Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"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."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

It’s the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Stupid

 
By  -  11/5/2014
 
Over at Breitbart, Awr Hawkins suggests that “the Second Amendment crushed gun control candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races around the country.” This is evidently true — or, at the very least, it is true that candidates who happened to be pro-gun won overwhelmingly. Whatever dreams the gun-control brigade had in the wake of the abomination at Newtown were dashed, it seems. Why? Well, because support for the right to keep and bear arms is not a political liability in the United States.
Hawkins records that:

Friday, October 24, 2014

Woman Posts Yard Sign to “Out” Neighbor as Concealed Carry Licensee

 
By NRA - 10/24/2014
Few of the anti-gun movement’s positions are as self-defeating and mean-spirited as the impulse to “out” others for the choices they make about their Second Amendment rights. Most of them try to justify prying into this private activity under the mismatched rubric of the “public’s right to know,” as if private individuals become public figures merely for the exercise of a fundamental right. In recent years, newspapers have published databases of Right-to-Carry and pistol permit holders, feigning interest in “public safety.” Yet their true motivations were more candidly illustrated recently by the comments of D.C. Councilmembers at a public hearing on D.C.’s new concealed carrying permitting law. “Who cares about the confidentiality of a gun owner? We don’t want it … ,” Councilwoman Yvette Alexander said, arguing to make permit holder information public. Fellow Council member David Grosso -- who also expressed his preference for “no guns at all” in the District -- concurred:  “[A]t least we’ll all know who it is, and we can treat them differently ….” 

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

With elections just around the corner it’s not uncommon to hear politicians say all kinds of outlandish things to voters in an attempt to further cement their chances of winning an election.
But Mark Udall is making the commander in chief look like a rookie when it comes to the lies he’s telling.
In case you don’t know, Mark Udall is Colorado’s progressive Senator looking to severely hobble second amendment supporters.
And to court undecided voters who don’t like Obama, Udall has come up with a fairy tale where he insists that he’s the last person President Obama wants to see coming down the lawn of the White House. You know, because he’s always telling Obama “No.”

Monday, October 6, 2014

The Myth of the word "Militia" in the 2nd Amendment

 
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. ~2nd Amendment to the US Constitution
Nothing seems to evoke more passion from either side of the aisle than America’s illustrious 2nd amendment. People on my side of the fence often cite the “shall not be infringed part,” but those who wish to limit or eliminate the citizenry’s right to carry arms often cite the “a well-regulated militia” part.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The Lost Amendment




The debate over the Second Amendment has been fierce and terrible, with bad arguments on both sides, and bad will all around. It began in the nineteen-sixties, when there was a great deal of violence and much concern about it. It took another turn on Friday, when, at the N.R.A.’s annual meeting, in St. Louis, Newt Gingrich said, “The Second Amendment is an amendment for all mankind.”

As I wrote in this week’s New Yorker, no amendment received less attention in the courts in the two centuries following the adoption of the Bill of Rights than the Second, except the Third (which dealt with billeting soldiers in private homes). It used to be known as the “lost amendment,” because hardly anyone ever wrote about it. The assertion that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to own and carry a gun for self-defense, rather than the people’s right to form militias for the common defense, first became a feature of American political and legal discourse in the wake of the Gun Control Act of 1968, and only gained prominence in the nineteen-seventies.

Monday, September 15, 2014

2nd Amendment Quote


"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies."

George Washington

Sunday, September 14, 2014

There is No First Amendment Without a Second Amendment


By Alan Caruba
When we celebrate the Fourth of July, let’s keep in mind that the first Americans won their independence from England with the force of arms. It was, in fact, a British effort in 1775 to confiscate military arms they believed were stored in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts that sparked the war.

The Founding Fathers were so aware of the need for an armed citizenry that, after ensuring freedom of religion, speech, press and the right to peacefully assemble in the First Amendment, the Second guaranteed their right to bear arms.

