KERRY vs. the SECOND AMENDMENT

Last month Kerry posed for a photo op waving around a shotgun -- with his finger on the trigger. Last week there was Kerry at another photo op with a shotgun. This time the hypocrite was holding a type of weapon he wants to ban (S. 1431).

Lurch would have us believe he favors the Second Amendment, but that is just another political lie. Fact is, we have Kerry's 20 year voting record in the Senate and that shows two interesting things: Kerry votes 100% socialist and he has voted to violate the Second Amendment to the Constitution every single time a bill came up.

For instance, according to NRA records[1], Kerry voted nine times to ban semi-auto firearms. In fact, Kerry even voted for a Ted Kennedy amendment to ban most rifle ammunition, including the most common rounds used by hunters and target shooters. Kerry also voted to hold America's firearms makers, rather than violent criminals, responsible for crimes committed with firearms. He was one of only 18 senators who opposed the Firearms Owners' Protection Act, which ended alarming abuses being committed under the 1968 Gun Control Act. Kerry voted to criminalize legal sales between private citizens at gun shows. He voted to impose penalties of a year in prison and a $10,000 fine on an adult if a juvenile steals a gun from him and then displays it in a public place. He voted to keep the federal waiting period after the National Instant Check System was in place. And, Kerry voted twice to eliminate the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

John Michael Snyder, public affairs director at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms[2], awards Kerry a big fat zero on gun rights, saying that Kerry "can add this zero award to his collection of Purple Hearts and band aids." Snyder added that Kerry "truly is a first class hypocrite. In recent months, he's been going around the country trying to cater to pro-gun rights voters, proclaiming that, 'I am a gun owner and a hunter and I respect the Second Amendment,' BUT, 'I've never contemplated shooting a deer with an AK-47.' This does not wash with America's gun owners. The Second Amendment, as a popular bumper strip proudly, simply and forthrightly proclaims, 'ISN'T about duck hunting.' It IS about the right to keep and bear arms for defense of life and property. Some gun owners are doing that right now in Florida as they protect their property from looters in the wake of Hurricanes Charley and Frances."

Rep. James Madison, who presented the Bill of Rights to the first Congress, earlier wrote in The Federalist Papers #46: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

Thomas Jefferson clearly recognized the need for an American citizen to have the means of security always at the ready: "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."[3]

Alexander Hamilton, a strong defender of executive branch power, agreed both with the Second Amendment and that the federal government should stay out of everything not specifically tasked to it by the Constitution. In The Federalist Papers #78, Hamilton wrote: "There is no position which depends on clearer principles than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid."

The American people have a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms for the protection of self, family, home, neighborhood, town, state, and nation. Any politician attempting to restrict that right should be sent packing in shame.

Hypocrite Kerry was holding a weapon he wants to ban (S. 1431).

Kerry votes 100% socialist and has voted against the Second Amendment consistantly.

NRA gives Kerry a zero.

Madison in Federalist Papers #46: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."

Jefferson stated: "... A strong body makes the mind strong... As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun..."

Hamilton, in Federalist Papers #78: "... No legislative act ... contrary to the Constitution, can be valid..."

Gun grabbers love to haul out their straw man argument of tanks, howitzers, bazookas, flame throwers, satchel charges, whenever we defenders of the constitution reference the type of modern day INDIVIDUAL military small arm protected by Amendment #2.

Gun grabbers are increasingly trying to separate the right to keep and bear arms from its constitutional underpinnings. To everyone but liberals and gun grabbers the word militia implies a body organized for military use. The Supreme Court Miller decision of 1939 held that the militia was 'A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.' And further that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time."

To begin with, only the national government was represented at the trial. With nobody arguing to the contrary, the court followed standard court procedure and assumed that the law was constitutional until proven otherwise. If both sides were present, the outcome may have been much different.

However, since only one party showed up, the case will stand in the court records as is. As to the militia, Mr. Justice McReynolds related the beliefs of the Founding Fathers when commenting historically about the Second Amendment. He stated that, ". . .The common view was that adequate defense of country and laws could be secured through the militia- civilians primarily, soldiers on occasion.

"The significance attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.

It is clear that the firearms that are most suited for modern-day militia use are those semi automatic military pattern weapons that the yellow press calls "assault weapons". Since nations such as the Swiss trust their citizenry with true selective fire assault rifles, it seems to me that this country ought to be at least able to trust its law-abiding citizenry with the semi automatic version.

Self-defense is a vital corollary benefit of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. But its primary constitutional reason for being is for service in the well-regulated militia which is necessary to the security of a free state. WE must be prepared to maintain that security against even our own forces that are responding to the orders of a tyrannical government, and the only viable way to counter a standing army's qualitative advantage is with a huge quantitative one. Don't let the gun grabbers and their politician allies separate us from the constitutional reason for the right to keep and bear arms. Miltary pattern weapons are precisly the weapons that should be MOST constitutionally protected. Even defenders of the right often neglect the constitutional aspect of it, and concentrate on their near non-existent use in crime.

Now let's address the gun grabber straw man. We need to make those type of CREW SERVED weapons available at some level to the well regulated (meaning well trained, organized and disciplined) militia that is formed as a military unit to meet whatever threat that it is appropriate for them to use such weapons as a unit. These weapons would be maintained and stored by for use by such units as a body.

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