Posted by
Pscyclone on Thursday, March 15, 2007 9:07:45
I think I've figured how I'm going to post my paper, Firearms in America: Right of the People? Because it's a researched and referenced work, I'll be posting the Works Cited / Bibliography with each section. This will make the paper less fluid from post-to-post, but it will reduce the chances of someone missing a reference. I don't wish to take credit for anything not mine, so I think this will be a prudent move.
A little background on the paper, and then on to the post.
Firearms in America: Right of the People? is a work constructed to satisfy the requirements of an American Government college course; this work is copyright 2004 by me. The class was heavily slanted left; though I was not the oldest student, I was sometimes referred to as 'the old man' because of my social conservative views. The professor aided the lefting slant, encouraging folk to not only question social conservatives, but also to actively dismiss their point of view. It was an uncomfortable class but, thanks to the First Amendment and the professor's reminder of it's existence from time-to-time, I was afforded the same opportunities as the rest of the class.
To the professor's credit, he did not like me, my politics, my ideas, or my views, but he did not stifle them in his class. Sometimes I think he would let me speak just so the rest of the class could use me as the butt of their jokes, but that was their right. I have a lot of respect for the professor; though we did not agree on virtually anything, he was fair, allowed me to be fair, and gave me the feeling that he was really listening to me, not just listening to debunk. I returned the favor.
The following posts are the contents of that research paper which was a required part of the class. We were allowed to choose any topic to discuss in our papers so long as no one else in the class did the same. The firearms issue is apparently a hot potato and was untouched by the time it came for me to choose. The only editing I've done is to format it for this forum and to put the Works Cited / Bibliography at the end of each part to ease a reader's reference. Too, I've broken the work into three parts so it can be read in small chunks. It seems long-winded posts are not as read or appreciated as short, sound-bite posts. Other than this formatting, the contents remain the same.
Feel free to post with comments or questions.