Last week the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments regarding the 2nd Amendment of the United 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.
What is surprising is that this was the first major case regarding the 2nd Amendment to appear before this, or any Supreme Court in many years. At issues is whether any government body has the authority to restrict the rights of gun ownership. One argument that is often bantered about is from those who believe that the 2nd Amendment is somehow related to hunting rights. Make no mistake about it, the 2nd Amendment grants the power to the people to gather together to protect themselves from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The 2nd Amendment is no more antiquated than believing that the 1st Amendment has outlived its usefulness.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them. --- Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796.
The fact that the Second Amendment followed the First Amendment was not a numerical coincidence, but a proclamation by our Founding Fathers that the power to not only speak in opposition of our government was vital, but to be able to back those words up with might’ (should the need ever arise) would help ensure that We the People was more than an empty promise.
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone...Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation...inflicted by those who had no power at all?
---Patrick Henry, Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1788
Granted the 2nd Amendment was written after a period of extreme oppression, as were all of the Amendments, but time does not diminish its relevance. I am always weary when individuals are so willing to surrender any one of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, regardless of whether they personal participate in the exercising of that right. No free citizen has to to adhere to any of the Amendments, but no one should willingly yield access to them either. The Constitution is our “castle wall” against tyranny. Each Amendment is a brick in that wall that helps protect our freedom. Be warned, to remove a brick from our wall with little to no regard, calls into question the integrity of the entire wall.
[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. ---James Madison
I am always surprised (not really) when a Progressive speaks in opposition to the 2nd Amendment, more so than any other Amendment, usually claiming that a “well regulated militia refers to the US Military, or each States National Guard, or local law enforcement. These would be the same organizations that Progressives have time and time again referred to as fascist, oppressive, and puppets of a corrupt government. You would think Progressives would support the concept of the 2nd Amendment based merely on their overt distrust of the government of the United States. Perplexing?
We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;
---Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824.
What Jefferson was saying in that last quote was that not only was the right to bear arms considered important enough to be included in the US Constitution, but that each of the original Thirteen States saw fit to place similar provisions in their State Constitutions. For example in my home State of New Hampshire, as stated in the NH Constitution (which was ratified prior to the US Constitution):
[Art.] 2-a. [The Bearing of Arms.] All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state.
Right to the point and without reproach. There is no clearer purpose that has been bestowed upon the American people than the responsibility to secure and defend the right of self-government. This above all else is what separates us from all other nations.
"god forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion . . . the tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. it is it's natural manure."
--- Thomas Jefferson, in support of the Shay's Rebellion of 1787 (recently used as the title to the final episode of the TV show Jericho)
May the time never come when the American people need “to rise up.” But the ability to do so is what the Constitution demands of all of us, and why the 2nd Amendment exist.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
---Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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