A better term might be ‘willful ignorance‘. And the willfully ignorant take pride in their ignorance. They wear it like a medal. They don’t want to know anything about those icky guns. And in the case of politicians, they’re equal parts stupid and deceitful.

Certain Americans reveal their Second Amendment illiteracy

Biden capitalizes on every opportunity to broadcast how severely uninformed he is — but this Memorial Day, he settled on airing his ignorance via the gun debate, saying a 9mm bullet will blow a “lung out of the body.”  Those of us who have seen a 9mm round know how emphatically wrong he is.

Yet, despite the gross magnitude of his blunder, it’s not the worst I’ve heard.  As it turns out, many Americans are completely uneducated on every facet of the gun debate, and they share one common denominator — they’re all Democrats.  Let’s take a look back at some of the top contenders for the Democrats’ stupidest moments regarding the right to bear arms.

Patricia Eddington, a former state legislator for the state of New York, once said:

Some of these bullets, as you saw, have an incendiary device on the tip of it, which is a heat-seeking device. So, you don’t shoot deer with a bullet that size. If you do, you could cook it at the same time [emphasis added].

What does Eddington think?  You could shoot a deer and then walk over with a knife and fork, ready to feast?  Despite actually making this claim, Eddington said this prior to the introduction of a gun control package, including a bill she sponsored.

Next up, Mr. Thomas Binger, the prosecuting attorney in the Rittenhouse case.  Although Binger’s registered political affiliation is unknown, FEC contribution data lists donations to ActBlue.  Mr. Binger’s first blunder was picking up a rifle, immediately putting his finger in the trigger well, and aiming it at a room full of people.

Binger’s second mistake was speculating that hollow point rounds “explode” upon impact.  Again, for the educated among us, the appropriate word would be “expand,” as this type of bullet doesn’t detonate into fragments — it’s not a grenade.

Now we have Dianne Feinstein, federal senator from California, who declared:

We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines.

What?  Hunting humans is not legal.  The only legal way to kill humans is via abortion, which she unequivocally supports.

And lastly, we have Donzella James, a state senator out of the great state of Georgia, who stated, “Yes, I believe in the Second Amendment.  But why are we spreading the access to guns to everyone?”

Although we didn’t need a reminder, it is worth pointing out that somehow, being a Democrat politician apparently makes one incapable of understanding firearms, or the idea of a God-given right that is not to be infringed — and brings us a few laughs.

I always have.

Take Gun Banners Rhetoric Seriously

In the wake of a tragic shooting like the one in Uvalde, Texas, one thing is certain to come” The hateful rhetoric from anti-Second Amendment extremists. It’s been the same old, predictably vicious lie that has come since Columbine (or sooner): Because Second Amendment supporters exercise our First Amendment rights to protect the right to keep and bear arms, we are now child-killing domestic terrorists (or worse).

The owner of the company who made the firearm the shooter used to commit the horrific deeds at Robb Elementary School had been labeled an enabler of the murder of children on social media over ads the company ran. That’s a lie, too.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course. It could take a thousand columns to outline all those lies. But Second Amendment supporters need to take the level of rhetoric seriously.

Part of it is simply holding anti-Second Amendment extremists to their own standard. After all, some claimed that Sarah Palin incited Tucson with no more evidence than a symbol laid out on a congressional district in the 2010 midterm elections. That particular blood libel still persists in some quarters.

Crickets made more noise than those same people when someone who intended to carry out a mass shooting at a socially conservative think tank admitted in court that he used the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map” to select his target. But the SPLC never faced any heat for that, certainly nothing near what Palin endured.

And don’t let yourself be gaslit by the likes of Nicolle Wallace, either. The idea that anti-second amendment extremists want to take away guns is not a “frothy delusion” when we actually have people extolling the injustices that England, Australia, and New Zealand inflicted on gun owners for crimes and acts of madness they did not commit.

But at the same time, this rhetoric needs to be taken seriously. These days, we have no idea what sort of permission slip is being signed in someone’s mind because of the words coming from a talking head, a Hollywood celebrity, or even from the White House itself.

Will it be a bank or credit card company CEO deciding to financially deplatform gun-rights groups, gun manufacturers, or FFLs? Will it be an employer who decides to fire someone because they are a member of the NRA? Or could it be something worse? This is a question that is out there these days.

