WEDNESDAY MARCH 29 2000

To keep and bear arms

Whenever there’s a tragedy involving gun use, Bill
Clinton, Al Gore, the gun-control lobby and the
news media seize it as another opportunity to
exploit the emotions of uninformed American people
for political gain.

Unfortunately, most Americans don’t have the
foggiest notion of why the Framers of the
Constitution, through the Second Amendment,
guaranteed our right to keep and bear arms. Our
leftist establishment would like us to believe
the Second Amendment was written to protect
our duck- and deer-hunting rights. Don’t take my
word– read what was actually said during the
constitutional debates.

Thomas Jefferson said, “No man shall ever be
debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for
the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves
against tyranny in government.” Tench Coxe,
assistant secretary of the treasury (1789), said,
“The unlimited power of the sword is not in the
hands of either the federal or state governments,
but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in
the hands of the people.”

Noah Webster said, “The supreme power in America
cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because
the whole body of the people are armed, and
constitute a force superior to any band of regular
troops.”

In Federalist Paper No. 46, James Madison said the
Constitution “preserves the advantage of being
armed which Americans possess over the people of
almost every other nation, the existence of
subordinate governments, to which the people are
attached … forms a barrier against the
enterprises of ambition. …”

Numerous sentiments like these were expressed
during the constitutional debates. Here’s my
question to you: Which one of those statements
sounds like the Framers had deer-and duck-hunting
in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment? The
Framers gave us the Second Amendment so we could
have at least a last-ditch fighting chance against
government encroachment on our liberties.

Who are the people who desperately want to disarm
law-abiding Americans? The answer doesn’t require
rocket science to figure that one out. The
strongest advocates of gun control are the very
people who seek greater and greater control over
our lives. They’re the people who want to take
away our rights to property, freedom of speech and
religion, and other liberties. They’re cowards and
want to feel safe doing so. They figure if we’re
first disarmed they can trample over our liberties
with impunity.

If these people had guts and a modicum of respect
for the Constitution, they’d seek repeal of the
Second Amendment. Instead, they pursue an agenda
to repeal it by stealth. The latest attempts are
the suits against arms manufacturers for crimes
committed with guns.

Last week, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson caved
in to this pressure by signing a voluntary
gun-control agreement with the Clinton-Gore
administration. That “voluntary” agreement seeks
to force arms manufacturers to do what today’s
laws do not require and create an “oversight
commission” to ensure compliance.

Arms manufacturers Glock Inc. and Browning refused
to sign the agreement. In response, New York’s
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told them, “If you
do not sign, your bankruptcy lawyers will be
knocking at your door.” That kind of official
threat is an indication of just how bold and
emboldened America’s tyrants have become in the
wake of our acquiescence — threatening
destruction of people who refuse to go along with
“voluntary” agreements.

We Americans have set dangerous precedents. We can
rest assured that those pushing for gun control
have no intention of stopping short of total gun
confiscation. At some point, we who cherish
liberty must summon the courage of our forefathers
and tell America’s tyrants, “Give me liberty, or
give me death!” The longer we wait, the greater
the ultimate bloodshed.

WorldNetDaily contributor Walter E. Williams is
the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of
Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax,
Va.