Apparently the testimony of Sandy Hook father Bill Stevens wasn’t as easy todeceptively edit as Neil Heslin’s; otherwise you would see this plastered across the authoritarian media:
A video of a father, Bill Stevens, whose daughter attended Sandy Hook Elementary school, scene of the mass shooting in December, is making its rounds today of his testimony against gun control at a Working Group Public Hearing at the Connecticut State Capitol on gun violence prevention.
The little sister of a friend of his daughter Victoria was murdered, not by an “assault weapon” or any other inanimate object but by the evil freak Adam Lanza.
Stevens read part from the state’s constitution on the right to bear arms in self-defense and told the panel, “These rights are inalienable and endowed by our creator, not you politicians.”
From his testimony:
“But criminals and tyrants — tyrants, especially — be aware that lockdown is not an option at the Stevens residence. And 911 will be dialed after the security of my home has been established.
“Why is that same security my daughter enjoys at home with her dad not available at school in Newtown? That is what you should be considering, not making her dad a criminal.
“Charlton Heston made the phrase ‘From my cold dead hands’ famous and I will tell you here today, you will take my ability to protect my Victoria from my cold dead hands.”
Victoria is very lucky to have a true American for a father.
The 2nd Amendment is in place to discourage dictators and protect the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
January 22, 2012
The Founding Fathers agree: an armed population makes good government. Numerous quotes from the revolutionary era make their intent extremely clear — that individuals were meant to keep and bear arms for the protection of the country and the defense of its Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The Preamble to the Bill of Rights explicitly states that these amendments to the Constitution were put in place to restrain the federal government and discourage abuse. Ratified Dec. 15, 1791, it reads:
“THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. “
Meanwhile, history has shown that disarmed populations and dictators always go hand in hand, with abusers and seekers of power preferring a people unable to stand up for their rights and easy to trample and dominate.
Our birthright as Americans is at stake: if we don’t stand up to defend the 2nd Amendment, we stand to let all our other precious rights slip away, from freedom of speech on down.
————-
“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” – Joseph Stalin
“If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” – Anonymous American adage
“The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams
“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American…” – Tench Coxe 1788
“The Constitution preserves “the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46
“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.” – Joseph Stalin
“In earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people.” – Zbigniew Brzezinski
“Death solves all problems – no man, no problem.” – Joseph Stalin
“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” – Joseph Stalin
“The only real power comes out of a long rifle.” – Joseph Stalin
“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” – Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers
“Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority. Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew’s possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation. Whoever willfully or negligently violates the provisions will be punished with imprisonment and a fine.” – Nazi Law (Regulations Against Jews’ Possession of Weapons), 1938
“Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them. ”–Thomas Paine
“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.” – Thomas Paine
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn’t. ” – Ben Franklin
“If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.” – Joseph Stalin
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.” – Thomas Jefferson
“A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.” – George Washington
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.” – Patrick Henry
“Are we at last brought to such an humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?” – Patrick Henry
“The right of the people to keep and bear…arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country…” –James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)
“(The Constitution preserves) the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” –James Madison
“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government…” – Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist (#28)
“To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.” – George Mason
“The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.” – Noah Webster, “An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution (1787)
“A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” –Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774
“The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong.” – Thomas Paine, “Thoughts on Defensive War”, July, 1775
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” – Mao Zedong, “Problems of War and Strategy”, 1938
“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” – Richard Henry Lee, 1778
“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” – Hubert Humphrey, “Know Your Lawmakers”, Guns magazine, February 1960
“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” – Adolf Hitler, April 1942
“If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of crime rates reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying — that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 — establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.” – Orrin Hatch, “The Right to Keep and Bear Arms”
“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.” – William S. Burroughs, 1991
“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” – George Washington
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” – The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution
Obama’s shameless exploitation of children as set pieces is hardly new or original. In fact, tyrants and dictators have used kids as props down through the ages.
