The 2ND amendment does not protect your right to hunt!

Bernie Sanders, senator and democrat candidate for president recently said that guns “not designed for hunting” should not be owned by citizens. Well then, why was the 2nd Amendment written, to allow citizens to own muskets or single shot hunting rifles so we can shoot a squirrel, rabbit, deer, or varmint and for the type of firearm we can own to be determined by politicians? Let me quote from the Constitution: “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”.

Now for a history lesson for those ignorant of history or willfully ignoring same; At that time in history the common weapon for military and civilian alike was the musket, equal weapons for both military and civilian use. The Revolutionary War didn’t start because of the Stamp Act or the forced housing of British soldiers in citizen’s homes or even the murder of unarmed civilians in the Boston Massacre. War broke out when General Gage sent troops to Lexington and Concord to seize arms, including cannons, muskets, powder, and shot from the colonial storage areas and to disarm the farmers. The colonists resisted and the war was on when “the shot heard ’round the world” was fired on April 19, 1775 at Lexington Green. By the time it was over on the green 8 colonists lay dead but by the end of the day hundreds of British soldiers were dead from colonist ambushes and the munitions stores were safely in the hands of the colonial militia. The war would last 11 years, ending in 1787, and cost thousands of lives on both sides, but a nation predicated on liberty and citizen control of government was established in 1791, based on Judeo-Christian principles of righteousness and self rule.

England tried again in 1812 to subjugate the American nation and failed due to patriots taking up their arms and fighting to preserve the liberty won by them a mere two decades before. Some say that the only weapons allowed under the Constitution are those provided by the government and issued to registered Militia members when the government deems it necessary but that is an attempt to bastardize the intent of the founders. The founders knew the danger of a central government and wanted citizens to be able to defend themselves from a tyrannical government so they wrote the second Amendment as they did to preserve the ability of citizens to defend themselves from enemies within as well as from without. Notice the 2nd Amendment does not say what kind of gun can or cannot be owned nor for what purposes they can or cannot be used, they wrote that the right of people to keep and bear arms “shall not” be infringed.  Shall not is a very specific statement, not ambiguous in the least, and written that way on purpose by very intelligent and honorable men, unlike the vermin that occupy government today.

When the Constitution had been written and he was asked what kind of government they gave us, Benjamin Franklin responded: “a republic, if you can keep it”. The federal government started “infringing” our rights in the 1920’s in response to the gangster era. How many gangsters followed the laws under penalty of arrest? Let me guess, none? Now to today, how many black or hispanic gang members obey the laws on the books now? Look at where gun crimes happen and who commits them. It isn’t people like myself, the targets of the gun control crowd, that commit crimes with guns so why are we the targets of unconstitutional restrictions on gun possession? Patriots who believe in government of the people, by the people, and for the people are the ones politicians seek to disarm, why? The answer can be found in 20th Century history. In that 100 year time frame more than 56 million people were first disarmed, then slaughtered by their own governments.

Our founders made that calamity unlikely in the USA by wording the 2nd Amendment to prevent that from happening but today’s politicians see themselves as smarter than the founders. However, it isn’t smarts or wisdom, it is a hunger for power that they feel entitled to by their positions in government. Barak Obama and those like him see themselves as rulers, who should be bowed to and obeyed without question, but that isn’t in the DNA of American citizens.

Crime will never be prevented by oppressing those who aren’t committing the crimes but that is the lame reasons given by anti-liberty politicians who seek to subjugate We the People by rendering us defenseless. I firmly believe the goal of the gun grabbers is to make themselves omnipotent and safe to carry out their quest to gain absolute power over the citizens of this nation and to be able to rule as did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and other dictators who were able to murder citizens at will because there could be no armed opposition. The current buzz phrase of tyrants is “common sense gun control” meaning government can decide what, if any, kind of firearm can be owned and who, if anyone, can own them. This seemingly innocuous terminology is being used to lull citizens into a false sense of security so they will willingly and meekly subjugate themselves to royal rulers. We can already see how well that works by looking at where gun violence is prevalent. If “common sense gun control” worked, Chicago would be the safest place in the nation to live but it isn’t. Chicago has the highest gun murder rate in the nation despite being a “gun free zone”. If the existence of guns is the problem why do we never hear of a massacre at a gun show where thousands of people gather to peruse, buy, and sell hundreds of thousands of guns of all kinds and all calibers? People also buy ammunition for those guns in the same building so why aren’t there multiple murders at every gun show? My wife and I attend as many as 8 gun shows a year and find the people we interact with to be friendly, courteous, and totally without malice. Many shows are so crowded that getting bumped into or stepped on is a common thing but we never see any animosity. One apologizes, the other forgives and they move on. It is the people that make the difference, not the availability of guns and ammo. When you look at real statistics, the states with concealed carry have less gun crime than the “gun free” states. Criminals know where to ply their trade and getting shot by an armed “victim” is not their goal so they avoid such places. The theater shooter in Colorado, as in most other mass murders, passed up a half dozen closer theaters to hit one that had a no-gun policy, knowing no one could shoot him so what does that say?

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell

Claremore, Oklahoma

August 24, 2015