Shall Not Be Infringed
How could four words with so simple a meaning, become so misunderstood?
The 2nd Amendment
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.
I’ve grown a reputation as an anarchist, one who often quotes Lysander Spooner regarding the meaninglessness of the United States Constitution as a legal document meant to protect our rights. However, the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights is a shining example of both the constitution’s fervor and its timidity.
An amendment born of strength, recognizing that the final check against the tyranny of any state apparatus is the right of the people to take up arms in their own defense. In order to be able to fulfill this mandate, the arms the people have access to must necessarily be sufficient to overthrow any entity that claims to rule over them. The constitution protects the rights of all to keep such arms ready, and in his Letter to William Smith, Thomas Jefferson confirmed this intent explicitly with his praises for early rebellions against the new government.
The people can not 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 a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independant 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
A New Age of Gun Control
Once there was a time when private citizens owned warships, and cannons, and were responsible to bring their own arms and ammunition to drill with their regular militia, but that culture was short-lived in the rapid industrialization of the United States.
The origins of cultural prohibitions against carrying arms in Europe trace their roots to the institutions of the aristocracy and nobility. Only members of the chivalry, knights, and landed lords were permitted to keep arms and wear their swords in public. At need, peasants could be mustered to a militia to fight a war on behalf of their lord, but the provision of arms was the responsibility of the nobility. This cultural prohibition served to protect the lords and nobility from the eventual uprising of peasants discontent with their lot in life.
The first gun control measures in the United States reflected these same cultural concerns, as the landed gentry of the south used their influence in state legislatures to create prohibitions against freed slaves from possessing arms, in order to protect themselves from the potential of slave uprisings. And while modern gun control has its legislative roots in the National Firearms Act and all its successive updates, the rhetoric of modern gun control has its origins in the politics of racial tension. Amid the rise of racially motivated violence in California, then Governor Ronald Reagan used the state to pass gun control measures with the intent of once again disarming black Americans.
In the years following the sunsetting of the 1994 Clinton-Era Assault weapons ban, Americans began to reclaim their rights from the state through legislative action, passing “constitutional carry” bills at the state level in a number of states. This restoration of rights was accompanied by a rebirth in “gun culture” across the country, as Americans en masse embraced their right to keep and bear arms, and updated their personal arsenals with all manner of modern weaponry.
Yet now in 2022, the petty tyrants occupying the halls of congress, and state legislatures across the land, seek to once again strip Americans of their right to keep and bear arms. With the passage of red flag laws to disarm any deemed to be a threat to themselves or others, and a general assault weapons ban to limit the scope of weapons civilians may legally own, the state has made grand steps towards disarming those who they deem to be enemies of their rule.
Recently the FBI has declared that symbolism and cultural icons traditionally used by veterans groups, libertarians, anarchists, constitutionalists, and other groups that focus on the preservation of liberty are indicative of violent extremism and domestic terrorism. This sets the stage to leverage violent action by state forces to disarm and subjugate those who hold ideologies deemed dangerous to the status quo.
A False Sense of Security
Libertarians and Conservatives in New Hampshire celebrated a victory this past summer with the passage of House Bill 1178, which many claim as a successful nullification bill that eliminates Federal Gun Control powers in New Hampshire.
Now I’m not one to lightly take shots at my own group of friends with the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, but this take is a dangerous one at best. While having the best intentions, the legislative amendment process often creates a distinction between initial intent and legal reality.
HB 1178, AN ACT prohibiting the state from enforcing any federal statute, regulation, or Presidential Executive Order that restricts or regulates the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
This bill prohibits the state of New Hampshire, a political subdivision of this state, or any person acting under the color of state, county, or municipal law from using any personnel or financial resources to enforce, administer, or cooperate with any law, act, rule, order, or regulation of the United States Government or Executive Order of the President of the United States that is inconsistent with any law of this state regarding the regulation of firearms, ammunition, magazines or the ammunition feeding devices, firearm components, firearms supplies, or knives.
The analysis of HB1178 quite simply explains that this bill, now signed into law, merely prohibits the state of New Hampshire from using the resources at its disposal to assist in the enforcement of federal law, it does not outright nullify it. Federal agents with the ATF, DEA, FBI, and any other number of three letter agencies will be able to enforce the law as written by the Federal Government, regardless of any protections the New Hampshire residents expect from their state.
While a prohibition against compliance and enablement is a good start, Granite Staters will not truly be free from the grasp of DC until Federal agents are also prohibited from enforcing the law in the jurisdiction of New Hampshire.
Subversive #79: “We the People” feat. Ben Weir
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Summary
Assault weapons bans, sanctuary states, nullification, a sheriff's election, and the US Constitution. A recipe for confusion and controversy, and Libertarian Candidate for Sheriff Ben Weir joins us to talk about gun control and the rights of the people.
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Guns kill people. There is no way out.