George Rebane
[This piece appears as my column in the 16jul22 Union (here). It is a response to the latest in the newspaper’s thread of Second Amendment debates that started with my response to ‘Read it yourself – A well-regulated militia’ by a local leftwing gun controller. To this I responded with ‘The Many Ways to Regulate Militias’ published in the 14jun22 Union (and here) This was responded to by another leftwinger’s 21jun22 column, ‘The role of a well-regulated militia’. Just to pile on, yet another anti-gunner’s column ‘This July Fourth, enough with misguided patriotism’ taking me to task, was published in the 30jun22 Union. The piece below seeks to put paid to my 2A critics, but unfortunately only those who have some claim to critical thinking. I invite RR readers to examine the comments of those who lack such a skill in my column’s comment stream. It is witness to the dominant sign of our times.]
In his 21jun22 column Mr Dick Sciaroni limits the 2nd Amendment, arguing that in our nation’s founding and the establishment of its republican government, “it defies reason that (the Founders’) focus would include condoning a revolt against that very government.” Were Mr Sciaroni to expand his historical studies, he would quickly discover that it was exactly that focus which inspired, nay demanded, the inclusion of the “right and duty of the people to alter or abolish a government that acts against their common interest and/or threatens the safety of the people without cause.”
The Founders were learned men and students of Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Samuel Johnson, et al who taught the ‘Right of Revolution’ against governments gone rogue. Our nation’s birth came about through the exercise of that right against its then government gone rogue. History is replete with numerous justified revolutions against governments turning against their people. Our Founders were very aware of that and enshrined their sentiments in our Declaration of Independence – “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce (the citizenry) under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”
Our Constitution contemplates and provides for two distinct ways to change our government – an orderly process through amendments and constitutional conventions; failing that, then through armed revolt with the means provided the citizenry through the 2nd Amendment. The Founders were neither hubristic nor naïfs when they gave us “a republic if (we) can keep it.” They were sufficiently wise and humble to know that they had not created the perfect government incapable of going rogue, so they provided us, under law, with the ultimate means of redress.
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