One of the issues missing from the 2010 platform for conservatives, libertarians and independents is how our authority is backed as the sovereign under our system of self-rule. In the U.S., the government is not the sovereign, the people are the sovereign. As with all nations, the sovereign has a monopoly on all lethal force. This includes civilian oversight of the military, supervision of law enforcement, the right to self-defense, defense of another, and powers of citizen arrest.
More than a theory of interpretation, the second amendment’s words of art in well regulated militia meant every single adult be armed, since the concept of a national guard was not contemplated for another 130 years after the signing. In that new nation of self-rule, well regulated meant self-regulated. Today, United States Code recognizes the armed citizen as the unorganized militia, duly recognized and affirmed as not answering to the Commander-in-chief. U.S.C. Title 10, section 311.
This means Independence from public servants from the nation’s inception into all generations, including 2009. Gun control is by no means universal in America. It is no way a desire of the American public. More that forty states affirm the open carry and concealed carry of handguns, and the subject of freedom of the armed citizen is very high on the list for why whole state legislatures invoke the Tenth Amendment in battling federal over-regulation. Thirty-seven states petition for state sovereignty. Only the major cities ban guns. Only two states hold out in affirming the second amendment.
How all of this affects American Business is clear. Sovereignty, freedom and prosperity are good for business; restraint and vexing takings are bad for business. Crime costs everyone, but anti-crime measures cost everyone even more as an immense boondoggle, one of many.
In America, one is free to use up to lethal force when facing grave danger alone. In America, police have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others, and no absentee policy or law will ever be a substitute for your refusing to be a victim. In short, a great deal has been obfuscated from both American Business and the electorate. A tremendous public relations opportunity has been postponed with every passing day, not for guns, but for liberty, for community safety in safer streets, and for a lesser need for so many sweeping policies.
Liberty movements are adopting the Castle Doctrine; more states are moving to open-carry of handguns, and more colleges are examining and affirming concealed carry of handguns for their adult students. Utah and Colorado have been proving it for years without an ounce of regret. Alaska and Vermont don’t even require a permit.
This preponderance of knowledge ought to change the entire complexion of costly anti-violence programs which restrain only the law-abiding; will it change the issues for 2010 candidates? It should for those running on a liberty platform or a platform of independence from our very own public servants. This could be most enabling for Business.
More than 20,000 gun laws restrain and punish honest gun owners, but these are very rarely added charges when finally apprehending genuine murderers, gun runners, and prohibited persons. A national will to repeal the bulk of these will aid enormously in affirming citizen authority on all fronts, and can begin a process of independence where candidates open the door and Business takes the lead. The key to our independence is not in defiance of the law, but in seeing fewer laws. The key to our independence citizens long for is not in more guns, but in the impeachment of so many unneeded programs to fill a void created by so-called gun control. [If prohibited persons can obtain any weapon they like, then gun control is a complete fraud and only creates a void to fill with enormous policies.]
Candidates running on Independence from our own public servants need to affirm aloud the second amendment rights of the people they expect to vote for them. With 80 million adult gun owners, there ought to be no misgiving that gun owners are a small fringe niche, nor apprehension about caving in to a gun lobby: officials as servants are not to stand up to constituents, but heed them. 80 million.
The armed citizen is integral to how government respects constituents or not. The ubiquitous armed citizen is integral to working with public servants in fighting crime during-the-fact — not after-the-fact where crime is not fought but caught — and the armed citizen is integral to unwinding many coercive and ineffectual programs and laws.
Business can shrewdly stir branding loyalty by enunciating patriotic positions of liberty and independence, citizen authority, and personal dignity in self-rule. If new candidates are to win Congress, they will have to understand that affirming the armed citizen is not going to be a liability, it will be an enormous asset.
John Longenecker——
Bio and Archives
John Longenecker is an author of Safe Streets In The Nationwide Concealed Carry Of Handguns – Meeting Dependency And Violent Crime With American Spirit, Independence, And Citizen Authority [CONTRAST MEDIA PRESS]. Safer Streets Newsletter.
