Generals, Idiots, and the First Couple of Amendments

The First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 The Second Amendment:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The First Amendment protects speech even when it is idiotic and wrong.  The Second Amendment does not apply to the Army or other organized military forces of the State.  "Well-regulated" means well-equipped, or well-armed.   

This is a Politico story, and I had to give that odious site a hit to pull it.  Don't go there if you don't have to. UPDATE:  You don't have to.  Read the same thing here via Yahoo.  I would remind everyone that General McChrystal, who did a fine  management job in Afghanistan, was stupid enough to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and probably again in 2012.  He was also stupid enough and so in love with publicity that he allowed a "Rolling Stone" reporter to follow him around and record his utterances which resulted in him being asked by the Obama Administration to retire.

The General thinks now that M4s and M16s -- which are military weapons capable of full-auto fire -- should be restricted to the military.  Which they are.  Civilians can buy semi-auto-only weapons that look a great deal like M4s and M16s. 

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal backed banning assault weapons on Tuesday, saying guns like the M4 and M16 belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets.

”I spent a career carrying typically either a M16 and later, a M4 carbine,” McChrystal said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And a M4 carbine fires a .223 caliber round, which is 5.56 millimeters, at about 3,000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It’s designed to do that. That’s what our soldiers ought to carry.”

Possibly General McChrystal is so poorly educated that he does not know the difference between the restricted military versions and the civilian Bushmaster alleged used by a murderer to murder little children in Connecticut.  I would also remind the General that murder is already illegal, but that seems not to have stopped the murderer either.

It is also possible that the General is simply full of bullshit (as the old folks would say).  The left would espouse this position if another general were to defend the Constitution, as he or she had taken an oath to do.

Possibly the General does not know that an M4 firing the SS109 does not make 3000 fps.  Possibly he does not know that the .223/5.56 was developed as a variant of the .222 Remington varmint round, and that many varmint rifles in configurations other than M16/M4 look-alikes fire this and other even more potent .22-caliber rounds.  It is possible that the General has never heard of the .220 Swift which breaks the 4000 fps barrier.  Surely, though, the General knows that the average hillbilly's deer rifle (the one he or she uses in season) is far more potent and devastating on impact than the military's little FMJ round.

It is also possible that a graduate of West Point might not agree with the common understanding of the wording of the Second Amendment as being a recognized natural right of the individual, not the State.  Surely though, a military man would know what constituted a militia and what "the security of a free state" implies. 

All those things are possible, but I do not think they are likely.  Stanley is being disingenuous; he is playing to his audience, seeking to curry favor with the Obama Administration.  Stanley has ambition and likes publicity.  The .223 is not a particularly good man-stopper, especially at longer distances.  It is a good round for up-close work, and, with its lack of recoil, it is an easy round to learn to shoot.  One reason for the adoption of the .223 in the M16 platform in the '60s was this advantage in rapidly teaching non-shooting draftees how to shoot with reasonable accuracy.

Of course, this also makes it an excellent option as a home and self defense round for the average citizen.

We say this often, but we can't say it too often.  Every human is born with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That pursuit usually involves private property.  And, since we are born with the right to life, liberty and property, it follows that we are born with the right to defend it.  We can, if we choose and if we are able, hire people to defend or help us defend, life, liberty, and property.  That is what, in fact, we hired General McChrystal to do, what we hire the police to do.  But the prerogative still belongs to you and to me, to the individual.  We are both the first and last line of defense when it comes to ourselves, our homes and our families, our freedom, and our sacred, blood-bought soil.

Every human being on the planet has the right to self-defense, the right -- I would even say the obligation, to resist tyranny and oppression.  The oppressors have a much harder time of it when their would-be subjects have the capacity and weaponry to fight back.  It really makes one wonder about the motives of certain generals, senators, presidents, etc., who get their livings from the State.