<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
Then doesn't it just terrify you to go to the supermarket or the hardware store where such lethal weapons are routinely sold over the counter? Make no mistake about it, the $6/hr Rent-A-Cop is not going to save your life if someone decides to pull a couple of these beauties off the shelf and go on a slashing spree.
Or how do you make it through a trip to the SuperKMart or Sears where they actually sell guns and ammo (protected of course by some 1/4" thick glass)? Imagine what a dedicated terrorist could do there? No need to sneak anything by the $6/hr Rent-A-Cop there - it's all for the smashy-smashy, grabby-grabby.
We do agree on one thing: our Rights are indeed different from time when the Bill of Rights was penned. It is a disgrace how anemic that document has become.
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If someone goes on a shooting spree in a Sears or whatever supermarket sells ammo (I don't know of one that does) then I can attempt to run away - there is someplace to go. Where am I going to go on board an aircraft. No place to run and not very many places to hide - no good places at all. Further, the police and medical squads are close at hand on the ground - not at 30,000 feet. At least on the ground I have a fighting chance. In the air I don't have that much. In this day and age I have to hope that my fellow passengers will come to my aid, and most likely they would. None the less, trying to cut the people with harmful intent off at the pass is not a bad idea.
As to the bill of rights - I am happy to be a U.S. citizen that even has a bill of rights. That being said, they were written some 200 years ago when things were just a little bit different. Society was not what it is today and they couldn't have foreseen the mess people would have made of things - they couldn't possibly have penned a bill of rights that would be as meaningful in this day and age.