By Roger Katz
No other Nation on Earth accepts the notion that its citizens have an inherent, independent right to keep and bear arms. But, the founders of our Nation conceived Americans as individuals who have their own personal needs and desires; their own individual hopes and dreams.
The founders perceived each American to be a unique individual soul. They understood that each life is ordained and governed by the divine creator, not by the state. And they crafted a free Republic consistent with that belief.
Government exists to serve the American citizen. The American citizen does not exist to serve Government.
Americans, as individuals, are not an amorphous collective, to be shepherded and controlled with an iron fist. The founders recognized that a constitution for a new nation must be carefully crafted to uphold and respect the sanctity of the individual, lest the nation devolve into tyranny—the yoke of which the founders had fought hard to throw off, and which they certainly had no wish to impose anew on the fledgling Nation they sought to erect.
The principle of the sanctity and inviolability of the individual over that of the societal collective was, for the founders of a free republic, self-evidently true. That salient principle is reflected in and manifested in the Nation’s Bill of Rights. No other Nation on this Earth has a Bill of Rights like ours that makes clear that the government of this nation is subordinate to and subservient to the will of the American people; always and forever.
In the event those who wield power in Government happen to think otherwise, or happen to forget this salient fact, the Second Amendment exists as an ever-present reminder to government officials and legislators.
Eric Swalwell incessantly, ferociously attacks the Second Amendment and acts as if he is seemingly oblivious to the import of the Second Amendment. Or perhaps, more likely, he is all too aware of it.
Yet politicians such as New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo and Swalwell as well as those who work in the mainstream media incessantly, ferociously attack the Second Amendment, act as if they’re oblivious to the intent of the Second Amendment, or perhaps, more likely, they are all too aware of it. That would explain their single-minded obsession with it and heavy-handed efforts to defeat it.
Politicians, pundits, educators, and jurists intend, unabashedly, to upend the very integrity and structural foundation of our nation. They do so by masking their policy objectives in the guise of promoting the public good. But through that very argument—denigrating the Second Amendment to promote and protect the welfare of society—the deviousness and insidiousness of their objectives become readily apparent.
They seek to reconfigure the nation into a societal collective, a dictatorship of a kind; one that many on the Left euphemistically, slyly, and disingenuously, refer to as democratic socialism. An expression coined merely to mask their vision that is the antithesis of anything the Founders had sought.
In the new America the radical Left in this country conceives, there is no place for an armed citizenry. There is no protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. There is no room for individuals to speak their mind, freely and openly. Even the concept of personal property would rest on shaky ground as that concept is inconsistent with the precepts of socialism.
The Bill of Rights stands as a testament to the founders’ belief in the sanctity and inviolability of the individual over that of the collective. It should come as no surprise, then, as we see the radical Left criticizing the Bill of Rights, attempting to second-guess the framers’ reason for incorporating it into the Constitution, as a critical part of it.
The collectivists are openly critical of the very idea that certain rights–indeed, that any right–is to be, or can rationally be deemed natural, fundamental, and unalienable. For them, all rights are created by and therefore bestowed on the citizenry by government. And what government bestows on a person is solely within the prerogative of government to take away.
Thus, collectivists relentlessly attack the notion of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. They are adamant in their refusal to accept the idea that the right of the people to keep and bear arms exists– or is even capable of existing–independent of Government authorization.
There is reason why collectivists refuse to countenance the notion of the right of the people to keep and bear arms as fundamental, natural, and immutable, quite apart from their rejection of natural law. To the collectivist, an armed citizenry is an inherent danger to society.
As the collectivist theorizes, a safe and secure society is one under absolute governmental control, under constant supervision and surveillance. So collectivists remonstrate not only against the existence of an armed citizenry, but against the right of unconstrained freedom of speech and freedom of association. They attack the basic idea that the American citizen has an unalienable right to be secure in their person and possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Collectivists place their sole faith and trust in government, not in the citizenry. They presume that individual citizens cannot be trusted. The Founders, however, placed their trust and faith in the individual. For the founders, it is, then, government that should not, and cannot be trusted.
Thus the Founders designed and implemented a Constitution establishing a government of limited power, authority, and reach, incorporating into the Constitution, a Bill of Rights, setting forth an expansive set of fundamental, natural, and immutable rights and liberties to be retained solely by the people, beyond the power of government to diminish or abrogate.
Collectivists in this country, however, have no respect for the singular achievement of our nation’s Founders. They actively pursue an agenda aimed at undoing the constitutional republic, grounded in a Constitution that has served the American people well for over two hundred years. They are absolutely committed to seeing their bizarre vision for this Country come to fruition. We must make sure they don’t succeed.
Roger J. Katz has practiced law for the federal government in Washington D.C., for the state government in Arizona, and has been in private practice in Ohio, New York, and Arizona. Roger is a co-founder of Arbalest Group LLC, creator of the Arbalest Quarrel weblog, dedicated to strengthening the Second Amendment, preserving our Bill of Rights, and maintaining a free republic.
This article was originally published at arbalestquarrel.com and is reprinted here with permission.