Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Teachers Support Guns

Friday, December 21, 2012

Teachers Support Guns

By Michelle Celarier - December 21, 2012 6:45 am

NY Post - America's teachers are facing a $100 million conundrum.

That's roughly the amount various teacher pension, school and retirement funds have invested in the publicly traded stocks of four gun makers, according to regulatory filings.

It's a problem that has sent them scrambling since a 20-year-old man used a semiautomatic rifle in a massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

They are being forced to choose between the typically reliable investment in gun makers and the public outcry for decisive action.
The $155 billion California State Teachers Retirement System leads gun investments among the nation's state pensions with a total of $7.4 million in Smith & Wesson, Sturm Ruger & Co. and Olin Corp. It is also leading the charge on divesting those stocks.

Calstrs is reviewing its $500 million investment in Cerberus, the private-equity firm that owns Freedom Group, which makes the Bushmaster assault rifle used by Adam Lanza in the school massacre. Cerberus quickly said it would sell its stake.

Calstrs told The Post that it "immediately began analyzing our exposure across the entire portfolio to identify all US and non US gun manufacturers" following the tragedy.

It will review the holdings at a Jan. 9 meeting of its investment committee.

New York City is also "aggressively exploring all options, including divestment," said Matthew Sweeney, a spokesman.

The city's various retirement funds hold $17.9 million in public equities of four gun companies, but only a portion of that is in the city teachers' retirement fund.

The fourth gun maker is Brazil's Forjas Taurus.

Divestment won't be simple for many, however, as the stocks are often held in passively managed funds that replicate market indexes, which include Sturm Ruger, a Southport, Conn., firearms manufacturer.

"This has been so sudden, and the thought of investments in these companies didn't come on our radar screen until Monday," said Beau Barnes, the deputy executive secretary of the $15 billion Kentucky Teacher Retirement System.

Kentucky owns about $537,000 worth of Sturm Ruger through an internal fund that replicates market iindexes. Barnes said the fund is "monitoring" the situation. "It's too early to say anything beyond that."

The New York State Teachers' Retirement System owns $6.3 million in stocks in both Olin and Sturm Ruger.

John Cardillo, a spokesman for the system, said that its Sturm Ruger holdings are also in "passively managed funds tracking indexes such as the S&P 1500," but he declined to say whether or not the investment was under review.

(c) 2012 The New York Post. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .
"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.

Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765

Pages

Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

Preservation and Proposition

Friday, December 21, 2012

Teachers Support Guns

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