With all the gun control hullabaloo going on right now in the wake of the Arizona shootings, I decided this was the perfect time to write an article about the methodical dismantling of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, that has been going on since the 1800s. Everyone needs to be made aware this isn't just about the taking of one right,
(even though losing one right is one right lost too many), this is about governmental control, and the fundamental destruction of the American way of life. And it's been going on far too long.
The Second Amendment states: "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." Sounds pretty simple and straightforward right? States are to keep militias, and peoples right to bear arms cannot be denied for any reason, at least that's my take on it, and I'm not the only one. Thomas Jefferson said, "The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed, until they try to take it." Somewhere along the line people forgot what Jefferson said, (or maybe they became complacent about their freedom), and instead of taking up arms to protect the second amendment like Jefferson suggested, they let legislators and judges whittle away at their rights. Either way, it's all water under the bridge now, and your rights to keep and bear arms have been eroded so much over the years, they are virtually non-existent in the present day.
Believe it or not, Arkansas of all places set the stage for the assault on the second amendment. A man named Buzzard was indicted for carrying a concealed weapon in the Chicot Circuit Court. On hearing both sides of the argument, the indictment was thrown out on constitutional grounds. The prosecutor for the state, not liking his case being found unconstitutional, appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, and the decision of the lower court was overturned in 1842. Justice C.J. Ringo in his majority opinion, wrote the legislators had written the laws based on the common welfare of all the people, (he was wrong, the US is based on individual, not collective rights), he felt the founding fathers had written the Second Amendment during a time when there was no standing army in place, and the defense of the nation rested on a well armed populace. Justice Lacy wrote in his dissent, the majority came to their decision using the words, "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state," and, "common defense," which he said proved to the majority, that both the Arkansas and the US Constitutions proved the Second Amendment was a political, rather than an individual right. This decision gave license to every heinous piece of gun legislation ever conceived of in this country, to be passed into law.
In the wake of their loss, and the sudden emancipation of the slaves, nervous legislators in the south, in 1865, began passing legislation banning blacks from owning firearms. To them it was a very unthinkable and horrible thought, that the very people they had been oppressing for son long, might suddenly rise up, and get even on a grand scale. It didn't matter in the least that blacks were now a free people, and citizens of the United States. These laws were based on personal fear, nothing else.
The federal government didn't get involved in the gun control issue until the 20th century, and did so with a small law, kind of testing the waters if you will, but one federal gun law is too many.
The roaring twenties were a time of great prosperity, new innovations, jazz music, and dance clubs. The 1920s were also a time of prohibition in the US. Of course now, everyone knows when you try to legislate morality, the underworld will make huge profits on what was legislated against, and so it was with prohibition. The US saw huge spikes in gangland related crimes when prohibition was passed into law, and in 1927, in an effort to combat that crime, Calvin Coolidge, a Republican from Vermont, became the first president in history to sign federal gun control legislation into law. This stinky piece of legislation made it illegal to send concealable weapons through the US Mail. This law was only the beginning, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt followed it up a few years later, by passing the first of his two infamous gun laws.
FDR gave us the National Firearms Act of 1934, and the Federal Firearms Act of 1938, let's explore what those two laws did.
The National Firearms Act of 1934 regulated shotguns and rifles with barrels less than 18" long, machine guns, and silencers, by making them illegal, it charged a $1000.00 tax on manufacturers of those firearms, and a $500.00 tax on the dealers of them. It also placed a $200.00 per sale, (about $3200.00 now)each time one of those firearms was sold. The law also called for the guns and accessories listed in the NFA to be registered with the US Treasury Department, and the information from the registries was given to the states, so both state and federal authorities could keep track of who owned those items. The stated purpose for the taxes on manufacturers, dealers, and sales of the firearms and accessories listed in the NFA was to raise money for government coffers, the unofficial reasoning behind the taxes was to discourage people from buying NFA listed items.
The Federal Firearms Act of 1938, (the bigger power grab of FDR's two firearms laws), invoked the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, and imposed a $1.00 tax on manufacturers, dealers, and importers of firearms in interstate sales. It also called for the registration of all handguns, and the sale of all handguns, and ammunition had to be recorded by manufactures, dealers, and importers. With the FFA it became illegal for felons, and those under felony indictment to own or possess a firearm, and guns with marred or destroyed serial numbers became illegal as well. The FFA was eventually folded into the Gun Control Act of 1968.
