PRO SECOND AMENDMENT COMMITTEE ESSAY CONTEST WINNER

Inalienable:The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
by T. Yeager.
Homeschool (Grand Junction)
(High School 1st Place)

Two hundred twenty-one years ago, fifty-five men came together to write out the laws of these United States. One of the documents that they drafted was the Bill of Rights. Within that sacred document are now twenty-seven articles, each carefully outlining the undeniable rights of an American citizen to ensure the freedom of that individual. Article Two, also known as the Second Amendment, contains the words “...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The question we are facing in 2008 is: does this amendment, written over 200 years ago, still have meaning in America today? Does it affect the no mal American citizen’s rights, freedom and future? I would say yes, it does affect our lives.

The Second Amendment affects all our rights by giving us the power to defend them. Noah Webster once said, “The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed.” Webster knew the ‘supreme power in America’ would realize that when the rights of armed citizens are defiled, they [the citizens] have the power to protect their rights and will most likely do so. Therefore, if the citizens are armed, the government will think carefully about what they are doing, thus protecting the rights of the citizens.

There are few better examples of citizens defending their rights than the time of the Revolutionary War. At the time of this war, the rights of the citizens were constantly being infringed. When their numerous petitions for redress were constantly denied by the English government, they took up their arms and fought for the rights of the Englishmen they were at the time. We should never forget their sacrifice; it was huge. They were successful in winning their rights and instituted one of the most stable governments in the world. Remembering the war with England, the men of the Constitutional Convention took measures when they wrote the Constitution to ensure that the rights of the people would not be abused again. The right to keep and bear arms was very important to the founders. Because of this, although many of them thought that this right would never have to be protected by law, they put in the Second Amendment to ensure the rights of future Americans.

The right to bear arms is inseparable from freedom. Theodore Sedgwick, one of the framers of the Second Amendment said, “It is a chimerical idea to suppose that a country like this could ever be enslaved. How is an army for that purpose to subdue a nation of freemen who know how to prize liberty and who have anns in their hands?” While an unarmed people can do naught but submit to the every whim of their government, however tyrannical, an armed people is free to resist tyranny. They can defend themselves from those who would harm them, their families, or their property. They need not cower in their homes, but they can leave their homes without fear, free to go where they wish without being terrorized. Richard Henry Lee said, “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”

In a society that is free to bear arms, it is the criminals that should fear, not the citizens. Citizens today have defended themselves with arms numerous times. An example of this occurred in Rochester, New York, when a homeowner, after seeing a nearby duplex stormed by a gang of armed men, grabbed his shotgun. Soon after, the gang forcibly entered his home. He exchanged shots with at least seven of them, killing two and wounding a third. The gang fled, and the man and his family were unharmed. This agrees with Samuel Adams’ statement that, “Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these; first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly, to property - together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.”

How does this all affect our future? The citizen’s right to bear arms keeps the government in check. They dare not pass laws that would practically enslave future generations of Americans. Keeping our freedom to bear arms is the only way to truly ensure national security. Patrick Henry knew this well. He said, “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” Without the right to bear arms, America will eventually be destroyed. We will not necessarily fall to enemies from overseas, although they will do what they can to contribute to our demise, but to enemies from within our own countiy. If we have any respect at all for our descendants who will live in this country, we must hold on tightly to our right to bear anns. Without it, we lose our rights and our freedom. Without those, we will lose our future.