|
'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.'
So . . . you perhaps thought that your right to keep and bear arms is found in the 2nd amendment.
Friends, this is a prescription for trouble.
Now, if you said that the right to keep and bear arms is recognized in the 2nd amendment, you would be more accurate.
Why is this difference important?
Let's suppose the amendment read this way: 'The people have the right to keep and bear arms.' With that statement, the Constitution would be giving you something . . . something that it might take away, either by repealing the amendment or, what would be far more likely, having the courts either ignore it (like they do with the 10th amendment) or warp it through a tortured and convoluted process into what it is not.
The so-called 'Bill of Rights', our first ten amendments, are mischaracterized as such. They would be better named 'The Bill of Limitations' . . . upon federal power!
Notice the way the amendment is worded. 'The right . . . shall not be infringed.' That means that any attempt by the federal government to reduce or limit that right would be a violation --- unconstitutional. This makes every federal gun control law wantonly and openly a violation of the 2nd amendment.
The premise of that right, meaning a citizen-army or militia, is needed to secure a free state. As such, the state militia was seen as a way to keep the people free. But free from what, you might well ask?
Certainly free from a foreign invader. However, the presence of an army was already called for in Article I, Section 8, Clause 12. But notice that there is a two year limitation on funding the army in advance. Why was that?! Because otherwise an army that was funded, say, ten years in advance, could be seized and controlled by a dictator, who knew that pay was salted away for a long period of time.
In other words, armies were seen as threats to their own citizens as much as a deterrent to a potential invader. And because of this, 'the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'
Of course, the militia could be used to augment the regular army, and this is covered under Clauses 15 & 16. But its primary purpose is defined: to secure freedom for the individual states and the people.
So, where do we get our right to keep and bear arms?
Through Natural Law, that is, the Law of God. And with that, the natural law of self-defense. This is recognized in another constitution, one that is still in effect, and one in which the Constitution is obliged to recognize: the Declaration of Independence. You will find it in the phrase '. . . to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them . . . '
Now, THAT is a real entitlement, not something dreamed up by socialists and liberals decades ago in Congress.
The campaign for the Senate will be an attempt to rededicate our government to a return to the Constitution. Our guns provide us with much wholesome pleasure as hunters and target shooters. They keep us safe against criminals and dangerous animals.
But they are our ultimate defense against tyranny.
For freedom,
Bob Bird
|
