Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Armed Americans pose no threat

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Armed Americans pose no threat

By USA Today - 7/17/2013

Would George Zimmerman have left his car if he hadn't been carrying a gun?

Gun control advocates argue that Zimmerman's Kel-Tec PF-9 brought out his inner Dirty Harry, leading to the tragic shooting of a Florida teen. They reckon restricting firearms ownership would prevent this kind of murderous machismo, making both individuals and society safer.

It's an insidious, irrelevant argument that betrays a profound ignorance of the truth about guns.

Whatever you think about Zimmerman's decision to exit his vehicle, there's no question he had the legal right to do so. Also beyond dispute: Zimmerman was motivated by a desire to safeguard his neighborhood.

The legally carried firearm resting on Zimmerman's hip was there to protect life, not project personal power or facilitate a "hate crime." Don't take my word for it. Lest we forget, a Florida jury accepted his lawyers' argument that their client acted in self-defense.
Millions of armed Americans go about their business carrying a firearm for the same reason: to protect themselves against criminal assault. While there are bad apples in every barrel, concealed carry permit holders are as far from trigger happy wannabe cops as Clint Eastwood is from Pee-wee Herman.

A 1996 survey of Florida permit holders revealed that they were 840 times less likely to be involved in a violent crime than the general population.

Gun control advocates refuse to accept the fact that the vast majority of Americans carrying a firearm -- in accordance with local, state and federal laws -- are a peaceable lot. They are not criminals. They're anti-criminals.

By carrying a firearm, they deter violent crime. And combat it. In 2003, law-abiding Americans shot and killed 2.5 times as many criminals as police, with less collateral damage.

Gun control advocates are not swayed by statistics. They feel free to exploit the Zimmerman case to project their own fear (of a loss of self-control while armed) onto fellow citizens. Truth be told, armed Americans are not a threat to society. They are our country's front line against crime.

Any law that seeks to delay, deny or restrict Americans' natural, civil and constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms puts us all in greater danger, not less.

Robert Farago is the publisher of thetruthaboutguns.com

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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

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

Preservation and Proposition

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Armed Americans pose no threat

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