It’s been said that “Truth is the daughter of Time,” and the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia striking down D.C.’s stringent gun control laws reflects the wisdom of that old adage.
In defiance of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the District of Columbia made owning a gun virtually impossible. Handguns not registered to their current owner before 1976 were banned, and the few guns permitted had to be kept disassembled. Even those handguns could not be carried from one room to another in a private home without criminal penalties.
Laws like this that ignore the Constitution, our basic freedoms, and common sense, remind us that some politicians and judges have little regard for individual liberty and would instantly discard freedoms gained over many centuries to impose instead what they imagine is in everyone’s best interest. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned of such men when he wrote in 1927:
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent.... The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
Today, sportsmen and others desiring to protect their family and property own the vast majority of guns. However, our founding fathers made it clear that the Second Amendment was intended also to protect something even bigger -- our freedoms that had been won during the American Revolution.
George Washington said bluntly, “a free people ought to be armed."
Patrick Henry stated that “the great object is that every man be armed” and “everyone who is able may have a gun.” He astutely advised us to “guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”
James Madison, the Father of our Constitution, contrasted American freedoms with those of every other nation when he wrote, “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
The Founding Fathers wanted the entire adult populace armed for the protection of themselves, their families, their communities and most especially, for the protection of the new republic where government is of, by, and for the people.
We live at a time when too many of our leaders reject “that jewel” of freedom obtained for us over 230 years ago. Ours is an even more dangerous world today with aggressive regimes committed to killing Americans and eliminating our way of life.
There are bound to be appeals to the Supreme Court seeking to eliminate firearms in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. In the meantime, every patriot should heed the wisdom of our Founders and guard against the “well meaning” and the not so “well meaning” enemies of freedom who reject these words of Hamilton: “Here, Sir, the people rule.”
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent.... The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
Today, sportsmen and others desiring to protect their family and property own the vast majority of guns. However, our founding fathers made it clear that the Second Amendment was intended also to protect something even bigger -- our freedoms that had been won during the American Revolution.
George Washington said bluntly, “a free people ought to be armed."
Patrick Henry stated that “the great object is that every man be armed” and “everyone who is able may have a gun.” He astutely advised us to “guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.”
James Madison, the Father of our Constitution, contrasted American freedoms with those of every other nation when he wrote, “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
The Founding Fathers wanted the entire adult populace armed for the protection of themselves, their families, their communities and most especially, for the protection of the new republic where government is of, by, and for the people.
We live at a time when too many of our leaders reject “that jewel” of freedom obtained for us over 230 years ago. Ours is an even more dangerous world today with aggressive regimes committed to killing Americans and eliminating our way of life.
There are bound to be appeals to the Supreme Court seeking to eliminate firearms in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. In the meantime, every patriot should heed the wisdom of our Founders and guard against the “well meaning” and the not so “well meaning” enemies of freedom who reject these words of Hamilton: “Here, Sir, the people rule.”
