I, frankly, am tired of hearing politicians and conservatives warning that the Democrats are trying to take away our 2nd Amendment rights. I’m not sure how many times it needs to be said but, the 2nd Amendment doesn’t establish any right. The 2nd Amendment draws attention to the God-given, natural right to keep and bear arms and warns the government not to infringe on such rights.
That established, the government has been infringing on the right to keep and bear arms for years. Normally, the American people, try to go along, erroneously hoping the government won’t get carried away.
Unfortunately, those in government ignore the Constitutional warnings and pass legislation all the time that does not meet Constitutional muster.
For instance, in New Jersey it is illegal to own a large number of firearms, usually due to accessories (like an adjustable shoulder stock, flash-suppressor, or bayonet clip on a semi-auto rifle, to name just a few). Ammo magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are illegal, as well. Additionally, it is virtually impossible for anyone not in, or retired from, law enforcement to obtain a license to carry a firearm in New Jersey. Is any of this “infringement”? You bet it is but we have sheepishly gone along. And why not, it’s not mean-spiritedness that gives us these unconstitutional laws, right? It’s stupidity, I guess because, after all, Governor Phil Murphy has informed us that the Bill of Rights is above his paygrade even though he swore an oath to uphold it.
The 18th Amendment gave us Prohibition which proved unworkable and had to be repealed by passage of the 21st Amendment. While the 2nd Amendment, mandating the government not to infringe, is all but ignored and rolled over by one piece of unconstitutional legislation or Executive Order after another, can it get worse?
Can the 2nd Amendment be repealed? You bet it can. Then what? Well, the mandate upon government not to infringe disappears and the government continues to infringe, but on steroids. So, if that occurs, do you lose your 2nd Amendment rights as we’re constantly being told? No, because the 2nd Amendment doesn’t grant any rights. The right to keep and bear arms is God-given not government-given. And then what?
Quickly, the Philistines and the Israelites were constantly going at it. Finally, under King Saul and his son, Jonathan, action to throw off the yoke of the Philistines was in the works. But guess what? Other than Saul and his son, Jonathan, nobody had weapons. Why? Because the Philistines in an attempt to keep the Israelites under the thumb had confiscated their weapons. Not only that, the Philistines had confiscated even the tools needed to sharpen and maintain the Israelite’s farming implements. When an Israelite needed to sharpen a farming implement, he was forced to go to the Philistines.
Well, ultimately, the Israelites found a work-around to sharpen their farming implements and one day, after getting all their farming implements nice and sharp, they took those sharpened implements and followed Saul and Jonathan into battle against the Philistines and finally threw off the yoke of the Philistines.
The point? Your right to keep and bear arms is not contingent on the 2nd Amendment. When the mandate not to infringe is ignored by the government, or such language removed that puts reins on government, you will have to fight for your rights, like the Israelites did and like Americans did in 1776. That’s the bottom line.
If any of this makes sense, I’d encourage you to look at some of my other blogs on the Constitution and check me out on my YouTube channel – Paul J DiBartolo – YouTube
An enlargement of this issue addressing the Bill of Rights is soon to be posted.
Change My Mind! 
Very well stated. The 2nd Amendment doesn’t establish the right, it simply identifies it and states it cannot be violated by government powers or legislation. Something we must be reminded of. Thank you.
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Someone needs to remind our “public servants” (tongue firmly in cheek). It appears to me that there is no longer even any pretense that our legislators concern themselves with the Constitution. Unfortunately, the only people that might be more ignorant than our legislators of the contents of the Constitution are “we the people.” If we did, we would do something… right?
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