is 72. Gun owners in the United States could be irrevocably affected for the next fifty years, perhaps forever. Gun rights could be erased as a generation of gun owners die off stripped of their firearms, leaving an apathetic progeny that has never experienced the right to keep and bear arms.

This is a crucial time. There is much at stake, and it goes beyond blogs and forums for gun owners. This is not a time to be bickering or fighting among ourselves. This is a time to solidify our vote and make damned sure that the right to keep and bear arms is preserved. The only way to do that is by force multiplication. We must build our numbers. Each gun owner has one vote. We must educate each other on the impact of our votes, and we must convert more people to law abiding voting gun ownership.

This email gives me hope. You will notice in the small group of students a bald man not unlike myself. A black man. A woman. A young man. A wide strata of people who only wish to defend themselves from harm. Gun ownership and the desire to be safe extends across all lines. It is a universal human desire and an absolute human right. We must not let the right to keep and bear arms disappear because we were too stupid to see beyond other issues. Without the right to keep and bear arms, the government is no longer restrained by the people. The government no longer is controlled by the vote. It becomes a monster and it will eventually enslave the very citizens it should serve.

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10 Comments:

Blogger JAFO said...

I'm a gunnie in Charleston SC and am wanting to get NRA certified and start teaching as well. I live in Charleston.

Would the person who submitted the quoted email please contact me through my blog?

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even if a Scotus judge is replaced, some one will have to have a case that makes it to the court. If the sitting judges do in fact decide to overturn Heller,(not likely since sitting judges do not overturn decisions lightly) who is to say that it can't be over turned again?
Since you edit these posts I do not expect this to make it to pubilcation.
There is entirely too much coersion going on. Sticking with facts is the basis of understanding.

6:36 PM  
Blogger stbaguley said...

Xavier, your blog is inspiration itself. Your fears are well founded but more importantly they are courageously and articulately addressed. Your readers leave smarter than they came as well as entertained. You have moved me, and if me certainly others, to get off my complacent attitude with regard to handgun control (class it as "annoyed resignation") and actually go through the hassle and paperwork required to purchase a handgun (a vote of a sort I thought). I had long guns, but gave in to the societal hysteria about handguns and "just didn't push it". No more; I crossed that line.
I will stipulate to anyone that a handgun is a dangerous instrument. It's purpose is to be a dangerous instrument. So is fire dangerous, but upon analysis, (provoked not in small part by your writing), I conclude that I am giving up my freedom and a portion of my humanity if I give up my right to fire or the rest to some outside agency simply because these things are dangerous. I become child or chattel at that point. As a responsible adult human being I must responsibly both hold and govern my weapons, tools and self and see to it that I do no uncalled for harm. There is a place for harm, hence the militia. If I must govern and regulate my weaponry I must practice and be familiar with it to avoid the mistakes of the novice. A well regulated militia requires therefore that we keep and bear and practice with our arms to safeguard the security of our free state as well as our free and adult human estate. Thanks again Xavier for the food for thought, and keep up the good work.

7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

man.. that post is a tearjerker in how true it all is. This blog is one of the first pages to pop up on my daily rounds on websurfing too. I think mainly because you're not just a gun guy, well you are mostly a gun guy but you're more than that, you have character too that shows in your writing and actions, and that combination is what is expected of citizens who hold the responsibility of protection of the public welfare. Roll on, Good Sir.

-Dan

11:42 PM  
Blogger JAFO said...

was kinda hoping to avoid having my email address listed in the comments, actually...

1:27 AM  
Blogger Xavier said...

JAFO..... Yes? No?

5:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although I am also worried about Obama's gun control stance, I am even more concerned about his FIRST amendment stance. His campaign has attempted to shut down NRA ads nationally, and "misleading" political ads in Missouri.
If he wins, we may not have Fox News, the Internet, or talk radio, and the liberals have everything else... I think we need to have contingency plans for peaceful demonstrations and possible civil disobedience. We will have to do more than vote if Obama wins, and honest voting may also not be possible.

8:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jafo: Sorry about that.

Xavier: I have been able to contact Jafo.

9:51 AM  
Blogger Reno Sepulveda said...

Xavier I just want to encourage you in your blogging. I'm a member on THR and I use blogger so I think I know a bit about your frustration.

Your blog is wonderful. Much more high road than The High Road. You convey so many good things here. Dedication, professionalism, responsibility, self reliance, 1911 fixation....er enthusiasm, physical fitness, frugality and practicality...Best of all you do all this in an easygoing artistic style

I get the feeling we are at a cultural crossroads in America today and I think things will get worse, maybe much worse before they will get better.

Voices exactly like yours are needed now more than ever.

10:37 AM  
Blogger Jonathan said...

The second amendment is great, but so is the rest of the Bill of Rights.

I can't be a single-issue voter...otherwise I wouldn't vote.

5:48 AM  

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