Man! I can't believe the news, more violence and overwhelming debt are just a couple. How many you guys, like me, think we're seeing the beginnings of some insurmountable problems?All you can do is get in your truck, go campin', hunting, fishing.

Perhaps I may be splitting perverbial hairs but I see things a bit differently as did those who founded this once great and now extinct nation.

I don't believe in "second amendment rights". The 2nd amendment to the Bill of Rights of now defunct United States Constitution was a document that gave NO RIGHTS to its citizens. It was a document to CLEARLY forbid the "government" from engaging in abuses of our Natural Born Rights (those very same right outlined in the Declaration of Independence) and CLEARLY stated what the government CANNOT DO. The only amendment the former United States government did NOT abuse and violate was the 3rd amendment. The Bill of Rights does NOT apply nor was it intended to apply to the individual citizen. It was put in place as a marker stone beyond which the government could NOT exceed or abuse.........IT FAILED.

With respect to supposed "right to own" arms........this IS a Natural Born Right that we are "endowed with by our creator" as he has created us in his image. The authors of the DOI understood this and KNEW that we WERE

to hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We ALL have the right to life and as such the right to protect our lives. We are born with this right. NO man or government can lawfully or morally take that away for ANY reason. (this would include the governmental propaganda euphamism called a FELONY as well)

I think we agree on this but differ in just how we arrive at that understanding.

With respect to the OP's original supposition or question........yes, in a word things have slid down hill alright.........we are beyond the sliding and at the bottom of the hill but sadly so few realize it and REFUSE to see. They DO NOT want freedom......."they" want a just master.

LIVE OAK,I like your perspective. It shows how the wrong colors can get mixed so slowly it finally changes the face of the whole nation with many never noticing.What you are saying too, not just about gun laws, gun rights, but, the very foundation, the very essence of the good people of this country is being slowly brainwashed destroyed disheartened eroded away. Can I go so far to say, attacking our own personal human strength / beliefs? Our very convictions for a strong honorable hard working nation?The more rules and regulations the more expensive freedom becomes. Unfortunately the rules and regulations aren't always for the good of the people but more and more for the good of taking in more revenue from fees and taxes This in turn secures their self perpetuation. You see the richer they become and remember if everyone was wealthy inflation would be so high no one would get the benefit of having lots of money. So by regulation and taxation they can make americans poorer and continue to have us do more work for even less. Essentially it becomes another way of procurring a future for the value of their wealth and the value of the assets they have. Communisn also creeps into a society. What was the name of that book most of us had to read back in high school? So we would be wary of the slow infectious change.

I think you may be talking about "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. It depicted many of the events that happened while Stalin was in power before the start of WWII.