The Right to Keep & Bear Arms

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

"Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed..." Alexander Hamilton

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms" Richard Henry Lee

The Second Amendment does not "grant" the right to keep and bear arms, but rather protects it from usurpation. The right has deep root in English common law and is related to the common-law right of self-defense.
The battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 represented a firm stand taken by the colonists against confiscation of their arms by British soldiers. Forty-nine colonists died in those battles, so this obviously was not a trivial matter to them.

When the Constitution was written a mere decade later, the infringement by a strong government upon their right to bear arms was fresh in the minds of our Founders, so they explicitly prohibited their new federal government from repeating this travesty. Or so they thought.

In recent decades, this right has been in as much under attack as it was in 1775. While no "red-coated" federal troops march through our towns, overzealous Presidents and misguided members of Congress have sought to accomplish the same objective, step-by-step. And thanks to courts sympathetic to their crusade, the erosion of our rights is proceeding, though unconstitutionally.

In order to understand why this trend is such a national tragedy, let us look as some facts.
The freedom of the individual, the peace of the community, and the independence of the state all depend upon a substantial portion of the adult population having firearms. It is a hallmark of society in a constitutional republic that citizens have rights and responsibilities. Ownership of (and proficiency in the use of) a well-maintained firearm is not only a right, but a responsibility.

Again looking at common law for guidance, the family, as the basic unit of society, has the primary responsibility for certain functions, including its own material support, the religious and practical education of its members, and self-protection. Since everyone must sleep or leave home on occasion, people have delegated others, primarily their local police, to supplement their own self=protection. But this does not relieve the head of the household from protection his own family, nor does it excuse him from assisting his neighbors - when necessary - in the protection of the community at large. (The posse raised by the Western sheriff was a perfect example of this role.)

But the founders had more critical issues in mind when writing the Second Amendment. Richard Henry Lee said" "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms." Lee knew that possession of arms by the people provides a roadblock to government officials intoxicated by power, a force to repeal invaders, and protection from civil turmoil and anarchy.

Gun-Control in an attempt by government to disarm its law-abiding citizens.

Those who say the 2nd Amendment pertains not to the people- but only to the National Guard - ignore the fact that the other nine amendments on the Bill of Rights are not so limited, besides, the Bill of Rights does not grant rights - it prohibits government from intruding upon them.

“Gun Rights” and all other rights go hand in hand. One cannot defend just one right. A government powerful enough to curtail one right can deny all others!

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
— Thomas Jefferson

'Fast and Furious' White House Gun Control

4-5-11

Since the very first days of this president's administration, the drug-fueled cartel violence in Mexico has provided a stalking horse for the gun control agenda. Early on, both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder cited Mexican violence as a reason to renew the Bill Clinton gun ban of 1994. After those trial balloons were shot down, the ball was passed to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who repeatedly has blamed American gun rights for Mexican violence. And more recently, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives cited cartel mayhem as justification for an attempt to mandate the reporting of all multiple long gun sales in border states. This regulation would forcedealers to report all purchases of more than one long gun if the guns are magazine-fed and larger than .22 caliber— effectively creating a registry.

 But now, shocking revelations that grow bigger every day completely undercut the argument for additional restrictions. In fact, they illuminate bureaucratic arrogance, recklessness and hypocrisy of the highest order in the hallways of the Obama administration — including the spreading stench of a massive cover-up.

As it turns out, the ATF was already aware of efforts by shady characters to undertake mass gun purchases in border states, because law-abiding gun dealers reported the attempted purchases voluntarily. But ATF agents acting on "orders from Washington" encouraged gun dealers to complete these transactions against the dealers' better judgment. Worse yet, the guns — thousands of them — then were allowed to be smuggled, or "walked," into Mexico and into the hands of drug cartels. And worst of all, these guns now are turning up at crime scenes — including where a U.S. federal agent was murdered.

