The Weekly Standard Goes Gun Control
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 8 months ago
Normally I don’t like to lift prose out of articles at length because I like to send traffic to the original post. That’s not necessarily true here. I don’t give a crap about The Weekly Standard for more than a few reasons, not the least of which is that they are gun controllers. Why else would you publish gun control advocacy like this wrapped in the patriotic blanket of state’s rights?
Nino would not approve.
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia never intended for guns to end up in schools—and he said so 10 years ago. When he wrote the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller decision, Scalia declared that the “right to keep and bear arms” was an individual right. It was a watershed moment for gun rights advocates. Scalia, ever the careful textualist, was quite specific and forceful in his 2008 decision. And while he may not have imagined a president pushing for armed classrooms, his words are prescient a decade later.
In the years leading up to the Heller decision, gun regulations had varied dramatically: a handgun legally purchased in Arizona might get you a felony conviction in the nation’s capital. Enter Dick Anthony Heller. As a licensed special police officer for the District of Columbia, Heller could carry a gun while on duty, but not while at home. The D.C. handgun ban became the central issue in his lawsuit. In the end, Scalia and four fellow conservative justices agreed: the ban was unconstitutional, and the Second Amendment was an individual right.
That’s probably what most people know about Heller. You can keep your handguns. Neither the District of Columbia, nor other cities, can take away what is a natural right. But most people probably haven’t read Heller (and who could blame them, it’s 157 pages long). If you did read the decision, you might remember that Scalia and the majority specifically staked out what limitations on guns are still in place. (For instance, machine guns are off limits.)
But Scalia also talks about schools in the decision:
. . . nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings . . .
This unambiguous statement is even repeated in the syllabus of the decision. It’s clear Scalia wasn’t pushing to turn America into a gun bazaar—especially if the guns were near schoolchildren, felons, and “sickos” (as President Trump likes to say).
Some states do have armed teachers. Trump made sure to highlight that point when he called on the governors of Texas and Arkansas during a recent televised event. But here again, the court has an answer. Scalia makes it clear in Heller that much of gun regulation is a federalist issue: “States, we said, were free to restrict or protect the right under their police powers.”
So, if Gov. Greg Abbott wants to have armed schools in Texas but Gov. Jerry Brown prefers California’s restrictive guns laws, well, fine. If the state law doesn’t violate the Constitution, then it’s not an issue for Washington. It’s not clear that Trump was thinking about such federalist nuance when he declared “Gun free zones are dangerous. The bad guys love gun-free zones.”
When I first wrote about guns in schools last month I was primarily concerned with the unintended consequences of placing half a million guns close to hormonally-challenged teenagers. Today, I’m also worried about a president who seems to view America as more of a personal fiefdom than as a collection of states with different peoples, traditions, and priorities. What’s good for San Francisco is not always good for San Antonio.
Defense of the image of God in man is always good, regardless of where it is or who does it. The fact that The Weekly Standard published this pabulum speaks volumes on just what kind of people run the place.
I always said that Heller was weak, as was McDonald, and I can go back in time and find numerous examples of said dislike for the Heller decision. But the constitution is a covenant whose rights are applied to all people in every nook and cranny of America all of the time. It’s not by mistake that the progressives see rights as limited, but constitutional allowances for wars of choice, federal taxation, the CIA, the FBI, the DHS, the EPA, and on and on the list could go, from the department of education to SWAT teams and the war on drugs, to federally controlled and mandated health care, to subsidized housing and redistribution of wealth, and federal ownership of land.
The powers of the federal government (except to enforce the guaranteed right of RKBA) are unlimited, but your rights don’t even rate enough for any one to care if a state wants to violate them.
Or in other words, The Weekly Standard, like all progressives, has it ass backwards.
Of course they have it backwards. Our Bill of Rights is a “Constitutional Cage “ that limits the government, not the Citizens. Unfortunately that fact is lost and ignored in 2018.
You’re right, Herschel, and I’m not particularly interested in what 9 assclowns in robes say anyway. There is a higher law.
Please excuse the slight deviation from the present topic, but have you considered the possibility of using the term Liberty Control rather than the present term of art that only refers to inanimate objects?
The point is to go right to the heart of the matter – this is a question of Liberty, not one of lifeless hunks of Iron or plastic. This is why we should label it Liberty control instead of ‘Gun’ Control.
The analogy to other human or civil rights would be to label the 1st amendment to be an issue of ‘Pen Control’ or other such nonsensical terminology.
Finally, from what I’ve experienced, our comrades on the nation’s Socialist-Left do not want the debate couched this way by any means.
