The right to bear arms is unique among the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, in that it is the only right which is self-preserving. In other words, all other rights ultimately rely on the ability to resist to prevent their loss.

As the common saying goes, you can’t have the First Amendment without the Second. It’s hard for someone to take away your freedom of worship or speech when you still have a gun in your hand.

So, why is our right to keep and bear arms so important?

One thing is for certain; it’s not just so we can go hunting. As former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura said at the Rally for the Republic in 2008, when the Second Amendment was written, if you didn’t hunt, you didn’t eat.

For one thing, people are ultimately responsible for protecting themselves and those under their care. When an intruder enters your home with the intent to harm your family, the outcome directly affects you. It has no repercussions for the local police department. Courts have ruled that the police are not legally responsible for defending your home and loved ones.

But this is a secondary rationale.

The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment because, having recently secured their independence from England, they knew their freedom had only been possible through the use of guns.

Whether people are comfortable with the truth or not, the reality is our rights are ultimately preserved either through the use of force or under the threat of violence. Everyone responds to incentives, including governments. A government that knows its citizens have the means to rise up and abolish it if it gets out of line behaves differently than the government which rules over disarmed citizenry who must comply no matter what.

When all peaceful means fail to restrain an oppressive government, citizens must have that final option.

This is evident when examining the American War of Independence. The British redcoats attempting to seize munitions and arms at Lexington and Concord retreated back to Boston because they were opposed by men who had guns in their hands, not political signs.

What about the 3,000+ innocent children that are murdered every day in America at the hands of democrats and complicit churches?

Where is the outrage? No guns are being used in the worst mass murder in history. 

America’s first step off the road to perdition begins with the abolition of child murder aka abortion.

May all the murdered innocents rest in peace.

“You lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter”  — James 5:5

 

Richard David Hayes

NEW IBERIA