http://www.newswithviews.com/metcalf/metcalf120.htm

AN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT




By Geoff Metcalf

December 24, 2004

NewsWithViews.com

"The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed
until they try to take it." --Thomas Jefferson

Guess what? The Second 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.") has, does, and will
secure "an individual right to keep and bear arms."

You knew that. I knew that. However, a cabal of leftists remains in
denial over what even their own Constitutional scholar had concluded.

Notwithstanding the itching and moaning and gnashing of teeth from the
left wing radical fringe, it is an empirical fact that our God given
inalienable right to keep and bear arms is FACT.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel has
officially concluded the Second Amendment "secures an individual right
to keep and bear arms." Duh!

Despite having been dated Aug. 24, the 93-page document was just
released. 'Someone' delayed the release for apparent political
reasons. This is passing strange considering even liberal democrats
acknowledge one of the key components that cost Al Gore his
presidential dream was his having embraced the Chuck Schumer/Diane
Fienstein/Babs Boxer anti-gun mantra.

The belatedly released research notes, "examination of the original
meaning of the Amendment provides extensive reasons to conclude that
the Second Amendment secures an individual right, and no persuasive
basis for either the collective-right or quasi-collective-right
views."

As Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan M. Gottlieb observed,
"Henceforth, all Americans will know that the claim by anti-gunners
that the Amendment only protects some mythical right of the states to
form militias and National Guard units is an outright fraud."

Please note the 'allegedly unbiased' mainstream hasn't said "Jack"
about this epiphany.

Even, liberal darling and Harvard Constitutional Law Professor
Laurence Tribe acknowledged the obvious in 1999 (and again the
mainstream media silence was deafening).

Tribe is arguably the most influential living American constitutional
scholar. In 1999 he concluded, "the federal government may not disarm
individual citizens without some unusually strong justification."

Tribe confirmed it includes an individual right, "admittedly of
uncertain scope," to "possess and use firearms in the defense of
themselves and their homes."

The personification of the Metcalf Bromide of "Some people just don't
want to be confused with FACTS that contradict their preconceived
opinions or prejudices." Is, and has been, the ant-gun crowd.

In 2002 when a legal brief was filed by the Justice Department
declaring that this protection extends to an individual's right to
keep and bear arms irrespective of their involvement in a state
militia the gun control crowd threw a hissy fit. Sonic wedgie time:
"The worst fears about Attorney General Ashcroft have come true: His
extreme ideology on guns has now become government policy." said Mike
Barnes, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Despite his extensive liberal bona fides, Tribe (begrudgingly and
belatedly) concluded that the Constitution ensured to each American a
right to "possess and use firearms in defense of themselves and their
homes."

The Second Amendment never has meant 'Jack-spit' about bird hunting or
target shooting. Such leftist babble was disingenuous, duplicitous and
an outrage to defend the indefensible.

The fact is the Second Amendment was specifically intended to provide
American citizens with the tools necessary to rise up and overthrow an
abusive government. It was written by men who had just done that very
thing.

The first three battles of the American Revolution were not about
taxation, or representation, or even the list of grievances delineated
in the Declaration of Independence....the first three battles of the
War for Independence were over gun control. [read: Lexington 1775]
When Captain Parker faced off the British on the Green in Lexington it
was to prevent the British from confiscating "power and ball".

"There should be no doubt," Gottlieb concluded, "that those who have
campaigned for restrictive gun laws or outright gun bans have been
working to rob Americans of a constitutional right, a civil right. The
time has come for America to re-examine every restrictive federal and
state firearms statute, every local ordinance and every regulation,
and start erasing those that were written solely to infringe on the
rights of individual, law-abiding citizens to peaceably own firearms
of their choice, without ever again having to explain why." Despite
his righteous indignation, I hope Alan isn't holding his breath.

It was again Thomas Jefferson who said, "The strongest reason for
people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort,
to protect themsleves against tyranny in government."

The entire report is available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm

© 2004 Geoff Metcalf - All Rights Reserved
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