With the deaths of such high profile people as President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, by gunfire in the 1960's, there was alot of fear among politicians in the United States, and the slew of nearly endless protests over civil rights, and the war in Vietnam, did little to ease the fear of lawmakers. A fearful congress, aided by President Lyndon B. Johnson, decided to take action, and passed two pieces of legislation in 1968, which made the power grab by FDR in the '30s seem weak and ineffectual in comparison.
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, (the first of the two acts with gun control laws in them to be signed into law by Johnson), required federal licensing of all firearms manufactures, dealers, and importers. It made it illegal for any but those federally licensed to take a handgun across state lines for the sale of the gun, and banned the sale of all firearms to illegal immigrants, dishonorably discharged military veterans, anyone adjudicated as mentally ill, or having spent time in a mental institution, felons, and those under felony indictment. As if that wasn't enough, the Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed into law, making just about everything but pouring milk down the kitchen sink illegal, though I'm sure they will find some way to do that eventually. All sarcasm aside, the Gun Control Law of 1968 did more to strip individual liberty from people, than any law passed up to that time.
Johnson's Gun Control Law of 1968 made it illegal for those suffering from drug addiction, fugitives from justice, people who had renounced their US citizenship, and those with restraining orders against them, to purchase or own firearms in the US. It also became illegal for anyone convicted of the misdemeanor crime of domestic violence on their records to posses or own firearms of any kind. Handgun sales were banned for anyone under the age of 21, and the sale of rifles and shotguns was banned for individuals under 18 years of age. The mail order of firearms, (except those designated as antiques or curios), was barred by this law, as was the importation of foreign military surplus weapons, assault rifles, and machine guns. And this monstrous law, defined and outlawed Saturday Night Specials for ownership in this country.
This is turning into a much longer article than I envisioned it would be when I began writing it, but I had no clue at the time, how extensive the trampling of the Second Amendment truly has been. With that said it's time to move on to the gutting of the US Constitution done by the Clinton Administration in 1993 and 1994.
In 1993 President William Jefferson Clinton signed into law The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. AKA The Brady Bill, which required a federal background check on all purchases of handguns from a federally licensed manufacturer, gun dealer or importer. This law was followed by the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which as the name suggests banned the sale of assault rifles and shotguns by dealers in the US. Thankfully for gun enthusiasts this law was allowed to expire in 2004.
As you can see, there have been many federal laws on gun control passed by legislators and presidents since 1927, these laws are just the tip of the iceberg, as many more laws have been passed at the state level, and written by the various US Government agencies, including the ATF and the EPA. The state laws and the regulations are far too many too write about in one article, and a person should look up gun laws in his or her state, and at the federal level, so as not to find oneself on the wrong side of the little by a simple error.
Some may say it's OK for to ban the people who have been banned from owning a firearm, and to them I say what happens when speeding or jaywalking, or any number of civil infractions and misdemeanors become felonies? And that could very well happen in this country. At the beginning of this article I talked about the State v Butler case in Arkansas, at the time of that case, carrying a concealed weapon was only a misdemeanor offense, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, is a felony and carries substantially heavier penalties now than it did then. You cannot base a freedom on something as ever changing as state and federal laws. Liberties in the United States used to be, (and should be now), based solely on citizenship, and nothing else, anything less makes a person subservient to the government, rather than the other way around. This is a government for the people, by the people, not a government for the government, sucking at the life's breath of the people it was meant to serve.
I would like to finish up by adding that there are very few, if any politicians in this country who are pro-gun ownership. I know, I know, you hear all the time from candidate Joe Blow who swears he is pro-gun, well Joe is pandering for the gun vote. Next time you hear a politician say they are pro-gun, ask them what bills they have introduced to repeal gun laws in their own states, chances are they are pro-gun, right up until it's time to do away with gun control laws, at which point they waffle. My favorite pro-gun argument by politicians is when they claim they wrote or passed a law giving you more gun rights, I call BS to that claim, you cannot give someone more gun rights than were granted in the Second Amendment, it's just not possible, the way the Second Amendment is written, makes gun rights implicit and inviolate. If you truly want gun rights, contact your legislators, and have them repeal gun laws already in place, only when the Second Amendment is fully restored, will you have any realistic gun rights in the US.
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