Lessons of The Gun Decision
Lessons of The Gun Decision
Date: Jul 12, 2008 1:50 PM
Attachments: unnamed
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The God-given right of the people to keep and bear arms has existed
from time immemorial and government has no say in it—EVER!
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“The great objective is that every man be armed. . . . Everyone
who is able may have a gun.” ~~Patrick Henry, a Southern Patriot
LESSONS OF THE GUN DECISION
LESSONS OF THE GUN DECISION
www.eagleforum.org
July 9, 2008 by Phyllis Schlafly
The liberals are trying to spin the Supreme Court’s dramatic decision in the
gun case as creating a “new” constitutional right. They couldn’t
be more
wrong; the Supreme Court simply restated the individual right that the Founding
Fathers wrote in the Second Amendment which has been part of the Constitution
since December 15, 1791.
The decision in /District of Columbia v. Heller/ was a victory for the view
(often expressed by Justice Antonin Scalia) that the Constitution means what it
says. The liberals, who believe that the Supreme Court can invent new rights,
seem to think that a right stated in the Constitution doesn’t exist until the
Supreme Court ratifies it.
The /Heller/ decision was a victory for our written Constitution over the
blathering by activist judges who pretend that the Constitution is a “living”
document which they can reinterpret according to their personal biases
about “evolving standards.” It was also a victory for the active advocacy
of
private citizens who understand the Constitution and can effectively refute
judicial heresies.
For the first century and a half of our country’s existence, the right of
individuals to own firearms was generally accepted. The militia referred to in
the Second Amendment consisted of all able-bodied men, and they were expected
to possess and use their own firearms.
James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, No. 46: Americans have “the
advantage of being armed” ? unlike the citizens of other countries where “the
governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” During Virginia’s
Convention to ratify the Constitution, Patrick Henry said: “The great objective
is that every man be armed. . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun.”
In the middle of the 20th century, when the liberals began to restrict our
liberties and propagate the notion that government knows better than
individuals how to run our lives and spend our money, proposals for gun control
became politically correct. From about 1950 to about 1990, law professors and
judges who wanted to be P.C. adopted the erroneous view that the Second
Amendment has nothing to do with an individual’s right to own a gun and that
the “militia” refers only to government-appointed law enforcement groups.
One academic’s prize-winning book claimed that guns were not widely owned by
individuals at the time of the American Revolution, but his book was exposed as
a fake. By 2001, the United Nations tried to demonize the private ownership of
guns and get governments to confiscate all privately owned guns.
Fortunately, the United States not only enjoys widespread gun ownership, we
also have large numbers of citizens who understand the Constitution and are
willing to speak out for their rights.
Gun rights advocates, working entirely outside the legal profession, actively
promoted the common-sense truth about the plain meaning and historical context
of the Second Amendment by publishing articles in gun magazines, law reviews
and other journals. At first, the legal community scoffed at these people as
ignorant “gun nuts,” but eventually, the weight of their logic and historical
evidence became overwhelming.
Then came a couple of breakthroughs. On May 17, 2001, Attorney General John
Ashcroft issued a statement that read in part, “Let me state unequivocally
my
view that the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly
protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms…. This view of
the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding
Fathers.”
Ashcroft cited many writings by the Founding Fathers as well as Supreme Court
decisions from the early years. He concluded, “In light of this vast body
of
evidence, I believe it is clear that the Constitution protects the private
ownership of firearms for lawful purposes.”
On October 16, 2001, the Fifth Circuit ruled in /U.S. v. Emerson/ that “It
appears clear that ‘the people,’ as used in the Constitution, including
the
Second Amendment, refers to individual Americans.” Yes, it is clear; but the
liberals had been pretending otherwise.
The Democrats then had a great awakening about why Al Gore lost the presidency
to George W. Bush in November 2000. Gore lost three traditionally Democratic
states, Tennessee (Gore’s own state), Arkansas and West Virginia primarily
because Gore was a gun-control advocate and those states have lots of voters
whom Barack Obama has insulted by saying they “cling” to their guns because
they are supposedly “bitter.”
Obama is now backpedaling all over the place to try to defuse the gun issue.
He hopes people will forget that he originally defended the DC gun control law
that the Supreme Court knocked out in the Heller case.
The Supreme Court is still a major problem because four liberal justices are
diehard supremacists who believe they have the right to repeal the Second
Amendment. The biggest issue in the upcoming election is whether the newly
elected President will fill court vacancies with supremacist or constitutional
justices.
The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !