by Jeff Bayard, Right Side News
On February 2nd, Republican Congressman and chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee held hearings where he voiced his righteous indignation over Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder was refusing to produce some 80,000 documents subpoenaed by the house, handing over a measly 6,400 instead. As many know, Issa’s job is to discharge congress’s responsibility to investigate why over 2,000 weapons were illegally furnished to Mexican Drug Lords. These weapons resulted in the death of a boarder patrol agent who was doing his duty – risking his life to actually defend this country. Instead of properly fulfilling their responsibility to bring those responsible to justice, Obama and Holder have done nothing but stonewall.
On December 7th, 2011, the Daily Caller reported that the lead Fast and Furious agent Bill Newell, and ATF Field Operations Assistant Director Mark Chait, were working with Attorney General Eric Holder to use Fast and Furious to promote gun control, and eliminate Gun Shows. This caused Representative Joe Walsh (Illinois-R.) to say, “I found [Holder’s] testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary [Committee] a week or two ago almost insulting… The attitude that he took toward the young man who was killed … was troubling.” Walsh went on to say, “[T]hen, there’s this undercurrent of his call — his advocacy — for more gun control, a problem of our guns going south of the border when our own government, led by him, was complicit in that. He needs to be held accountable.” There are now 52 House members, two senators, four presidential candidates, and two sitting governors demanding answers.
As part of Obama’s propaganda campaign, photos were shown on TV, depicting weapons that purportedly were intercepted at the Arizona boarder with Mexico. This, we are told, is proof that we need more gun control in the United States to stop the violence in Mexico. These photos pictured rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, machine guns, rocket launchers, a dozen trucks, and military grade communications equipment. This has led to efforts at the United Nations to eliminate the private ownership and transfers of firearms. As it turns out however, the photographs weren’t taken anywhere near the Arizona boarder, instead they were taken in 2010 by Mexican police in the town of Higueras, about 400 miles from Monterrey; and contrary to popular belief, you can’t purchase grenade launchers from gun shows.
The Truth about the Second Amendment
The Second Amendment has become one of the most controversial parts of the Constitution, although this should not be the case. Written in 1789 by the First Congress, and ratified in 1791 as part of the original Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment states: “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.” The meaning of the right “to keep and bear arms,” and the segment of the citizenry to which that right applies, has been heatedly debated for over 40 years. While gun rights supporters assert that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right like the freedom of speech or religion, gun opponents assert that the right pertains only to collective bodies (e.g., the military, police, National Guard, etc.) and not to individuals. According to socialists:
- “[T]here is no individual right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights.” (USA Today)
- “[L]aw-abiding Americans have no unconditional right to firearms access. (New York Post)
- “The debate over gun control offers a revealing case study of the misuse of the Constitution … [T]he idea that the Bill of Rights guarantees each individual a right to own a gun … [is] a constitutional illusion.” (The San Francisco Barrister)
- [T]he sale, manufacture, and possession of handguns ought to be banned … [W]e do not believe the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep them. (The Washington Post)
- There is no reason for anyone in the country, for anyone except a police officer or a military person, to buy, to own, to have, to use, a handgun. (Michael Gartner, former president of NBC News)
- [T]he Second Amendment … protects only the right to “bear arms” for the purpose of service in the “militia,” and … not … firearm ownership unrelated to militia service. (Statement filed by fifty-two law professors and historians in a Second Amendment lawsuit).
The question about gun control – which argument is right?
This question has actually been around for millennia; and the one consistent fact is that free men can legally carry arms while serfs cannot. When the Athenians invaded the island of Melos around 416 BC, their ambassadors wanted to persuade the Melians to abandon their allies and join Athens. The Athenian argument was that “might makes right,” and “by the necessity of their nature, men always rule, when they have the power … justice prevails only among men equal in power.” Barack Obama forcefully embraced this philosophy shortly after his election when he told the Republicans, “I won,” meaning: “to the victor go the spoils.”
The Roman Emperor Cicero admitted this when he said, “Civilized people are taught by logic, barbarians by necessity, communities by tradition; and the lesson is inculcated even in the wild beasts by nature itself. They learn that they have to defend their own bodies and persons and lives from violence of any and every kind by all means in their power.”
Even Jesus understood the right and necessity to protect one’s life, liberty, and property when He asked his disciples,
“When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”
“Nothing,” they answered.
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
“That’s enough!” He replied. (Luke 22:35-38)
Our founding fathers understood their Christian responsibility, and that all rights came from God, not the State. About this John Adams said, “Rights [are] antecedent to all earthly governments; Rights … cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; Rights [are] derived from the great Legislator of the universe.” In agreement, Richard Henry Lee, a contributor to the Bill of Rights exclaimed, “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms… especially the young, and know how to use them.”
This position on firearms was confirmed by Alexander Hamilton who said, “The Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence. He … invested him [man] with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.”
Since the right to self-defense was an inalienable personal right, the Second Amendment simply assured each citizen that he would have the tools necessary to defend his life, family, or property from aggression, whether from an individual or a government. That the Second Amendment simply secured in writing a right, which God had already conferred on His creation, was confirmed in the legal commentaries that stand behind American law.
This was reflected in the Militia Act of 1792, which defined the “militia of the United States” not as the Continental Army or any other organized military body, but rather as including almost every adult male in the United States. Under that act, each adult was required to possess a firearm and a minimum supply of ammunition and military equipment. What no one in the press, government, or academia will tell you, is that this law is actually in force today as 10 Code U.S. Code Section 311, which still states, “The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 [and] under 45 years of age.”
This view of the Second Amendment has been upheld by every Supreme Court ruling on the subject, which as a body has never ruled it not to be an individual right. In his 1833 Commentaries on the United States Constitution, Justice Story declared:
“The next amendment is: ‘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.’ The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons who have duly reflected upon the subject … The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them…”
Supreme Court Strikes Down Chicago Gun Ban
In June of 2010, The Supreme Court struck down the Chicago handgun ban. In McDonald v. City of Chicago, the high court affirmed that citizens have the right to own and bear arms, just as the constitution and the law says. Unfortunately evil never sleeps, and on August 2011, the gun control advocates Jim and Sarah Brady visited the White House, where Barack Obama reportedly told them that he was working on new gun control schemes “under the radar,” so this is far from over!
“Guns have two enemies — rust and politicians.” – Unknown
Jeff Baird is the publisher of Right Side News, serving Right News to Americans for over 4 years. Find Jeff on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.