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Battle of Plattsburgh (courtesy historiclakes.org)

The Press-Republican is Plattsburgh, New York‘s daily paper. It’s owned by Community Newspapers of . . . wait for it . . . Montgomery, Alabama. Given the paper’s deep south HQ, the word “Republican” in the name and the fact that Plattsburgh is about as far as you can get from New York City without being in Canada, you’d think the paper would be pro-gun. Nope. “The National Rifle Association is strident about protecting firearm rights. Yet, many Americans want some way to ensure that guns don’t wind up in the wrong hands,” Editorial: Working on gun regulation opines. “As a starter, maybe sensible representatives on either side of the argument could agree to some compromises: Registration of firearms seems an effective and non-threatening first step. Anonymous purchases at gun shows and elsewhere ought to be illegal.” And now for some historical perspective . . .

If we could take 13 colonies with all their colliding interests and turn them into one functioning nation, we should be able to figure out gun regulation we all can live with.

I think we already did that. It’s called The Second Amendment. And from my historical perspective . . .

Plattsburgh was home to some of the heaviest fighting of the War of 1812. At the Battle of Plattsburgh brave American sailors and soldiers ended the British invasion of the northern states. To think the town’s local paper would recommend the first step on the way to civilian disarmament is a travesty, a mockery and a warning to gun rights advocates that they are never, ever safe from the enemies of liberty. Zephaniah Platt is spinning in his grave. That is all.

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68 COMMENTS

  1. “Registration of firearms seems an effective and non-threatening first step.” Followed shortly after by the more threatening step of confiscation, and subsequent registration of potentially dangerous persons, like former gun owners, libertarians, Jews, you get the idea…

      • So bloggers will get the voice. Yep. we have seen that many times on this site from anti-2a so called writers who get their voice heard by a column writen about them.

    • Most newspapers have found a niche within the Internet, which makes publication, access, and the ability to editorialize allthemore less difficult. Now people only read what they want to read, with a whole lot less paper and ink wasted in the process. It’s certainly pragmatic, by ideologically, it’s only reinforcing the bellows of everyone’s intellectual echo chambers.

      • Echo chambers inside (empty) minds notwithstanding, with the Internet at least you have more choices than the usually two MSM dead trees previously available. Even if they have switched to killing electrons (and brain cells) rather than trees you still have your choice of news and opinions from any source in the world. Such as TTAG and the (occasionally referred to) NewsMax feed to the right.

      • Well, no more than in the past when there was hundreds of local papers that was local to their area.
        It was only historically fairly recent when a few mega news agencies that came to dominate the field.

    • As Shawn stated, bloggers are now the voice. Most bloggers have ZERO journalistic integrity and training. All they have done is figured out how to get some web traffic and spout their opinions, most of which are founded on falsehoods and lies. They don’t research, they don’t check facts, but they do make a big stink about their topic and people believe them. That’s why the internet is so much harder to navigate now in order to find accuracy.

    • Exactly. “First step”.
      When I read that, my brain went into the second, third, fourth, etc “steps”.
      “They” are really starting to piss me off.

      • Tom, what’s taking you so long? Are you just now getting pissed off, I’ve been royally pissed since BHO insisted we give up our rights in memoriam to all the children.

        • I was pissed when BHO first got elected, but I should’ve been pissed off much sooner. The passage of AWB 1.0 or the first version of the “Patriot” Act should’ve been my first clues. You live, you learn. If you can decipher the truth, that is.

    • Oh, he understands. He’s just decided it will mean something different to him… until the Mission is accomplished. And you know what the Mission is.

    • Indeed. First step?

      FIRST step???

      All of us need to remember that the anti-gun folks are wildly deceptive when they speak like this.

