AUGUST 10, 2009 – 02:25 PM
THE SECOND AMENDMENT
by Mike Huckabee
With the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the importance of the Second Amendment will once again be at the forefront of debate across the Country. I thought this would be a good time to talk a little about the Second Amendment and what it means to me and to all of us who love America.
The Second Amendment is very brief and pretty simple. It says “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.” Let’s be very clear about what the Second Amendment is not. It is not about hunting. When I hear politicians talk about hunting and guns, I know that they do not understand the purpose of the Second Amendment. The founding fathers weren’t worried about our being able to bag a duck or a deer; they were worried about our keeping our fundamental freedoms. The Second Amendment is about our freedom, about protecting ourselves and having the capability to defend ourselves, our family, our property and our nation.
I believe that the intent of our Founding Fathers is evident. They wanted us to be able to defend ourselves from our own government, if need be, and from all threats to our lives and property. Second Amendment rights belong to individuals, not cities or states. Gun owners should control guns, not the government. Our founding fathers were worried that even with the checks and balances they built into our system of government, that system could fail, and we might someday face a new tyranny from our own government.
That is why they they gave us the Second Amendment. They knew that a government facing an armed populace was less likely to take away our rights, while a disarmed population wouldn’t have much hope. Ronald Reagan had it exactly right when he said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Without our Second Amendment rights, all of our other rights aren’t inalienable, they’re just “on loan” from the government.