Wherever authoritarian regimes were established in the last century, they took away this right and then proceeded to kill those deemed enemies of the state.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Want to know what UN thinks of 'democracy'? Just look at its Arms Trade Treaty

By Theodore Bromund - Fox News - 9/10/ 2014

The United Nations turns 70 in 2015. Fox News is asking a selection of distinguished contributors occasionally to contribute their thoughts on what it has become, and how to shape its future.

As the United Nations starts to celebrate its 70th anniversary, it’s showing Americans the kind of openness it really believes in.

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a controversial effort that is highly sensitive in the U.S. due to Second Amendment concerns and worries about its impact on U.S. foreign policy, is nearing the fifty ratifications it needs to come into force, and all critics have been kicked out of the room.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Does Carrying a Gun to Synagogue Make It Safer or More Dangerous?

 

Why Some Jews Have Lox With a Side of Glocks

By
Paul Berger - 9/8/2014
Is the person next to you in shul packing heat?

If you live in a state with permissive gun laws, the answer might be yes.

Rabbi Anthony Fratello, of Temple Shaarei Shalom in Boynton Beach, Florida, said the only armed congregants he knows of work in law enforcement. But he would not be surprised if others carry a concealed weapon, too.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be so happy to know Chaim Yankel in the back row had got a gun,” Fratello said. “But I can’t do anything about that. I don’t frisk people when they come in the door.”

The High Holy Days are a time of heightened security. But this year, some American communities feel particularly vulnerable amid reports of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and heightened tension worldwide, including at home, following the war between Israel and Hamas.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Doctors Can Be Wrong

  

The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t have the facts about children and gun safety.

By
Robert B. Young - 9/5/2014            

There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth among physicians and medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), over the Florida law that forbids questioning patients about gun ownership. In late July, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that this was “legitimate regulation” of physicians’ conduct, intended to protect “patient privacy and curtail abuses of the physician-patient relationship.” Physicians who can see past the perceived insult to their autonomy would understand that this changes nothing about good care.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Concealed weapons permits nearly double in Orange County, California

 
The number of concealed weapons permits in Orange County has about doubled since a court ruling six months ago
Orange County has been flooded with thousands of applications for concealed weapons permits this year
In the six months since Orange County began issuing concealed weapons permits under a relaxed standard, the number of people licensed to carry guns is close to doubling, and thousands more are awaiting approval.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Geraldo Rivera: Second Amendment is 'Blind and Stupid'


By Christine Rousselle - 9/1/2014      
                
              
In covering the tragic story of a young girl accidentally killing her range instructor with an Uzi, my colleague Matt Vespa predicted that the anti-gun lobby would exploit this story to promote their agenda. It appears his prediction has been proven true. This past Thursday, Geraldo Rivera, a noted proponent of gun control, posted the following anti-Second Amendment message on his website and Facebook page: (emphasis added)
Like I always say, the 2nd Amendment, the provision that gives every American the right to keep and bear arms, is blind and stupid. In its relentless pimping for the gun industry, the NRA has unleashed an avalanche of deadly weapons on this gun-crazy country. Just as protects access to weapons for cops and hunters, it also protects access to weapons for domestic abusers, mental patients, jerk-offs on the no-fly list, all-around dim bulbs, and now little children.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

No Guns for you. . .Just guns for me!


Posted by NRA - 8/29/2014
In recent years, American gun owners have come under unprecedented attacks from a few billionaires willing to spend some of their vast personal fortunes to deprive others of their firearm rights. The most recent example of this is in the battle over Initiative 594 in Washington State. This initiative would expand the state’s handgun registration scheme, increase the current waiting period from 5 to 10 days, presumptively outlaw the private transfer of firearms, and divert scarce law enforcement resources that could be better spent combating violent crime.

