To the Editor:
The Second Amendment states; ‘The right to bear arms shall not be abridged.’ It doesn’t give Americans the right to bear arms, rather it places a curb on government. The Founders recognized owning firearms as a ‘God given or natural right.‘
The Founders recognized citizens’ need for personal self defense but also as a defense from tyrannical government. They worried American government could someday turn against its people. Today, the government funds the strongest military in the world and has a clandestine ability to destroy citizen’s lives. The Founding Fathers saw an armed citizenry as another check or balance against potential governmental tyranny.
Founding Father Tench Coxe wrote; “Whereas civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed….in their right to keep and bear their private arms.” (Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 1789)
Remember McCarthyism, Watergate, our IRS attacking conservative groups, and the unproven Steele dossier and FISA warrant?
Alexander Hamilton wrote; “the people are most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.” (Federalist #25, 1787)
Congratulations Madison County voters. The people weighed-in against unconstitutional state gun laws on Nov. 6, with 67,351 voters, or 67.1 percent, approving a non-binding referendum making Madison County a sanctuary gun county.
Philip W. Chapman, Madison County Board member
Highland