The Second Amendment
1791: “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.” Second Amendment, the U.S. Constitution.
Back in 1999, David Barton (www.wallbuilders.com) wrote this article below about the Second Amendment in response to the tragic Columbine School shooting. It’s titled “A Tale of Two Philosophies.”
“Shortly after the nation’s attention was captured by the school shootings in Littleton, CO, the Juvenile Justice Bill came to vote in Congress. That bill provided an opportunity to debate how to prevent future occurrences of school violence. The House and Senate pursued very different philosophical approaches to the solution. Interestingly, the two different approaches were set forth long ago by Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop (1809-1894), who declared:
“‘Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.’
“The message of all history is clear: human behavior can be restrained by only two means—either internally, through the influence of God’s Word upon the heart, or externally, through coercion, restraint, and regulation. The Senate primarily chose the latter approach while the House focused on the former.
“For example, even though the individuals responsible for the shootings at Littleton had broken 18 different gun control laws to accomplish their carnage, the Senate believed that perhaps a nineteenth or a twentieth law would have made a difference. Consequently, many Senators pursued additional gun control laws.
“The House approach, however, focused not on the external regulations but on providing internal restraints through influence of religion. Individuals on the House side told me, ‘We got bushwhacked in the Senate, but it will be different in the House. Every time they talk about guns, we’re going to talk about God. Every time they talk about what’s in the hands of kids, we’re going to talk about what’s in their hearts.’”
If you take away the guns from all of us, then we the people will no longer be able to protect ourselves from the criminal, the tyrant politician, or the invading army. Meanwhile, the same sick, evil people, who murder innocent men, women and children, will find other means to carry out what is embedded in their own heads and hearts. God bless America? In God we trust?
I highly recommend seeing the Kirk Cameron film “Monumental.”