Second Amendment supporters have a very tough row to hoe in beating back attacks on our freedoms. But we should also remember those who smeared us – and protect ourselves by defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local level via the ballot box.

 

Woman shoots man to death in self defense after apartment break-in in Webster

WEBSTER, Texas (KTRK) — A man was shot to death Monday night when he tried to break into a woman’s apartment in Webster, according to police.

The shooting happened at about 9 p.m. on the Gulf Freeway near Dixie Farm Road.
Police said they believe a woman was defending herself when she shot the man who broke down her front door.

The woman was not alone, as police said several people, including children were inside. Officers said she grabbed a gun and fired one shot.

“He forced entry through the front door. I don’t have the information of whether he kicked it or how he opened it, but he did break the door frame and got the door completely open and entered the location,” said Lt. J.P. Horelca.

Police are still investigating the relationship between the man and woman. It is not clear if the woman will face any charges.

Homeowner shoots, kills 2 suspects during reported home invasion

CARBON HILL, Ala. (WIAT) — Residents in Carbon Hill are in shock after a home invasion Thursday left two people dead and sent one person to the hospital.

“When I arrived on scene I noticed there were two subjects dead inside the home,” Police Chief Antoine Cobb said. “They had ski masks on.

Cobb said the homeowner had been shot and injured after gunfire was exchanged. That man is now recovering after surgery.

“It’s Walker County,” Cobb said. “Stuff happens, not just in Walker County but other counties, too. It just happened in Carbon Hill.”

It’s an incident that shook Councilwoman Cindy Killingsworth.

“You don’t expect anything of this magnitude and this horrific to happen in this small town where most people are close knit and loving,” Killingsworth said.

“We hate that it happened. He’s a big part of our community so we ask that you send prayers,” Kirk said. “Just because we had a little incident today, we pray to God that it don’t happen anymore.”

Chief Cobb said there was one other person in the house that was not hurt, but has been shaken up by this event. He wants to remind everyone to lock your doors and call for help any time there’s an emergency.

UPDATE (5/26): Walker County Coroner joey Vick tells CBS 42 that a shooting that left two people dead and another injured occurred during a reported home invasion.

House Dems’ gun package to raise age limit for semi-automatic rifle purchases, ban ‘high capacity’ magazines

The House Judiciary Committee is set to hold an emergency meeting Thursday to pen an extensive gun control package.

Democrats are currently pushing a series of eight bills aimed at suppressing gun ownership, referred to collectively as the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” Fox News confirmed.

The bills contain proposals raising the minimum age for purchasing a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21, a ban on “high capacity magazines,” a registry for bump stocks, and more.

The House will vote on some form of the package when they return to session next week.

The House package is expected to go nowhere in the Senate and is seen as more of a show vote, as a bipartisan group of senators tries to agree on a bill that could pass the Senate.

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Uvalde – The Case For More Guns

Democrat politicians and their Liberal media megaphones have been screaming for control since the massacre in Uvalde last week. No one needs an AR-15, they screech. The resident in the Oval Office jokes that the AR-15 is not necessary because the “deer aren’t wearing Kevlar” and lies that the 2nd Amendment is not absolute, although James Madison would beg to differ. Based on what we saw, Uvalde actually makes the case for more armed residents.

Like most Americans, I have been both furious and nauseated about the slaughter of innocent school children in Uvalde since word began spreading. I have been a police and military supporter my entire life. I have always believed the police were the good guys. In Uvalde, the police were some of the cowards. Good guys aren’t cowards. Piers Morgan in the New York Post wrote, “Uvalde shooter wasn’t the only sniveling little coward — so were the cops“:

Yet incredibly, there were up to 19 armed police officers inside the school for 70 minutes before 18-year-old Salvador Ramos finished his hellish homicidal rampage.

That’s one for each of the 9 and 10-year-old children who were murdered.

These cops were all trained to use guns to protect the public and were all carrying guns to protect the public.

But when the moment came to protect the youngest, most vulnerable and defenceless members of the public, they went AWOL.

Or rather, they stood there outside the classroom where the kids were trapped, doing absolutely nothing.

This was despite several of the desperate children frantically calling 911 on cell phones pleading for help.

Eight calls in total were made from the classroom between 12.03pm and 12.50pm when the police finally went in.

We’re told they were waiting for keys to access the classroom, tactical equipment, and an order to go in.

