Birthplace of the Second Amendment 1765: Another Tragedy at Fort Hood

Monday, April 7, 2014

Another Tragedy at Fort Hood

By Tim Schmidt - USCCA FOUNDER - 4/6/2014

It is with a heavy heart that I once again, on behalf of everyone here at the USCCA, extend our sincerest condolences to the victims and families affected by Wednesday's Fort Hood tragedy.

I have to admit that this latest shooting stirs up many emotions in me. Sadness. Anger. Betrayal. And, of course, the ever-pervasive question: "When will it end?"

The tragedy in Texas serves as a chilling reminder of two important, unresolved issues affecting our great nation today: the delicate topic of guns and mental illness, and the danger of disarming our soldiers.
Wednesday's gunman, Specialist Ivan Lopez, served as a truck driver in Iraq in 2011 and was reportedly being treated for depression and anxiety. Combine that with the fact that "soldiers on all military installations, including Fort Hood, are not armed while on post, nor are they permitted to carry any privately owned firearms" and, well, you saw the news reports.

Now, I don't proclaim to have all the answers, but I do know that guns in the hands of trained, responsibly armed Americans is always a good thing.

According to Fox News, this unfortunate tragedy "renews calls to end restrictions on service members carrying weapons on post." The article continues:

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said it's time to change the rules.

"We need to harden our military bases so this can't happen, and one possible way to do that is to allow our veterans and active-duty military...to carry weapons," he told Fox News. "I guarantee if they had...they could have stopped this guy almost immediately."

I mentioned this a few months ago after what transpired at the Washington Navy Yard, and I believe it warrants repeating: it is sometimes easier to give in to the sadness and even the anger we feel over the events that transpired than it is to fight harder against the evil that exists around us.

With that being said, I believe we must fight harder to ensure that our returning soldiers have access to the best mental health services, and that all law-abiding Americans who suffer from unseen illnesses are treated with respect and compassion.

I believe we must fight harder to ensure that our veterans and active-duty military have the right to carry weapons to protect themselves.

I believe we must fight harder to uncover the root causes of what drives individuals to use guns for evil so that next time, we can recognize the signs before it's too late.

I know...it's sometimes hard to believe that you and I have the power to effect change.

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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

Monday, April 7, 2014

Another Tragedy at Fort Hood

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