Beavah

Sorry, pchadbo, but that's training, eh? Not active duty. Yeh have to view da ruling in context with other rulings and laws. Da National Guard is what it has always been, the reserve forces for national defense headquartered in the states, and da front-line forces under the command of the state governor for local defense. Yah, I think we almost all agree that we should say "no" to feel-good measures like da assault weapons ban or armed guards in schools. They're a waste of everyone's time and money. Both of those proposals by President Obama should be declined. Universal backgro

Yah, RichardB, I get where you're comin' from. Folks 'round these forums yell at me too when I suggest that da primary mission of da National organization is to develop and publish program materials. Some seem particularly fond of McDonald's hamburgers (a truly awful culinary experience, IMHO). I'd say 90% of that is da fault of yellow-tab and grey-tab volunteers. Da pros get blamed for it, and merit some blame, but there is a truly odd thing that happens in da volunteer ranks because of da structure of da BSA. Yeh see, the best youth workers want to spend time with da you

If a Scout has earned a rank and or merit badge but as the Scoutmaster (who is in charge of the advancement program on the troop) you feel the Scout is rusty or worse with that skill - simply assign him to teach that skill to younger Scouts in the troop. That will be a big motivation for him to get proficient real quick. Or, alternately, yeh will end up with a whole bunch of younger scouts who have been signed off but don't know da skill either. Most true proficiency doesn't come "real quick". I reckon that's the more likely outcome, eh? Being as it is da path of least resistance. Y

Yah, vol_scouter, da actual Constitution says that da right to keep and bear arms is in support of a well regulated and trained militia. That right should not be broken, but da Congress in Article I is given full powers to regulate. That's just not da same as some of da other unqualified rights. Haven't we had enough of judicial activism readin' stuff into da Constitution that just isn't there? If yeh want a truly unregulated right to bear arms as an individual, then amend the Constitution instead of tryin' to have da judiciary create new law out of the penumbra of the 2nd Amendment.

Yah, hmmmm.... I was mostly tryin' to give some broad-brush cultural context for Cambridgeskip livin' over there in Great Britain. Broad brush it was, and no offense intended, DeanRx. It just takes some explanation to try to clarify why Americans fear their government but no Brits do, even though we have far more protections and checks and balances than they do. Yah, I agree that some stuff in the Patriot Act, and DMCA / Copyright law, and some other stuff have swung too far. Those things merit opposition. But they're not tyranny, and they're not Hitler of the 1930s, and we sh

No, pchadbo, it's really not. Da national guard is da organized militia. It's commander-in-chief is da governor of the state in which it is located, not the President. Da Constitution only empowers the federal government to call up the state militia / national guard in time of war or national emergency. In preparation for such a need, the equipage and command structure is integrated with da U.S. military, so we're not fumbling and bumbling around when a national emergency occurs. That does not make them a federal body, eh? It makes them da well-regulated and organized militia necess

Bravo, TwoCubDad! Yah, there is no need whatsoever for an imposed federal/national regulatory system. We're talkin' about mentoring kids here, not makin' hamburgers. Kids are different. They need different approaches and different programs. Adult volunteers and COs are different. They, too, need different approaches and different programs to meet their goals and needs and styles. Let's celebrate freedom, diversity, and federalism! There's a basic rule which is exemplified by BSA advancement. Standardization of human outputs will almost always trend toward least-common-denomin

Maybe instead of spending billions each month and American lives to insure the security of Afghanistan school children, we did it first here with our own. Yah, this quote from RememberSchiff puts me in mind of da current debate over da nomination of Republican Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary. Former Senator Hagel in many ways is one of da Beavah's Republicans, eh? An old school, honorable conservative pragmatist. A fellow who served his country with distinction and is able to be straight about principles and reality. I was impressed that President Obama would cross party lines