But it sounds to me like what they were really waiting for was a collective infusion of bravery and duty like the kind Rob O’Neill and his fellow SEALs displayed in Abbottobad, Pakistan, 11 years ago.

And it never came.

Instead, these shameful excuses for ‘law enforcement’ did nothing as 19 children and two teachers were blown to pieces at close range by a maniac with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

The cowardly cops made a cordon to keep parents back. Initially. I thought that was necessary. Can’t have Moms running into the school willy-nilly endangering others and hampering the cops who are in there to make holes in the shooter. But I was waaaay wrong. The videos of parents pleading with law enforcement to go into the school. I identify with the emotion of each of the parents in this video:

You can feel their anger, desperation, fear and frustration.

The Uvalde cops are cowards. That’s clear. The residents claim it’s a small town where everyone knows everyone. Really, it has been almost a week and we are just now finding out that Creepy Massacre Kid was a bully (not bullied), who tortured animals and threatened to rape girls. Really? No one thought to snitch on Creepy Massacre Kid?

The Twitterverse had their collective knickers in a knot because the NRA was still going to hold its convention. I’m not a big fan of the NRA because they are more interested in selling life insurance than educating the public on safe weapons handling. Watching the protesters on Twitter scream about guns made me even more furious.z

 

Why do people think behavior like that is going to convince anyone about anything?

The “blood on your hands” mob are even more wrong than usual. What we need in this country are more armed and trained citizens. When Antifa burns down a city, what do the police do? Nada. When a gunman is murdering children, what do the cops do? Nothing. Imagine a few of those angry desperate moms in the video armed. Armed with a gun, a long rifle, a window breaker. The Creepy Massacre Kid would have assumed room temperature in a few seconds.

What the heck is this waiting for a master key? Take care of yourself, my people. Don’t rely on anyone else. Cops or government. Buy a gun and take a safety class.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden says he is going to “Do something”. It won’t help you, whatever he does.

48 shot, 9 dead in Chicago over the weekend but John Legend says it might be racist to talk about it

Researchers identify rise in Guillain-Barré syndrome following AstraZeneca vaccine.

Risk for Guillain-Barré syndrome up after Ad.26.COV2.S vaccination

A correlation between a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a small but significant rise in cases of the serious neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), has been identified by University College London (UCL) scientists, as part of an analysis of NHS data.

However, researchers say it remains unclear what the cause of the link is; furthermore, the small numbers of GBS cases observed appear similar to increases previously seen in other mass vaccination campaigns.

The same team, based at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, had previously shown there was no measurable link between COVID-19 infection and GBS; this subsequent study set out to investigate any relationship between GBS and COVID-19 vaccination.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare but serious  that attacks the peripheral nervous system, typically resulting in numbness, weakness and pain in the limbs and sometimes resulting in paralysis of breathing. GBS often occurs after infections, particularly a gastroenteritis infection called Camplylobacter, with the immune system mistakenly attacking nerves rather than germs.

GBS is usually reversible; however, in severe cases it can cause prolonged  involving breathing muscles, require ventilator support and sometimes leave permanent neurological deficits. Early recognition by expert neurologists is key to proper treatment.

For the study, published in the journal Brain, researchers carried out a population-based study of NHS data in England to track GBS case rates against vaccination rollout. Further, as part of a separate study of UK hospitals’ surveillance data, they looked at phenotypes (characteristics/symptoms) of reported GBS cases to identify whether there were any specific features of COVID-19 vaccine-associated GBS.

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Babbling Biden Blurts Out Dems’ Gun-Grabbing Endgame

Welcome to 2022.

Even the days that are supposed to be slow news days get a shot of newsiness in them. Yesterday should have been one of solemn remembrance for our military heroes who have died defending this great nation but President LOLEightyonemillion’s puppetmasters once again let him speak into a microphone.

Yeah, I don’t get the strategy either.

As is his wont, Biden wandered a bit off-script, perhaps revealing a bit more than what the cabal that runs his brain wanted him to. My Townhall colleague Leah Barkoukis covered the story:

President Biden raised eyebrows on Monday when he spoke about what he considers sensible restrictions on “high-caliber weapons” in the wake of the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week.

The president recalled visiting a trauma hospital in New York, where he explained doctors showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds that were caused by different firearms.

