The Second Amendment for every home: More than a right.

By John Longenecker

Safer streets will be a reflection of a healthy self-governance. Unsafe

streets reflects the removal of the citizen from the equation of

self-governance. The Vote can do only so much. 

When more citizens are armed in any given population, a deterrence of crime

prevails. Freedom and prosperity can thrive. It's good for family, it's good

for business, it's good for the country. 

When we are asked why a gun owner has so many guns, we answer why a home has

so many fire extinguishers. It is an analog. Citizen Preparedness. 

When cities around the nation adopted EMS systems - Paramedics - they also

embarked on training citizens in passerby CPR so the patient has a chance

from the moment aid is summoned. Citizen Preparedness.

And when militias are formed by individuals in any community for the purpose

of surviving shortages, civil unrest during a general depletion of state or

federal assets in local safety, that, too, is citizen preparedness. 

None of these is an expression of anger at bigger government; each

understands the shortcomings of bigger government, and oftentimes - as we

have seen in disasters large and small - the government is so bloated that

it is muscle-bound and ineffectual. Help can take anywhere from days to

weeks to arrive. Dependency on this  --- waiting for help - is adverse to

the interests of citizens and their communities. 

Who fills the void? Would you know that every citizen has the authority to

act in the absence of Police and EMS? More on this throughout this series. 

Preparedness means Independence, and Independence means survival. Survival

of the individual, survival of the family, survival of the culture and the

nation. 

When this column talks about the second amendment, we will be talking about

a spirit of self-discovery, personal authority, the spirit of independence

fought for and purchased by our founding fathers with their lives, their

fortunes and their sacred honor, and we will be talking about the personal

dignity that comes from this overall spirit of preferring to be on your own

and loving it. 

At present, a bigger government is doing two things which Americans said

could never happen here: 1) it is usurping liberties under color of justice

of lifting burdens, trying to take your place in a so-called nanny state

mandate, and: 2) it has never improved on the wisdom of the independent and

sovereign citizen under our way of life: instead, it ultimately abandons the

citizens and consistently leaves citizens on their own anyway. 

The countermeasure for the citizen who wants to be free is to choose being

on your own and loving it. 

This is the true meaning of the second amendment to our Constitution; that

an armed citizenry discredits beyond question the need for any substitute

which professes to do it better or to resolve some problem, such as violent

crime. This is the knowledge that the citizen is the best arbiter of his or

her own best interests. Understanding just how the second amendment protects

you is encyclopedic, and will fill many editions of this commentary and news

analysis. 

The discovery of this first truth is what keeps abusive government at bay,

not necessarily any sort of shoot-outs with troops at gunpoint, but by the

frank moral, legal, and intellectual counterpoint of law and sovereign

authority: Ours. 

The second amendment has a powerful meaning even for non-gun owners, because

it protects not guns, but the spirit of an independence that penetrates all

aspects of personal dignity and freedom. It is under this authority that the

sovereign - the citizens and not governments - retain the monopoly on all

lethal force in this country, from civilian oversight of law enforcement to

the military to personal firearms to citizen arrest. We delegate authority

to these people and retain for ourselves all legal authority over them. The

second amendment is the lethal force which backs our sovereign authority. 

Because the citizen is the sovereign and the government our servants, the

idea that government is somehow smarter is ludicrous. Who is smarter becomes

a non-issue in view of the fact that the people are the sovereign and the

government is not. Public servants may be in a central position to receive

information, but they are not smarter nor sovereign. And they may be

ambitious and powerful as we have delegated them powers to do the jobs we

have hired them to do, but they are not smarter nor sovereign. 

President Reagan said that if Americans are not smart enough to govern

themselves, then who among us can govern another? The issue is now without

meaning, because the citizen is the sovereign and the government is not. 

This critical thinking is not hatred of government, it is expectation of

integrity and accountability of our public servants to whom we give a job.

It is not hatred of government, it is in fact to invoke it in service with

limited powers, not expanded powers not granted. This supervision of

government by the sovereign is not hatred of government, it is to invoke due

process and the authority of our sovereignty over government to carry out

our wishes, not theirs. 

This is the second amendment at work, deterrence of adversity from the

nation's inception, beginning with a deterrence of bigger government by

discrediting the need for it to take your place as the first line of defense

in violence and, in fact, in all things.

The second amendment is so much more than a right, so much more than

hunting, so much more than personal self-defense. 

More to come.  

Good to have you with us. 

Be sure to register for my Safer Streets Newsletter.

_____________________________

John's website is www.GoodFortheCountry.com  His latest book is Safer

Streets 2010, the e-book, available online at

www.NationwideConcealedCarry.com

Tags: Columnists

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 - 4:20 PM
Category: 2nd Amendment/Gun Rights.

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