Buckeye Firearms Association is a well-respected, all volunteer pro-gun organization in Columbus, Ohio.

MISSION: Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee (PAC) dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities, including self-defense, hunting, competition, and recreation. We work to elect pro-gun candidates and lobby for pro-gun legislation.

Given this mission statement, I was surprised to read the following statement in a recent article written by Buckeye Firearms Foundation Board of Directors member Gerard Valentino:

“We also need to rally behind that idea that the Second Amendment protects an individual right that the government can infringe only when there is an overwhelming public need. Since we have more guns on the street than ever before and gun crime continues to plummet, it eliminates the government’s justification to restrict gun rights.”

Mr. Valentino must be reading from a “living, breathing” copy of the US Constitution.  My old-fashioned copies  state that “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.”

No caveats. No exceptions. No ambiguity at all.

My copies do not expressly state or even loosely imply that the federal government can infringe on our natural right to keep and bear arms IF there is “an overwhelming public need”. Who, by the way, do you figure determines whether such a need exists…the federal government, maybe?!

Mr. Valentino goes on to say that “Shifting the debate will also force gun-control advocates to prove why they need to take our guns, instead of forcing us to explain why we need to keep them.”

This type of statement makes me wonder if Mr. Valentino understands the difference between a right and a privilege. Governments do NOT grant rights.  The 2nd Amendment does NOT give Americans the right to keep and bear arms. The 2nd Amendment PROTECTS our natural right to keep and bear arms from federal infringement, interference or encroachment.

This means that federal gun “laws” that infringe on our right to keep and bear arms (and that’s all of them) are unconstitutional. Even the “laws” that were enacted in response to “an overwhelming public need”.

 

For additional reading:

The 2nd Amendment Preservation Act IS constitutional

How to Respond to Unlawful Orders

The 2nd Amendment didn’t “grant” rights

 

 

Scott Landreth

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