Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Preservation and Proposition
Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.
We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.
FoxNews.com
If we are to believe the mainstream media, the powerful NRA has used its political muscle to keep people ignorant of how guns impact our safety. They are supposedly to blame for the elimination of firearms research. This is all a result of a 1996 amendment to the federal budget stating “None of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.”
By Washington Times (DC) - 2/27/2014
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is objecting to President Obama's nominee to be the next Surgeon General of the United States because of what he says is a history of political advocacy and push for gun controls.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, Mr. Paul writes that he has "serious concerns" about Dr. Vivek Murthy's ability to "impartially serve as 'the Nation's Doctor.' "
Mr. Paul notes that Dr. Murthy is the co-founder of Doctors for America, a project of the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
"The primary policy goals of Dr. Murthy's organization have been focused on advancing stricter gun control laws and promoting the Affordable Care Act," Mr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, wrote in a letter dated Feb. 25.
By FOX - 2/25/2014
A woman was heading inside after pulling her car into the garage at her Detroit, Mich. home when a man armed with a gun attempted to rob her. In response, the resident, a Right-to-Carry permit holder, drew a gun and shot the attacker, killing him.
The shooting marked the third recorded incident in a week in which armed Detroit residents defended themselves from criminal attack. This string of defensive gun uses follows a late-January statement by Detroit Police Chief James Craig, in which the he noted, “I did, in fact, say that good Americans, good Detroiters, if responsible, could get CPLs, and that it could — emphasis on the word ‘could’ — be a deterrent to violent crime.
By Lawrence Hurley - 2/24/2014
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into the politically volatile issue of gun control by leaving intact three court rulings rejecting challenges to federal and state laws.
The court's decision not to hear the cases represented a loss for gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, which was behind two of the challenges.
The first case involved a challenge by the NRA to a Texas law that prevents 18-20 year olds from carrying handguns in public. It also raised the broader question of whether there is a broad right under the Second Amendment to bear arms in public.
By Washington Times (DC) - 2/24/2014
CNN has given up on trying to make Piers Morgan the new Larry King after a three-year run and will pull the plug on the Briton's 9 p.m. talk show, which has been finishing far behind rivals Megyn Kelly on Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.
According to Nielsen ratings from last week, "Piers Morgan Live" was seen nightly by just 270,000 viewers nationwide and only 50,000 people in the key advertising demographic of Americans ages 25 to 54. Ms. Kelly and Ms. Maddow had, respectively, audiences of more than 2 million and 900,000 overall and more than 350,000 and 220,000 in that key 25 to 54 age group.
By Fox News - 2/24/2014
A Texas man trying to cast his ballot at the local courthouse nearly lost his right to vote because he was wearing a shirt which supported his right to bear arms.
Chris Driskill was wearing the black T-shirt (above photo) which read 2nd Amendment -- America's Original Homeland Security.
Driskill was asked to turn the shirt inside out or leave. Why?
Ironically, Driskill was voting on a proposition on expanded support for the Second Amendment and the places where a concealed weapon can be legally carried. Driskill, who works as a security guard in Houston, apparently ran afoul of Texas election law that bars campaigning for any candidate, measure or political party within 100 feet of polling place. His T-shirt could be construed as campaigning in support of gun rights under the law. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor.
He was ultimately allowed to vote after borrowing a suit jacket from a local Republican candidate who was outside the courthouse.
2nd Amendment"---A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The co-author of the 2nd Amendment was asked, what is this
"militia" you speak of. . . .
“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” — Founding Father, George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment.
Posted by Wall Street Journal - 2/20/2014
A new FBI report says that violent crime continues to fall nationwide, which might annoy liberals because gun purchases continue to rise.
In the first six months of 2013, murders fell by nearly 7 percent, compared with the same period in 2012. Aggravated assaults fell by 6.6 percent, and robberies are down 1.8 percent. "All of the offenses in the violent crime category murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, and robbery showed decreases when data from the first six months of 2013 were compared with data from the first six months of 2012," according to the FBI.
Overall, violent crime in the U.S. fell by 5.4 percent. Burglaries, larceny and auto thefts also decreased.
Posted - 2/20/2014
A mother was at home with her children in Detroit, Mich. when three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, broke into the house. The mother responded by retrieving a semi-automatic rifle and warning the intruders that she was armed. When the criminals persisted despite the warning, the mother fired at the home invaders. At first, all three intruders retreated outside the home, but the one armed with a pistol decided to try to enter the home again. The criminal's reentry prompted another round of gunfire from the mother, at which point the armed home invader fled for good.
Police captured the trio a short time later.
By: Raquel Okyay - 2/16/2014
County sheriffs unhappy with gun control laws enacted in the Centennial State last year remain steadfast in undoing unenforceable and unconstitutional laws.
Technically every law enforcement agency in the state is committing a crime, said Weld County Sheriff John B. Cooke, the first-named plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Colorado Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, Jr., a Democrat, who was elected into office in 2010 with 51 percent of the vote.
Under state law when one individual sells or loans a firearm to another, that transfer must be conducted through a Federal Firearms Licensee, said Cooke. The deputies come on duty and are transferring weapons without a federal firearm license making it an illegal transfer.
By Kathleen McGrory
Herald/Times
The Florida affiliate of the National Rifle Association has a new priority: the right to bear Pop-Tarts.
The group is supporting a proposal that would prevent children from being disciplined for playing with simulated weapons in school.
That includes brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food, according to the bill.
The language refers to a Maryland boy who was suspended for chewing his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. He was later given lifetime membership to the National Rifle Association.