Joining the chief funder of anti-gun efforts, Michael Bloomberg, tech billionaires Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen, as well as entrepreneur Nick Hanauer have thrown their resources behind I-594. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on August 25th that the Gates family has donated over $1 million in support of I-594. Earlier in the month, the Post-Intelligencer reported that the total contributions from the Ballmer family were $600,000. In addition, Allen donated $500,000. According to the article, with the help of these and other wealthy donors, the anti-gun activists have raised $6 million. (For an in-depth view of how the ultra-wealthy are bankrolling I-594 we encourage you to visit the website of Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission).

However, just because this handful of billionaires wants to make it harder for regular citizens to acquire the means of self-defense doesn’t mean they neglect to provide for their own security. A report from Seattle’s KIRO-TV regarding a 2014 break-in at the Gates’ mansion (often referred to as Xanadu 2.0) characterized the estate as, “[o]ne of the most secure private homes in the world.” An accompanying article stated, “The home has cameras, guards and sensors everywhere.” In 1998, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gates “usually travels with a phalanx of bodyguards.”

Paul Allen also has an extensive and sophisticated security service. In a 2013 article detailing problems he, his sister and their company, Vulcan, Inc., were having with their personal security personnel, the Post-Intelligencer revealed details about the scale of the protective force. It notes, “At least 15 former members of the Allens’ personal security detail have brought civil claims against Vulcan and its leaders.” The article also states that some of the force were “veterans of elite military units or longtime security specialists.”

Hypocrisy aside, another reason Gates’ attempt to manipulate Washington politics is noteworthy is that it departs from his previous philanthropic ventures to fight disease or poverty or to promote education. Obviously, spending money to curtail your fellow citizens’ right to self-defense isn’t really philanthropic, but his donations to I-594 supporters are different in another way. The Microsoft founder claims to be a proponent of maximizing the impact of giving. This supposedly involves directing money where it can do the most good and encouraging philanthropic organizations to behave more like the business world. This is a noble approach to noble goals when applied to fighting polio or malaria, but Gates abandons logic when it comes to his anti-gun giving.

First, I-594 doesn’t pass a simple cost-benefit analysis. So-called "universal” background check proposals can never actually be universal, as criminals intent on violence will not subject themselves to government scrutiny. Instead, violent criminals will continue to acquire firearms in the ways they always have: theft, straw purchasers, and illegal street sales. No effect on the murder rate can be expected.

Moreover, recent history proves that the anti-gun activists these billionaires have funded are grossly overestimating the extent to which people engage in private firearm transfers, and therefore the impact of legislation targeting these transfers. Their website is littered with the indefensible claim that private transfers account for 40 percent of all firearm transfers.

In the time period surrounding the enactment of a private transfer ban in Colorado, a branch of the state legislature released a report which anticipated that law enforcement personnel would need to conduct 420,000 additional background checks in the law’s first two years. The legislature reached this conclusion by relying on the bogus 40 percent statistic. As an Associated Press report noted, however, in the law’s first year there were only “13,600 checks between private sellers,” a figure that only comprised “4 percent of the state total” for firearms transfers.

In short, I-594 would impose costs on law-abiding Washingtonians without providing the purported benefit of keeping firearms out of the hands of those intent on violence.

These individuals can buy almost anything, and it’s clear they believe that includes the rights of gun owners in the Evergreen State. It is imperative that freedom-loving Washingtonians work to protect their rights by getting involved in the NRA’s grassroots organization, informing their friends and family of this attempt to curb gun rights and the hypocrisy behind it, and most of all, by voting against I-594 on November 4th.

Friday, August 29, 2014

You’ve Ever Wanted An “Evil Black Rifle,” Now Is The Time To Buy

 
        
Some basic AR-15s were running more than $1,500 during the post-Sandy Hook panic. Carbines with similar features can now be found for roughly half that price in many locations.
 
Business is a matter of supply and demand.

In recent years, the demand for the AR-15 modern sporting rifle has been at an all-time high, and manufacturers struggled to add multiple shifts and new equipment to meet that demand. It was a seller’s market.