Posted on 12/24/2001 9:52:44 AM PST by butter pecan fan
“One Man Can Make a Difference”
by Rick Stanley
My name is Rick Stanley. I am a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate, from Colorado. I am a Denver businessman running a company called Stanley Fasteners & Shop Supply. I have 27 years of business experience. Most good, some bad. I am only one man.
There are hundreds of thousands of unconstitutional laws in America today, passed by city councils, county boards, state legislatures, and federal government officials, all of whom have sworn an oath to defend our national constitution and the Bill of Rights. I guess I just got tired of people telling me that one man can’t do anything to change all that. I decided to take a stand, on principle, against an unconstitutional law in Denver, the city where I live.
At 12:20 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2001, at the Bill of Rights rally held near the state Capitol, I was arrested after giving a twenty minute speech about the Second Amendment and then putting a loaded pistol in a belt holster around my waist, per my Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Besides infringing my Second Amendment rights, the arrest also violated my right protected by the Colorado constitution, Article II, Section 13, which guarantees to every person the right to keep and bear arms in defense of person, home, and property. Apparently the constitution does not apply in Denver, because the city council and mayor of Denver are in fact enforcing an unconstitutional, and therefore illegal, law.
OK, so now I’ve been arrested. I’m in the back seat of a Denver police cruiser with my arms behind my back, wearing handcuffs. A few minutes later I’m in the parking garage under the city jail, across the street from the Denver Mint. I thoroughly enjoy all the attention from the SWAT team, the multitudes of police officers in blue uniforms, the undercover police in the crowd, the mounted police on their horses, dozens of marked and unmarked police cars, the crowd of supporters, the cameras, the microphones -- this is pretty exciting stuff. There is one thing, though. I’m under arrest, in handcuffs, in the city jail. Sobering. And I’m not even drunk.
Did I hurt anyone with my actions? Did I violate another person’s rights, or damage or steal someone’s property? No. Can they arrest me when I have not broken a constitutional law? Yes. They can, and they did, and I am the proof of that fact.
I committed an act of civil disobedience against an unconstitutional law so I can challenge that same law all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. I want to prove a point. One man can make a difference. One man can change everything.
I’m starting with one bad law. Some wonderful predecessors helped educate me about civil disobedience. The list is lengthy. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Henry David Thoreau, William Penn, Susan B. Anthony, and John Peter Zenger are just a few notable individuals who have challenged the government with acts of civil disobedience. Others committed an act of civil disobedience by signing the Declaration of Independence -- people like John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Richard Henry Lee. Whether you’ve heard of them or not, they are all American heroes who, because of their unshakeable faith in liberty, had the courage to stand up to an oppressive government.
Let’s think about Rosa Parks. She was a woman, a black woman, who had the temerity to say she wouldn’t sit at the back of the bus, behind the white people. One woman, a simple woman who had the courage to stand up against an oppressive law backed by a tyrannical government. She didn’t think of the consequences. She just decided to say “no more.”
I will be proud if anyone considers my action comparable to this wonderful woman’s act of disobedience. But that’s not my motivation. My intent is to galvanize American citizens -- who have become complacent, uncaring, and unmotivated -- to do something about the erosion of freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
The seed has been planted We will soon see if the American people believe their rights are important enough to defend. We have slated our next Bill of Rights rally for Saturday, January 19, 2002, at high noon, 12:00 pm, at the Capitol in Denver (Lincoln Park) and at every state Capitol all across America, to showcase the people’s right peaceably to assemble and to petition our government for the redress of grievances. The purpose of these rallies is to demand the repeal of all unconstitutional laws at every level of government.
We want government officials, legislators, and the president of the United States to examine and consult with the people about the myriad laws that violate the Constitution. We must immediately start repealing all the unconstitutional laws enacted over the last 150 years. Those “laws” have been destroying our rights -- rights secured with the blood of American patriots who fought for freedom in the First American Revolution of 1776.
Please don’t misconstrue the slaughter of American Indian tribes as being part of any patriotic bloodletting. I’m speaking of the blood shed and the lives lost in defense of liberty and freedom for all Americans. That is the one thing about this country we can take absolute, total pride in. Without our heritage of liberty and freedom, we would be lost and morally bankrupt.
The time is now. Let us throw off the oppressive part of our government and demand that the oppressors respond patriotically to the Second American Revolution.
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Rick Stanley is a Libertarian Candidate for U.S. Senate from Colorado
( www.stanley2002.org). Stanley is a Denver businessman with 27 years' experience serving the construction, plant maintenance and fleet maintenance industries. He is currently the owner and CEO of Stanley Fasteners and Shop Supply.
From the info I read on his web site, the particular law he violated seems to be quite clearly unconstitutional - I'm speaking in reference primarily to the Colorado constitution right now, but I would think it's unconstitutional nationally as well.
The problem would probably more be in other states, which don't as clearly enshrine the RKBA in their state constitutions. I'm not sure whether similar challenges mounted elsewhere would be as effective as the one in Colorado is likely to be.
Check.
I made the switch, so there is hope that others can also.
Bump for activists.
MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/
For a long time, I have been thinking that somebody needs to do this, but I don't have the guts. I am going to contribute to this guy's legal defense fund.
Well, it is, but unfortuantely the court/legal system is set up such that the Supreme Court of the U.S. has to determine whether the 14th amendment enforces a particualr right on the states. In other words, the Supreme Court of the U.S. has never found that the 2nd Amendment is binding on the states. Until it does, the states can modify their constitutions to ban firearms, and the Feds won't do a thing under the 2nd.
Thus, what is sorely needed is a U.S. Supreme Court finding that the 2nd Amendment is binding on the states under the 14th Amendment.
Then there'd be a way to challenge unConstitutional state laws that violate the 2nd. Until then, however, we're waiting for that case to be made.
I hope Stanley's case is it, but this law falls flat under the state constitution, ergo, it seems unlikely to go Federal.
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We in California are in deep doo doo in this respect, as our state constitution has absolutely no reference to a RKBA. [The 49'ers considered it a given that such a right was self evident, apparently.]
But, of course we here in CA can rest assured that the USSC will come to their senses, and realise that the 14th 'incorporarated' all of the previous BOR's into the 'law of the land', the constitution, -- correct?
Not so, according to many. - And incredibily enough, even many freepers so believe. -- While they claim themselves to be constitutional conservatives. - Figure that one out.
Since it became a federal crime to own a gun in Chicago after 1982, you have to ask yourself --->how many people have died because the City of Chicago told it citizens that it is their obligation to remain defenlessless rather than to abide by the 2nd Amendment (and practice common sense).
Personally, I'll take care of defending myself, my family and my property, even if it means a little civil disobedience (and a little common sense).
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