It is time to stop the emotional appeals for more gun
control based upon the most recent tragedies.
Each tragedy brings a call for consoling the victim’s families and those
who hurt for them. It is not the time to
leverage their pain for your purpose.
How heartless!
No, this is compassion.
This is the time for prayer and healing not the cynical comments about
the very things needed at those time.
If you want to change gun laws; change the Constitution. You have had 228 years. Present your facts, make your argument, and do
what is required to change the Constitution.
It is not an easy process but the evidence of 27 amendments tell us that
it is very much doable. Yes, 10 of them were ratified at once. The last amendment took almost 203 years, but
the process is there for the using. Most
take what most would consider a reasonable amount of time.
And now is the time to make your move. Ignorance as to the purpose of the Second
Amendment is at an all time high.
Emotions are high. Understanding
of a system designed to prevent tyranny is at an all-time low. If gun control is your objective, start the
process to amend the Constitution.
But with all of this violence, can’t we just ignore the Constitution just
this once?
It seems the cries for this grow louder each year, but they
ignore our history and the consequences of setting aside the wisdom of our
founders. I don’t think there has ever
been a more divinely inspired group of men in the history of the world who
designed a system of government than our Founding Fathers.
Yeah, sure, what a bunch of high grandiose patriot-speak. We need changes!
Hmm… Let’s think
about what happens when we ignore the Constitution. The last declared war for this country was
World War II. We have not declared war
in more than 75 years. Can you believe
it! We have enjoyed 75 years of peace.
What? We have not
enjoyed 75 years of peace? Korea,
Vietnam, Grenada, Beirut, Panama, two Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, the war on
terror, and the occasional firefight in Libya or Syria happened without a
declaration of war.
How can that be? Only
Congress can declare war! The President
can only make war in response to an attack, which in today’s fast paced
environment would surely include the imminence of attack. But these conditions were not applicable in
Vietnam, Korea, or the Gulf Wars.
You counter, “But now we have the War Powers Resolution.”
Consider what value is an ordinary law such as what we most
often call the War
Powers Act if the Supreme Law of the Land—the Constitution is ignored. This act did not clarify the
Constitution. It attempted to regain
part of the authority of Congress that should have never been lost.
Back to guns. If you
want to enact new gun laws, then make your case for amending the Constitution
first. Realize that casualties from
tragedies that involved firearms will be insufficient. You must demonstrate that the republic will
be as strong and as safe as it is with the Second Amendment intact. You must convince the American people that
they will never have to throw off a tyrannical government—ever.
It is a tough challenge but an emotional appeal to bypass
the Law of the Land is cheap publicity at the expense of hurting families.
Casualties—the cost of liberty—are sometimes high. Consider the casualties of our own Civil
War. While it wasn’t all about slavery,
owning a human being was not something that our nation could live with any
longer. It would have been less costly
in American blood not to have engaged in this war, but we did, and we paid the
price.
Was it worth it? Few
would say that they would rather have continued into this century with
slavery. But the price was high, very
high in American blood.
The question that those who want gun control in a nation
that preserves the right to bear arms at a foundational level have to answer
is: Has the cost in blood been too much?
They must answer this question in full. They must account for the price we paid so
that all people could enjoy liberty as free men and women and compare it to the
price we pay for liberty by empowering the citizenry to throw off an unjust, tyrannical government.
It’s a tough sell, especially among those who understand our
system of government and know that liberty always comes at a price; but if you
are serious about it, start the process.
In the meantime, quit leveraging the pain of victims of evil that resides in the hearts of a few.
For more on the purpose of the Second Amendment, read Paradox of
Power.
It is the nature of
our republic, that our domestic tranquility is afloat on a sea that separates revolution
and tyranny.
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