Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 Rights "on loan"from government?
by Jim Butler, President, SCRA March 2008 GunNews The failure of many to defend the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms stems in great measure from an overestimation of the power rights set forth in the First Amendment, and a general under valuation of action. Unquestioning in calls for the repeal of the Second Amendment is the assumption that our First Amendment rights are sufficient to preserve our liberty. These people think that liberty can be preserved as long as men freely speak their minds, and believe that there is no tyranny or abuse that can survive being exposed to the press. Furthermore they believe the truth need only be disclosed for the culprits to be disgraced. That the people will then act, and the truth shall set us, and keep us, free. Unfortunately, history has not been kind to this belief. It may be comforting to believe that the existence of mass electronic communication has forever altered the balance of power between the state and its subjects are bound to be disappointed, as what little history there is in the age of mass communication is not especially encouraging. The camera, radio, television and press are only tools and, like guns, can be used for good or evil. Need an example? Adolf Hitler was a masterful orator who used radio expert fully, and used film effectively to exploit his propaganda to the German people and others to further his aims. If that wasn't enough he could turn his Brown-shirt thugs loose on the people - and they knew very well how to quell dissent among intellectuals. Hitler understood very well that to be disarmed by one's government was equivalent to being enslaved by it. One of the first groups he disarmed were the Jews. Over six-million of them paid with their lives because of Hitler's actions. The possession of arms by the people is the ultimate warrant that government governs only with the consent of the governed. The German people learned this the hard way. As Ronald Reagan reminded us, 'Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.' Without the Second Amendment, all of our other rights aren't inalienable, they're just 'on loan' from the government. As I See it Index Return to SCRA Home Page |