The Danger of the Supreme Court Ruling on Guns

June, 2008 the United States Supreme Court rules that Americans have the right to own guns. Did they have to do this and what is the danger of this ruling?

It is sad that the Supreme Court had to rule on this. It’s well stated in the Constitutions second amendment that Americans do have the right to own guns. It is necessary for our own defense.

It is unlikely that we’ll have to fight with guns to protect our homes from foreign invasion. It’s possible, especially with the threat of terrorism the past ten years, but it’s still unlikely that we’d need our weapons to defend our homes against foreign invasion. We have the best military in the world despite the fear mongers on the liberal side saying that our military is drained.

The Constitution was written following the Revolutionary War. The men that wrote the Constitution were very familiar with tyranny. Farmers and shoemakers and tinsmiths and blacksmiths and land surveyors took up arms to fight the most powerful country on earth for their freedom and the freedom of those that followed in the future. The designing of the Constitution was based on their experience with that tyranny.

If we look at the Declaration of Independence, they give us a reason why it’s necessary for the second amendment. “…That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying is Foundation on such Principals, and organizing its Power in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

What this means is that power is lent to the government by the people. When the government takes power from the people and claims it for itself, it is to the detriment of the people and it’s the people’s right and responsibility to claim that power back. Government takes power from the people by removing their freedoms. The right to own guns, bear arms, is one of those freedoms.

By taking away the right to bear arms, the government then has the ability to coerce the people who will find it much more difficult to exercise the rights and responsibilities stated in the Declaration of Independence.

So what is the danger of this ruling by the Supreme Court? The danger is that it shows our rights are dangerously close to being usurped by the government in each of the three branches of government.

Legislators at all levels are trying to regulate our right to bear arms. This case was about a Washington DC law banning citizens from owning guns for the past 33 years. We also know that there are many in the United States Congress that want to take away our right to bear arms. A prime example is Senator Chuck Schumer. In addition, we’ve had those in the executive branch that wanted to take away those Rights. President Clinton was one that wanted gun control laws. Senator Hillary Clinton, had she been nominated and then elected is another that would have been for a gun ban. Senator Barack Hussein Obama is another that has said he prefers gun control. Now he’s changed his position a couple of times, depending on the group he’s speaking to on any given day, so we’d have to assume he would ban guns.

Now we find out that the Judicial Branch is also looking to ban guns. We know this because the vote on the case of gun control was 5-4. We were lucky that one of the justices, who seems to go back and forth on our rights depending on the topic, voted for the Right to bear arms.

We are precariously close to losing our rights. One nomination away from the vote going the other way. If Obama becomes President and the wrong Justice retires or dies in office, that vote will go the other way and our rights are lost to us.

I could argue all day about how when the gun ban was put in place in Washington DC the crimes increased where guns were used. It’s an old line but it’s still true. If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Or the numerous places where gun carry laws have been passed and those crimes went down. However, that’s no longer the issue. The issue now is our government removing more and more of our rights and if they manage to get a gun ban in place, they will have disarmed us. This is a very real danger and it was pointed out very clearly in this ruling by the Supreme Court last week. It was a great victory, but it should also be a wake up call to all Americans. We’re one vote away from losing more rights, which means we’ll have less freedom.

The danger of this ruling should be a wake up call to us all. We are one vote from that tyranny that our forefathers fought against.

I welcome your comments.

Brett