David Brownlow -- The Second Amendment is Already Dead

THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS ALREADY DEAD

By David Brownlow
July 19, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

Was the 2nd Amendment included in the Constitution to protect our right to hunt, our right to target shoot, or our right to defend ourselves from the local neighborhood hoodlums?

While those may be important benefits of the �right of the people to keep and bear arms,� is that really why our founders declared it an unalienable right, and locked it in the Bill of Rights at the number two spot - right behind the freedoms of speech, assembly and religion?

The short answer is of course, no. The 2nd Amendment was intended to protect the states and the people from being forced to suffer through another �long train of abuses� like the ones that led to the war against Britain - a purpose for which, unfortunately, the 2nd Amendment it is already dead.

Sure, most of us can still hang onto our rifles, shotguns, and depending on where we live, our handguns � which gives the false impression that we have a 2nd Amendment that actually protects our right to keep and bear arms. But, if we are only allowed to keep the guns they tell us we can keep, and if we are only allowed to carry them the way they tell us we can carry them, then, that is not a right, that is not a guarantee - that is a favor.

It would be more accurate to call it, �The permission to keep and bear the arms.� (2nd Amendment, Rev. A)

What our founders learned from their victory in the War for Independence was that in order to drive out an occupying force, one must have both the means and the willingness to kill the occupiers in such large numbers that they lose the will to fight.

Fortunately for the Patriots, they fought on a somewhat level playing field with the British in terms of access to firepower. They both carried the same kind of muzzleloaders, they had a similar type, if not quantity, of cannons and artillery, they had similar armor (very little), they both used horses to transport men and material into battle, and they had the same means (or lack thereof) to communicate with their troops.

Based on that experience, they ensured (or attempted to ensure) our right to �keep and bear arms� for the expressed purpose of protecting the newly formed Republic from a federal government they feared would become every bit as oppressive as the one they just threw out. If they only knew the half of it!

The 2nd Amendment was to be the safety valve of last resort to deal with any future attacks on our freedoms that could not be resolved by peaceful means. Granted, today�s guns can put a lot more lead downrange than the guns our forefathers used. But, as far as being of any real use for non-peaceful conflict resolutions against the forces we have allowed our government to amass?

Assuming that we could actually muster up the courage to resist the occupation regime through the use of force - which is highly doubtful given the comfortable form of slavery we have grown to accept - we might as well be armed with bows and arrows!

Here�s how we became so hopelessly outgunned. The 2nd Amendment was intended to guarantee; �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.�

Notice it doesn�t mention anything about guns. It guarantees the right to keep and bear �arms� as necessary to the security of a free �state.� (Notice it doesn�t mention anything about the security of a free federal government either!)

Once we allowed our government to arbitrarily define the term �arms� as strictly limited to a few select types of rifles and pistols, we cleared the way for the regulation of gun style, gun size, gun caliber, gun rate of fire, barrel length, magazine capacity, as well as the explosive power of the shells, the type of projectile that can be launched from our �arms,� and on and on. In other words, we gave up any chance of a putting up a real fight against our occupiers when we allowed the occupiers to make up the rules.

But that is only half the problem. While we have permission to �keep and bear� what is essentially a 21st Century version of a muzzle loader, our federal and local police forces have been arming themselves to the teeth with the most advanced weapons and technologies our money can buy.

Nearly every federal agency has formed it�s own paramilitary force, which is clearly outside the constitutional provisions of a national army and navy. This has resulted in close to 100,000 armed, increasingly belligerent federal agents lurking around the cities of this nation - with access to such unlimited resources and firepower they could challenge many of the world�s regular armies.

Then, largely as a result of the phony �war on drugs� and �war on terror,� we have militarized our local police forces to the point where they are now armed with; helicopters, armored vehicles, SWAT teams, snipers, machine guns, grenades, body armor, infrared detectors, command and control systems, and electronic surveillance � all of which are made available as a force multiplier to the FBI/DEA/ATF/IRS whenever called upon.

The final nail in our coffin is that if anyone ever actually got serious about winning back our freedom, the feds would simply call in the U.S. military, the most formidable fighting machine ever created, to pound the troublemakers into small grains of powder.

So to all the above formidable capabilities of our various police agencies, we could add fighter jets, AC-130 gun ships, attack helicopters, M1 tanks, artillery, rockets, smart bombs, every caliber of gun known to man, surveillance drones, special forces units, and who knows what else!

Many have been clinging to the false hope that as long as we still �have� the 2nd Amendment, there will always be the slight chance we could win a fight to regain our freedom.

But, while we were off raising families and having fun living the American dream - with our heads planted firmly in the sand � our occupiers have been busy maneuvering the chess pieces around the board with great cunning and skill. Take a look around folks, we�ve been surrounded � it�s a checkmate!

Sure, we might still have the ability to wage a little one-man revolution � for about five minutes! But for the purposes for which our founders intended it, which was to ensure that the several states would remain free from warmongering tyrants like the ones who have seized control of our country, sadly�

The 2nd Amendment is already dead.

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David Brownlow, a regular columnist for NewsWithViews.com, is the Executive Director of Life Support, an Oregon based "No Abortion, No Excuses" anti-abortion organization that is focused on eliminating all government funded child-killing. David, an engineer, former Constitution Party candidate, and 25 year political activist, resides in Damascus, Oregon with his wife Suzanne and their four children.

Web-Site: www.lifesupportoregon.org

E-Mail: dave@lifesupportoregon.org

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