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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
The U.S. Constitution, along with its subsequent amendments, is the document that created the federally elected position of a representative to Congress.
At the start of each new Congress, the speaker of the house will direct the members to rise, and the aath is administered to the entire House of Representatives as follows: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
A representative, or any other person who has sworn an oath as a part of their position, must uphold their oath, or if unable, they should resign their position, or the people of their district should recall said official and replace them with someone who is capable of honoring the oath of their office.
This past week, most of the Democrats in our federal House of Representatives gleefully passed a new “assault weapon ban” that is a clear violation of their oath of office. I say “most” of the Democrats did, as the final vote was 217 to 213, with five Democrats voting against the bill, BUT another two Republicans voting FOR the bill.
In order for a bill to pass in the House of Representatives, it requires a 51% majority in order to pass. Had the two Republicans honored their oath to support and defend the Constitution, the vote would have instead been 215-215, or a tie, and the bill would have died as the Democrats would have failed to meet the required 51% majority.
Unfortunately, the unconstitutional House Bill; H.R.1808, the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022;” is alive and is being passed on to the U.S. Senate. While it is my hope that a grid-locked Senate that is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans will fail to achieve the 60% majority required in the Senate to pass this bill into law, I have learned in my own experiences that nothing is ever certain until after it has already happened.
The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a part of the “Bill of Rights,” is equal to all other amendments regarding the rights of U.S. citizens. The Bill of Rights prevents our government from banning free speech, or censoring a newspaper, or dictating what a religion may do, or what religions are allowed.
The 2nd Amendment is in every way an equal to the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. amendments that specify a recognized right. All rights are unalienable, for if any right can be limited, restricted, or banned, then it is nothing more than a privilege.
The 2nd Amendment to our U.S. Constitution specifically states that, “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall NOT be infringed.” This is not a restriction upon the people, but a restriction upon our federal government, preventing it from attempting to limit the right of the people from defending themselves however they may choose as best for their own personal circumstances.
In fact, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution further states that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated, or enumerated, to it through the Constitution, and that all other powers are reserved to the states, or to the people.
There has been two times that the U.S. Congress properly banned something, first with the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery; or involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime; and second, with the 18th Amendment that prohibited the manufacturing or sale of alcohol within the United States. However, that amendment was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.
It takes the passage and ratification of a constitutional amendment in order for our federal government to give itself the authority to ban something. Nowhere else in the entirety of our U.S. Constitution does it state that the federal government has the authority to ban anything at all.
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), “the powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the constitution is written. …Certainly, all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.”
The “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022” is blatantly repugnant to the United States Constitution.