The Second Amendment is our last defense against tyranny. The right to keep and bear arms is a doomsday provision to be used as a last resort when all other rights fail. The founders saw firearm ownership as so necessary that they enumerated this right second in the Bill of Rights, immediately after defining the right to free speech.
I know that you know this… I know that you understand the true meaning of the Second Amendment… But the federal government refuses to recognize the true purpose of our right to keep and bear arms!
In California, the 9th Circuit Court (one of the most powerful courts in the country) just struck down a California law that forced residents to show a “good cause” before they were allowed to carry firearms in self defense. Municipalities were allowed to interpret this “good cause” requirement differently, and San Diego was one of the cities that forced concealed weapons applicants to first prove an urgent need for self-defense.
Astonishingly, the liberal Court ruled that the Second Amendment applies outside the home and that forcing people to prove a “good cause” was “impermissible.” I know that may seem pretty obvious, especially given the fact that all of our other rights apply regardless of whether we cross our threshold, but this is actually something the courts have hesitated to discuss. Since 2010, the federal courts are split on whether the Second Amendment even applies outside the home. It will take a Supreme Court ruling to finally decide whether the Constitution even allows you to take a firearm outside of your house.
How did it come to this point? The Second Amendment reads, “shall not be infringed” for a reason, yet we continue to allow the government to do just that! I am sick and tired of praying that all three branches of government will recognize my God-given right to keep and bear arms! I am tired of waiting for bureaucrats, legislators, and judges to decide in what context I am allowed to protect my family, my country, and myself!
It is often said that our elected officials derive their power from the “consent of the governed.” This phrase, often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, was actually penned by John Locke in his Second Treatise on Government, which predates the Declaration of Independence by almost 90 years.
According to Locke, man forms government to escape the anarchic State of Nature. Individuals form governments to ensure that their rights are protected and they surrender a portion of their liberty in return for the security they gain by living within society. Locke was concerned with what exactly constitutes ‘consent.’ Is an active declaration of consent necessary, or is merely a lack of dissent enough? Locke arrived at the conclusion that “tacit consent” does exist and individuals can grant a government power by passively enjoying the security it provides them.
This is what politicians always cite. Your Congressmen and Senators travel around your home state every 2 and 6 years (respectively) and tell you that they are representing your interests in Washington. They thank you for supporting them and claim that your support proves the American experiment with representative democracy is working.
They are wrong! Our experiment with representative government is NOT working! Congress is more disconnected than ever with the American people and your vote has, unfortunately, never been worth less. Yet, we continue to provide the federal government with our “tacit consent.”
Every November we walk into the voting booth disillusioned that this time, things will be different. All around the country, corrupt governments are forcing gun owners to line up and register their firearms with the State and we allow politicians to label us as “terrorists” simply because we exercise our rights.
We are waiting, in states like California and New Jersey, for unelected judges in black robes to decide if the Second Amendment indeed applies to everyone or whether a simple majority is enough to infringe on this right. The Second Amendment is being attacked on all fronts. These encroachments are the result of decades of our “tacit consent.”
I am done just sitting around and waiting for the next tyrannical shoe to drop. I am tired of hoping that Americans will come to their senses and elect true constitutionalists. The Second Amendment reads, “shall not be infringed,” for a reason, and if Congress doesn’t get that, we will make them understand!
We have allowed those in power to redefine the Second Amendment using their terms. George H.W. Bush began the practice of restricting firearm imports to only those that had “sporting purposes.” Today, many politicians treat the Second Amendment as if it is synonymous with hunting.
It has absolutely nothing to do with hunting and even its association with self-defense has been diluted!
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects your right to keep and bear arms not so that you can grant the government consent, but so that, if necessary, you can act on your dissent!
John Locke writes that free men are obligated to dissolve tyrannical governments. He explains that when all earthly courts fail to uphold the rights of man, the citizen has the obligation and duty to take up arms against tyranny and make an “appeal to heaven.”
The Founders didn’t enshrine the right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution so that you could go hunting, nor did they explicitly focus on carrying firearms in public for self-defense. For years, politicians have strayed away from the true purpose of the Second Amendment because, quite frankly, it threatens their very existence! The Second Amendment exists because tyranny, corruption, and abuse of power are unfortunate parts of the human experience.
We are 80 million gun owners endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, one of which is the right to keep and bear arms. This is a natural right given to all men and the Constitution merely protects it. We gave our government power and we reserve the right to take that authority away when it becomes destructive to our liberty!
The Second Amendment wasn’t designed to protect our right to hunt deer… it protects our right to “hunt” tyrants!
When King Leonidas led the Spartans against the Persian army in the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, Xerxes told the Greeks to surrender their weapons and submit to Persian rule. The Spartan King defiantly replied, “Molon Labe,” which is Greek for “come and take them.”
Since then, Molon Labe has become a sort of rallying call used by gun owners to resist gun control initiatives. For years, we have been daring liberals to “come and take them,” and incrementally, they have done just that. States around the country have turned law-abiding citizens into felons overnight. If you think that you are protected from the tyranny developing in these liberal states, you are mistaken. They will stop at nothing until new gun control is implemented nation-wide!
What options do we have?
Well, we can hope that President Obama has learned his lesson and realizes that gun control is political suicide. This is unlikely, especially given the fact he has promised to implement new unconstitutional gun control executive orders by any means necessary…
If we can’t trust the Executive Branch, should we turn to the Judicial Branch? In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of our Second Amendment rights, however it would be unwise to rest our hopes with the same Court that infamously upheld Obamacare as a “tax”…
That leaves the Legislature, the only branch of government directly accountable to the People!
Congress needs a history lesson because our representatives don’t seem to understand that the ballot box is not the only means of changing our government. Until they realize that the American people possess other, less passive ways to alter or abolish government, Congress will continue trample on your rights without any fear of repercussion!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
No comments yet - make the first one!