Loading ...Alexander Hamilton penned the definitive piece on what would become the Second Amendment when he wrote Federalist 29 in January of 1788. Hamilton wrote the piece in defense of the idea that arming the citizenry was needed to provide the means to “…resist a common enemy, or to guard against the Republic against the violence of faction or sedition.” For those who like to argue that the “well-regulated militia” phrasing applied to only a “national guard” type construct, and not to the citizens in general being allowed to own guns, they need to take a deeper read of Hamilton.
Hamilton explained that it is not practical to take all citizens away from their daily lives and their employment for the purpose of training them as professional, or even semi-professional, soldiers. Only a segment of the population could be trained in such a way. To the concerns of those who felt that government-controlled soldiers could pose a threat to liberty, Hamilton said:
…if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens.
Our Second Amendment isn’t about hunting, and it isn’t about self-defense. It’s about Americans having a credible check and balance against the threat of tyranny and dictatorship. To those who say, “Charlie, we don’t have a dictatorship in America today,” I respond by asking, “Just why do you think that might be?” Without the Second Amendment, all the others are reduced to empty words.
China is our 2019 reminder of why totalitarian leaders love gun control. The people in Hong Kong are courageous for protesting and asking for their freedom. Without the right to bear arms, all they can do is ask. Taking is out of the question.
Lucky for China they don’t want to extradite people from Alaska.