We will only win this fight if we do it on our terms, not those of the Liberty Grabbers [instead of the term ‘Gun’ grabber]
What’s more “individual” than someone’s life? If I have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (I do) then how can I not have a right to defend myself everywhere I go? This includes schools, and this includes teachers in schools. If you can’t trust a teacher with a gun they carry everywhere else, you can’t trust them with your children, period.
Weakly Stammer also buries this: STATES, not FEDS, legislate where guns may be carried. Some States will prohibit, others will allow.
Wouldn’t know that by reading their puke, would you?
Torcer,
I agree. There are plenty of orgs and individual efforts in this regard; 10th amendment, free speech, fully informed jury, oathkeepers just to name a few. Many of these efforts I support in principle but time and money are limited, so I focus, as we all should. You want to herd those cats be my guest but you can’t have the freakin’ guns.
Bill Kristol, long-time editor of the “Weekly Standard,” is a devout neo-con and the son of one of the founders of neo-conservatism, Irving Kristol, the managing editor of “Commentary” magazine. Along with Robert Kagan, another stalwart of the neo-conservative movement, William Kristol founded the “Project for a New American Century” (PNAC), a foreign-policy think-tank which consistently advocates for a strongly interventionist foreign policy – particularly in the Middle East.
In other words, Kristol is about as much of a Washington insider and deep-state guy as one is likely to find. It shouldn’t be any surprise whatsoever that Kristol and his neo-con buddies at the ‘Standard are actually A-OK with banning firearms.
Mr. Smith I would like to chat with you about mr. Bateman. Please reach out. Came across him on twitter and have had some interesting exchanges.
Let’s be clear on this. The Weekly Standard is funded and run by the Jew power in the US. Saying that they’re neocons is redundant. William Kristol’s father, Irving, a former Trotskyite communist, wrote a treatise on being a neocon. http://powerbase.info/index.php/The_Neoconservative_Persuasion,_by_Irving_Kristol:_Commentary
Whether you like it or not, Jews are heavily anti-gun because they consider gun confiscation laws as disarming whites. Jews aren’t white, they claim that to be true.
We Christians, I’m an Orthodox Christian, must resist the disarmament funded and pushed by Jews.
Re: “Let’s be clear on this. The Weekly Standard is funded and run by the Jew power in the US. Saying that they’re neocons is redundant.”
You speak of Jews as if they are monolithic, but they’re not. There are secular, hard-left Jews who hate America and have done much to harm her, but there are also a great many Jews who are upstanding citizens and good human beings. Do you condemn them as well?
What precisely is “Jew power”? Guys like you throw around labels like they are nothing, but never actually substantiate them by offering proof, evidence or the like. If you have a charge to make, name names, offer proof, be judged on the basis of your arguments – or simply please refrain from commenting in the first place. Or is it your actual intention in the first place to discredit the liberty movement by linking it to anti-Semitic remarks that can then be later used as “proof” of our bigotry? Tell me – does Soros pay you well?
There are some cultural Jews – most of whom belong to the ruling class – who believe that ordinary Americans (including Christians) should be disarmed – but they are far-outnumbered by those who believe in the right to keep/bear arms. Have you heard of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)? Those folks fight harder – and add more to our cause – than a hundred guys like you.
There are plenty of so-called “Christians” who wish to disarm us as well.
A fact you have conveniently left out of your rant.
It’s really a shame that the Christians and Jews have trouble getting along, because both are on the menu of the Muslims. The jihadists have a saying, “First we take care of Saturday (the Sabbath of the Jews), then we take care of Sunday (the day or worship for Christians)”. You see, to them, we’re all a bunch of infidels and kafirs to be enslaved or put to the sword.
Maybe that’s what ought to consume your attention, rather than panicking over the influence of a few neo-cons.
Personally, I doubt that you are an orthodox Christian, but if you are, you do the Christian faith no honor with your diatribes.
@Georgiaboy61.
Your screed tells me you’re just not paying attention. Perhaps this will help you.
https://youtu.be/85UddyW5eRc
Georgia, you rightly attack the Kristols. But you don’t seem to know who they are.
This was taken from the Commentary “About Us” page:
“COMMENTARY was founded in 1945 by the American Jewish Committee. To learn more about AJC, which has worked since 1906 to safeguard and strengthen Jews and Jewish life worldwide by promoting democratic and pluralistic societies that respect the dignity of all peoples,”
Jews hate Christ and Christians more than any thing. They are working to destroy the traditional America and the traditional American people so they can have a “pluralistic” society. The “jihadists” you are so worried about get their money from Saudi and their orders from Tel Aviv.