The operation is called "Fast and Furious," and it's absolutely appalling — but it's all true, and there is still much more to come. Attorney General Holder has attempted to deflect the call for an investigation by asking the inspector general of the Justice Department to look into the matter. Sounds good on paper, but this is the same IG whose office ignored the first expressions of concern from rank-and-file agents who now have turned into whistle-blowers.

The ATF has been stonewalling inquiries from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and now Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has joined the fray — and he has subpoena power as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson is on the story like a bloodhound, in a performance decidedly atypical of the mainstream media. You can catch up on the major developments on her page at ( Articles written by individuals are being deleted www dot cbsnews dot com/8300-31727_162-10391695.html?contributor=41919 ).

I'm not a law enforcement officer; I just played one on TV. But you don't have to be Walker, Texas Ranger, to understand that there are very good reasons that law enforcement agents, as a rule, do not allow guns to "walk" into the hands of criminals. And to their credit, numerous rank-and-file ATF agents understood this truism, as well, objecting to the "Fast and Furious" operation from the get-go. Their superiors told them they "have to break some eggs to make an omelet" and then apparently threatened the agents with career discipline if they continued their objections.

The agents also were warned that the operation had been approved at the highest levels of the Justice Department — levels that are populated by presidential appointees, not career law enforcement officials. And now the Mexican government has elevated the scandal into an international incident, launching its own investigation and warning that "sanctions will have to be carried out with the full force of law to (whoever) could have been responsible."

Barack Obama himself was questioned about the scandal by a reporter from Spanish-language station Univision. He quickly passed the buck, claiming ignorance of the operation and saying, "There may be a situation here (in) which a serious mistake was made, and if that's the case, then we'll find out and we'll hold somebody accountable." But a presidential effort to pin the tail on the donkey ignores the tremendous scope of "Fast and Furious," which apparently involved personnel from not only the ATF and Justice but also the Homeland Security and State departments. Any attempt to lay this massive botch at the feet of an individual ignores systemic problems that "Fast and Furious" illustrates in the federal bureaucracy. (See my remarks above about arrogance, recklessness and hypocrisy.)

At least one federal bureaucrat was better-prepared than Obama to launch the tactics of diversion. When this explosive story first began to unfold, the ATF's chief spokesman, Scot Thomasson, issued a memorandum to ATF field offices nationwide. The memo said, "ATF needs to proactively push positive stories this week, in an effort to preempt some negative reporting, or at minimum, lessen the coverage of ('Fast and Furious') in the news cycle by replacing them with good stories about ATF."

It's going to take a lot more than that to cleanse this stain. In the meantime, proponents of gun control — including the White House — should focus on bringing U.S. government agencies into compliance with our existing laws before pushing new restrictions on the rest of us.

Don Kellum writes: .....They would blame the gun if he had one in the van. That's just how ignorant the gun grabbers are. An inanimate object can not kill without a person using it to kill. Examples: They are not blaming the bombs in Austin that killed two people (they are blaming the person not the bomb). On March 15, 2018 a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Florida killing at least six people died (they are blaming the construction firm not the bridge). On Feb 10, 2017 a St. Louis man Darwin K. Lane admitted to murder charges after stabbing his girlfriend more than 50 times (they are blaming the person not the knife). On Jul 16, 2016 – Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a refrigerated truck weighing about 20 tons to run into crowds along a roughly 2-kilometer stretch of Promenade des Anglais, killing 84 people (they are blaming the person not the truck). On 24 March 2015 Andreas Lubitzthe used a Airbus A320-211 and deliberately crashed 62 miles north-west of Nice in the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed (they are blaming the person not the plane). Wake up people and stop blaming inanimate objects. But on February 14, 2018 Nikolas Cruz used a gun in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed and seventeen more were wounded (THEY ARE BLAMING THE GUN NOT THE PERSON). The local police, FBI, the school and students are to blame, not the gun. Cruz was bullied to the point he retaliated using a gun to kill those who bullied him and many innocent people. Most school shooting are because of bullying. Other kids that are bullied to the point of no return will usually commit suicide.