Patriots, Guns and Ammo, and all that

I've been saving this post for a while now. I figured after I came back from seeing 1776 that I'd wait for Patriot Day, as it is most appropriate.

Frederich Lowenberg
Sept. 14, 1753 - Jan. 20, 1845

Special thanks to a few of my ancestors:

Private Johannes "Long John" Bitler - Berks County Militia
Private Frederich Lowenberg - Pennsylvania Line
Colonel Michael Lindenmuth - Commander, 4th Battalion Berks Cty. Militia
Drummer Michael Lindenmuth, Jr.
Captain Conrad Minnich - Brunswick Militia Company
Private Johannes Rumpel - 3rd Battalion Northampton Cty. Militia

A while back a few folks, including Fr. Ray Blake, wondered what is it re: American Catholics and the right to keep and bear arms.

I can only say that the vast majority of us are descended from people for whom somewhere else wasn't good enough. i.e. either they felt constrained by social strictures for lack of opportunity for upward mobility, or even more importantly, had been deprived some basic freedom in the "old country." Having come to America - often with great trial and tribulations attendant with such a move - they were determined not to give up a hard won freedom easily.

Many came because of religious persecution, or lack of personal freedom. Many emigrants were willing to put their lives on the line to try and guarantee that their descendants, both literal and those who came after would be governed by the people and not have their basic human rights shoved about by autocratic rulers. It isn't "protestantism" vs. "Catholicism." I don't see how you can be a responsible member of a group, if you can't even be responsible for yourself.

This is a "Get up and do" society, rather than a "sit on your butt and wait for someone else to do it" society. Is any society perfectable? No, but life on earth shouldn't have to be a hell-hole either.

The average American doesn't have to look far to find a family history where their ancestors were deprived of some liberty - or opportunity of betterment. I only have to look at my own family tree. I can look around at my co-workers, some of whom fled Vietnam, or the daughter of a Hungarian refugee. One of my own aunts had some of family stuck behind the iron curtain. My maternal grandmother could not write freely to her niece in Czechoslovakia for fear she would bring trouble into her house.

If an ancestor is willing to fight for your right to freedom, you don't hand over your gun because some gun-grabbing simpering dipwad wants it. Free men and women can own guns. You don't HAVE to have a gun, but I can guarantee you, if enough people do, no irrational government will "get ideas" and try and force the lot of you in concentration camps. To give up guns merely because some schmo like Ted Kennedy wants you to just doesn't justify virtually spitting on the graves of your ancestors. Misuse of a right, doesn't justify taking away that right from everyone.
.