Issue Position: Second Amendment
Issue Position
As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assoication (NRA), I believe that the second amendment guarantees our right to keep and bear arms. I have always opposed legislation and administrative action that infringes on that right. I have also received an endorsement by the National Rifle Association.
Passed December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Second Ammendment reads: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The complex part is the interpretation of the amendment. It is important to understand the language of the Constitution in terms of what that language meant to the people who wrote and ratified the Constitution. George Mason argued the importance of the militia and right to bear arms by reminding his compatriots of England's efforts "to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. . ." The framers thought the personal right to bear arms to be a paramount right by which other rights could be protected. James Madison included "the right to keep and bear arms" in the list of basic "human rights." And in Federalist #46, he confidently contrasted the Federal Government of the United States to the European Kingdoms, which he contemptuously described as "afraid to trust the people with arms." He assured his fellow citizens that they need never fear their government because of "the advantage of being armed." Patrick Henry eloquently argued, "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." During the 20th Century there have been many court cases to argue the right of the people to keep and bear arms. To date that right has been upheld, but we must be watchful. Do not take for granted that which many have fought to protect. - Lawerence Denney
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