This is a letter I wrote of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and have spread around my family and friends. I thought I would post it in as it was my response to HR 1022. Let me know what you think.

I was just reading over some bills being presented in the US congress and I stumbled across HR 1022 of 2007-2008. I just finished reading the language of the bill and am outraged! I cannot understand where these politicians get the idea that a legally sold "semi-automatic assault weapon" should be banned. I will give them that there is always that one crazy that purchases legally and goes nuts. HOWEVER, it wasn't long ago that a law enforcement officer was the one pulling the trigger. If the highly regarded and trusted police are capable of committing criminal acts, where exactly are the grounds to limit the people?
So what is the real motivation here? This stems into an idea of the left that you must punish the whole to stop the few. Or as Vladimir Lennin said "No, Democracy is not identical with majority rule. Democracy is a State which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of force by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another." I never liked much that any communist ever said, but he was right in this instance. Guns scare politicians as they should. The second amendment is the last resort right of the people to stop the oppression of their government. Granted some people don't like them and would like them gone but there are things I don't like and would like gone. Still, I respect peoples rights.
Who are they to limit us? Where is the tolerance they so vividly preach to the masses? Are we only to tolerate the things they like and not the things we like? Hitler said "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future." Evil strikes suddenly and always, seemingly, with the best intent.
It is my personal belief that we should not let our politicians emulate the oppressors of the past. This bill is not for our safety, its for control. Granted, this bill is not the abolition and control of all weapons but its the first step. I have my BS in political science and have spent near half a decade studying the decline of civilizations. The first to always go is the guns, then the speech, the press, then they are asking for your papers. Always for the betterment of the society.
Our forefather designed this country to be majority rule, checked/balanced, and ensured our freedom with the second amendment. To limit that second amendment from the law abiding citizen is as backwards as socialism and truly the first leap towards it. Its placing the focus on the innocent and punishing them for something they did not contribute to. New York blames their gun crimes on Virginia. What if New York recognized the peoples right to carry a firearm? The crime rate would fall because no common thief is going to chance being killed over your wallet. Honestly, where did freedom go in these peoples mind? They need to understand that freedom is not with out risk. Limiting the public is a formula for worse destruction. Look at the USSR and Nazi Germany. Rifts and extremism begin with limitation. Both oppression and revolution are bred with limitation. Granted those are the extremes, but once it starts it happens fast. Our government is to be limited and our insurance policy is the second amendment.
Its high time we draw a hard line and let these people know that enough is enough. I say no to walking the historically familiar path of limitation, and the coming of corruption and evil that follows with it. Fear the people because they have more than just a vote, they have final say. Some need to practice what they preach, tolerance. I reserve the right to be free and own what ever I see fit to own. As long as I remain a law abiding citizen YOU the politicians must respect me and my rights!

Sincerely


"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. This is not to say that firearms should not be very carefully used and that definite rules of precaution should not be taught and enforced. But the right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
- Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, MN, campaigning
for the 1960 Democratic Presidential Nomination