30 Round Mags...

I have been asked my opinion on the necessity of keeping 30 rounds magazines for guns.  To quote some comments: “The only reason for 30 round mag is to kill people – why should the government allow those?”  “What possible sporting use is a 30 round mag?”  And so it goes that it would appear to the average person that there is really no necessity for these large capacity mags, except to kill people.

So it is time to get down to the cold hard unpleasant facts that no one really wants to think about or consider.  The true purpose of the Second Amendment is not to preserve sporting purposes, or to make a better target shooter, or to hunt much of anything in the wild kingdom.  The true purpose is as check on, as last resort against, a government that has gone completely outside its boundaries. 

In the last century, which is through the 1900s, there were untold millions of people killed.  We call these mass murders.  Did they happen at schools and malls and post offices by lone individuals?  No, they were committed against people disarmed by their own governments for all kinds of reasons such as:  religious beliefs, or one so called superior race attacks and murders by the millions an “inferior” race, and communists against the free people.  According to the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership around 80 million people were murdered by their own governments in the last century alone.

Our Founders noted the same phenomenon of oppressive governments in their writings therefore they made arrangements to prevent government from taking the most fundamental of rights away from the People.  These rights are secured in the Bill of Rights.  Governments strive to: shut people up, control the press, prevent gatherings of protesting citizens, control religion, especially Christianity, break into the homes of the People without warrants, and you can go right down the list in the bill of rights.  I don’t have space to discuss each one of these and how these rights are being infringed in today’s society by US and state governments, but it doesn’t take much research to find it to be true.

There is one right and one alone that gives the People a final chance to right the wrongs of a government out of control.  That right is the Second Amendment, which secures the rifle in the hands of a People who have taken the last abuse they are willing to take.  A saying that I have oft repeated is that those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.  Maybe I am a dreamer but I think that government is going to run out of enforcers if they push much farther.  I have talked to so many police officers that have stated to me in person that they will NOT participate in the disarming of the People.

So back to 30 round mags – they give people some extra defensive capability against forces which they might not otherwise have.  That covers one politically incorrect reason, now some other reasons.  1.  Dealing with multiple assailants.  2.  Citizens facing threats before police arrive.  3.  Civil disturbances.  4.  Confrontation by an armed criminal with multiple weapons. 

I can hear it now, “But Dr. Mefford, just what is the likelihood of these scenarios happening?”  My answer is, “not very likely.”  However it isn’t too likely that my house will catch fire, or have a tornado blow it down, or well you can name it, but I carry insurance anyway.  No I don’t live in daily fear for my life; however I do live in fear that my fundamental God given rights are being usurped and encroached daily by Chicago and Washington DC politicians in fancy pants with fancy words.  I study history and we cannot escape a repeat without resistance in which the People stand firmly on their rights.  The classic tactic is registration of firearms and owners, which is followed by confiscation.

In Illinois owners are already unconstitutionally registered.  Now proposals are to register and ban certain politically incorrect arms.  It is time to refuse no matter what unconstitutional laws are passed.  You don’t need to be a judge to understand the phrase “shall not be infringed.”