Rep. Barry Moore: Biden's Second Amendment Attack a Danger to Freedom

Statement

U.S. Representative Barry Moore (AL-02) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives lambasting President Joe Biden's recent attack of the Second Amendment and his assertion that the American people get their rights from the federal government.

Moore's remarks as prepared are below.

"Madam Speaker, recent remarks by President Joe Biden about the Second Amendment have troubled me and millions of other Americans who own firearms. I think they should trouble people on both sides of the aisle. I also believe his remarks and attitude towards gun owners should trouble all freedom loving Americans, regardless of whether they own a gun.

"You see, President Biden's comments about restricting the Second Amendment show a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between a nation's government and its people.

"President Biden believes that the American people get their rights from the government. Our founders would strongly disagree.

"In fact, they were so skeptical of a powerful central government that they created an innovative and remarkable system of checks and balances to protects citizens from a tyrannical government.

"As it was so eloquently phrased in our Declaration of Independence, 'to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...'

"What powers our government possesses was given to it by the people. Not the other way around. And we gave these powers to the government to protect the rights we hold dear.

"The second amendment does not apply to any particular firearm. It does not specify an AR-15, nor does it list a musket or a bayonet. It didn't have to! Because the Second Amendment protects a right that you already have -- the right to bear arms. There is no need to continually update the Second Amendment.

Madam Speaker, the Second Amendment is not a permission slip, but an assurance that no law will be enacted to strip the American people of a fundamental right.

"The language of the second amendment is clear. It says, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

"This right was so important to the Founders that they would not enact the Constitution without the Second Amendment's inclusion in the Bill of Rights.

"President Biden's remarks betray the flawed reasoning of so many in the Democratic Party who insist that government is the grantor or rights. It is not the granter but the guarantor--the protector. The government simply cannot grant rights given to us by God. It protects those God-given rights.

"Americans should be skeptical of any philosophy asserting that the government can restrict the rights we have given it the power to protect. If they take your guns, what is next? The right to a trial by jury? Free speech? The right to worship who and how we choose?

"Madam Speaker, for the American people to keep the liberty we hold dear, our constitutional protections -- all of them -- must be maintained.

"Thomas Jefferson said it this way: 'When the people fear the government, there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people, there is liberty.'"

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