      We’ve already had:

      * a mass media that is largely compliant with the “disarm civilians” mantra, which has helped promote these ideas (among others):
      *** acceptance of the phrase “took the law into his own hands” as appropriate for a simple act of self-defense;
      *** acceptance of the term “gun violence,” a ridiculous term designed to focus on the gun and not on the violence;
      *** acceptance of the term “assault weapon” as if it really means anything more than a semi-automatic rifle that gun grabbers don’t like;
      *** incredulity at the idea that armed citizens cannot possibly pose a threat to a tyrannical government;
      *** the concept that you are not supposed to defend yourself, that instead you are supposed to call the police;
      *** the terms “Saturday Night Specials” and “Cop-Killer Bullets” and other ridiculous terms;

      * a pseudo-prohibition of automatic weapons (not completely banned, but close enough, since they’ve been priced out of range for the vast majority of people);

      * a prohibition on standard capacity magazines in various states (including NY);

      * a background check system that does NOT stop criminals from getting firearms, only redirecting them to either make illegal/”straw” purchases or steal someone else’s firearm;

      * the creation of “disarmed victim zones” or “child death zones” — a.k.a. “gun free zones;”

      * the required registration of suppressors, SBR’s & SBS’s (not to mention machine gun parts);

      * the requirement of a special license (FFL) that effectively allows the ATF to surreptitiously create a registry of firearms owners;

      * the “sporting use” test and “points system;”

      * the prohibition of persons directly buying handguns in a state other than their state of residence;

      * the prohibition of non-existent technology (the Undetectable Firearms Act);

      * the requirement of a government permission slip before one is allowed to carry to defend oneself and one’s family away from the home;

      * the incremental increase of “prohibited persons” who are not allowed to own firearms …

      This is not the “first step.” Not by a long shot. This is arguably closer to the “last step.”

  2. At the Battle of Plattsburgh brave American sailors and soldiers ended the British invasion of the northern states.

    Eh? Where on earth did you get that idea? They only ended the British invasion of New York. Meanwhile, a bit further over, the British invaded and occupied about half of Maine to make a buffer, and stayed there pretty much until hostilities ceased.

  3. I don’t think they know what compromise means…

    Or, worse, they do and they think them not passing all the laws at once like they really want to IS the compromise.

  4. No compromises until all infringements have been reversed. They (you know who they are) are out to get it all and all they should get is nothing.

  5. “Registration of firearms seems an effective and non-threatening first step”

    Effective as in how? – First step in the disarmament of the populace?

    Non-threatening as a heart attack if you ask me!

  6. Problem is we already have many regulations, most sold to the public as a simple “first step”. Even their own inadvertent admission show they want more and more steps. This is only the “first”. Given the totalitarian emotion nature behind the push, they can never be satisfied. We must make more open minded people know that as it is with gun freedoms (that which remains after the many first steps), all freedoms will be restricted with first steps, like government approved diets housing, and transportation. In lay-mens terms, you eat what the government tells you to, live where government tells you to (think Cabrini Greens), and you get around on means the government tells you to (cattle car trains).

    • not only will i not give up my firearms, i will also not register them, ever. And if i need to i have ways to protect them from being found should the ‘powers that be’ come looking for them.

  7. Registration of firearms seems an effective and non-threatening first step. Anonymous purchases at gun shows and elsewhere ought to be illegal

    So… only the legal guns will be registered. Also, a simple Dremel tool can make all that documentation disappear. This is effective how??

  8. These people are NOT advocating an end to the 2A. They ARE advocating the end of the US Constitution. Lets stop with the PC BS. They want to end the Constitution and submit to a police state. The founding fathers did come up with the perfect fire arms legislation. It is also the teeth behind the US Constitution some old schoolers may remember as the 2A. As our founding fathers clearly intended to keep this nation free the only way to guarantee this was with the RKBA without this right the others would soon fall as well. These Leftist liberals (a.k.a. communists) are not attacking the 2A, please lets call it what it is they HATE the US Constitution!

  9. Plattsburgh is a college town, I know, I went there. Kinda of not surprised an opinion like this showed up in the editorials even with name of Press-Republican.

