Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Rounding up the guns... from little kids?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Rounding up the guns... from little kids?

By Bobby Eberle - 5//1/2013

Here's the latest in the effort to get the guns. No, this isn't a story about banning so-called "assault" weapons (whatever those are) or "high-capacity" magazines (how high is too high?). This time we are talking about toy guns and a program one elementary school is using to get them away from kids.

I don't know about you, but when I was little, we played war, cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, and all sorts of games with toy guns. None of us freaked out, and none of us ever confused a plastic toy gun with a real one. We were PLAYING, but apparently these games are no longer politically correct, and some are saying the guns have to go.
As reported by MercuryNews.com, an elementary school in Hayward, CA is running a program in which children are encouraged to turn in their toy guns and receive a book in exchange.

Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill said last week he organized the trade-in out of concern that children who play with toy guns may not take real weapons seriously.

More than 200 people attended Saturday's safety fair at Strobridge. Students turned in an estimated 50 to 75 toy guns in exchange for a chance to win one of four bicycles, and everyone who attended received a book.

As students arrived at the campus, they found a table set up with books. They dropped their toy guns into a bucket, in exchange for raffle tickets for the bike drawing, and were allowed to pick out a book.

"Whether they had a gun or not, they could pick out a book for the summer. Any siblings with them could take a book, too," Hill said.

This bothers me on several levels. First, there is NOTHING inherently wrong with a gun. Guns protect. Guns defend. Guns are used for sport. Yes, people can abuse them, but people can also run someone over with a car, or take a gallon of gasoline and use it to burn a house down. Do we now start a taxpayer-funded program to get rid of cars and containers of gasoline?

The other thing that people overlook is this ongoing effort from those in power to take away power from the people. You may feel that this toy gun program doesn't fit that description, but it's all part of an overall effort to make people less able to protect themselves and more and more dependent on government. The only thing that is taught these days is that government will protect you. A gun? You don't need a gun. The police will protect you... the government will save you. Guess what? A police officer can't do a thing when someone is invading your home and coming at you with a weapon. It is up to you and you alone.

The news story quotes a few parents who are all in favor of the program. Here are my questions: "If you think this is such a great program, why didn't you just take the gun away from your child? If you are so averse to toy-guns, why did you buy one in the first place?" Again, it's government stepping in where parents should be.

How about teaching gun safety to children? That seems like a good step to teaching everyone the proper use of a gun, rather than having a program that simply teaches you to be defenseless while only the bad guys have the guns.

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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

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Rounding up the guns... from little kids?

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