Here are a few more recent examples:
The Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin
China’s Mao Zedong
Germany’s Adolf Hitler
Cuba’s Fidel Castro
North Korea’s Kim Il-sung
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez
Dictator Obama Exploiting the Children for Executive Action on Gun Control
This is a call to ALL of our distinguished men and women in the military and law enforcement….TIME TO CHOSE!!!! We, the people, your people, love you all and we ALL hope you love the freedom you are working so hard to protect enough to protect it from ALL enemies foreign AND domestic. Please educate yourselves and help to educate others who are not educated and get in the fight for the minds of american citizens. You are our strongest ally and we need you now more than ever in americas history to stand up and be counted.
You took an oath to defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. The congress, the senate and the executive branch have made themselves into a domestic enemy, and they are going to attempt to use you to help them in their push to eliminate the 2nd amendment.
——
Here’s a quick (and, given its 64 pages, necessarily highly selective) summary of Justice Scalia’s opinion for a 5-member majority in District of Columbia v. Heller, invalidating D.C.’s handgun ban on Second Amendment grounds:
1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense at home. (2-54)
(a) In the Second Amendment’s operative clause (“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”), the phrase “the right of the people” creates “a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans.” ( 5-7)
In the phrase “to keep and bear Arms”, the word “Arms” “extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.” (8) The phrase “keep … Arms” means “have weapons.” (Slip op. at 8-9). The phrase “bear Arms” means to “carry weapons” and was understood as part of “the natural right of defense ‘of one’s person or house”. (9-18) It “in no way connotes participation in a structured military organization.” Justice Stevens’s claim that “bear Arms” “connotes the actual carrying of arms … but only in the service of an organized militia” incoherently gives “Arms” two different meanings at once:
It would be rather like saying “He filled and kicked the bucket” to mean “He filled the bucket and died.” Grotesque. [13]
The operative clause thus guarantees “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation. This meaning is strongly confirmed by the historical background of the Second Amendment.” (19-22)
(b) The relevant question for the prefatory clause (“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State”) is whether it is consistent with our reading of the operative clause. (4-5, 22.) The phrase “well regulated Militia” means “all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.” (22-24) The phrase “security of a free state” meant “security of a free polity,” not security of each of the several States. (24) [This point would seem to defeat one of the strongest arguments against incorporating the Second Amendment against the States.]
The prefatory clause “fits perfectly” with the operative clause, as the founding generation knew that “the way tyrants had eliminated a militia … was not by banning the militia but simply by taking away the people’s arms, enabling a select militia or standing army to suppress political opponents.” (25) But the prefatory clause “does not suggest that preserving the militia was the only reason Americans valued the ancient right; most undoubtedly thought it even more important for self-defense and hunting.” (26)
(c) Our interpretation is confirmed by analogous provisions in state constitutions (27-30), is not undercut by the drafting history of the Second Amendment (30-32), is consistent with how virtually all interpreters of the Second Amendment interpreted it in the century after its enactment (32-47), and is not foreclosed byany of our precedents (47-54), includingUnited States v. Miller (49-53).
2. We don’t address whether (contrary to the 19th century ruling in United States v. Cruikshank)the Second Amendment should be deemed incorporated to apply against the States. (48 n. 23)
3. The Second Amendment right is not unlimited. We do not cast doubt on concealed-weapons prohibitions, laws barring possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, laws barring firearms in sensitive places like schools and government buildings, and laws imposing conditions on commercial sale of arms. (54-55) Also, the sorts of weapons protected are the sorts of small arms that were lawfully possessed at home at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification, not those most useful in military service today, so “M-16 rifles and the like” may be banned. (55)
4. D.C.’s ban on handgun possession violates the Second Amendment. (56-64) The “inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right. The handgun ban amounts to a prohibition of an entire class of ‘arms’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for that lawful purpose. The prohibition extends, moreover, to the home, where the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute.” (56) The handgun is considered by the American people to be the “quintessential self-defense weapon.” (57)
“Under any of the standards of scrutiny that we have applied to enumerated constitutional rights” (this doesn’t include rational-basis scrutiny (56 n.27)), the D.C. ban falls. (56-57)
D.C.’s requirement that lawfully owned firearms in the home, such as registered long arms, be “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or device” also violates the Second Amendment as it makes it impossible for citizens to use those firearms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense. (1, 58)
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