United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Some recent events need to warrant some serious discussion among Second Amendment supporters. The takedown of Jimenez Arms and the defeat of Letitia James’s efforts to dissolve the National Rifle Association are alarm bells that must be heeded.
You don’t have to like either entity to recognize that both are vitally important to the Second Amendment community. There is always a need for an affordable means to exercise Second Amendment rights. The $199 gun you can buy and practice with beats the firearms you’re still saving up for in terms of short-term effectiveness, and Jimenez Arms provided that until its apparent demise.
We’ve discussed the NRA and the implications of what James was doing multiple times. Suffice it to say, the NRA’s survival is a good thing for two reasons: First, the constant hate directed at it provides cover for other pro-Second Amendment groups at the federal, state, and local levels. Second, its “single-issue” focus provides a broad coalition of supporters – which has been very handy in the past. Remember how John Dingell helped defeat an effort to destroy gun shows after the Columbine shooting?
That victory came because Second Amendment supporters from all walks of life banded together and stood strong against efforts to attack our freedoms. They didn’t all have the same tactics, but they all had the same end goal.
There are some cases where we need to police our own ranks because bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines. But is it too much to ask that our internal dispute not get handed over to a Letitia James or others who seek any excuse to hamper our ability to make the case for the Second Amendment?
If anything, when Everytown comes after a Jimenez Arms, or when a Letitia James wants to shut down a pro-Second Amendment group, the entire Second Amendment community needs to stand up and be counted. Anti-Second Amendment extremists need to be made to understand that messing with one gun owner – or one part of the Second Amendment community – will generate a response from all of us.
Our enemies have played “divide and conquer” against the Second Amendment community for far too long, and some groups have become very good at it. It’s time to make that strategy fail, because doing so is in everyone’s interest.
The fact is, if we are to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local levels via the ballot box in the upcoming midterms – or any election for that matter – we need to be unified against those who would attack any part of the Second Amendment community.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
“because bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines. ” Harold calling out others when his own positions make him the height of FUDery is just rich. What a laugh!
We’ve gone over Harold’s mistaken belief that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is somehow rooted in the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Nevermind that SCOTUS ruled otherwise in US v Cruikshank. We’ve gone over that here as well but apparently Harold is a slow learner. So one more time, we’ll demonstrate that RKBA predates the United States of America. It even predates the revolution that started our country on the road to self government. From Blackstone: “5. The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that I shall at present mention, is that… Read more »
Excellent research. Just to support: In United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the Supreme Court ruled that, “The right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The Second Amendment means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress, and has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the National Government.” The second amendment did not grant a new right, but enshrined and protected a pre-existing right. Murdock v. Penn., 319 US 105: “No state shall convert a liberty into a privilege, license… Read more »
which makes every leo that enforces gun laws a criminal, now you see what I have said so long so few good police how do we fix that?
Better screening prior to hiring.
It will take a lot more than screening; like a paradigm shift, from the very top down, in how all levels of government and it’s agencies view their relationship to We The People. I would like to see gubmint relagated back to mainly service. Changing the lightbulbs, turning out the lights, taking out the trash, picking up the trash, keeping the power and water running. And minimizing the enforcement of very minimsl rules and regulations. IE what business is it og gubmint what hour of the day or night I utilize a public park or public pool? I paid for… Read more »
I’m thinking that it started with low information voters, and whom those low information voters elected. I think that the elected politicians invented “permits”, (e.g. Big Bill Sullivan a NYC organized crime boss that got elected and got NY’s Sullivan law passed). I could be wrong.
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” – Winston Churchill
Churchill had a sense of humor! I named my pitbull “Winston” because they have the same jowls.
The 1st thing that needs to happen is for everyone to stop saying “Constitutional Rights” or “2nd Amendment Rights” or anything similar. The fact is, we DO NOT HAVE Constitutional Rights. We have unalienable rights, or civil rights if you prefer. The Constitution grants us nothing but protection and fairness. We also need to start opening up our State Constitutions and look at the guarantees and protections offered there.
constitutionally protected rights , these are the ones specifically mentioned ,which means these are the ones they saw attacked by government. They also stated there are more rights that are not mentioned but these should be protected by the first 10
Natural Rights. Source: Nature and Nature’s God. Inalienable. Eternal in Nature. Great point. Do not allow our liberties to be fragmented in to negotiating chips. Our Natural Rights are a comprehensive, mutually supporting whole not to be fragmented in any way.
I disagree. Our Constitutional Rights, especially those in our Bill of Rights, may not originate from our government; but that is the form that is recognized for legal purposes as the contract between We The People and the government We created. In any formal dispute with our government or any other party over rights, they can easily disregard “because God says so”, but the written Amendments to our Constitution, especially our Bill of Rights, should be viewed as legally binding and definitive.
” Police our own ranks ” he says. O.K. ! You go first Harold !
It is long past time that you come clean – Are you paid by the NRA to promote and support them in your columns ???
Yeah, self policing … that never works.
All human systems are fallible. However, groups like “Internal Affairs” and “Inspector General” type third party oversight do tend to keep something of a lid on corruption. It’s s exactly why the NRA is so diametrically opposed to any form of oversight and or group attempting to peek behind the curtain.
My agency’s IAD was like the Gestapo; and regardless of what you did wrong (or did not do wrong), your punishment began with the process.
Harold is right in saying we need to support pro-2A groups and pro-2A arms companies. The problem is the NRA has done a lot of things that aren’t pro-2A. When a organization advocates for and helps write arms laws then they’re no longer a 2A advocate. The NRA doesn’t deserve anyone’s support until they acknowledge their treachery, vow never to repeat it, and work to repeal the arms laws they helped enact. As far as I know, Jimenez hasn’t done anything anti-2A so we should definitely be supporting them. There are several arms companies doing business today that have been… Read more »
“bad Second Amendment advocacy is worse than just sitting on the sidelines.”
You should meditate on your own words on this one, Harold.
A great group of FACTUAL comments, historically based, easily understood, and logical! Methinks arranged properly would be suitable for national publication. But here, sadly, they only preach to the choir.
OK, I will bite. First and foremost the fight is a multilevel fight. We fight at the national level, mostly in Congress and the Federal District and Appeals courts. We conduct most of the fight at the state level in legislatures, city and county councils and in state courts. So the state level pro-liberty organizations must be robust and well funded. That being said, many if not most of the NRA state affiliates are not political advocacy groups. Groups like the Arizona and Virginia Citizens Defense Leagues amply fill that tole. If you want to be effective remember one Progressive… Read more »
NRA’s not 1-issue. It’s supposed to back Constitution & USA, not just 2A. And it gets into indirect 2A issues e.g. 1A, campaign finance.
“is it too much to ask our internal dispute not get handed to Letitia?”
Ask Lucky (La)Pierre’s directors-vendors-lawyers whose corruption bared NRA’s neck to her. Could’ve kept it in bankruptcy had they not lied about finances & told members the b/k was a ruse. They could still go back into b/k (dismissed w/o prejudice) but the judge is onto them so it’d be a real b/k looking at corruption etc. They prefer her deadly embrace.
For once couldn’t people comment without bashing Harold? Regardless of how you feel about the NRA and its leadership, the NRA is 5 million strong and is a force to be reconed with.