The Website home of Karl Bullock

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Today, President Obama and Vice-President Bullwinkle announced their proposals for curbing gun violence, and surprise, surprise, they want to further erode the Second Amendment protections guaranteed (supposedly, as it now seems) by the Constitution. In his usual condescending tone, he told his minions he "respect[ed] our strong tradition of gun ownership and the rights of hunters and sportsmen." Well, that's nice, oh King, but that's the least of the reasons for the Second Amendment.

Now, I know nobody in modern America is familiar with the Federalist Papers, and the writings of the Founders explaining our rights under the Constitution, but our lack of history is what has put us in this position. If we understood the historical reasons for the rights we have, we would never let anyone take them away from us - even in the name of safety. The Founders made the point over and over that a Federal Government was a dangerous animal, and never to be trusted with anything but the minimum authority necessary to keep the nation free. That's not only the reason they constructed it to be inefficient, but to place no one person or one group in a place of too much authority. It has taken over 200 years to thwart that construct, but even at that, We the People still have the authority and power (at least at this point in time) to reverse all the abuses that have accumulated since our inception.

The Second Amendment was not placed there for hunters. It was placed there as the last line of defense against a government that would enslave its own people. The Founders were students of history and they recognized that every government that had ever been established eventually turned on its own citizens. Why? Because governments are nothing but collections of imperfect individuals with their own interests that eventually are placed above the citizens they supposedly serve, not to mention those who were tyrants from the get-go!

So, whether that is their intent or not, the end result of watering down our Second Amendment rights will be tyranny. History proves this over and over, and the Founders were clear. While there are several quotes from them to prove that point, here are just a few:

George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment:

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

Ben Franklin:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety."

George Washington:

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."

And this from Abraham Lincoln, a man King Obama purports to admire:

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

As for what should be our focus in not only this discussion about violence, but about all the ills that infect our society, John Jay, our first Chief Justice knew the answer:

"No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian religion...Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance this great experiment will then be surely doomed."

So, let's get our thinking straight once and for all. Any dilution of our rights, Second, First, doesn't matter, is another step in the direction of our eventual return to slavery. There are always those out there who think they know better than the rest of us, and work to impose their "enlightened" understanding. These people are educated beyond their understanding, and lacking in the most necessary ingredient necessary for leadership - wisdom.

Look, time is fleeting to take a stand. We've given up our rights to pray when and where we want, to spend our own money in the way we want and to be free from government coercion (16th Amendment), and our right to even survive if our parents are too inconvenienced by our very existence. Slowly but surely we are surrendering our rights to a class of elitists who begin their public life by immediately violating their oath of office. At some point, and that time is swiftly approaching, we will no longer be in a position to stand. My favorite quote from Reagan:

"This is the last stand on Earth...If we lose freedom here, there's no place else to escape to."

Stand or fall - your choice.

Karl