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“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.” – U.S. Constitution, Second Amendment
A contemporary judicial opinion reiterating the Founders’ perspective on the Right to Bear Arms can be found in the US Court of Appeals DC gun ban case, Parker versus The District of Columbia (now referred to as DC vs. Heller since it successfully made its way through the Supreme Court) which was decided on March 9th, 2007. Here’s a key section from page 46, with the majority opinion written by Senior Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman:
To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Anti-federalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment’s civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual’s enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.
After reading Justice Silberman’s majority opinion even Leftist legal scholars like Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz admitted that he had been “wrong” all these years in his view of the Second Amendment.
It makes you wonder what’s being taught in law schools.
Summarizing this paragraph in Justice Silberman’s opinion reveals:
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The right to keep and bear arms is an individual right.
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The right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution. This is no minor point. The Constitution does not give rights to the citizens — it merely pledges to secure them and not interfere with them. The Declaration of Independence is the organic legal document (identified as such in US Code) which established the United States of America as a nation. It clearly states that in America individual rights come not from Government, but rather “men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The fundamental purpose of our government and Constitution is also clearly stated: “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….”
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The arms are for the citizen, not only for hunting and self-defense, but for use in armed resistance against the depredations of a tyrannical government (or threat from abroad). The power of this cannot be understated. The Constitution (and the complete historical record associated with its framing) clearly acknowledges that individual citizens possess the right to use firearms violently against the US Government if it should become tyrannical. None could deny that it would indeed be a horrible situation if domestic affairs degenerated to this condition. But horror can be avoided not by disarming citizens, but by ensuring that our government does not become tyrannical.
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There are further implications to this. It stands to reason that if the citizen has a right to keep and bear arms needed to resist the contemporary military of a tyrannical government (or threat from abroad), the arms that citizens would need are modern military weapons, not muzzle loading muskets (modern military weapons in the 18th century) or even modern sporting firearms.
A little more than five months into his current term, President Trump is doing a masterful job reversing a century of Marxist subversion, but we are not out of the woods by a long shot.
Four years of the illegitimate Biden Regime staffed by communist revolutionaries saw Justice Silberman’s warning of a “tyrannical government (or threat from abroad),” become a reality.
Those four years also show that Congress — plus over one million state and local officials who also get a daily paycheck that comes with an oath to defend the Constitution — did not do anything to defend against these depredations.
This is an exhortation to average citizens that since the entire Congress, every governor, and almost every sheriff and mayor, failed to understand the existential peril perpetrated by the Biden Regime — let alone exercise the many Constitutional remedies available to them — We the People need to either school them or replace them.
There isn’t any guarantee the current Trump Administration can handle the magnitude of this threat, so every individual should prepare accordingly.
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