Position Paper 4: The Second Amendment, Guarantor of all other Liberties

"All too many of the other great tragedies of history -- Stalin's atrocities, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Holocaust, to name but a few -- were perpetrated by armed troops against unarmed populations. Many could well have been avoided or mitigated, had the perpetrators known their intended victims were equipped with a rifle and twenty bullets apiece, as the Militia Act required here. If a few hundred Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto could hold off the Wehrmacht for almost a month with only a handful of weapons, six million Jews armed with rifles could not so easily have been herded into cattle cars.

My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees*. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."

-- Judge Alex Kozinski

No one before or since has said it better than Judge Kozinski as to the purpose of the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights. The right to keep and bear arms is the teeth of the Bill of Rights, the provision that guarantees the American people their indispensable and inalienable right to preserve their constitutionally-mandated republican form of self-government.

Our right to keep and bear arms is, like much everything else we hold dear, under constant assault by the liberal establishment. They claim that the Second Amendment guarantees only the right for state militias to exist and bear arms, and that it's not an individual right. Even a second grader can look at the Bill of Rights and see that its purpose is to guarantee individual, and not collective, rights, and the Second Amendment is no different. Liberal constitutional scholars have even come around to the notion that an individual right is secured, but that doesn't stop the fringe radicals who seize on any chance they get to strip us of yet another constitutional right.

There are many arguments made in favor of strict gun-control laws and there are many arguments made in favor of an originalist interpretation of the Second Amendment. At the end of the day, while we can talk all we want about hunting or ask why a regular Joe would need to own an AK-47, the Second Amendment at its very heart is a provision designed to give Americans the tools they need to exercise their right to self-government, to protect themselves, their families, their property. It is also designed to protect Americans from their government should Judge Kozinski's doomsday ever come to fruition. Whether I believe that such a doomsday would ever come is beside the point. The Germans didn't think so either until Hitler took away their guns and sent a few million Jews to the ovens and gas chambers. So, I'd rather err on the side of caution rather than just blindly trust our government.

The smoke had barely cleared and the stench of gunpowder was still in the air at Virginia Tech when liberals began their predictable assault on gun ownership rights. They screeched that if only there were stricter gun laws, the tragedy wouldn't have happened. They couldn't have been more wrong! Virginia Tech was decreed by the legislature of the commonwealth to be a gun-free zone. Gun-free, that is, for everyone who obeys the law, but not for those who would carry a firearm onto the campus and shoot up the student body.

The old saying goes: Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. We are consistently having to relearn lessons as old as humanity, and our liberal friends insist on being the ones to remind us. Their tightly-held belief system is a mish-mosh of completely discredited and dangerous theories about placing individuals into the service of their government, instead of the Founding Fathers' belief that government serves the people, and only with and by their consent. Can we please learn these lessons once and for all and stop rehashing the same old failed liberal nonsense over and over? The Supreme Court will rule soon on whether or not the Second Amendment is an individual right. Let us hope at least five members of the Court have the courage to reject the failed lessons of the past and embrace the Constitutional ideals of liberty and self-government, and enshrine in our jurisprudence the fundamental American ideal of self-defense. For without that, we should prepare ourselves to be herded into the cattle cars.

Valentine's Day Thoughts

A few thoughts as we pass another Valentine's Day. First, I'll be honest, the cynic in me thinks that this "holiday" is a bunch of hooey, cooked up by Hallmark to sell some cards, flowers and whatever else people buy on Valentine's Day for their significant others. The romantic in me appreciates the deeper meaning of Valentine's Day; to set aside a day above most others to show the person you love how special they are to you. But to me, that romantic notion is part of what I believe is contributing to the decline of the institution of marriage in America.

I didn't exactly have the best role models for how to forge a lasting, loving relationship. My parents are good people, but like many they found themselves divorced after my brother and I left for college. I witnessed much chaos and mutual disrespect, which has a lasting effect on a teenage boy. I chose (yes, I believe there to be a choice in the matter) to unlearn what I had learned and now approach each of my relationships (whether family, friendships or romantic interests) from the standpoint of mutual respect. If you're going to fight, keep the gloves on and keep it above belt. It's OK to tell someone you're upset with them without resorting to name-calling, insults and yelling. No one is perfect, for sure, and I'll be the first one to raise my hand to say that I'm not, but there's a basic sense of decency missing in so many relationships today; should we really need to be reminded on February 14th to embrace that sense of decency with the person we've chosen to share our lives with? To me, this is the essence of foolishness. Rather, we should try to live up to the highest possible ideal of treating that person with decency and respect every day, so that one particular day in February can be made special, but doesn't stand alone in reminding our boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands or wives just exactly how important they are to us. Let this Valentine's Day be the day when we choose to embrace such a notion.

I was inspired (and continue to be) by these words from Marianne Williamson in her poem "A Return to Love". I hope they inspire you, my friends, the way they have inspired me. Enjoy.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

State of the Race: Republican Party

The time is upon us to exercise our God-given right to elect the president of our constitutionally enacted government. What a ride it's been up to this point. Two of my three horses (Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney) are out of the race. And I have to tip my cap to both of them. Upon their exits they exhibited the same class with which they ran their campaigns. Thompson delivered a statement to the media that was typical of his run for the presidency: short, sweet, focused, honorable. Romney put his country and his party above his own person desire to be elected president. Mitt Romney is a true gentleman, and love him or hate him, you cannot question his love of country. I was proud to have been a "Mitt guy".

My third horse is Ron Paul. Those who know me, and have read the in-progress manuscript of my book, will know that I've followed Dr. Paul in the Congress and am a HUGE fan. Unfortunately, Dr. Paul has been marginalized by the mainstream liberal media and therefore has no chance to win the presidency. His views of foreign affairs also don't jive with most of the rest of the Republican party, but nonetheless, if you look back a few posts on this blog you'll see that I believe there to be some possible truth to Dr. Paul's view of blowback. That said, Congressman Paul will not be the next President of these United States.

The two remaining gentlemen in the race are not "my guys". Mike Huckabee is a charming guy. So much so that I believe he's a snake charmer. He has one or two positions I support, but in general I don't trust him. I don't support him. And I cringe at the idea of Governor Huckabee in a position of authority in the United States government. He's a liberal cloaked in his Biblical rhetoric who would use the coercive power of the federal government to do his bidding. This runs completely counter to everything we hold dear. Huckabee must be marginalized as the weak and unsupportable candidate he is.

The last man standing is Senator John McCain. Senator McCain is a war hero, an American patriot, and someone for whom I have the utmost respect. I'm not waving the anti-McCain banner. I think he's been soft (understatement) on many things that we hold dear, but I also believe he's a solid center-right flag carrier for the conservative movement. We should air our grievances, look for McCain to solidify his conservative credentials and then rally behind him, because the alternative of a President Obama or President Clinton (ugh... another one) is abolutely unthinkable.

The conservative movement is undergoing a very healthy debate as we put forth the Republican candidate for the presidency of these United States. Let's continue the dialogue in a healthy and constructive manner, let's make our points, let's focus, let's move forward, and let's defeat the Democratic nominee, whomever he or she happens to be. For there is nothing less at stake than the constitutional future of the Republic.