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"Mans' Rights, his Liberty and the ideal of individual self government means nothing without a warranty backed by the moral citizen that is both armed and willing to fight." - Katherine Jenerette

I am always amazed how 'blind' some 'thinking people' are. I have to wonder if the blindness is a result of pure stupidity or deliberate intent. As a Historian and a College Professor of History and Critical Thinking I teach my classes the best way to approach and view an issue is to gather as much information that is possible from primary sources and place it along a historical timeline before any attempt is made to objectively evaluate the issue. At best, this allows one to see trends or patterns, at worst the evaluation is limited by the amount of relative information.

I would challenge anyone to use this technique on the issue of Guns and the People using the following historical components:

#1) The historical facts about tyrants/kings/dictators.
#2) The historical facts about participatory self government by citizens of any nation or society.
#3) The major historical facts about weapons development (complexity of use versus simplicity) and social distribution.
#4) The historical facts of access to knowledge and literacy by the citizens.

Even a cursory examination of this information along a timeline will make it clear that participatory self government is a small 'blip' that took nearly 4000 years of civilization to happen! The real question is why did it take so long? Did the rulers of history rule over a bunch of wimps? or Has benevolence replaced tyranny in the minds of the powerful? or Did other things occur: What led the common man from Subject-Slave status to be transformed into the Citizen-Statesman of today's America?

At the expense of sounding simplistic, I am convinced that the powerful never surrender power willingly and that a clear and honest look at the history of mankind can illustrate the freedom is only possible with the coincidence of three events:

#1) A literate and moral population with open access to knowledge.
#2) Average ordinary citizens armed with weapons requiring a minimum of training to be lethal.
#3) People possessing a willingness to kill tyrants, or die in the process in order to secure basic liberty, rights and equality.
Given the listed conditions - most tyrants/dictators/kings become rational and begin to negotiate; or they are put to bed with a shovel in short order.

History is a great teacher. Man and his vices have changed little since his creation and anyone who suggests that freedom can be peacefully guaranteed by a piece of paper or a document alone is ignorant of the history of man.

Mans' Rights, his Liberty and the ideal of individual self government means nothing without a warranty backed by the moral citizen that is both armed and willing to fight.

The same people who scream the loudest about the right of Free Speech and the sanctity of the 1st Amendment would try to convince us that the 2nd Amendment is less than what it says and open to interpretations. I can't accept their argument the the Founding Fathers had Rights Right in the first paragraph of the Bill of Rights and were Wrong about Rights in the second paragraph of the same document.

History has shown, time after time, that the rights of man may not be purchased cheaply. Any society whose people throw their rights and freedom on the benevolence of other men have always ended up slaves, servants, or dead.

A free republic can only be free as long as the weakest citizen is as strong as the most powerful citizen.

I have included a piece written last year by my other-half, on the same subject. If some of the ideas are similar to mine it's because, after so many years of marriage, we often seem to share the same brain...

SUBJECT: BIBLES and GUNPOWDER and a New World

excerpts from Van Jenerette's
ten foundations for America's future

GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE

The Constitution provides the legitimate foundations of this country as a nation that is of the people and by the people.

We, the people, are the caretakers of the Constitution of the United States. Our charge is to pass on to future generations of Americans the rights and privileges that have been passed to us for over two centuries. It is a trust.
The notion that Supreme Court Justices, government officials or elite scholars are the only Americans who may offer worthwhile opinions on constitutional issues is far too narrow. At most, their years of study and review offer a snapshot view when put into perspective along side the centuries the document has existed.
The Constitution, and interpretations of it, belong as much to the proprietor of a small business, the homemaker, the college freshman, the taxi driver, and the newly naturalized immigrant as it does to any American.
We must guard this document and the Bill of Rights with vigilance.

I wish that those people who argue against the right to bear arms could have seen what I have seen in my life about this world we live in - they might gain an appreciation or how fragile this Republic by the People really is. And, they might have a better appreciation for the entire Bill of Rights and REAL HISTORY vs. the POLITICALLY CORRECT HISTORY - the first can liberate you; the latter will enslave you.

Both my wife and I have served in our military in combat zones in Korea and Desert Storm and we do not take this country with its freedoms and its dangers lightly. Today, she is a professor of History and I teach college Political Science. There is no greater cause for either of us than to hand down to our children the right of individual self government.

The notion that the founding fathers in designing the Bill of Rights were correct in the importance of freedom of the press yet incorrect when it came to the necessity of armed citizens in the space of two paragraphs reflects ignorance or duplicity at best. Our constitution should not be trifled with.

Our forefathers knew well that guns are designed to kill. This is still very true. They didn't mention hunters, or sportsmen, or home protection - they were well aware that guns were intended to equalize people - the wealthy or the poor - the powerful and the weak. Pity the person who actually believes that the powerful would negotiate the domain of governments, commerce, individual rights and liberties out of some sense of benevolence or righteousness.

Even a foolish person who examines the line of time for 'civilization' will be presented with the cold clear fact that participatory power sharing between the rulers and the ruled did not occur until two events and one singular condition existed: Bibles - Gunpowder - and a New World separated from the old by geographical circumstance.

This concept of individual self government where the people are 'endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights' equal and unquestionable did not spring forth when it did without reason.

To assume that the people in all of the ages of this earth who lived prior to 1776 submitted to royalty or tyrants because of satisfaction or cowardice is intellectually naive. This new nation came into being because the means coincided with the concepts of the Enlightenment.

Even the most powerful king, chief, or dictator understands the usefulness of negotiation when confronted with an armed citizenry that makes two things clear; #1) citizens are willing to kill to secure certain rights and #2) that they, the citizens, are willing to die in the process.

If this nation is to remain free for future generations, the rights of the people to arm themselves is much more than merely a right to be exercised. It is a necessity to freedom that the means of securing all the rights of individual man and self government be obvious and openly apparent to all who govern.

I would suggest that ayone who argues against the right to bear arms ought to review early American history. If they do, they will find that their right to speak their mind freely owes much to the right to bear arms and the threat of death to tyrants provided only by a 'culture of guns' in the hands of ordinary people who are free.

If a person truly loves liberty and freedom, the only thing that should be feared more than ordinary citizens who have the freedom to arm themselves is an armed government who is the only one who possesses arms.
- Van Jenerette

thoughts...

"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

"Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass."

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Firearms stand next to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence."
- George Washington

"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."
- Daniel Webster

Our Republic...If we can keep it...

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