“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life,” Biden told reporters outside of the White House. “A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”

He went on to claim “there’s simply no rational basis for [high-caliber weapons] in terms of thinking about self-protection, hunting.”

So while most Democrats have targeted what they call “assault weapons” in the wake of the mass shooting, Biden appears to be setting his sights on handguns, too, which isn’t the first time he’s singled out one of the most popular firearms in America.

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the slippery slope.

One of the main points of contention in the right/left gun argument (calling it a “debate” is ludicrous) has been over the definition of “assault weapons.” You see, the anti-Second Amendment people have never had one. OK, nobody really has because it’s a nebulous concept.

Perhaps I’m a bit off in saying that the gun-grabbers don’t have a definition for assault weapons. It’s more accurate to say that they’ve always been disingenuous about it. It’s a diversion tactic to make the less-informed think that they aren’t coming for all guns. They want to be coy and do things incrementally, unlike Canadian Prime Minister Justin Hitler-Trudeau.

Thanks to Old Joe’s complete lack of a filter, they have less of a smokescreen to hide behind now.

US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority. Guns symbolize the power of a minority over the majority, and they’ve become the icons of a party that has become a cult seeking minority power
Rebecca Solnit

 

Again, it’s nice when they supply the means for positive identification.

This, right there in black and white, is what the Bill of Rights is all about. The protection of minority rights over the tyranny of a majority that the founders knew from the lessons of history were all too commonplace in a ‘democracy’ where the masses could be swayed (like this airhead) into advocating riding over the rights of the populace in the search for their version of Utopia that has always turned into Hell.

Preventing “The Tyranny of the Majority”

People often refer to the United States as a democracy, but technically speaking, that’s not true. It’s a republic.

Big deal, you say? If you care about your rights, it is. The Founding Fathers knew their history well, so they knew better than to establish the U.S. as a democracy.

In a democracy, of course, the majority rules. That’s all well and good for the majority, but what about the minority? Don’t they have rights that deserve respect?

Of course they do. Which is why a democracy won’t cut it. As the saying goes, a democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.

The Founders were determined to forestall the inherent dangers of what James Madison called “the tyranny of the majority.” So they constructed something more lasting: a republic. Something with checks and balances. A system of government carefully balanced to safeguard the rights of both the majority and the minority.

That led, most notably, to the bicameral structure of our legislative branch. We have a House of Representatives, where the number of members is greater for more populous states (which obviously favors those states), and the Senate, where every state from Rhode Island and Alaska to California and New York have exactly two representatives (which keeps less-populated states from being steamrolled).

Being a republic, we also don’t pick our president through a direct, majority-take-all vote. We have an Electoral College. And a lot of liberals don’t like that.

Their attacks on the College are nothing new, but the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 renewed their fury. After all, as they never tire of pointing out, Mrs. Clinton captured more of the popular vote than Donald Trump did. They see the Electoral College as an impediment to their political victories, therefore it’s got to go.

The latest attack comes via new lawsuits filed in federal courts in four states (Massachusetts, California, South Carolina and Texas). “Under the winner-take-all system, U.S. citizens have been denied their constitutional right to an equal vote in presidential elections,” said David Boies, an attorney who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election.

I doubt Mr. Boies and his fellow attorneys are really ignorant of why we have an Electoral College. But it’s important that the rest of us know.

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While tragic, school shootings aren’t as common as claimed

In the wake of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, many are claiming that school shootings in the U.S. are widespread. Two organizations refute this claim, arguing they are exceedingly rare.

“School shootings are so rare that in the United States in 2021 there was one school-shooting death for every twenty-three million Americans,” Ryan McMaken at the Mises Institute reports. “By comparison, approximately one in 350,000 Americans drown each year.”

McMaken, editor at Mises Wire, says, “Our children are far, far more likely to be killed in an automobile accident than in a school shooting,” but “no one in Washington is talking about highway deaths.

“School shootings are a tiny subset of homicides which are themselves not exactly a leading cause of death in the United States,” he added.

In 2019, there were roughly 16,700 homicides in the U.S., a rate of five victims per 100,000 people. By comparison, more than 100,000 Americans die of diabetes every year, he notes.

Of the 16,700 homicides in 2019, 17 were victims of shootings at K–12 schools, or 0.1 percent of all homicides. School-shooting deaths also occurred at a rate of 0.005 per 100,000 Americans.

