07-27-2010, 02:39 PM
BROWN TEAL Wrote:...NZ's excellent firearm laws
True, certainly relatively better than those of many other countries, but still replete with restrictive registration and permit schemes that effectively limit self-defense rights.
Interesting to note the history of NZ gun control laws. "Early laws were mainly targeted at Māori during the land wars in the Waikato and Taranaki..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politic...ew_Zealand
Reminiscent of US Supreme Court Justice Thomas' recent opinion in the McDonald case, where he noted the historical use of gun control laws to disarm blacks during the post-Reconstruction era in the US and thereby prevent them from protecting themselves against attackers.
Quote:“Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the ‘76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence.”
The right to keep and bear arms is essential to the preservation of liberty. Conversely, when someone wants to try to take your liberty, they first try to take your means of self defense. Or as Jefferson said, when the government fears the people, there is liberty.