For Whom The Bell Tolls, Lets Make Sure It’s Not Gun Owners
Belleville, NJ –-(AmmoLand.com)- For decades, gun owners have known intuitively that the 2nd Amendment recognizes a pre-existing right to self-preservation and was enshrined in our Constitution as a safety valve to ward off a tyrannical form of government.
That right has been under attack since the agency we know today as the ATF brought a case to the Supreme Court in the 1930’s which was interpreted to imply that the Second Amendment was a ‘collective’ right. That assault continued through the 1950’s as the specter of socialism, known today under its more innocuous term ‘liberalism’ began challenging a personal rights interpretation in favor of ‘collective’ rights which are dispensed by the government.
Then, came the 1960’s. Woodstock. JFK. RFK. Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X. A cultural sea-change and series of assassinations caused a kneejerk reaction culminating in the 1968 Gun Control Act, which was to be the last compromise intended to allegedly prevent gun trafficking and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Suffice to say, that social experiment and its attendant philosophy has been a promethean failure, judging from the immediate spike and steady increase in violent crime on a national basis we’ve experienced since then.
Why am I reminding you of this history? Simple.
Recently, a case before the Supreme Court in Heller vs. DC established legally what we’ve known all along. The Second Amendment is a personal right, just like the right to free worship, free speech, privacy and other liberties we hold dear. It was a win, but just barely, and only a first step.
Soon, a case will again be heard by the Supreme Court, which if decided in our favor, will overturn decades of anti-gun rhetoric and place gun laws such as seen in states like New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and elsewhere in direct violation of the personal rights we have to protect ourselves against crime. It will sweep away decades of useless and in fact dangerous “gun control” laws which have done nothing but encourage violent crime and place Americans in danger.
In short, all our cards are on the table. This case is the last straw. And the outcome is far from a foregone conclusion. In the Heller vs. DC case, though we won, it was only by the narrowest of margins, far too close for comfort. The present composition of the Supreme Court is such that the uniqueness of our American form of government which recognizes and is supposed to protect personal liberties has been tainted by the notion that our Constitution should be measured by an international standard. Call it ‘legal collectivism’ if you’d like.
This administration is no friend to gun rights. Just because America hasn’t heard anything about another Assault Weapon Ban or other incremental legislation doesn’t mean that our liberty can’t be sold up the river by back-door dealing. All it takes is for the administration to sign off on a UN Small Arms treaty or regulate our right out of existence through taxation, trumped-up environmental concerns or other schemes to steal your liberty. The most recent State Of The Union address should indicate to you that this government does not have a single concern about you as an individual.
Liberty is always under threat from legislation, regulation, elitism or multinationalism. In other words, tyranny in any form.
Yet for some reason, gun owners are still sitting back in hinterland America waiting to see what happens, instead of being the Patriots we need right now and taking the initiative to make things happen. The Second Amendment March needs every one of you out on the mall in DC to make a statement. Two hundred fifty years ago, Americans left their farms and families to fight in a hopeless cause. For some reason, we contemporary Americans seem to think our time is too valuable or the risk greater than it was when Thomas Paine described the ‘summer soldier.’
At the Second Amendment March, we’ve heard every excuse imaginable for why people can’t manage to show up in DC such as “it’s too expensive”, “it’s too far”, “it’s too short a notice”, and a whole list of other silly excuses. But everyone grumbles when another anti-gun law or regulation is proposed. Now is the time to grumble in Washington DC. The timing of our march is critical because it happens as the case of McDonald vs. IL is being decided. If the case goes our way, it’s freedom. If not, it will signal an era of darkness and the sun will set on that dream which was America.
We’re in the last battle of a very long war against our rights. This is it. All our chips are on the table, the cards are dealt and we need to be out in force showing our government that we’re mad and we’re not going to take it anymore.
If ever there were a time for gun owners to get off our butts and mobilize, now is the time.
Though our Supreme Court justices are not supposed to be swayed by popular sentiment, if those justices who side with multilateralism to decide our rights are prepared to ignore the Original Intent of our founders and subjugate the Constitution to international opinion, our presence should persuade them otherwise.
Every voice is important. If you think you can’t make a difference, then the enemies of freedom have already won. The alarm bell is ringing. Time to wake up, America. The bell tolls for you.
Yours In Liberty, Robert Kreisler President New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense www.njcsd.org
BRN169, As I re-read my comments, I see that they came out a little harsher than I intended and I wasn’t clear that they were directed at the article, not you, so my apologies. My point is this: any antigun zealot can canvass a neighborhood and find many blind followers who won't take the time or effort to discover the facts before getting in line. A progun person, to gain followers, can only succeed by acknowledging that his audience is free to make their own decisions. As a group, we are smarter, more informed and less likely to follow anyone… Read more »
Nice article. You are correct when you say that Miller "was interpreted" as a collective right, but better would be to explain that is was really "misinterpreted" by those who MISREAD the Courts decision or who never actually read what the Justices wrote. Nothing in Miller actually says this. Miller was an abomination in general, but it never actually rules against the individual right, merely tying WHICH arms would be protected to those suitable for militia or military usage. In fact, the Miller decision gives strong support to the protection of AUTOMATIC arms by individual citizens, that is, it indicates… Read more »
Let's hope the attention-grabbing NRA interlopers don't screw this up for the rest of us.
"Come let us retract the foreskin of misconception and apply the wirebrush of enlightenment." – Geoff Miller
Molon Labe
Sorry, that was not intended to be a motivational speech to individuals per se; it was intended to be a wake-up call to all of the organizations that troll for our membership dues while telling us how dire a situation we have with respect to our rights being in jeopardy day in and day out, year after year. It is they who are sitting on the side lines and will ultimately be the ones the media will point at and call irrelevant if this effort fails to make an impact.
I will be there, but, enough with the motivational speeches. We are gun owners. We don't follow anyone. We are free and independent. Any attempt to convince us of anything will generally have the opposite effect. If I go, it will be because I made the decision to do so as an individual. Each one of us can only make that decision for ourselves. I will be there, not because of you, but because I have decided that I have a responsibility to go, for me, for my family and my kids. I will go as a responsible gun owner… Read more »
My fellow patriots, this is the hill upon which we fight our last battle, we win this war here or we die here… It cannot be made any clearer than that. The national and state gun rights organizations need to put aside petty differences and come together to stand as one voice united atop this hill. If this effort falls short the media will make no distinction between the NRA or the GOA or any other combination of letters you can come up with. They will simply reticule us as a whole, as a miniscule pathetic minority which can simply… Read more »