The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 4-20-2016

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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 4-20-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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In Defense of Liberty
The Unalienable Civil Right to Keep and Bear Arms

By Mark Alexander

Apr. 20, 2016

“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.” —Article the Second, Bill of Rights1 (1791)

In the first days of January this year, the statist regime now occupying the executive branch set out to make good on its primary goal for 2016 — the implementation of additional firearm eradication policies.

In October of last year, Barack Obama announced his primary objective for his last year in office: undermining the Second Amendment on the pretense of “solving” America’s “gun problem.”

He directly referenced confiscation of guns as the centerpiece of that agenda, asserting that “other countries have been able to craft” gun control laws, such as “Great Britain and Australia.” Of course, the UK and Australia have confiscated almost all guns — with dubious results.

Notably, Obama insisted2, “We should politicize this,” and he set about to do just that with more vigor than at any time in his previous seven years.

His New Year’s resolution3 to target guns began with a highly promoted faux “town hall meeting4” to launch his anti-2A agenda. Contrary to his previous prompt to “politicize” the issue, he lamented that gun control “has become one of our most polarized, partisan debates.”

“The gun lobby,” he caterwauled, “may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage. … We can find the courage to cut through all the noise and do what a sensible country would do.”

“We can find the courage”? To disarm ourselves? Fellow Patriots, there’s a term that describes those who cede their right to keep and bear arms: sheep.

And for the record, a “sensible country” and a disarmed citizenry are mutually exclusive terms. Throughout history, disarming citizens has resulted in everything but civilized or sensible countries.

In fact, only one nation has ensured by its law of incorporation, that an armed citizenry is the only way to both ensure and sustain a civilized and sensible government.

Of all the historic days on our American Patriot’s calendar, one above all others is devoted to the battle for Liberty — April 19th, 1775, which saw the opening salvos of the American Revolution.

We celebrated Patriots' Day5 this week, the anniversary of the first armed confrontation between our American Patriot6 forefathers and armed enforcers of an oppressive government. It is no small irony that the first shots of the Revolution were fired in response to an order to confiscate weapons.

General Thomas Gage, Royal military governor of Massachusetts, dispatched a force of 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, with secret orders to arrest Tea Party leader Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Provincial Congress president John Hancock and merchant fleet owner Jeremiah Lee, and to capture and destroy arms and supplies stored by the Massachusetts militia in the town of Concord.

But a silversmith named Paul Revere and his Patriot allies Samuel Prescott and William Dawes spoiled the raid, riding into the night ahead of the British to warn the Sons of Liberty. Consequently, in the early morning of April 19th, those British regulars were met first by a small band of 77 militiamen — farmers and tradesmen — on Lexington Green. Being greatly outnumbered, their militia captain, John Parker, told his men to disperse. However, Smith ordered his men to fire on Parker’s men because they refused to lay down arms, killing eight of the militiamen.

It was later in the day as the British moved up the road and were completing their search of Concord that they were met again by militia — this time a much larger contingent of 400 who had formed at Concord’s Old North Bridge under the command of John Buttrick. The British fired first, killing two and wounding four. But it was there that American Patriots returned the first shots in defense of Liberty, and in fact overwhelmed their oppressors. The militiamen, joined by John Parker’s men, chased the Redcoats 20 miles back to Boston.

The historical details of that day are of great interest to those of us who study such momentous events. But what is most notable about that day, and about the battles which followed over the next eight years, is that American Liberty would never have been won were it not for our Forefathers' understanding of the most fundamental right7 of self-defense. That right would be codified in Article Two8 of our Bill of Rights9, appended to our Republic’s Constitution10, specifying that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

To that end, I offer the following thoughts from our Founders on the relationship between Liberty and the most essential of all civil rights, that of self-defense.

“The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any… Kingdoms of Europe … are afraid to trust the people with arms.” —James Madison

“The Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” —Samuel Adams

“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense…” —Alexander Hamilton

“To disarm the people … was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” —George Mason