Funny how you attack “neo-cons”, but then you complain about someone else worrying about “neo-cons”. Rational thought is not one of your strong suits is it?
Are the Jews at Weekly Standard your secular leftist Jews?
Boy, you really need to quit drinking the Kool Aid.
@All,
Everyone has “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That means that the “Jew-monster” some of my readers seem to hate, if eradicated, wouldn’t even make the slightest dent in mankind that wants to control and enslave you and your family.
I am against all of those who would seek to enslave me and my family. Ethnicity, nationality, race, etc., are all irrelevant to me. Those who do not believe this do not believe the Scriptures at their most basic and fundamental.
Evil and wickedness are not located in a race or ethnicity. They are located in the “fall” and the federal headship of Adam. This doesn’t require courses in Systematic Theology, or Historical Theology, or Church History, or Apologetics, which I have all taken at the graduate level at notable and respected seminaries. This is basic Sunday School child level doctrine.
A while back (some months) my neighborhood had a bridge closed on a main road for repairs and rebuilding. That caused drivers to get pissed, haul ass back down the main road, and then haul ass down my own side road – *with children around the neighborhood in the middle of the day* – only to find out that it was a dead end, at which point they would haul ass back down my road.
I would sometimes go near the road and wave my hands and ask them politely to slow down since it’s in a neighborhood. To a man, woman and child (teen girls), nearly thirty of them stopped, rolled the window down, flipped me a bird, and screamed “fuck you.” Some even threatened to get out and fight me.
And to a man, woman and child, every one of them were white. Mind you, I live in a very nice neighborhood. The only driver I recall who was kind and slowed down and asked for directions, and slowly proceeded out of the neighborhood, was black.
Screw the white folk who want to fight me, flip me birds and scream “fuck you” in a neighborhood that’s mine. Screw Jews who want to enslave me. Screw Muslims who want to enslave me. Screw progs who want to enslave me.
This has nothing to do with race or ethnicity, and if anyone thinks so, they’re missing the point of all of this. Ethnicity doesn’t make evil. The fall in Adam causes sin. If you don’t believe this, you don’t believe established Christian doctrine.
>>Jews hate Christ and Christians more than any thing.
>>The “jihadists” you are so worried about get their money from Saudi and their orders from Tel Aviv.
Seriously?!?!?! How about a plug for Stormfront, while you’re at it?
>>We Christians, I’m an Orthodox Christian, must resist the disarmament funded and pushed by Jews.
Maybe you should join JPFO. Some think it’s better than NRA…
I joined the JPFO right after it was formed, long ago. They remain a lone voice among Jews.
All institutional members of the Gun Confiscation Lobby are funded and run by Jews. If any of you can find one that isn’t, let me know and I’ll stand corrected. Keep in mind, I’ve been at this for a long time. The ADL is anti-Christian, anti-white (Jews do not consider themselves to be white), and anti-gun.
The entire banking system in the US is controlled by Jews, including a huge percentage of control by the Ropthschilds. The EU banking system is controlled by the Rothschilds who oversaw the appointment of a Jew to head the government of Ukraine (deposing a Christian) and is forcing two groups of Christians to make war upon another. We’re treated with presidential candidates visiting Israel to
Last, for this post, Christ called the Jew members of the synagogue of satan, and made a prophecy that the Second Temple would be destroyed, “with not a single stone standing upon another. God fulfilled that in 70AD. The so-called “Wailing Wall” is not a part of the second temple, it’s a part of an old Roman fort. Christ never taught anything positive about the Jew, he condemned them.
@pat,
Yes, Christ did say some bad things about those Pharisees at the time. He’s also said bad things about a lot of people, gentiles included. And if you were around Him at the time, He would have said bad things about you too. And me too.
You see, you don’t believe rudimentary Christian doctrine. You think you’re better than Jews or others. And if you don’t see yourself as the VERY ONE WHOSE SINS PUT CHRIST ON THE CROSS TO PERISH, then you’re not a Christian, no matter what you say, and you don’t believe in the vicarious atonement, no matter what you say. You think you don’t actually need a savior, or at least, not as much as others.
None of this surprises me. You are part of the Eastern church, who followed the false teachings of Arius after the Council of Nicea, while the true church followed Athanasius. Thus, you have difficulty dealing with the two natures in the one person of Christ, the true divinity of Christ, etc. When you don’t have a savior, you can’t be saved and there is no such thing as the vicarious atonement. It’s all a system, and yours admits of no propitiation for sins.