In recent history, the most deadly years for school shootings were in 2018 and 2012. In 2018, there were 39 victims killed at schools, in 2012, 26 were killed.

“The data suggests policy makers should be far more concerned about children dying due to drunk-driving incidents, car accidents in general, suicide, drowning, cancer, or child abuse,” McMaken said.

According to a Crime Prevention Research Center report, “schools that allow teachers to carry guns are extremely safe.” As of 2019, 20 states allow teachers and staff to carry guns to varying degrees on school property.

“There has yet to be a single case of someone being wounded or killed from a shooting, let alone a mass public shooting, between 6 a.m. and midnight at a school that lets teachers carry guns,” the report states. “Fears of teachers carrying guns in terms of such problems as students obtaining teachers guns have not occurred at all, and there was only one accidental discharge outside of school hours with no one was really harmed.

“While there have not been any problems at schools with armed teachers, the number of people killed at other schools has increased significantly – doubling between 2001 and 2008 versus 2009 and 2018,” the report points out.

Texas, being one of these states, has a School Marshall Program. The Texas Legislature created the program in 2013 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Perry. Initially, it allowed public school districts and open enrollment charter schools to appoint school marshals. In the next two legislative sessions, bills signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott expanded to include public two-year junior colleges and private schools in the list of institutions that can appoint school marshals.

“The sole purpose of a School Marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises, and act only as defined by the written regulations adopted by the School Board/Governing Body,” according to the Texas Commission of Law Enforcement.

Bosque County Sheriff Trace Hendricks has already called for schools to begin the process to implementing the program in his county. He is also offering assistance to help them do so.

“It is time to take aggressive and deliberate steps toward the enhancement of our security measures in order to better protect the lives our students and faculty,” he said in an open letter he published and sent to the heads of the school districts and school boards. “We must insure that our schools and the lives of our loved ones are as safe and secure as possible and that none are designated as a ‘soft target.’”

Biden hosts a photo op in Uvalde, but not before he disinvites Border Patrol agents who responded to the massacre.

Apparently, for Joe Biden, only certain murdered children are worth memorializing — ones who fit his political agenda.  Although it’s been over a year and a half since little eight-year-old Jackson Sparks was mowed down at a Christmas parade, Biden has yet to pay his respects to the community of Waukesha, because the killer didn’t use a gun.  However, Salvador Ramos did, so Biden’s handlers sprang into action for a press opportunity, but not before revoking invitations from heroes:

Biden administration officials uninvited many of the Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers who responded to the Robb Elementary School shooting from a meeting with the president scheduled for Sunday in Uvalde. Despite the event being planned for a large open-space facility, administration officials cited space as a reason for the retracted invitations.

His presence, unsurprisingly, was met with sincere disgust.

Other members of the public, upset about the fallout of lawless open-border policies in their border town, held signs directing Biden toward the scene of the chaos.

Given his very public history, Biden’s sleazy reputation is well earned and well known.  From relegating Black Americans to a position of Democrat footstool with his “well then you ain’t Black” comment to caressing and sniffing nearly every young child in his presence to simply fathering Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s behavior is unbecoming of an American, a man, and particularly a president.  His gaffes are endless, and his entire political career is summed up by these defining characteristics: “incipient dementia, inability to lead, and sheer heartlessness.”  Biden has fully given in to the tenets and beliefs of the modern Democrat-Marxist party, which stands opposed to law and order and the very Americans who uphold constitutional limits and God-given rights of the individual — so his move to exclude the very men responsible for taking down the Robb Elementary child-killer ought to be predictable.

Just when you thought Biden couldn’t sink any lower into the pit of classlessness, he did — and I imagine he will be shoring up his indecency for as long as we have the misfortune of his “leadership.”

The New Normal Is Failure.

Look around and all you see is failure.

A bunch of kids are being murdered by some semi-human, so what do you do? Draw your weapon and put him down or die trying? Or do you sit there, doing nothing?

The same government we’re supposed to give up our guns to because they have it all under control chose Option B. It chose failure.

Tell me more about how the real problem is that we have the capacity to defend ourselves.

But the real problem, to our enemies, is not that murderers murder. The real problem, to our enemies, is the very fact that we can defend ourselves. The objective of our trash elite is not to have a country that runs well, where people are secure, and where rights are respected. The objective is to rule. And if a bunch of kids die for that, they’re fine with it. They can live with failure, but not accountability.

