Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: US: Most Virginians View NRA Favorably

Friday, November 1, 2013

US: Most Virginians View NRA Favorably

Voters, opinions of the NRA may partially explain why the race for governor of Virginia is tightening. A poll conducted for the NRA by ONMessage Inc., found that those Virginians who favor the NRA outnumber its opponents by 51% to 38%. A slight majority (46% to 43%) oppose NRA in Virginia's Washington, D.C., suburbs, but outside the D.C. media market, NRA's supporters outnumber its opponents by 19 percentage points.

The poll's findings may be significant, because the two leading candidates in the race--Ken Cuccinelli, the state's Republican Attorney General, and Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and campaign operative for President Bill Clinton and then-Senator Hillary Clinton--have radically different views on gun control.
McAuliffe, rated an 'F' by NRA-PVF, supports: making it a crime to transfer privately-owned firearms between many family and friends; a ban on commonly owned firearms, including the nation's most commonly purchased firearm, the AR-15; and a ban on standard-capacity magazines for handguns and rifles most commonly owned for defensive purposes.

Cuccinelli, 'A'-rated by NRA-PVF, supports the Second Amendment and instead advocates improving the treatment provided to individuals with mental health problems. In a debate with McAuliffe in Richmond on Saturday, Cuccinelli pointed out that no one has ever identified a crime in Virginia that would have been prevented if a law requiring FBI approval of private sales and trades of firearms had been in place.

Apparently, gun control supporters consider Virginia's governor's race to have serious implications for the future. Not only is New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg spending $1.1 million on advertisements attacking Mr. Cuccinelli in the D.C. media market, but the ads are so dishonest that even the anti-gun Washington Post's Fact Checker had to weigh in.

As the Fact Checker points out, ads attacking Cuccinelli for opposing legislation to close the gun show loophole show photographs of the four high-profile murderers in the Virginia Tech, Navy Yard, Newtown, and Aurora crimes; not a single one of whom obtained his firearm(s) from anyone at a gun show. Emotional attack ads need to be scrupulous with the facts, the Fact Checker says. [I]t is misleading to use [the killers' photos] in the ad.

We hope that as they prepare to vote on Tuesday, Virginia voters will consider not only the wide difference between the two candidates positions on gun control, but also the equally wide difference between the ethics of their biggest financial supporters.

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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, November 1, 2013

US: Most Virginians View NRA Favorably

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