Has the Second Amendment Failed?

By Clash Daily / 14 January 2013 / 42 Comments
By Irwin Podhajser
Clash Daily Guest Contributor

There has been a lot of debate lately about gun control. After the Connecticut school shooting I wrote my opinions, which can be found here: (Click Here)



I am a proud owner a 1911 Colt .45 and enjoy my right to bear arms; and unlike most Americans I understand the amendment that gives me that right. I didn’t weigh in on the gun control issue at that time, but now I believe it is time to do so. The problem with debating gun control is that most people on both sides simply don’t seem to understand the second amendment. That’s where we will start and end our conversation today. Since it is a complicated and emotional issue, there are several points I want to make here.
The Second Amendment Does Not Limit Any Arms Ownership – There are those that argue that there are limits on your second amendment rights just like there are limits on the first amendment and the protection of free speech, such as you don’t have the right to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater or you don’t have the right to libel someone.
These arguments are wrong. In the early days of the Republic, the average citizens could arm themselves with the same weapon that the army had. Bring that into the modern era and not only do people have the right to automatic weapons; you could argue they have the rights to own tanks and fighter planes.
The other bad comparison is that the limits on free speech are only enacted when your freedom interferes with the freedom of another individual. You have freedom of speech, you just can’t use it to limit the freedom of others, just like you have the rights to bear any arms you like as long as you don’t limit the freedom of others with that right.
There Is A Proper Way To Change The Second Amendment – My problem with gun control advocates is not their arguments for gun control, but the way they go about trying to achieve it. If you want to limit our right to bear arms, then do it the way the Constitution says to do it; through a constitutional amendment. Let’s have this debate state by state and let the people decide whether they want to give up their right to bear arms. Let’s have the debate and really educate America why we have the second amendment. If we repeal or amend the second amendment through the right means, I can live with that. I might not like it, but I can live with it.
The Right To Bear Arms Only Works In A Moral Society – As I said in my original article, the problem in the school shootings is evil, not the right to bear arms. The problem we are facing in this country is that we are becoming a more immoral and evil people. Evil has always been with us and it always will be with us, but our society is simply degenerating which allows this evil to flourish in the open rather than hiding in dark corners. We are paying the price for the lack of boundaries and the concept of “do what makes you feel good”. We are paying the price for a society that, in the name of “tolerance”, has blurred the line between right and wrong and has declared God dead. Forget the war on guns, let’s have a war on immorality.
The Second Amendment Has Failed – You can ignore every point above, because it all comes down to this final observation that the second amendment has failed. We have missed the whole point behind why the amendment exists in the first place. The reason behind the amendment and the entire Bill of Rights is to endow the individual with so much freedom and so much power that it would keep the government in check. The philosophy was that the “people should not fear their government; the government should fear their people”. The second amendment was there to arm the people so that the government could never take any of the other freedoms away.
The only problem is that what the government couldn’t take by force, they have gotten through trickery. We have slowly given away our freedoms and have empowered the one institution our founders feared the most. Out of fear and laziness we have traded liberty for protection. We have traded freedom for a giant nanny.
There is a scene in Star Wars Episode 3 where two senators are watching a speech by the high chancellor. In the speech, the chancellor, in the name of safe and secure society, restructures the republic into an empire and proclaims himself the emperor. The crowd rises in applause. One of the two senators says to the other, “So this is how liberty dies. By thunderous applause.”
Think about it. Our founders started a war over a tea tax. Now we have protests demanding higher taxes. We elect people who promise to tax us and to take care of us by robbing us of our freedoms and choices. Our founders thought there would be many revolutions in our history. They thought blood would have to be spilt every few decades to ensure that we remain committed to the freedom of the individual. They knew of the danger of a too powerful government. What they didn’t foresee was that, given enough time, the individual would rather choose a false sense of security over true freedom.
One program at a time. One freedom at a time. One by one we have handed it to a government that’s only concern is power and it has all happened to the sound of thunderous applause. This is how amendments and liberty die.
Irwin spent the first 15 years of his adult life as a youth pastor in Miami Florida. He then went on to a career in marketing and television where he launched the first Spanish-language television station in southwest Florida and created multi-million dollar ad campaigns. He is currently the President of DrTV Network which is a multi-level television network dedicated towards healthy living. He also serves as Chairman for The Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance.



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