By Todd Cefaratti
Editor of TPNN
We are a nation of laws. I firmly believe that we have the obligation to follow the laws and that’s one reason why I’m so weary of this recent brand of government, whose motto is, “Don’t think, just make laws!”
We have laws that contradict other laws. We have laws that are formulated with purposefully ambiguous wording. We have laws that are too restrictive and rather than working to repeal them, lawmakers will “decriminalize” the prohibited behavior. We have laws against illegal immigration, but those laws have been countermanded by executive actions and now we’re not supposed to enforce those laws. I’ve had it!
But, above all of these laws, we have rights. We have a Bill of Rights that outlines what government cannot subject us to. These rights are not gifts from government; they’re rights afforded to the citizens.
So, what are we to do when the Constitution grants us the right to keep and bear arms without infringement, but a state or even federal law directly contradicts that?
We have two options:
First, we have the amendment process. Knowing that the world changes, the founding fathers put a unique feature into our Constitution and granted future generations the ability to amend the document. If a current regime believes that we ought not to have firearms or that we should only be allowed to have some and not others, we have a legal process to change that. Granted, an amending of the Second Amendment probably wouldn’t go well and it’s unlikely that such an amendment would pass; but regardless, we have the process to do so and to infringe upon our rights to bear arms, the Constitution would need to be changed.
The second option is a bit trickier. The second option is to remind government of our rights and stand firm against those laws which violate the Constitution. If contemporary politicians have a problem with the rights we are granted, they are certainly welcome to voice their opinions on what the Constitution should say; but as for the American citizens and the states, we have a duty to ourselves and future generations to resist laws that violate our rights.
In Texas, legislation is being considered that make it illegal for officers to enforce unconstitutional gun laws. In Missouri, there is legislation being considered that makes it a felony to propose laws which violate the Constitution. We must be vigilant against refusing to obey laws simply because we don’t like them. But we must be ever-vigilant in having the integrity to stand up and resist laws that are illegitimate and that violate our rights.
