The Reactionary Attack On The Second Amendment
Roger Shankel - February 3rd, 2001 
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.
When we the people penned those words into The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States we bestowed upon ourselves a right that for most of the rest of the world belonged only to the nobility. Unlike the way some on the left interpret these words today, they have nothing to do with duck hunting or drilling holes in paper targets and everything to do with our freedom and our responsibility to maintain that freedom. This amendment is a form of guarantee that the citizens of this country will never be enslaved, or oppressed by a foreign power, or made subjects of our own government. It is a notification that every American citizen has a right to be secure in his or her own home and will have the ability to defend that home.
This is a noble concept worthy of a great republic but rights guaranteed by the second amendment are under attack. In keeping with the political theory of former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to never let a crisis go to waste, it is predicted that President Obama will make full use of the Tucson tragedy to push for some type of new restrictions on firearm ownership. In a Newsweek article published on 27JAN11 it is suggested that the President will move in a few weeks to introduce new regulations that address the availability of firearms. Like may policies championed by this administration, the details of the soon to be proposed regulations are being held very close to the vest but given some of Obama’s comments on gun ownership there is a chance that these regulations may not bode well for supporters of the second amendment. A telling insight into President Obama’s mindset on the issue came in April of 2008 while at a fundraiser in San Francisco he linked gun ownership and religion with xenophobia, racism, and bitterness. The words he spoke that day did not sound like a ringing endorsement of the second amendment so I believe I can be forgiven my apprehension.
President Obama is not alone in pushing for new restrictions on firearms. Earlier this month Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy proposed a bill that would limit magazine capacity and restrict sale or transfer of any that held over ten rounds. This bill would clearly remove a valuable self defense tool from the hands of law abiding citizens. I am sure that this bill and the President’s to be announced policy will not be the last we will see on this issue. We should be aware that there may be new attempts to either ban firearms outright or to whittle down our second amendment rights by banning magazines based on capacity or weapons based on appearance.
The advocates of new restrictive firearm laws overlook one simple fact. The fact is that laws only affect law abiding people, whereas they seem to have no effect what so ever on criminals. New laws will only serve to disarm law abiding citizens and place them in that no man’s land between criminals and the response time of our over worked police departments. I am sure that the framers of the Constitution did not envision an America where its citizens are forced to cower in fear in their own homes praying that the police arrive in time to limit the damage a criminal can do to them or their families. However, I am sure that that is exactly the type of America the hard left imagines. The Holy Grail of hard left political objectives has long been the disarming of the American people. Many on the left claim that disarming law abiding citizens is a safety issue but I submit it is a control issue. If we are left without the means of self defense we are more dependent on the government. The more dependent on the government we are the less likely we are to raise objections or resist intrusion into our lives, and therefore the more control the self appointed elite have over us.
I for one will be keeping an eye on my representatives and fully intend to make my opinion known to them on this issue. If you value your second amendment rights and the individual freedoms that the framers have envisioned for us, I suggest you do the same.
Newsweek: "White House to Push Gun Control" - Obama intentionally did not mention gun control in his State of the Union, but aides say that in the next two weeks the administration will unveil a campaign to get Congress to toughen existing laws," by Daniel Stone January 27, 2011
Spero
News: "Obama's gun-control history in the Illinois Senate - While a
board member of the leftist Joyce Foundation, Barack Obama wrote checks
for tens of millions of dollars to extremist gun control organizations,"
By Rich Pearson | Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Politico: "Obama on small-town Pa.: Clinging to religion, guns, xenophobia," By Ben Smith | April 11, 2008
International Buisness Times: "Congresswoman pushes gun-clip ban," By Joseph Picard | January 19, 2011 7:40 AM IST
