By Greg Penglis ——Bio and Archives--March 31, 2014
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"This statute makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same). Punishment varies from a fine or imprisonment of up to ten years, or both."Consider the power of this law as applied to the Second Amendment. Two or more persons could be any part of a police force, members of state legislatures, members of Congress, the Department of Justice, the President and White House staff, a governor and their staff, any of the offices of Attorney General, any SWAT or other law enforcement team at any level, or any branch of any government from local to federal. Any of these conspiracy groups listed above which injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen from the - and here are the key words - "free exercise or enjoyment" of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution, is guilty of violating federal civil rights law. Intimidating any citizen out of freely exercising and enjoying the owning and carrying of firearms is done, every day, with every law, regulation, judicial decision and police enforcement action that infringes on the Second Amendment. Why then are the above categories of persons not considered for arrest for breaking federal civil rights law? Why is this not being used as a legal remedy? There is no shelter because the civil rights violations occurred under the official cover of government procedure, nor the trappings of high office. Does not the 14th Amendment guarantee equal protection of all laws, and the equal enforcement of all laws? A conspiracy is a conspiracy, regardless of the status or title of the perpetrators. It's just made all the worse when the perpetrators hold office or public trust, and so the penalty should be all the more severe. To freely exercise and enjoy the Second Amendment requires full access to all small arms, both commercial and military, regardless of characteristics, capacity, operation or action, or country of origin, and the ability to both own and carry them. It requires that merely the act of owning and carrying firearms is not in itself a crime, nor the supposition that a crime is intended, until the normal due process, rules of evidence and probable cause are followed, and an actual crime is established through the behavior, intent or action of a person, violating a specific criminal law. Injury, oppression, threats and intimidation of the free exercise of the Second Amendment comes in the form of non "shall issue" concealed carry permits, carry permits no one ever gets, restrictions on what can be owned and carried, limiting imports of firearms, international treaties, taxes, registration, licenses, permits, regulations, waiting periods, intrusive background checks, restrictions on ammunition capacity and other firearm characteristics, increasing categories of prohibited persons, and an infinite variety of other laws, regulations, decisions and enforcement actions. The appropriate punishment therefore for these violations, under Section 241, are fines and up to ten years imprisonment. Federal civil rights law has never been applied properly to the Second Amendment that I can find. It has never been used by the NRA or any other gun group supposedly fighting for our rights. So the time has come to invoke this law and use it to the full extent. Whether the government arrests and prosecutes its own, or whether citizens have to demand enforcement of Section 241, or perform citizens arrests of the offenders ourselves, something must be done to restore the supreme law of the land, and the ability of all citizens to freely exercise and enjoy it. We have no sacred honor anymore. So simply stating on paper that the government shall be limited has no effect. But we have this legal tool on our side to arrest and prosecute anyone, of any office, who violates our constitutional rights. The time is now. Enforce Title 18, USC, Section 241. We just need to agree now on an orderly procedure for carrying this out. Then put to Congress and the states, Amendments IIA and IIB. Let's give back to our elected and appointed officials, and enforcement officers and agents, the sacred honor that they so freely pledged and swore by oath, by enforcing the civil rights laws that they so freely passed and signed.
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Greg Penglis is the morning host at 1330 AM WEBY, 6-9 Central time. He is turning “talk radio” into “action radio,” by creating a “citizen legislature” out of the radio/internet audience. He also authored “The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction,” a blunt critique of our flight training system, and how best to get through it.