The Blood of Patriots

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads: "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."

The Shot Heard Around The World occurred at Lexington Green in 1775. The British army was en route to Concord, Massachusetts to confiscate a stash of firearms the colonists had stored there. The Revolutionary War began because the British came to confiscate the guns. In response, the colonial militia met the British troops in Lexington, armed and ready to fight if necessary. The Redcoats entered the area rapidly in platoons, with a general on horseback at the head of the platoons. The officer on horseback swung his sword, and said, "Lay down your arms, you damned rebels, or you are all dead men."

The Americans chased the British troops all the way back to Boston Harbor.

Firearms were an integral part of life in the colonies. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his friend, Peter Carr, in 1785, wrote: "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."

Jefferson's love for firearms was because he saw them as the guarantors of freedom from tyranny. Jefferson wrote to George Washington in 1796: "One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them."

The right to keep and bear arms was for service in the militia for national defense, the individual need for self-defense, hunting and sport. But, more importantly, bearing arms was necessary to the security of a free state. . . a free Massachusetts, a free Virginia, a free New York, a free Georgia, and so on and so forth. The right to keep and bear arms is essential to the proper function of a republican government because an armed populace is the primary check against tyranny. America is free because Americans are armed.

Thomas Jefferson said, "The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."

Government derives its power from the people, and the federal government received its authority from the states. The powers granted to the United States government by the states are limited and few, while the powers of the states are many. Should the federal government abuse its power, the authorities granted to it may be rescinded by the states. It is the right and duty of the people to retain the means of arms to keep government true to its purpose.

James Madison stressed the necessity of arms to the security of the states from a potentially tyrannical federal government in Federalist No. 46 (1788). Madison wrote: "Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."

History has provided examples time and time again of tyrannies rising, and disarming the people as one of their first actions. Noah Webster in 1787 made this same observation in his An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, where he wrote: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. . . The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States."

John Adams in 1787 wrote in A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States: "To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws."

Samuel Adams stated, "The Constitution shall never be construed ... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution was written with the War of Independence fresh in the memories of the Founding Fathers, and the amendment was written to be a prohibition against government interference in the "right to keep and bear arms" because a person's right to be armed is the one right that ensures all of the other rights are protected.

Without an armed populace, America's independence would never have been achieved. The Founders understood this, and they recognized that tyranny always seeks to disarm citizens under its control. Thomas Paine wrote in Thoughts on Defensive War (1775) that, "Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. . . Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."

The disarming of a citizenry, even incrementally, is the first and most insidious step used to dismantle a free society. The British recognized this fact, which is why they were marching toward Concord in 1775. Britain sought to disarm the colonial militia, because armed citizens are not subjects that can be easily controlled, and the King of England sought to tame what the Brits considered to be "petulant children."

Of course whenever a firearm is used by an unstable individual such as we've seen in a number of recent events, including the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, opponents of the Second Amendment are quick to rise up and use the blood of the fallen as an excuse to cry out for gun control. They act as if the guns themselves commit the murders, not the hands of the murderers. But to strip Americans of their most effective means of self-defense is not only against the original intent of the Founding Fathers, but a guarantee for an explosion of violent crime and the rise of a tyrannical government.

Gun restrictions in other countries around the world have resulted in an increase of violent crime, for without the ability to keep and bear arms, the innocent are no longer able to defend themselves against the lawless. Injuries involving guns in these countries have more than doubled, and the potential for the rise of a tyrannical government has increased.

Gun violence is a culture problem, not a gun problem, and tyrannies thrive when the populace is unarmed: Defenseless people have been historically rounded up and exterminated time and time again.

The right to keep and bear arms is a check against the violence of the unstable mind, and the check against the arbitrary power of rulers. Without our Second Amendment rights, we would be unable to resist and triumph over tyrants. "Shall not be infringed" means what it says.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary