Reply #12: It amazes me that many votes went for "Help the foreign troops as much as possable"... [View All]

[spin]

I wouldn't support ANY foreign troops on U.S. soil attempting to confiscate all firearms. The two most important amendments in the Bill of Rights were the first and the second. They guarantee all the other right that citizens enjoy in our country.

If the citizen's right to keep and bear arms was taken away, we would live in a police state.

Many people point to other developed nations that have strict gun control as examples we should follow. I disagree. Our country is different and in many ways superior to other nations in many ways. As an example, our government trusts its citizens to own firearms. That concept coupled with freedom of the press are the most liberal and progressive ideas ever penned on paper.

I will grant that all too often, firearms are misused with tragic results. One the other hand, firearms often are used for self defense to prevent severe injury or death. There is always a downside to every good idea. Electricity is essential to our lives but the pollution generated by power plants destroys the environment and can cause sickness and even deaths. Just as we can work on solutions to pollution, we can work to reduce the violence caused by firearms.

Better enforcement of existing laws and improvements in the NICS background check system would be beneficial as would a zero tolerance policy toward violent felons caught carrying firearms.

Confiscation of all firearms might is the dream of a government that wishes to rule our lives with an iron fist. The "War on Terror" has already been misused to erode the rights and freedoms we enjoy. The powerful elite are attempting to take away our rights of privacy by monitoring all communications and turn us into a nation where we are afraid to express our honest opinions. The ruling class would love to have a compliant group of wage slaves to support their privileged lifestyle.

And in the OP the Mexican army was mentioned as a force to confiscate firearms. That's JUST what we need!

Corruption in Mexico's military could become an increasing problem as the army takes the lead in fighting the country's powerful drug gangs. President Felipe Calderón put the military on the front lines of the nation's drug war when he came to power 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, Mr. Calderón has tried to quell a wave of violence and has taken over policing duties from corrupt police departments in parts of the country.

This isn't the first time army officers have been linked to the Sinaloa cartel. Mr. Guzmán has regularly visited a ranch in the remote mountains of Chihuahua state to check on his marijuana crop with some protection from the Mexican army, according to a 2008 Mexican intelligence document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Mexican military has said it was unaware of the allegations.

***snip***

More recently, an unknown number of elite Mexican soldiers trained in counterinsurgency and counternarcotics tactics have defected and gone to work for the cartels, according to the government. Analysts say the involvement of the defectors -- known as "Zetas" -- who went to work as enforcers for another cartel, the Gulf cartel, has increased the already high level of violence in Mexico's drug wars. Analysts fear drug gangs will find willing recruits in the thousands of soldiers who desert the Mexican military every year.

Some human-rights organizations charge that Mexican soldiers, lacking in police training, have been increasingly involved in abuses including murder, rape, and forced disappearances. New York-based Human Rights Watch says accusations of abuse lodged with Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, an autonomous government agency, skyrocketed to 1,230 complaints in 2008 from 182 complaints in 2006. Mexico's defense ministry didn't have any comment. In the past, the ministry has said it takes seriously and investigates accusations of human-rights violations.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124510705768916735.html