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The Vigilant Patriot by Jeff Jackson 02/28/03
www.thelandofthefree.net

Much has been made concerning the statements contained within the 2nd Amendment to our Constitution, that "the rights of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Such a statement has often been interpreted to apply conveniently to the states' and the government's right to maintain standing armies. And if we have learned nothing else we have learned that states and governments, when given a superior power above the people they serve, will be tempted to use that power to oppress and empower themselves.

At the time of our fight for independence, many of those that took up arms against the king of England were common people with their own fire arms. Without these citizens, we would have likely not have won our fight. And if nothing else, it reinforced in our founding fathers the recognition of just how important an armed and properly trained public was and still is today.

Even in the Declaration of Independence it was clear that the founders thought it necessary for the public to be armed for the expressed purpose of holding governments from running amok upon the inalienable rights of man. They understood that an armed public was necessary should the most extreme remedy ever be needed; the need for revolution. And they knew that should a public be disarmed they would never be able to overthrow an oppressive government if the government was the sole bearer of arms.

But a disarmed public has other dangers to contend with. We have seen in areas like the District of Columbia that a disarmed public is easy prey for those that would illegally own arms. We have seen time and time again that laws do not inhibit criminal behavior. What they do inhibit are the rights of law abiding citizens. For it is only the law abiding citizens who ultimately abide by these laws. And what we have seen is that the continual road blocks being placed before gun owners in this country have not blocked guns from getting into the hands of the criminals nor have they inhibited criminal behavior. And some would purport that the reason is simply that we have not enough restrictions on arms.

We have hundreds of gun control laws to prohibit firearms from getting in the hands of criminals and being used in criminal acts. Yet gun violence continues to occur and continues to increase. Just as all our laws against murder, stealing, discrimination, etcetera has not stopped such acts from occurring. Criminals will break laws. It is what they do. It is the definition of what a criminal is. No number of laws will stop that.

It is not just the government that a disarmed public must contend with, but also they must contend with their fellow man who would seek to undermine their liberties in order to bolster their own. In fact I would argue that a criminal with the power of a gun is empowered by a disarmed public for they have a clear advantage. However I would also argue that criminals would be far less likely to attempt to take advantage of another if they knew that upon doing so that they would have other armed citizens, properly trained, pointing the barrels of their guns at him.

The wording of the second amendment can not be tilted away from its true and accurate wording. And that wording is non ambiguous. The people have the right to bear arms. And to bear arms means to use, or to wield such arms. Not just to posses arms. Not even by the wildest stretch of the imagination can the wording, penned by masterful men who had a control of the English language that few today shall even come close to possessing, be inferred to imply that the phrase "the people" should be interpreted as meaning "the government".

If they had meant "the government" or "the state" for that matter, they surely would have penned those words.

The rights of the people shall not be infringed. That means no roadblocks that would ultimately provide government with the ability to prohibit a law abiding citizen from carrying firearms. States that require such things as carry "permits" or states that do not allow any citizen to carry firearms at all are in clear violation of the word and spirit of the second amendment to the constitution.

We, as a nation, can not ever move forward when we allow governments to clearly mandate such things as this that are violations of our enumerated Liberties when protection of such Liberties are the supreme purpose and mandate of the governments.

And we must, as a nation, be prepared to defend our rights against the flawed arguments and logic that would be used to restrict our Liberties and rights.

No gun, without the influence of a man, has even been found to have deprived anyone of their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The gun is not criminal and should not be vilified and held accountable for the actions of man. And knowing this we can not allow those that would seek to limit our ability to keep and bear arms for the defense of our home, which is part of our state and nation, and our person and our liberty to impede an enumerated right simply based upon the fear of the power of the gun. For in order to provide for the secure nation defined in the Constitution and reinforced as a integral part of the Second Amendment, the people of this nation must feel secure in their persons and their property. And in so being secure, we as people must have the right to keep and bear arms in the ultimate defense of our being from those criminals that would seek to undermine the foundations of this country by circumventing the laws and attempting to liberate your own personal property and even your own life from you in order to better themselves.

Such criminals are not to be treated as equals with the law abiding citizens of this country, but to be treated as enemy combatants seeking to oppress the populous and incite their lawless ways upon our country. And being so defined as enemy combatants, enemies of this sovereign nation and her dictates, they should be treated as any other that would seek to invade, conquer or otherwise overthrow our governments. For they act against the laws of our nation. The right of the people to keep and bear and ultimately use arms in our defense against these enemies of this country can not be deprived. To do so would be to surrender our liberties to them and become a conquered nation.

Thus the right to use arms in self defense of one's own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness can also not be infringed. For if individual citizens can not be allowed to be secure in their enumerated liberties, then we have failed to defend our state and our nation from those that choose to undermine it. Thus, too, the right of the common citizen to aide in the defense of his neighbor's rights, when threatened, shall also be not infringed. The people are the basis of the sovereignty of the state and should the people no longer be secure, then too the state is no longer secure.

The law abiding citizens that seek to live within the graces of our great nation must be allowed to maintain themselves, and their fellow man. For it is the right of the people to provide for the common defense. Not the right of the government. We are all empowered by this to provide in the common defense against the lawless and those that would seek to dismantle or circumvent the laws of this nation.

For not doing so would mean ultimately the arrival of government to provide for our common defense all but perhaps too late to protect us. For government can not foresee the future and predict where the next infringement upon our rights and enumerated liberties shall occur. Only we, as "the people" can take it upon our selves to provide that our protection is paramount until such time as the officials of our government who's power is derived from us, arrives to complete the duty. Only we, as citizens, can ensure ultimately that our rights shall not be infringed.

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