Liberty For All

by Jessi Winchester, author of From Bordello to Ballot Box; and, America: The Final Chapter

The Preamble to the Constitution is crystal clear when it states, “We the People … establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”  It does NOT state that the President, the Congress, or the U.S. Supreme Court established the Constitution so it is NOT up to the Executive, Legislative, or Judiciary branches of government to interpret, change, or prohibit any portion of the Constitution or Bill of Rights.  That power rests solely WITH THE PEOPLE.

Currently being considered by the Judiciary Committee is an unconstitutional piece of legislation known as HR 45: Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009.  It is solely sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush [D-IL] and would require a license for handguns and semiautomatic firearms, including those already in citizens’ possession. Applicants would be thumb-printed and required to sign a certification that their gun would NOT be kept in a place where it could be used for self-defense. It would be compulsory for the applicant to provide ALL psychiatric records, pass an exam, and pay a $25 fee for a license that would have to be renewed after five years, at which time the government could revoke it.

The bill would outlaw private sales and all gun transaction reports would be required to be filed with the U.S. Attorney General. All transactions would be subject to the Brady check, loaded firearms for self-defense would be a criminal offense, a 10-year criminal penalty and unlimited regulatory and inspection authority would be established, and vague ‘crimes by omission’ such as failure to report would be a ‘catch-all’ for anything not specifically stated in the bill.

The main purpose of the Second Amendment is to ensure the government does not trample the rights of the people, yet the President has inflicted his personal firearm views on the American public, the Congress has gone about changing the Second Amendment by circumventing it’s intent, and the Supreme Court has imposed their interpretation upon the citizens who rightfully have the final say but are never consulted.

The ironic part of the bill’s submission is that its sponsor is Rep. Bobby Rush who is a convicted felon that is no longer allowed to have his own firearms.  Is he so angry that he is hell bent on seeing that all law-abiding citizens also become disarmed?

Rush is a co-founder of the violent 1960s Black Panther Party and was convicted in 1969 of illegal possession of firearms and spent six-months in prison.  How is it that a convicted felon can serve in Congress you ask?  Actually, committing a crime cannot constitutionally disqualify someone from serving, as the Constitution places only three requirements on congressional candidates. The first is age. House members must be 25 and members of the Senate must be 30 years old to become elected. Second is citizenship.  Members of the House must have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years and members of the Senate must have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years.  The third and last requirement is that members have to be an inhabitant of the state they are elected from and must live there at the time they are elected.  Once a criminal is elected, it is up to the Senate or House to decide who may serve.  They can vote to expel any member they deem unfit or unqualified to serve and since Rush has served since 1993, Congress obviously doesn’t mind a criminal in their midst.  Serving alongside a real felon would appear to give credibility to an organization that has long been saddled with the ‘criminal’ moniker anyway.

Approximately one-third of the 90-million gun owners in America are ‘purists’ who support a literal interpretation of the Constitution.  That means at the very least, 30-million gun owners view themselves as Patriots who see their firearms as the ultimate guarantee of liberty even if it means protecting themselves against their own tyrannical government.  Citizens were even encouraged to adopt this view by the nation’s first president, George Washington.  Gun owners would vigorously object and refuse to comply with any unconstitutional governmental interpretation or legislation banning common self defense firearms, gun registration, or licensing of gun owners.  The nation’s leaders have lied to the people for so long that any counterfeit excuses that a bill is “necessary” for the greater good or to fight terrorism, rings hollow and would be instantly discarded as an obvious ploy on the part of D.C. power mongers.  Should HR 45 become law, this huge segment of society would be willing to become ‘criminals’ in the eyes of the government but bureaucrats would still be left with a disastrous circumstance of dealing with at least 30-million people who would flatly refuse to obey an unconstitutional law. The consequences to those in power for creating such high tension throughout the country could lead to extremely unfortunate conflict and is not something even the most left leaning tree hugger in Washington should ignore.

Two patriotic voices in Congress who have a spine, a strong sense of right and wrong, and don’t worry about politically correct pandering to their associates who are willing to sell the nation out, are Senators Jon Tester [D-Mt] and Max Baucus [D-Mt] who jointly wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in March 2009 stating, “In light of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling of District of Columbia v. Heller, affirming the Second Amendment right to bear arms as an individual and constitutionally protected right, we urge you to avoid any legislative proposals that would jeopardize the Constitutional right of law-abiding Americans to own firearms.”  Subsequently, a similar letter to Holder was sent by Rep. Mike Ross [D-AR] and signed by 64 of his Democratic co-workers.

America’s way of life is under assault when law-abiding citizens who use firearms safely and are not a threat to anyone except criminals or those who seek to steal our constitutional rights are illegally regulated and/or legislated regarding their right to own and bear arms.  Those in power fear an armed nation that could rise up against its own government.  It would appear our own government is intentionally trying to manufacture situations and propaganda to convince the majority of the nation how “out of control” and “dangerous” firearm ownership is so they can justify disarming the nation.  Freedom loving people throughout the country should remember that an unarmed nation is a vulnerable nation … one that is ripe for a dictatorship.

Despite the fact “we the people” are the ones empowered to control any action regarding the Constitution, what it comes down to in this day of corruption and total power grabs is that it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong … interpretation is determined by who’s in power.  Now THAT’S a terrifying reality.

Copyright © Jessi Winchester 2009 All Rights Reserved