SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED! These words were written for a reason. Despite relatively recent SCOTUS decisions re-affirming our individual rights, District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the assault on our rights continue. Justice Scalia in his majority opinion wrote the 2A protects the individual’s right to own “commonly used firearms”.

If there is any question that the AR15, AK47, ect are “Commonly used firearm”, SCOTUS prior to DC v. Heller, wrote in 1994 with Staples v. United States that semi-automatic rifles are common. This is all legal discourse for what we know to be true without decades of argument. The 2A was written not to give us the right, but to restrain the Government from infringing on every patriot’s right to the freedom to protect themselves in the manner they see fit.

In the wake of last week’s shooting in Texas it re-affirms that a good person armed saves lives. The horrific damage inflicted at the church, with the loss of two lives, could have been achieved by a knife or vehicle, but limited by the legal use of a firearm, lives were saved from a murderous felon intent on causing death by any means.

Finally, get out and vote every single election. What we are seeing in Virginia could have been avoided had people exercised their right to vote. Our Gov. attempted this legislature prior, but was shot down (pun intended), because he did not have the majority. That should have been our warning, and while Virginia may actually turn out to be a good thing, as there should be Court injunctions filed on these laws. Those injunctions could have more wide spread effects than just Virginia if they re-affirm the 2A’s individual rights, it would have been easier to have voted.

I say that because Virginia may have lost that chance, but Georgia and Kentucky, you are seeing pre-filed bills already. I have no doubt people in my state laughed and said “This is Virginia, it will never happen”. It did, so if you are in Kentucky and Georgia and say the same, pay attention. I love this Country and have now lived in 4 states(Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia). Two of them seeing direct threats to our Freedom.

My concern over this legislation is not because I, or anyone else agreeing with these principles, do not care about our fellow American. We know and understand from history, and continuing events (Venezuela, Chicago, New York, etc), Gun Bans do not result in increased safety, they result in innocent lives lost.

SB64(amendment to illegal paramilitary activity) should be of great concern as well. This, making the training of firearms with another for the purpose of civil disorder or intimidation of others a felony. Make no mistake the revolutionary militias our Country was founded on would have been guilty and charged as Felons under this code section.

The question is why do we need to file this amendment now? I can guarantee if you are training for a terrorist attack on our country it is already a crime. This law is written so vaguely anyone exercising their 2A rights in an open carry event, with a long history of peaceful assembly, could be deemed to “intimidate”, and therefore guilty of a felony. Anyone training in a Militia, which has long been an anti-gun argument wrongfully applied to the 2nd Amendment (the 2A only applies to Militias, not individuals), could be guilty.

I still have faith that we can pull through this, but it will take not only motivation but educating ourselves in the process. God Bless, and for my Marines out there, Semper Fi!

I was asked yesterday by a friend what my opinion was on gun control and why citizens needed “Assault Rifles”. I actually appreciated the conversation and I was not going to weigh in too heavily on Facebook after this last shooting. I, however, cannot open my feed without seeing idiotic memes from occupy democrats making statements such as “If guns don’t kill people, people kill people, then why do we care if North Korea gets nukes”. So I have decided to put my opinion out here if you care to read.

It for the most part is a cut and paste from the conversation with a few small changes to keep the friend anonymous and an added topic, abortion. Because if guns are not controversial enough than why not turn the heat up… Anyways the format will look like a response because that is what it was, and if you were the friend who asked the question I am not trying to, as the kids say these days, “put you on blast”. I truly appreciated the conversation.

It is also good to remind ourselves of what our constitutional rights are, and why we have them.

The short term solution would certainly be to ban what we have termed “Assault Rifles”, which are really just semi-automatic rifles. A true Assault Rifle must be capable of “Select Fire” which means capable of firing more than one cartridge with a single trigger pull. The use of the term “Assault Rifle” has gained popularity because it makes the ownership of an AR-15 sound much more hostile. But I get that you and I are both talking about the same item so I wont get too far into the weeds on the terms, it does not change the fact an AR-15 is more than capable of being used on a horrific scale.

So taking the short term solution we would ban AR-15’s for being Assault Rifles, but I promise you that will not stop the next shooting and it would most likely utilize another semi-automatic rifle or pistol. The cry would inevitably be made to ban any semi-automatic firearm. So now we have made every semi-automatic firearm illegal and every law abiding citizen has turned theirs in or destroyed them. But the obvious problem is law abiding citizens have never committed mass murder. The same as banning drugs, if a person wants something they will acquire it.

Lets say we were able to remove every firearm we deemed a risk to the general populace, either through totalitarian gun confiscations, everyone doing the legal thing and turning them in, or the criminal’s illegal pre-ban weapons have decayed to the point they are not operational. We still have the issue of a person wanting to commit mass murder.

This is the million-dollar question. We have a person who has made it their life’s mission to cause destruction and heartbreak. 87 people died, 434 injured in Nice France(Truck through a crowd); 168 Killed, 680 injured in Oklahoma City Bombing; 33 dead, 130 injured Kunming Railway Station China(knife attack). These are just a few of the examples of mass attacks made without the use of firearm. The most simplistic being a knife attack which killed more than our recent shooting, in fact almost doubling the number from Florida.