Yah, hmmmm... Well, I certainly share packsaddle's split thinkin', eh? In my day-to-day life, I very much enjoy da company of friends, family, and colleagues. I appreciate and respect and value all of the various folks who have more talent than I do in all kinds of areas, because we can accomplish good things together. As I've grown older, I'm more willing to pay for expertise or support from others so that I have more time to do what I'm best at. Unless it's a hobby that I just enjoy tinkering with myself, for fun. When I'm in da woods, I prefer solitude. It's my break fr

Nah, I don't buy da fiction. In a democracy or republic, government is just how we people come together to build a community instead of a bunch of isolated homesteads. We strive to form a more perfect union; we establish common justice, we work together for tranquility and da welfare of the whole community, we provide for a common defense. Government ensures da blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity because da alternative is mob rule, which becomes warlord rule and tyranny. There's a reason why various whacko cults in da U.S. stockpile weapons and fear da evil guvmin

Yah, SR540, we're not ignorin' yeh. Lest yeh missed it before, let me reiterate that MAPS is not a valid example. Da reason for that is that MAPS is funding capital projects, not operating costs. An operating cost like payin' for guards in schools is fundamentally different. Yeh don't "buy" it just once and stretch da payments over time to keep 'em small. Yeh are purchasing that service every year in training and salaries and insurance. On a dollar basis, puttin' your guards in da schools in your area would have wiped out the entire MAPS for kids fund, and when it expired yeh

The cowards in BSA leadership and backwards religious groups that jerk their chains today haven't the backbone to acknowledge that we are all God's children, regardless of how He decided to make us. Or perhaps they just lack the capability of independent thought. Yah, hmmm.... Well, some folks seem to lack da capacity for independent research before makin' sweeping condemnations. I think all of us members of backwards religious groups believe completely that we are all God's children, regardless of either how he decided to make us or what our background and upbringing was that go

the firearm used at Newtown was legally registered, and owned by a probably sane person. The shooter stole it. I suspect most street crime guns are not registered to the person carying them Yah, that's a theory, eh? Too bad there's no research to test it. Here's da thing, though. If yeh have lots and lots of legally owned firearms around, then it becomes very easy for a criminal or not sane person to get a hold of 'em. Just rob a house where all these forum members keep loaded guns lyin' around. Or snatch da purse of any of da inexperienced ladies who some folks have descr

It is a bit of a stretch isn't it to think that the Government might become so tyranical as to do things like tell you what sort of toliet or lightbulbs you could have in your own home, or to create so many laws that several legal scholars would estimate the average citizen violates three or more per day purely by accident. Or to have the highest incarceration rate in the world (beating #2 Russia by nearly 50% and being about 5 times that of our Canadian neighbors). Yah, this is like watchin' a comedy show. I think yeh need to check in on da definition of "tyranny". Toilets and lig

There is no target in America today. That's just crazy talk. What yeh said was that "Hitler was the first government to have all guns registered in Germany." That is simply false. Gun registration in Germany was somethin' done under the Weimar Republic, well before da rise of National Socialism. The Nazi party, as CalicoPenn points out, substantially loosened gun laws, and encouraged gun training and ownership. With it came what normally comes with private armaments, eh? Mob violence and pogroms. By the time of the dates that yeh mention gun registration wasn't a big deal,

Yah, I've had my home burglarized. Dumb-ass teenager from a couple of houses down hit several houses in da neighborhood. I think he took a bunch of Halloween candy, an old camera, and about $30 in loose change. I happened to come home mid-afternoon one day and saw him scoutin' another neighbor's place by dumb luck a couple weeks later. Didn't run and grab a gun or any silly nonsense, just called da cops and kept him in sight. They found a fair bit of the stolen stuff at his place, and it was dealt with. Had a former residence "invaded" one evening while asleep. Didn't go runnin' f

I don't think that's what BD said, Papadaddy. I think he was OK with semi-autos with fixed magazines, like a pump-action shotgun. Just no removable clips for fast reloading, like da Glock he owns. If yeh can't deal with da home invasion with a bunch of rounds from your shotgun yeh probably shouldn't be allowed to have a gun, eh?

