“The Constitution’s original intent was to be a prohibitive instrument regarding federal power.”
Come on now, that’s just silly. The Constitution created the federal government. Its reason for existence is the notion that the states weren’t competent to run things on their own.
By definition, when we accept, submit or yield to the unconscionable, immoral or unlawful conduct of government or its commercial affiliates, we become partners, accomplices, co-conspirators; or at the very least, an accessory to the crime!
Very few citizens pay any attention to the foundations and limitations of governmental authority. Most assume that government can do what it does. Fewer still do anything to turn back the tide of a government that has breached the levy of the Constitution. And what is this tide that has ruptured the foundations of our nation? An exponentially expanding socialism which wields the sword of commerce.
Socialism is that scheme by which our individual rights, secured by a republic, are converted to privileges granted by those who operate a democracy; the form of governance where the liberty and property of the individual is surrendered under the pretense of the common good. The common good, of course, is defined by the socialists who seek to revoke your rights and grant privileges to you as they see fit. So what does this have to do with commerce? It’s as simple as one of our American icons, the gun.
In 1967 a 14-year-old boy could order a rifle and ammunition from the Sears catalog and then pick it up at the Post Office. Then came the Gun Control Act of 1968. An adult citizen could no longer mail a gun. Neither could they cross state lines and purchase a gun without having it shipped to someone in their state who held a “Federal Firearms License.”
And how did Congress assume the authority to control guns and license gun dealers? The “Commerce Clause” of the Constitution. “The... power... to regulate commerce... among the several states...” has become the basis for the federal infringement of the right to keep and bear arms. The vine of socialism isn’t about to stop here. Having sunk its roots into the Commerce Clause, it will grow to control all aspects of the gun. But only if we fail to rip that weed off the wall that is our Constitution.
In the wake of the 1968 Gun Control Act, many more entanglements have sprouted. Import bans on “assault rifles.” Taxes on ammunition. Limitations on magazine capacity. Background checks. Waiting periods. All under the socialists creed, “for the common good.” Many more infringements are promised as the vine of socialism grows around the right to keep and bear arms. And it all began with commerce.
Can you spell infringe? Then look it up in the dictionary. Will you allow the belief in the socialists cause to prevail, or demand your rights under the Constitution? For want of actually looking, all most people will ever see is the leaves on the vines of socialism. Seeing is believing, so they say, and the faithful converts to socialism continue to believe in that untended weed which is choking the foundations of our country. Our rights are fading like a sunset turning into darkness.
“The individual may stand upon his constitutional rights as a Citizen. He is entitled to carry on his private business in his own way. His power to contract is unlimited. He owes no duty to the state or to his neighbors to divulge his business, or to open his door to an investigation, so far as it may tend to incriminate him. He owes no such duty to the state, since he receives nothing therefrom, beyond the protection of his life and property. His rights are such as existed by the law of the land long antecedent to the organization of the state. ...He owes nothing to the public so long as he does not trespass upon their rights.” Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43 (1905)