HE HAD A GUN AND NOTHING HAPPENED
By
Larry Pratt
August 21, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
From
New Hampshire to Arizona, Americans openly carrying firearms have been
seen outside presidential appearances. The most remarkable thing about
this is that some find this behavior to be remarkable.
American citizens are the sovereigns in our system of government. Indeed,
We the People created the government which, at least in theory, only
does what we tell it to do in the Constitution. Sovereigns are expected
to be armed.
The Second Amendment was added to our Constitution to ensure that the
individual right to keep and bear arms not be infringed. Infringement
would impair the proper functioning of the militia which had been America’s
homeland security system all through colonial times and well into our
republican era.
The armed attendees made it clear that they were exercising their right
to keep and bear arms. Zero tolerance of firearms has become so extreme
that even a picture of a gun can get a student kicked out of school.
The presence of armed citizens helps correct the notion that guns are
inherently dangerous.
Americans are increasingly deciding to go about openly carrying firearms
even when they might legally carry concealed. Some would like to say
that this constitutes disturbing the peace. It is a strange view that
accepts as normal a police officer openly carrying a firearm but finds
it alarming when a sovereign citizen -- the cop’s boss -- does
the same.
In addition to the educational value of going about openly armed, the
presence of such citizens has another positive impact. Real homeland
security is being maintained. The Secret Service is tasked with protecting
the president and other select individuals -- and nobody else.
For those who object to openly armed citizens being present near presidential
events, do they have any concern for the wellbeing of those who do not
benefit from Secret Service protection?
A few years ago, I was at a conference where the governor of the state
of Arizona was to speak. Shortly before the appointed time a member
of the governor’s security detail came into the room from a service
entrance, looked around the audience which included at least a dozen
people openly carrying sidearms, ducked out of sight and returned with
the governor.
The governor’s security was aware of the armed attendees, and
was also aware that the guns were holstered and obviously under control.
They evidently thought that was proper gun control.
There are those who don’t like Americans owning guns at all, let
alone carrying them openly. They can be counted on to run around squawking
like Chicken Little that the sky is falling -- a calamity brought about
by the presence of an armed citizen in public. We are warned that: “Somebody
might grab the gun and do something bad! The armed citizen will intimidate
others! Tempers will flare and blood will run in the streets!”
These are the same alarms that are sounded when any measure designed to facilitate citizens keeping and bearing arms is advanced. And the alarms are always false. Before passage of Florida’s concealed carry law, for example, we were warned that the Sunshine State would become the Gunshine State. But the fearmongers were all wrong, as evidenced by the way the state’s murder rate fell through the floor.
One
would think that consistently being wrong would be embarrassing, but
one would be wrong about those who assume that common citizens are untrustworthy
and dangerous.
A tip of the hat to those who have stirred the debate. And, our thanks
to them for exercising proper gun control and reminding us of how homeland
security should be conducted.
� 2009 Larry Pratt - All Rights Reserved
