Thank God for Our Constitution

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

            United States Constitution, Amendment II

The founders quite obviously felt very strongly about this subject. The only amendment given higher stance was our individual right to free speech. They felt that our right to bear arms is more important than a right to a speedy trial, protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, double jeopardy and self-incrimination.

More importantly, notice the second amendment says nothing about self-protection, hunting or any other prescribed use of arms. No, it specifically talks about the necessity of Militias to maintain our freedom and states in unambiguous terms that our right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Not “should not” or “may not”, but “shall not”. They obviously wanted to leave no room for interpretation. They had witnessed the tyranny of states whose populations had been disarmed and wanted no part of it for the United States. They understood it would be virtually impossible for a tyrannical government to oppress an armed populous. If you feel this amendment is vague or otherwise worded ambiguously, you don’t have to look far to get more insight into what the authors were thinking when they wrote it…

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
- George Washington, First Annual Address, to both House of Congress, January 8, 1790

"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
- Thomas Jefferson, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776

These are but a few examples of publications and personal communications penned by the architects of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. In particular, Thomas Jefferson, generally acknowledged as the original author, speaks unambiguously about every citizen’s right to self-protection not only from common criminals and assailants but from a tyrannical government as well. For me, reading these excerpts only serves to reinforce my belief in the exceptional prescience of our founding fathers. Thank God for their wisdom. They believed so strongly in the necessity of an armed citizenry, they codified it in a document that requires extraordinary effort to modify. The people of the United States have to be very unified and motivated for ⅔  (38) of the states to agree via referendum to change our Constitution. Given today’s political reality, it would be nearly impossible to get ⅔ of the states to agree the sky is blue! So, to all you gun-grabbing social warriors out there, I say, “Good luck trying to change our beloved Second Amendment!” The founders saw you coming and erected a barrier right in your path.

To those of you who believe our government is benevolent and that civil unrest could never escalate to the point of armed resistance, I ask you to Google “Antifa protests”. Take a gander at these hooded and masked goons as they rioted on President Trump’s inauguration day or when Milo Yiannopoulos tried to hold an event at Berkeley. They burned cars, hurled barricades through plate glass windows, set fires and physically assaulted innocent people for daring to have a differing political opinion. These goons are modern-day “brownshirts” physically assaulting those who don’t hold to their leftist ideology. By labeling everyone who disagrees with them as Nazi, racist or bigot, they take license to violently attack populists, conservatives and libertarians. They cloak themselves with some sort of twisted moral superiority and believe that justifies their violent behavior. They revel in their twisted ideology on social media and start memes like #PunchANazi and post videos of conservatives being sucker-punched.  Watching their riotous antics makes me sick and makes it hard to dispute the idea that a civil war has already broken out. Were they ever to bring that behavior to me and mine, I will give them a lesson on the errors of assaulting an armed citizen. I PROMISE. Protection from these sorts is what the Second Amendment is all about.

I've been hearing lots of arguments lately about banning "assault weapons" and "high capacity magazines", neither of which are defined terms. What makes a rifle an assault weapon? Is it a black rifle? Is it a semi-automatic? Or is it just something that looks scary to skinny-jean wearing left coast beta-males? How many rounds can a magazine contain before it earns the designation "high capacity"? 30? 20? 5? Nobody is saying because nobody knows. It’s just another example of leftist talking point buzzwords. What the left does know is that they want to ban as much as they possibly can in an effort to achieve their ultimate goal of banning all gun ownership for all American citizens. They know they have no hope of repealing the Second Amendment in one fell swoop, so they want to nibble away at it until it is effectively moot. We're already banned from owning fully automatic firearms. That happened in the days of the Tommy-gun in the early 20th century. I believe that is an illegal ban, but there has never been enough public outcry to mount an effective court challenge. Even the NRA won't touch that debate. Does my belief make me crazy? Maybe in the eyes of the left. You see, I believe in freedom. I believe that while I may not like something, I have no right to tell others they can’t have it. I can’t stomach looking at a person with tattoos all over their face, but I do believe they have every right to disfigure themselves any way they wish and would never propose a law to forbid them doing so. I understand that a machine gun never killed anyone. It is an inanimate object. It requires a human to buy the ammunition, load the weapon, aim and pull the trigger. It's the same for an AR-15. Free, law-abiding citizens have every right to own one (or 2, 3, or any number they want). In fact, some estimates place the number of privately owned AR-15s in the US between 900,000 and 1.2 million. Of that number, only a handful have ever been used in a violent crime of any type. I own lots of guns of all types. I enjoy shooting. I used to be an avid hunter. I am a law-abiding, free American citizen. Why should my right to own and use firearms lawfully be taken away because some sick kid in Florida one day decides it would be a good idea to shoot a bunch of innocent kids in a high school? If you follow that logic, there should be a cry to take away all automobiles after a sicko jihadist purposely runs over a couple dozen New Yorkers out for a jog in the park. That will never be suggested BECAUSE IT IS A STUPID, NON-SEQUITUR ARGUMENT. Rich leftists manipulate uninformed people who don’t like guns to take advantage of every tragic incident involving a firearm. Whenever some sicko decides to play Call of Duty for real, they make the sentimental argument that no one should be able to own the kind of guns that look scary to them. Yes, these well-orchestrated “March for Our Lives” protests are financed by the likes of George Soros, rich Hollywood types and other leftist organizations like the NEA. Does anyone really believe a bunch of high school kids organized these marches, replete with huge stages, jumbo-trons and leftist Hollywood performers (mimics)? Of course not. High school kids organize things like fund-raising car washes or maybe a bake sale. These kids are little more than puppets, schooled by the globalist left to parrot their socialist agenda. Several kids from the same high school wanting to express differing opinions have been totally muted by the media. There is no room for intelligent discussion, only the left’s talking points are allowed. Nobody gets to ask why this disturbed teen was allowed to get a gun. Nobody gets to ask why the school, local law enforcement and the FBI ignored warnings from other students and concerned parents. Nobody gets to ask why no action was taken when the kid expressed his desire to shoot up the school on social media. And, alas, nobody gets to ask how this obviously sick young person slipped through society’s cracks despite the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on social programs every year. No, those are difficult questions no one wants to tackle. It’s just easier to blame the gun.

Throughout history, dictators flourish only after they disarm their citizens. Stalin, Hitler Mao…the list goes on. When leftists call President Trump a Nazi or dictator, I can only laugh at their stupidity. These brainwashed socialists have no idea what a true dictator is. That’s not surprising. After all, they are products of our public education system. Educators have long since stopped teaching history, civics or government in lieu of courses like “sexual preference studies” or “ecology”. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with those subjects, but why should our kids know more about LGBTQ issues than facts about our founding fathers and the Constitution?

The simple fact is, they shouldn’t. The left has run this country’s education systems for decades. We now find ourselves with two or three generations of people who are completely oblivious to the principals our founders believed in and codified in the Constitution. The only amendment these ignoramuses are vaguely aware of is the first. The only reason they know about it is because it's the section of the Bill of Rights that guarantees their right to shoot off their stupid mouths no matter how ill-informed or ignorant they are. They speak of abolishing the Second Amendment as if it were as meaningless as a jaywalking law. Thank God for organizations like the NRA fighting to protect our rights. On the other hand, it is truly sad that the NRA even needs to exist at all.