    • Me too, remember the Cardinal Lounge? You could get loaded on campus, all the beer you could drink for 5 bucks if you were drinking age. Most of the profs were hardcore Marxists. PSUC is not influencing Plattsburghs politics, Plattsburgh had the first openly gay mayor, it has always been a liberal bastion, even though its surrounded with shotgun toting woodchucks (northern rednecks.) Kind of like Burlington, real hippie granola crunching crowd. From what I have heard it is now suffering alot more crime thanks to prisoners getting out of Dannermora prison and staying there instead of going back to NYC. Oh well, hope the two shotgun shells are enough to protect themselves.

    • Plattsburgh also used to be home to a Strategic Air Command nuclear bomber base (B-47s, B-58s, FB-111s, B-52s). Not quite your leftwing liberal/commie crowd.

  10. Here’s a good first step: have gun control advocates actually read the research on gun use and on the success/failure of specific gun policies. Second step: admit defeat. Third step: get a tatoo of the second amendment. Like the man said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

  11. I agree with everything here. Registration is ridiculous. However, we started the war of 1812. “British invasion of the northern states” is a little misleading is all.

    • I think the Royal Navy’s acts of piracy on the open seas is what started the war. I’m sure there were other factors involved but stopping American ships at sea and kidnapping crewmwmbers was a definate wrong move.

      • No, there was no piracy, and the British had a perfect right to impress American sailors (and keep some British posts on U.S. territory) pending U.S. compliance with all the provisions of the peace treaty of 1783, as the provisions against British actions like those didn’t have to be complied with before that; that set up a penalty for non-compliance. And the U.S.A. never complied with the provisions about allowing Loyalists to return and not penalising them, and a few other, lesser ones. So Britain was acting entirely lawfully, and matters were only resolved by actual U.S. compliance with the superseding treaty of 1814 (and less British need to impress any sailors, with the end of the Napoleonic Wars).

    • As a technical term, yes, that was a British invasion of New York that followed an earlier U.S. invasion of Canada. It would, however, have been wrong to talk about ending a British invasion of southern states that burned the White House and so on, when that was technically only ever an incursion, i.e. a hit and run raid.

  12. As a reasonable first step I propose that the anti-gun crowd compromise and allow us to repeal all gun control laws that serve no useful purpose. (That would be all of them.)

  13. I simply do not understand Control Nuts infatuation with registration. Other than confiscation, how is it useful at all? So they can see a gun’s pedigree? Do they really think someone willing to murder is not willing to cheat paperwork?!

    This weak attempt to keep guns out of the wrong hands is always a thinly disguised means to blame the good guys without risk to offending their own.
    Never do they address the reality. That many of their target audience doesn’t value life. And their entire audience needs to take ownership of protecting themselves.

  14. >> Given the paper’s deep south HQ …

    What exactly is so surprising about it? Back in the days of Jim Crow, Deep South was very much for gun control – can’t have them Negroes running around with guns around white people, see?

  15. “Non threathening first step”

    Sounds similar to what the UN said before they gave many people to the Chetniks to be slaughtered.

  16. From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie
    The Big Lie (German: Große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”

    It work for the then German nation against the then Jews.

    Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. — Edmund Burke (12 January 1729 – 9 July 1797)
    Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana (16 December 1863 – 26 September 1952)

  17. OK, well we have a fairly tightly regulated situation in New Zealand, where only competent and law abiding persons are deemed fit to possess a firearms license. However, the Government decided that licensing owners is the only step needed, registering weapons themselves is far too cumbersome and unwieldy to work, requiring far too many staff to accomplish, and is simply unnecessary. All we have to do is show our license to buy any gun or ammunition within our license category.

    There are stricter licenses for those who choose to buy military style weapons, but those involve greater expense and inconvenience.

    We can buy semi automatic rifles and silencers on a basic license, with no extra fee.

    I believe that the Battle of New Orleans was the final battle in the War of 1812 – 1815. General Packenham, a distant cousin of mine, led his troops and was the last general in British history to die doing this. During the Peninsular War he was on the staff of his brother in law, the Duke of Wellington. The battle was held a few days after peace had been signed, but the communications of the day were not good enough to prevent it.

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