The Virtue of the Second Amendment

Oh, it's cryin' time again, you're gonna leave me
I can see that far away look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin'
That it won't be long before it's cryin' time

                                                 Buck Owens

IDEOLOGY IS A LEADING CAUSE OF BLINDNESS and provides a perfect hiding place for lies in plain sight.  But those who act on a false premise cannot expect a favorable result.

     The breakaway province of the British Empire cast aside monarchy on July 4, 1776.  Yet, because the Colonists had sought "the rights of Englishmen," Anglo-American law and jurisprudence are the remains of the day.

     Those who care about original intention would be wise to follow in the footsteps of the Framers and cite William Blackstone.

       The defence of one's self, or the mutual and reciprocal defence of such as stand in the
       relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant.  In these cases, if the
       party himself, or any of these his relations, be forcibly attacked in his person or property,
       it is lawful for him to repel force by force; and the breach of the peace, which happens,
       is chargeable upon him only who began the affray.  For the law, in this case, respects
       the passions of the human mind; and (when external violence is offered to a man himself,
       or those to whom he bears a near connection) makes it lawful in him to do himself that
       immediate justice, to which he is prompted by nature, and which no prudential motives
       are strong enough to restrain.  It considers that the future process of law is by no means
       an adequate remedy for injuries accompanied with force; since it is impossible to say, to
       what wanton lengths of reapine or cruelty outrages of this sort might be carried, unless
       it were permitted a man immediately to oppose one violence with another.  Self-defence
       therefore as it is justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in
       fact, taken away by the law of society.  In the English law particularly it is held an
       excuse for breaches of the peace, nay even for homicide itself: but care must be taken that
       the resistance does not exceed the bounds of mere defence and prevention; for then the
       defender would himself become an aggressor.  (Commentaries on the Laws of England,
       Book III, Chapter I, 3-4; emphasis added)

     What is permitted by "the primary law of nature" and cannot be "taken away by the law of society" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Second Amendment.  Open carry laws are separate and distinct from the same.  Furthermore, stand your ground laws are without foundation--a departure from precedent--and have nothing whatsoever to do with the Second Amendment.  Neither allows one to pursue, engage, provoke, and kill another--who posed no threat--and then turn around and invoke the specious claim:  I had to stand my ground.

     THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY, and it must be enforced by means appropriate to that end.  The place to begin is with clarification by definition, because there can be no doubt over what constitutes "a well-regulated Militia."  Alexander Hamilton addressed the arrangement made by the Convention in The Federalist Papers, No. 29.  Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 & Clause 16 AND Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 AND the Second Amendment concern a body that has a chain of command that goes from a Governor or the President and has duly appointed officers.  But those groups that call themselves a Militia or a Defense Force are no more entitled to do so than a citizen can claim to be a Federal agent, and the consequences for such an act must be the same.  For uncertainty was swept away when President Washington had Secretary of War Knox send a report to Congress in support of Universal National Service:  "All being bound, none can complain of injustice, on being obliged to perform his equal proportion."  Thus, there was a time when the original intention of the common defense could not be mistaken, and the nation is sorely in need of a reminder of benefits beyond an order of battle.

     CITIZENSHIP INVOLVES RIGHT AND DUTIES.  Too many are strong on the former and weak on the latter.  But they are like a bride and groom.  And WE THE PEOPLE cannot "form a more perfect Union" if they are divorced.  So the vows cannot be entered into lightly.  The bride and groom have to mean "till death do us part."

     KNOWLEDGE IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.  Decisions are to be based on "reflection and choice," not "accident and force."  (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, No. 1)  Confusion is to be avoided or at least kept to a minimum.

     The right to self-defense is inherent and limited, as Blackstone noted.  It is not dependent upon the Second Amendment, which concerns national security, and, therefore, that is not the impediment to measures necessary for the public safety, as some have imagined.  With them and their straw men removed, politicians will be free to pursue "the deliberate sense of the community" and find solutions to mass shootings on the basis of knowledge.  (The Federalist Papers, No. 63 & 71, James Madison* and Alexander Hamilton, respectively)  For the only way to stop a bad guy with a fib is a good guy with a fact.

(c)2018 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.


https://youtu.be/xRkVtMCu9TI    [Cryin' Time]

http://www.marvinjones.blogspot.com/2013/08/much-is-required.html    [The Knox Report] 

*Based upon the research of Clinton Rossiter