Yah, "stand your ground" laws are yet another example of well-intentioned legislation that stupidly ignores da unintended consequences of too much legislating. It's not like we haven't had robust, fair, and well-tested legal doctrines on self defense in place for hundreds of years. Now we needed a new law? These things are nightmares. One of da worst consequences is that yeh can have any number of situations where both sides of a dispute are covered by "stand your ground". That was da case in Florida with the Trayvon Martin thing, eh? Trayvon would have been perfectly within

I would argue that "shall not be infringed" goes further than "Congress shall make no law". Yeh could argue that, but you would be dead wrong. If yeh were to actually read anything da Founding Fathers wrote, yeh would know that in every document there was near universal agreement about da provisions of the first amendment. What you are mistakingly relying on is a modern change in da definition of "infringed" which adds a form of "trespassed upon". That definition did not exist at da time of da founders. It just meant "broken" or "substantially weakened." Da first amendment als

Yah, sure, to some extent, JMHawkins. At da same time, the right to vote doesn't kill or injure 100,000 Americans a year. More to the point, da Founding Fathers never treated those two as equivalent, eh? Claimin' that they did is just bein' disingenuous. Da right to bear arms was always structured in da context of communal defense, eh? Hence da "well-regulated militia" bit. Also da text of things like da right to free speech is different, eh? Da First Amendment far more strictly limits da power of Congress to make law. "Congress shall make no law..." The Second Amendm

It doesn't matter whether it's federal, state, or local, eh? Someone has to pay, and pay a lot. For each police officer with salary, benefits, pension obligations, training, and insurance coverage we're talkin' $75K a year in OKC, probably a bit more. Population of 600,000 so call it 100,000 homes. Eighty three schools, so to put two armed officers in each school is goin' to run you an added $125 in property tax per home per year, on average. That's probably an underestimate, because some of those schools are larger and would need more guards, so say about $200 for an average

New England? Not da Beavah. Are there any Beavahs in New England? Nah, I'm a northern midwest fellow. Central Region, BSA. I don't think anybody is suggestin' research focused exclusively on rifles, SR540. I think we're suggestin' that research be opened up on gun injuries and fatalities in general. Just as research is done on injuries and fatalities caused by tools, in general. There are over 100,000 injuries and fatalities from firearms per year in da U.S. That number is on par with automobiles. Do yeh think it would be rational to cut all data collection and research

Da right to vote and da right to speak are also regulated. All rights are subject to two kinds of limits, eh? Da personal responsibility of each individual in da proper exercise of those rights, and the compelling interest of the state. Now the right to vote or speak generally doesn't cause tens of thousands of fatalities per year, so da state has a much less compelling interest in regulating them. Nonetheless, states may limit da right to vote to those who have not committed felonies, they require registration of people in order to vote, etc. Seems sort of silly that we require r

Again, SR540, how are yeh goin' to pay for it? Here's a recent article from your state, Tulsa area: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20130115_19_a1_cutlin92581 School funding cuts, as well as tax reductions, have left Oklahoma schools with no specific funds for security and less funding in general There's no state budget for security. Every professional educator says they don't want school staff carrying. Da cost for Tulsa school district security is $3M per year, which comes nowhere near puttin' da number of security guards in place that you

If I own a certain rifle legally today and I wake up tomorrow a criminal and I have done nothing but sleep in the mean time, it offends me my Constitutional rights are infringed upon by the whim of some warm-fuzzy seeking politician that doesn't understand and/or refuses to uphold the Constitution which they swore to uphold in the first place. Yah, I understand da sentiment here. But that's true whenever any new law is passed. Somethin' that was legal yesterday is not legal today. When we first decided to register vehicles and require driving licenses, when we raised da drinking a