2008 Candidates: Now Is The Time To Repeal All Gun Laws
By John Longenecker (05/12/07)
I wrote this days ago and elected not to upload it. Then I changed my mind.
Here is an excerpt from a piece written by Sandy Froman of the National Rifle Association of America, May 3, 2007: "To paraphrase from my previous column, there are two main conflicting views of the Second Amendment: the individual rights view and the collective rights view. Those who hold the former say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms to every law-abiding and peaceable individual American citizen. Those who hold the latter say the Second Amendment does nothing more than give state governments the power to equip National Guard units. The gun debate in America revolves around which of these two views is correct.
But who decides which view is correct? Only the courts have the power to do that."
Do they? Perhaps and perhaps not. Maybe it’s all a non-issue. Here's why.
Please note that of all in this country, not all are adults, not all are registered voters, not all are even here legally. But of the 80 million gun owners (and perhaps more), all are constituents, all are probably adults, most if not all are voters and, by dint of their gun registrations and background checks in Concealed Carry Permits, all are pretty much vetted. This makes gun owners a most significant bloc for 2008 candidates, and because weapons enforce liberty, it makes these citizens not a gun lobby, but a liberty bloc of mainstream values to be taken seriously by those 2008 candidates over, for instance, whether the issue is decided in a court. It also makes this bloc a target.
Why all gun laws are illegal and why the second amendment is not even to come under the supervision of the Supreme Court is this: it was written for government limitation and not for us, and, short of another amendment, it was written to be impervious to abuses of due process. Gun laws are an exquisite example of abuses of due process, abuses backed by force.
Indeed, why is it even a topic of debate? Because armed authority is a roadblock to looting the country, politically, such as using violent crime as a reason to usher in stupid policies, but this is another edition of Good For The Country, and the topic of Transfer of Wealth.
Meanwhile, some have insisted on sway (so-called sensible gun laws) and have abused due process in this country in order to pry the authority of the people away from our legal and lethal force which backs it. It is this sway (opinion) or use of force (gun laws) which by the second amendment are not permitted officials. It’s not even permitted other Americans, such as activists.
Let’s take a legal education to go with our history education.
1. The second amendment was not written either as a collective nor individual right because it wasn’t written for citizens. It was written for Government as the entire Document is written to define our rights and to put limits on government. Government cannot grant rights, and itself has no rights. Only citizens have rights and those rights trump the interests of agencies just as citizen rights trump the interests of the people. 2A puts limits on government and puts no limits on citizens on this question and for the reason that the citizen is the ultimate legislature and supreme authority. That is the original intent because abuse of due process was the basis of the War for Independence.
Because 2A was not written for you and me but written for Government, it’s just stupid to think that Government (including courts, appointed officials and law enforcement) gets a say-so or even an opinion in protecting its own interests over that of citizens, interests of officials which conflict with the authority of the citizen. Which prevails? Citizen rights and authority prevails.
2. The Founders did not care which weapons they did or did not foresee in centuries ahead because they didn’t view weapons as the danger to the nation. The Founders viewed takings as a danger, and how, brother. They knew all about takings. 2A was not written about weapons they could or could not foresee: it was written because the Founders foresaw abuses of due process in any time, any era, and even any administration or office. "Shall not be infringed" bars applying due process to takings of the lethal force which backs citizen authority. No state is immune to this creeping abuse of process in powers not granted, not even the United States, and the Founders knew it only too well. It was not guns, but abuse of due process the Founders foresaw in writing the second amendment.
So, the Founders gave the power of ultimate authority not to officials, but to the armed citizen, and that precludes any gun control, inclduing regulation. Officials and 2008 candidates, by dint of their oath, may not quarrel with this, and may not even legally entertain any anti-gun sway of activists any more than they may entertain lobbying for the ownership of one person by another in this country. Not even a little.
Yes, some parts of the Constitution are absolute: the law against involuntary servitude and the law against infringing on the lethal force which backs citizen authority.
The language of the second amendment was written to avoid even this debate, for there is no debate as to who runs this country – we do – and no debate as to how we back our authority.
Any idea of accepting SCOTUS decisions on this question is a mistake by affirming one of the greatest legal errors in this nation’s development, and that would be the people’s idea that a court decides what the Founders have already decided: citizen authority is backed by force, and 2A was not about guns, it was about takings of guns. Not written for us, but for government, and that would have to include the Supremes.
The matter must be resolved by Congress in the repeal of all gun laws. All guns laws are illegal because they chip away at the legal and lethal force which backs the authority of the citizen over the executive. Gun laws are illegal because the amendment was not written for the citizen, it was written for the very officials who claim authority to decide the issue. Cangress can dump it all, and I'll hold your coat.
So-called sensible regulation, types of weapon or ammunition, where it may be carried or not, or even a debate on collective or individual right are each a non-issue when such abuse of due process against citizen authority is what the Founders anticipated in writing the second amendment to the Constitution of The United States.
Any further delay on the affirmation of this truth would be positive proof that our greatest fears have come true.
Now is the time to repeal all guns laws.
John Longenecker is author of The Case For Nationwide Concealed Carry. Visit http://www.TransferOfWealth.net/
(Printer friendly version) Email: John Longenecker
