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