This real issue we have to tackle is changing our current course our society is on. Our second amendment was written for a reason. Our founding fathers were extremely brilliant men and to say they could not forecast greater weapons than a musket is insulting to their memory and fallible in argument as there were weapons in the making at the time to increase the volume of fire. The “Puckle Gun” was one option available which increased the volume of fire if you wanted to fact check. The patent was in 1718 by a James Puckle.

The second amendment was written not to protect hunting rights or gun enthusiast, but it was written to protect the people from their government. While it does not say it in the second amendment I have bought and read the Federalist Papers, in addition to reading quotes from our founding father. It was very evident, blatantly spoken by them that the second amendment was established to be a tool to overthrown and re-establish a government should this one ever turn on its people.

It is not something I wish for, especially as a Government employee who has devoted his adult life to this government, but I serve the constitution of the United States. The same as the forefathers did not see the internet but the first amendment still protects our thoughts and words here, the second amendment protects the devices manufactured today. I would not trade the temporary safety of my children at the expense of their rights and freedom.

Our real issue is in fact morals. It is not a popular topic and I am certainly not a saint, I can however see it. We have de-based our family values. Whether we want to admit it we live in a society that has told everyone do what makes you feel good, there are no consequences. Divorce rates are through the roof and once divorce occurs fathers step away from the children. Mothers now being burdened with raising the children alone work longer hours, or in the mothers that go on welfare have, in a lot of cases, lost motivation to care so their children run around without supervision.

Abortion. I would never cast judgement on anyone who has had an abortion. In fact my heartbreaks for those who have. They are told their life and dreams will be over if they have the child. They are told they have options but are hardly ever told they will have support if they keep the child. Father’s as I stated before walk away from their children and there is no shame. There used to be shame in being called a “Deadbeat Dad” but that is no longer the case. So we tell people it is easier to abort.

We have devalued human life. It slowly eats at the consciousness of us all and everyone know it is a life. We have people crying for trees being cut down because they know it is life as well, but try their hardest to deny the life inside a woman deserves our protection. We desensitized ourselves to the value of life. Like I said, and I truly mean it, I do not judge anyone who has made the decision, I do condemn our society for allowing it to happen.

I have been called to schools, middle schools at that, for kids screaming at their teachers. There is no discipline in the schools anymore. Teachers are afraid to discipline but they cannot function because of some of their children.

We are a culture obsessed with violence. It is everywhere. You can have an assault or a robbery take place, hell in NYC they had an elderly man assaulted and pushed into the tracks and killed. Everyone stops to film but no one offers aid. Why? Because we love violence. Rome was a society who loved violence and lost their morals. Greatest country in the world at that time and brought to its knees.

I don’t care if you believe in the Christian God, Buddha, or a divine spirit but once we removed religion from the schools we did not replace it with anything. At the very least religion teaches morals, and our youth need morals if we are to survive and prosper under a free society.

We have told parents for a while now that they cannot discipline their children. Children need discipline and strong role models, which should be their parents.

What is my solution. It seems simple in theory and complex in execution. Bring back morals and respect in society. In the mean time I would arm teachers. It is a sad state of affairs but Israel has to do it. Allow guns back on school grounds and repeal gun-free zones, increasing the penalties for illegal gun use. There are already increased penalties for most crimes when you add a firearm to it so enforce and increase those penalties. Right now you are only prohibiting “Good Guys” from carrying, people who would stop a shooting in its tracks, long before the police arrive. You cannot legislate absolute safety.

Allow teachers to bring back discipline in the schools, and yes, if they needed to physically touch my child because of his/her actions then use the force necessary to maintain discipline in the classroom.

As for mental health, I have personally had a child screaming at me and his parents he was homicidal, and was refusing to take his medication. His parents called us and refused to take action because he was, “Bi-Polar”. It took a few short words from me in front of his parents for him to realize he could not intimidate or control me by shouting. I was a bandaid for a more serious problem but it showed he could control his actions without the need for sedation. This is one example of many I have found.

I believe if we bring back discipline, morals and respect to our youth mental health services will dramatically decrease. I am not saying schizophrenia, bi-polar, ect are eradicated, but significantly reduced.

Why do I believe this? Because human nature does not change. This is why the forefathers were so insightful on the establishment of this country. They understood human nature. We have had semiautomatics available to the citizen population since at least the 60’s. Why has this now become an issue(School shootings and mental illness on a rampant level). We have not changed, but our environment we are raised in has.

I can go on and on about this topic, and clearly I have!! But the fact is we are an experiment in the working(Constitutional Republic). Contrary to popular belief we are not a true democracy, and the best example I have heard is a democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner. Maybe this wont work, maybe we have too much freedom and human nature will always devour itself if given the opportunity. I hope not and as long as I have breath in my body I will continue to fight for, and speak up for every aspect of our freedom.

I truly want the best for everyone in this country and safe-guarding the freedoms to allow free thought has produced some of the greatest accomplishments man-kind has ever seen. I know I cannot design a space ship that will transport people to mars or any other idea that has yet to be thought of, so my part is safeguarding our society so that those who will do it will not be suppressed. Only in a free society are those things possible, and I am excited to see the limits of humanity!

If we cannot take a good look at our society and realize we have a morality issue than we will continue on the road to failure. Taking away constitutional freedoms will not save anyone, in fact the 2nd amendment will be the first pillar to fall, and once that has occured then the rest will follow and we will be left with a broken house.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” -Benjamin Franklin