The clusterfark in Uvalde is just a symptom of a much bigger pathology. It is a symbol of the failure of every institution in our society. And the solution is never to revamp the institutions and eject the parasites heading them. It’s always – always – to take power from us and give it to the people who screwed up in the first place.

Show of hands – who was shocked to hear that this creep was on law enforcement’s radar before his killing spree?

I see a distinct lack of hands.

But the failure is not limited to being unable to stop murderers. It’s not even the only failure involving schools. The schools are churning out a generation of quasi-literates and have been turned into a Grindr for perverted weirdos to use for grooming their prey. We got a good view of the failure during another epic failure, the COVID response.

This is systemic.

Everything is failing.

Go try to get baby formula.

See if you can afford gas. Hell, roll up to a Mickey D’s drive-thru and try to roll away with lunch for four under $30.

The courts don’t work, the Congress doesn’t work, and our alleged president is a borderline clinical moron who is lying when he’s not merely stupid. This human sex toy got up at Annapolis and told the Naval Academy grads that he had been accepted there. It was a lie – of course, he’s senile so maybe he believed it – and the regime media skipped over it like they skip over everything else that offends the official narrative.

Failure, failure, failure.

What is one institution that works? Just one.

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SloJoe™ confirms again that he has senile dementia
He’s gone off on 9mm before, as well as revolutionary cannon which means what’s left of his brain is like a record that is skipping.

Biden claims a ‘9mm bullet blows the lung of out of the body’

President Joe Biden urged Congress to work toward a bipartisan solution on gun violence on Monday, one day after visiting the Texas town where a gunman took the lives of 19 elementary school children and their two teachers last week.

‘I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it – at least that’s my hope and prayer,’ the president told reporters outside of the White House.

Biden recounted been shown x-rays of what a firearm could do to the human body.

‘The .22 caliber bullet will lodge in the lungs and we can get it out. A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body,’ he said. ‘The idea of a high caliber weapon, there is no rationale for it in terms of self-protection, hunting.’

A 9mm bullet is typically known as the ammo used in handguns – the most common type to conceal carry. It’s not clear if Biden misspoke to mean a higher-caliber weapon such as the ones used in the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. …………

 

Madison on the 2nd Amendment & militia clause

The Supreme Court in the Heller decision explained that the second amendment guarantees an individual right of the people to keep and carry arms for their defense in the event of a confrontation.

The anti-gun crowd, however, refuses to accept this common sense reading of the amendment. The best way to interpret the Constitution begins with actually reading it.  The next best thing is to read what the Constitution’s chief drafter, James Madison, had to say about America’s founding document.  Madison was the chief author of the Federalist Papers, along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton.  The Federalist Papers offer great insight into the political theories of the day that led to our system of government.

Students of the second amendment should be familiar with both Federalist 29 and 46, which discuss the role of an armed populace in protecting the precious freedom which had so recently been won.  It was that thinking that led to the adoption of the second amendment.

Madison was also the original drafter of the Bill of Rights, including what would become the second amendment. The anti-gun crowd regularly accuse second amendment supporters of only focusing on what Justice Scalia called the operative clause of the second amendment, the phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  They assert that we ignore the prefatory clause that reads, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.”  To them the prefatory clause confirms that the purpose of the amendment was to protect the right of the states to have militias or as they sometimes phrase it, the right to bear arms when in militia service.

However, beyond that, they never exactly explain what is meant by “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The anti-gun crowd cling to the so-called collective rights view of the amendment that held sway with a number of federal circuit courts pre-Heller.  However, beyond denying an individual right to keep and bear arms, those courts said precious little on exactly what the amendment actually protected.

It was commonly stated outside the court room that the operative clause meant that the federal government could not disarm the state militias.  But that is not what the amendment says and no federal circuit court actually provided any reasoned discussion supporting such an interpretation.  In any event, if that were what the amendment was meant to accomplish, one would think the amendment would have been written in some way like “A well-regulated militia being necessary for a free state, Congress shall not infringe the right of the states to arm the militia.” However, this interpretation of the amendment would have worked a radical transformation of Congress’s power over the militia.

