A Comment From A Reader
Sunday, September 30th, 2007This comment is posted below ” A First Hand Report” . It is an involved comment so let me address it by section if I may. First of all welcome to our “small backwater family blog.” I will place your words in italics and my responses in regular type.
Logical One Says:
September 30th, 2007 at 3:15 pm e I listened to Governor Huckabee’s NRA speech. I have no problem with his stand on hunting or for that matter, hunting. Responsible hunters through their convervation efforts and wildlife management provide a valuable service to society.
You are more fortunate than I. I only received a brief summary of what he said as posted below.
I don’t have a problem with citizens wanting to keep weapons in their homes for self defense, but I do have a problem when they insist that they be allowed to arm themselves like third world private armies.
I assume by third world private armies, you are referring to limiting the type of “weapons” the regular law abiding citizen can possess. Let’s review the Second Amendment to the constitution. It won’t take long …. as with the 8th and 9th Amendment it is a very short one. And a very straight forward and simple one. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”We can all agree it was infringed by the government of New Orleans during Katrina, we watched on TV as cops beat down an old woman and took away her handgun … a very old revolver.Gun Control measures infringe on this right as well. You see a the law abiding citizens of this country constitute the milita. “free state” refers to the “State of Being Free” and not to a state like Kansas or Missouri.The Brown Bess musket was a state of the art assault rifle. It is exactly the type of weapon the founding fathers were referring to. Today’s equivelant would be an M-16 (which I know to be a hunk of junk but still I should have the right to own one). It is an individual right not a collective one. I find it difficult to trust a government that does not trust me.
The consitution is our founding fathers’ attempt to write down those rights given to us by God. The Constitution is both the original document and the Amendments.
But the right to bear arms is an ancient one. Marcus Tullius Cicero … from the final years of the Roman Empire …said of man’s right to defend himself;
“There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law that has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction, but by natural intuition. I refer to the law that lays it down that if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”
In short the right to self defense is never denied. It comes from nature and from civilizations down through time. Remember civilization is that which requires the strong to protect the weak. Specifically in our time I refer to felons and to those others who would harm women children and the unborn. I refer to those who would harm the disabled or decide like Nazi Germany that mental patients should be killed to purify the race. Like those who feel like it is economically practical to decide who is too old or sick to live.
“I draw the line when Governor Huckabee suggests that we all arm ourselves so we can take on the government when it “forget[s] what it is supposed to do.”
You may draw your line whever you want to. As may I.
Maybe you can help me. What might the government do that would justify an armed insurrection? Can you name any recent examples where we approached point? Please limit the examples to the last 100 years. What do you think armed revolt would accomplish that couldn’t also be accomplished by elections? Do you really think a citizen army can take on the U.S. military? Remember, they’ve all taken an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” And citizens don’t get to decide what is constitutional, that is the responsibility of the courts.
I can recognize this “gotcha question for what it is.” Please limit the examples to the last 100 years rules out the American Revolution, and the Civil War. But history rules them in. Did you know that a police officer has no legal responsibility to save your life. None. Like the saying goes … dial 911 and die. Worse yet we have witnessed the collapse of government in the LA riots .. the cops ran away. In Hurricane Andrew … the government ceased to exist for some time. In Katrina, the cops looted and left. Perhaps if some George Soros, with his ACORN, and ANSWER type groups were to prevail, it might be necessary. If the government of this country tried to eliminate God from our culture, yes it might be necessary. If in the name of some self righteous population control plot like the Chinese Communists have ….. punishing married couples for having more than one child in the name of preventing overpopulation .. then yes, it might be necessary.As far at that oath to Support and Defend the Constitution of the United States of America, that oath that I was proud to take, as were others in my family. It means all the Constitution including the Second Amendment. Your question leads me to believe you have no idea what the people in the US Military are like at all.This is a Christian country and God willing it will stay that way. It was begun as a quest for Freedom. People still long to be free.
Don’t you find it a bit disingenuous that a candidate for President of the United States basically says, if I don’t do what you like, just shoot me?
That is of course not at all what Governer Huckabee said. It was more akin to the state motto of New Hampshire.
“Live Free or Die” is the official motto of New Hampshire, adopted by the General Court in 1945. It is probably the best-known of all state mottos, partly because it speaks to an aggressive independence inherent in the American political philosophy, and partly because of its contrast to the mild sentiments usually found in such mottos.
The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire’s most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:
Do I throw in with that attitude … damn straight I do. I would throw in with Gov Huckabee any day. I am however a practical man and unfortunately I don’t think he has a chance to win. Which leads me to this … I am surprised that such being the case you are so fixated on him. He was a minor player in that review of the NRA presentation.