By: John Hayward - 2/14/2014
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, aka the Ninth Circus, is hardly a bastion of judicial conservatism. That makes its decision striking down California gun-control laws all the more earthshaking. As is often the case with landmark court rulings, the story is far from over there is some more wrangling to be done in the Ninth Circuit before the scene shifts to the Supreme Court, which is likely to intervene due to conflicts with other circuit court rulings. The next step will probably be a full court review of the 2-1 ruling from this three-judge panel.
Perhaps we will come to view Thursday's ruling as the beginning of the end of the gun-control movement as we have known it in the United States. If this decision holds all the way through the Supreme Court, some core tenets of that movement will soundly defeated for a very long time to come. For the moment, as
SFGate reports, we have a challenge to a county ordinance that's already blossomed into the evisceration of California's permit system:
By: John Hayward - 2/14/2014
The
big story out of California is a possibly mortal blow struck against the gun-control movement as it exists today. Part of that story involves the assertion of dignity and independence by citizens who don't think their inalienable right to keep and bear arms should be a crumb they beg off their political masters table. The Second Amendment is a powerful statement of citizen supremacy over the State: we have the right to defend ourselves, not place blind and helpless faith in the ability of the government to protect us, and yes indeedy, that means we will hold weapons that pose a serious obstacle to tyrannical ambition.
Arrests aren't the only thing, but they are a big thing.
By David S. Bernstein - 2/10/2014
Well, the new mayor of Boston made it almost exactly a month in office before doing something so utterly moronic that I feel compelled to heap verbal abuse upon him.
Marty Walsh has decided to institute a gun-buyback program.
Let me try to explain this through analogy: trying to reduce gun violence through a gun buyback program is like trying to reduce motor-vehicle accidents through a used-car trade-in offer.
If you'd like a more extensive argument, you can read
the diatribe I penned when Tom Menino tried the strategy, back in mid 2006. I have data showing clearly that the level of gun violence remained virtually unchanged, both in the short term and for the next three years or so, after the buyback.
By: Richard L. Johnson - 6/1/2013
Get the pitchforks and torches folks, I'm going to commit firearms heresy. For my money the SIG P220 is the best .45 fighting pistol on the market. Yes! better than the 1911.
How can I suggest that something other than the 1911 is the best fighting handgun? After all, the 1911 is called the 1911 because that is the year the United States adopted it as the Army's official sidearm. In addition to the great ergonomics and high manufacturing quality, the P220 is reliable. Absolutely reliable. And for a fighting handgun, reliability must be absolute.
The SIG Sauer P220 is a full size handgun chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The gun has been around since the 1970's and appears to be more popular today than it has ever been. Currently, there are a multitude of different models and variations of the gun, each of which attracts different shooters to the pistol.
By FoxNews.com - 2/09/2014
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this month whether to hear two cases seeking clarification on what the Constitution's framers intended in granting citizens the right to not only own but also bear arms.
Lyle Denniston, a National Constitution Center adviser, writes on the
Philadelphia Inquirer's website that the National Rifle Association has, of late, brought two cases before the Supreme Court challenging prevailing legal wisdom that while the Second Amendment grants U.S. citizens the right to own or keep arms, that right does not necessarily extend to their ability to bear arms outside of their personal residences.
By John Lott - 2/7/2014
FoxNews.com
Gun control advocates not only push new fees and taxes on guns to reduce ownership, but they also employ another tactic: scaring people into not owning guns.
Last week, on January 31, ABC News saturated its news programs with the alleged danger of gun ownership.
It started early in the day with a segment on Good Morning America, then came a report on the evening news, and finally an entire hour devoted to the subject on "20/20."
- Scaremongering about guns costs lives by making us less safe and turning people into sitting ducks for criminals.
-
The reports all focused on the dangers guns pose for children.
Although a producer for ABC News spent hours asking me questions about this subject before the reports aired on various news programs, our discussions seemed to have had no impact.
What I told them just didn't fit the type of story they wanted to tell.
By: The Poughkeepsie Journal - 2/6/2014
I'm the mayor of one of the largest cities in the Hudson Valley, just 90 minutes north of New York City.
I'm a life member of the National Rifle Association and a former member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, or MAIG, started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.
I'm no longer a member of MAIG. Why? Just as Ronald Reagan said of the Democratic Party, it left me. And I'm not alone: Nearly 50 pro-Second Amendment mayors have left the organization. They left for the same reason I did.
MAIG became a vehicle for Bloomberg to promote his personal gun-control agenda violating the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and taking resources away from initiatives that could actually work to protect our neighborhoods and save precious lives.
Gun control will actually make a bad situation worse.
By: Raquel Okyay - 2/2/2014
A professor of law and author of
Negroes And The Gun told
Guns & Patriots his newly released book describes the mostly undocumented historical account of blacks bearing arms.
I grew up in rural West Virginia. Everybody I knew had guns, said Nicholas J. Johnson a professor of law at Fordham University, a Jesuit college located in New York City. In a score of scholarly articles Johnson has been covering the Second Amendment topic for the past 20 years.
The book is an extension of my scholarships, said the Harvard Law School graduate.
Historically blacks were targeted for gun control, he said. It is explicit as early as 1680 in Colonial America.
The U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly has sided with defenders of the Second Amendment, ruling that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to bear arms and that states cannot unreasonably restrict that right.
There’s also a case
pending before the U.S. Supreme Court considering whether or not states can limit the right to self-defense to a citizen’s private home.
Now, in a related move, U.S senators have proposed a law to establish that the right to bear arms cannot be restricted by political boundaries. The bill would establish that a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state is valid in all states that allow concealed-carry.