You, like the Eastern church, believe in a modified version of the moral influence view of the atonement, like the Jehovah’s Witness and LDS, just a little weaker and more confused.
Now, look at where we are. This discussion thread has been completely high jacked by you for your own purposes, which is to convey your hatred for another ethnicity. Thus it mocks my blog and the work I put into it.
All you’re telling me by saying that you’ve been at this a long time is that you been confused and consumed with hatred for a long time. You have no understanding of Christian doctrine, and you’ve sought out a church that let’s you force fit doctrine into your own narrative. Christ would also have had awful things to say about that.
As for the control you say Jews have over Christians, poor, pitiful, sorry-ass Christians, who have no power to fend off the evil Jew-monster.
Ridiculous. The problems Christians have is entirely to do with Christians, their failure to believe and practice the true faith, getting in bed with the world, sending their children to secular schools, watching crap on TV, and in general being weak, soft, unbelieving, and reticent to promulgate the Christian world and life view in their own communities and in society in general.
Rather than mocking the work I do to create meaningful posts, I thank you for staying on point in the future and veering away from your own agenda. Otherwise, there’s no point to making these posts, and I won’t let that happen.
“Evil and wickedness are not located in a race or ethnicity.”
That pretty much sums it up. No race, ethnicity – or religion – holds a monopoly on hatred and evil.
“Evil and wickedness are not located in a race or ethnicity” Is entirely True -however, In Our Time, the ashkenazi ‘false-jew’ zionists are a Center of Evil that MUST NOT be Ignored for some feel-good ‘why can’t we all get along’ principles.
Sorry, Captain, we have to Point out the Enemies in front of Us, Identify them for who they are.
What Pat said above is True- the ‘gun control’ Institutions are a Creation of (((them))), funded by (((their))) Fiat paper ‘Money’.
Long Ago I came to the conclusion that the bolshevik/zionist false jews are the Driving Force behind communism and all of the Degradation to the Social Order in the U.S. over the past Century. The constant scream of ‘anti-semitism’ they make is a Propaganda Tool to enforce Silence upon Critics of (((Their))) Program.
(((They))) are neither Semites (arab North Africans) nor “God’s Chosen People” ™ and until We cast aside the Lies that enslave our Minds, We shall remain Unable to Correct the Problems (((they))) have created.
Sigh.
Listen again. “They” … haven’t created any problem. Sin has created many problems, and the consequences of the fall in Adam and federal headship are ubiquitous. It’s everywhere.
Without Jews or any other race, it wouldn’t make *one … damn … little … bit … of … difference.* None. There are plenty enough whites, blacks, Asians, Russians, Brits, Nordics, and Latinos who want to enslave men and women that another slave master would come in behind whomever is the current manifestation.
John Cornyn wants to enslave you with gun control. Lindsey Graham wants to enslave you with gun control and everything else. Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe want to enslave you.
Now. Given how this discussion thread has devolved into the ridiculous, this web site is in danger of morphing into a Jew-hate web site. Thus a laughingstock, a subject of ridicule and silliness, and something to be immediately dismissed as full of kooks, tin foil hats, and goofballs.
Maybe that was the point of all of this and is the result of trolling. I don’t know.
But this is the end for all of that.
THE END.
I will henceforth delete any Jew-hate comments and ban the commenter who makes them.
I’m tired of this.
Captain Smith;
Allow me to thank you for your site that I have been visiting for several years.
Also please allow me to encourage you to stand your ground against race hate and no allow this site to be ruined as has been done to WRSA.
Long Life, overhill
@overhill,
That’s easy. I delete comments and ban the commenter if I have to.
Pointing a finger of blame at race, ethnicity or anything else than the fall and federal headship in Adam, or assuming that erasure of a race or ethnicity would solve any problem[s], misses the whole point of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and is certainly not in line with the whole of Pauline theology. I will gladly say those things to Jew and Gentile alike. All roads do not lead to God. Only Christ does, the God-man, two natures in one person, truly God and truly man, viz. Nicea and Athanasius, Augustine, The Council or Orange, Anselm, Calvin, the WCF, the Canons of Dort, etc., etc., etc.
If someone doesn’t like that, they can NOT visit this web site. I’m not neutral. I never claimed to be.
And such views as those expressed are anti-scholarly and adolescent. It comes across as little bitchy school girl cliques. I won’t pollute my web site with such drivel.
I also rarely visit WRSA anymore, and typically go there only if WOG or this blog links there. The comments pretty much run the show over there these days.