Retro-Gun-Control

President Obama is pushing hard for gun control including the banning of sporting rifles and other firearms that he deems offensive.  Members of the Senate including the Honorable Dianne Feinstein are demanding gun control and gun bans. Many liberals are calling for an overturn of the Second Amendment. “The Second Amendment is out date they say.” This is all very confusing to me.  I thought the Second Amendment was there to protect the inalienable right to self-defense.  Unable to get good answers from the media I decided to take a retro-trip. I jumped into the Delorean and travelled back in time to interview the folks who know best the meaning of the Second Amendment. I managed a round-table interview with several of our Founding Fathers, Mr. Washington, Mr. George Mason, Mr. Lee, Mr. Henry, Mr. Madison, Mr. James Mason, Mr. Adams, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Jefferson. Here’s the transcript.

Liberty 301: Mr. President, what role do firearms play in American society?

George Washington: "Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence… from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable… the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference, they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."

Liberty 301: Who should be armed?

George Washington: "A free people ought to be armed."

Liberty 301: Mr. Mason what would happen if our government bans firearms?

George Mason: "To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."

Liberty 301: Mr. Mason, the Second Amendment says, 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.  You are the co-author of the Second Amendment.  What did you mean by militia?

George Mason: "I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people."

Liberty 301: Mr. Lee, do you agree or disagree with Mr. Mason?

Richard Henry Lee, "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves."

Liberty 301: Mr. Henry, who should be armed in American Society.

Patrick Henry: "The great object is that every man be armed. And everyone who is able may have a gun."

Liberty 301: Mr. Madison In my time most countries have banned private ownership of firearms?  Why should the United States be any different?

James Mason: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

Liberty 301: Mr. Adams, does the Constitution give elected leaders the authority to disarm some Americans?

Samuel Adams: "The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

Liberty 301: Mr. Pitt people in my time say that things are out of control and that it is necessary that we ban the ownership of firearms.

Mr. William Pitt: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

Liberty 301: Mr. Jefferson, many people in my time argue that the Second Amendment is about hunting.  What was the main reason for preserving the right to keep and bear arms in the Second Amendment?

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

Liberty 301: Mr. Jefferson will we have less crime if our government imposes more gun control and gun bans?

Thomas Jefferson:  "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."

Liberty 301: Mr. Jefferson will we be safer if our government bans guns and adds more gun control laws?

Thomas Jefferson: "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."

Wow. The Founders were pretty clear on the purpose of the Second Amendment being the inalienable right to self-defense.  To get the other side of the argument I set the Delorean for jump into the recent past to talk to a famous, hard-core liberal, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.  Here’s the transcript.

Liberty 301: Mr. Vice President, should American citizens be allowed to keep and bear arms when the citizens of most other countries are not?

Hubert H. Humphrey: "The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."

I’m back.  The Delorean is parked. It is clear to me that the President and the liberals in Congress are not on the same page with Mr. Washington, Mr. George Mason, Mr. Lee, Mr. Henry, Mr. Madison, Mr. James Mason, Mr. Adams, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Humphrey, or Yours Truly.  Mr. Obama, Mrs. Feinstein and dozens of other liberals in office and out are advocating for the termination of our inalienable right to self-defense. It’s up to us to stop them, or as Thomas Paine said, "Those who reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Mark VanSchuyver