The Constitution addresses the militia in Article I, Section 8.  It states “The Congress shall have the power … To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”

Thus, it was Congress’s responsibility, not the states, to organize and arm the militia, with the states having only the responsibility to appoint officers and train the militia as Congress mandates.   The militia is not treated by the Constitution as a creature of the several states, but of the nation as a whole to be organized, armed and disciplined by Congress, while being trained by the states as Congress directs.

Congress has in fact exercised this authority.

Title 10 of the United States Code, Section 311 defines the militia of the United States with certain exceptions as “all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and … under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and … female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.”

The National Guard is the organized militia and the unorganized militia consists of those militia members not in the Guard.  In the Second Militia Act, passed in 1792, Congress specified the arms militia members were to have.  It was incumbent on militia members to report for training and duty with their own arms. The second amendment did not change Congress’s authority over the militia, nor was that the intent of the amendment.  Most notably, the second amendment did not provide that the states would or could arm the militia.  If that were the meaning of the second amendment, then states could be free to arm the militia in any way they saw fit.

States could for instance under the collective rights view of the second amendment, authorize each member of the unorganized militia to own a fully automatic weapon such as the M-16.  That would raise issues with respect to the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934, which greatly restricts the ownership and transfer of automatic weapons.  States could also abrogate many other federal firearm restrictions. It is certainly the case that some founders, such as Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, feared that Congress would neglect its responsibility to arm the militia.  And so it is not an unreasonable view that a primary purpose of the second amendment was to ensure that the militia would not be disarmed by taking guns away from the people who constituted the militia.

However, that view is perfectly consistent with the wording of the operative clause, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  The amendment thus ensured that there could be a body of the people armed and available to serve in the militia.  It had nothing to do, however, with transferring to the states the right to arm or specify the arming of the militia.  That remains the prerogative of Congress. Review of the legislative history of the second amendment confirms that it was designed to protect an individual right of the people generally to possess and carry arms.

When Madison initially introduced the various proposed amendments that would later become the Bill of Rights, he proposed to insert the bulk of them, including what would later become amendments one through five, part of the sixth amendment, and amendments eight and nine, into Article I, Section 9, between Clauses 3 and 4.  His speech to Congress can be found here.

This is the portion of the Constitution which limits Congressional power over individuals.  Clause 3 is the prohibition on Bills of Attainder and ex post facto laws.

Clause 4 is the limitation on the imposition of taxes directly on individuals as oppose to excise taxes on economic transactions.  This clause has been substantially abrogated by the sixteenth amendment, authorizing the federal government to tax incomes.  In other words, Madison proposed to put these amendments into that part of the Constitution that protected individual rights of the people from the federal government. The context of Madison’s original introduction to Congress of the Bill of Rights, including the second amendment, is powerful evidence supporting the conclusion that the right to keep and bear arms was intended to confirm an individual right of the people to arms.

Madison did not propose to place the second amendment in that part of the Constitution that governs Congress’s power over the militia.  The obvious reason is that Madison was seeking to protect an individual right to keep and bear arms, not some undefined right of the states to arm or control militia members within their borders.  Indeed, it was Madison himself who coined the phrase “Bill of Rights” to refer to the amendments he was proposing, including what would become the second amendment.  States do not have rights.  They have powers.  Individuals have rights.  In any event, the second amendment guarantees in its own words a right of the people, not a right of the states.

Hero Border Patrol Agent: Allow Teachers to Carry Guns for Classroom Defense

Jacob Albarado, the off-duty Border Patrol agent who rushed into Robb Elementary School during Tuesday’s attack to save his daughter, says teachers should be trained and armed for classroom defense.

Breitbart News reported that Albarado borrowed a shotgun from a local barber where he was about to get a haircut when he learned of the attack and charged into the school to save his daughter.

He found her alive and helped her and numerous other children get out of the building.

The school did not have an armed guard on duty when the attack occurred, and the gunman entered through an unlocked door.

The New York Post reports that Albarado wrote of his frustration on Facebook after the attack, saying, “I’m so angry, saddened and grateful all at once. Only time will heal their pain and hopefully changes will be made at all schools in the U.S. and teachers will be trained & allowed to carry in order to protect themselves and students.”

The commission that investigated the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting noted that armed teachers could have made a difference in the outcome of that heinous incident.

Breitbart News observed that Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, head of the Parkland commission, said the investigation of the Parkland attack had changed his views on armed teachers — he went from opposing the idea to supporting it. He noted, “People need to keep an open mind to it, as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”