OK so you think the American government is as tyrannical as King George. And yes, I may think that's paranoid and disrespectful of the beautiful design the Founders constructed for the preservation of "government by the consent of the governed".
The amount of sheer colossal idiotic ignorance or deliberate outrageous bullshit in that statement alone is beyond astounding.
It illustrates the foundational reason WHY you sir, are not a Conservative, but rather the full display of a mind wholly devoted to Collectivism/Statism/Communism.
The Constitution was not written and ratified as a beautiful design for the
preservation of government by those who consented to it's authority.
It was written and ratified because it covenanted the promise that
LIBERTY WOULD BE PRESERVED, NOT GOVERNMENT - LIBERTY! The covenant agreed to was that in order to ensure the preservation of liberty be upheld - government was to be restricted and limited to very narrow specific confines in which it was permitted to operate so as not to infringe upon or limit the liberty of the people by which they were granted by Nature's God.
'Preservation of government' my ass!
The threat isn't to your ability to keep guns to shoot peace officers, it's to your ability to keep guns for your personal self defense and recreation.
No, wrong. My right to keep guns is in defense of liberty from people like you who will use government to infringe upon and stomp upon the liberty of the people so you can have the illusion of peace and safety. Unlike you, we don't trust government. We have learned to distrust it in total.
The Second Amendment only guarantees you that right by dint of a court opinion, one that was decided by a 5-4 majority and one of which the subject of the topic thread is the author of the dissenting opinion.
Wrong again. My Right is guaranteed by God Whom granted it - not from some court opinion. My right to keep and bear arms does not come from the Amendment or the Constitution. The Constitution and the BOR existed to keep government and people like you from infringing upon and touching rights that you do not trust anyone else to have except government-approved persons allowed the privilege to exercise.
I think the weekend assignment for every person on this board should be to read Stevens' dissenting opinion in Heller. Read it and understand how the individual RKBA hangs by a thread.
I don't care what some lawyer in a black robe has to say about my 'rights' pal. Our 'rights' do not hang by a thread except by the insistence of meddlesome tyrants who seek to turn rights into government-granted privilege.
I may be the perceived enemy of most on this board,
You illustrate yourself as such. Daily.
but sometimes it is wise to listen to some cautionary advice. Heller needs to be codified.
Why in the hell would any sane person listen to an enemy of our rights and principles about what we should do to keep them 'safe' from meddlesome tyrants like yourself?
You live your life and whole being around the whim of the courts which is apparently your god that you worship as infallible and sacrosanct once it 'rules' The rest of us do not hold as 'holy' the words some blacked-robed tyrants have rendered in opinion about what they think 'the Constitution' really means.
That should be the focused priority of gun owners,
No. People like YOU are the focused priority of gun owners at the moment given your advocacies of tyranny. All you need to know is, that we will not comply with the kinds of tyranny you are suggesting become a government policy.
not resistance to concerns of the citizenry that it may be sound policy to require gun owners to account for their firearms.
Well, expect resistance, because that is ALL Leftist snowflakes deserve and that is all they are going to get.
Is there anything I can say that would persuade anyone here that registration is not the prelude to confiscation?
No. Not unless you want to illustrate your colossal ignorance of history and human nature and reveal the depths of enmity towards our rights the you possess and seek to eradicate.
The only thing, I think, that could temper the paranoia is the knowledge that we have a Second Amendment that protects our individual right to protect ourselves. And the Second Amendment does not do that. Heller does. And Heller can be gone with the political winds.
But our right to arms does not. Our rights do not come from men or constructs of men - and the 2nd Amendment codifies the promise that the right to keep and bear arms may not be infringed. We do not require some ruling by a court to 'preserve' our Rights. Those Rights are inviolable and immutable. The moment the government attempts infringement upon our right with harebrained tyranny of the kind you have suggested, it has violated the covenant our forbears agreed to and our allegiance and obedience to such a government is no longer an obligation we will observe as we will no longer consent to their governance.
And if the 2A affords no such protection, then the regime of registration need not be reasonable, but can be unreasonable, arbitrary and confiscatory.
Which is what you and your Statist pals really think and really want. We have given you fair warning of what the consequences will be when your assertion of the legality of imposing such tyranny is attempted.
It will be time to water the tree of liberty.
You are welcome to test our resolve.