As a Libertarian, naturally I'm highly supportive of 2nd Amendment gun rights. Evan Bayh, however, is not. A lot of this difference no doubt comes from our different family traditions.
In the mid '60s, my family built Barger's Lakeview Market out on Highway 52 in Franklin County. One of my first memories was watching Uncle Bill wiring the lights in the apartment part of the building, which various Bargers lived in for the next nearly 40 years.
Barger's Market started out as a combination grocery/sporting goods store, one of those unique little rural combos. You could get your bread, milk, lunchmeat, shotgun shells, and nightcrawlers. They were also licensed handgun dealers.
In this same time range, Evan Bayh was a teenager at the knee of his senator father Birch Bayh, no doubt already being groomed for his career as a politician. Senator Birch Bayh was known as quite liberal, particularly for being from Indiana.
In 1968, Birch Bayh and Ted Kennedy ran through a landmark gun control bill. No doubt, Birch Bayh really thought he was helping out society, making America a little bit safer. Understandably, his loving son was doubtless well impressed with his daddy's work.
Now, this gun control act did not discernably reduce crime, nor has any other gun control measure since then. We've had more and stricter gun control, and more crime. I'm not necessarily saying that there's been a causal relationship, but stricter gun control certainly has not reduced crime.
From my family's perspective, though, gun control has been a bane to decent upstanding citizens and businessmen. Right after this 1968 gun control act, our young family business started getting hassled by The Man.
Federal bureaucrats were showing up in our place of business and home. I was maybe six years old, so most of the details went by me at the time. Basically though, some newly empowered federal agents started lording their power over our business, picking at picayune paperwork. Hey, you should have had this report filed three days ago.
Article comments
1 - bhw
The second amendment says not one word about your family's right to SELL guns.
2 - Al Barger
Love ya BHW, but that's a pretty long cheesy reach. What, we've got a right to keep and bear arms, but no right to buy and sell them? How is it that we're supposed to exercise that right to keep and bear them, then?
3 - bhw
Perhaps you could harken back to the old days and what some of our founding citizens might have done: you could make them for your own use. Or maybe you could buy them from a legal entity, such as a state store or federal store? Yes, I'm sure you'd love that.
My point was that Libertarians and Republicans like to point out what the Constitution DOESN'T say -- for example, it doesn't say that anyone has the right to privacy. So all I'm saying is that the Constitution does not give you or me or anyone else the right, specifically, to sell guns. It merely gives us the right to own them.
Maybe you'll join me now in celebrating the 9th amendment to our constitution, the one that says just because some rights are named in the Constitution, doesn't mean that other rights not named don't exist? ["The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."]
4 - Mac Diva
So, this blog entry is an admission that you and yours engage in criminal activity, Barger. But, somehow, as Republicans and Libertarians, it is okay for you to do so. I guess your zeal for law and order only applies to Democrats.