Gun Facts in the U.S. 2024:The Reality of Firearms in America

I love Reality!

I can't, and don't argue with any of this. Our founding fathers knew the value of an armed civilian populace, both in the defense of country and self and we Americans embrace this daily.

Whether you are for the private ownership of firearms or not, there are TWO Numbers that you should NEVER forget: 262 and 196...

In the last century alone, over 262 MILLION UNARMED Citizens were MURDERED by their OWN Governments. Of that number, over 196 MILLION UNARMED Citizens were MURDERED by Atheistic Leftist Collectivist "Progressive" regimes of one brand or another.

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

In Federalist 51, James Madison wrote:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself."

Madison and his Founding peers (both Federalist and Anti-Federalist) all recognized -- though PERSONAL EXPERIENCE -- that any Government that possesses a monopoly on firearms and coercive power through violence is by no means obliged to control itself.

THIS is why our nation ratified a bill or rights, within our Constitution, that RECOGNIZES (not "grants") our Individual, Natural Right to keep and bear arms.

Of course, some may argue that the term "militia" contained within Amendment II infers that the right to keep and bear arms is a COLLECTIVE right extended only to members of an organized military force regulated by the Government. This view constitutes a clear misinterpretation within the historical and verbal context in which Amendment II was ratified.

From an historic context, we must remember that on 19 April 1775, Lieutenant Colonel Smith marched his Battalion Task Force from Boston out to Lexington and Concord with the mission to conduct a raid with the task to seize privately-owned firearms and ammunition stockpiled in Concord and arrest certain leaders of the local resistance (an order issued by the appointed British Governor). Those British Subjects in Lexington and Concord had formed their own militia for mutual security against growing tyranny from the Crown -- their own Government. So, the spark that lit the flame to our national birth was premised on the fact that the Colonists fully intended to retain their private firearms.

Our founders codified their intent in our National Charter: The Unanimous Declaration of the united (sic) States:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [Natural] Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.... [W]hen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them [The People] under absolute Despotism, it is their [The People's] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

The Founders later established our National Bylaws upon this Charter when they ratified our present Constitution. By virtue of Article VII, Clause 4, the Constitution was established by unanimous consent pursuant to the Declaration in the Twelfth year of Independence. The two documents are inextricably linked. Our National Bylaws do not replace or abolish our national Charter. Rather the Bylaws provide a means to execute the vision and purpose provided by the Charter. And thus, the Constitution must be interpreted through the lens of the Declaration.

In the verbal context of the Constitution, then, any time the term "The People" appears in the first ten amendments, it always denotes an INDIVIDUAL right. COLLECTIVE rights are expressly set aside for "The States" in context. The Supreme Court of the United States confirms this point in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), in which it ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms -- unconnected with service in a militia. The Supreme Court further reinforced Heller with their decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), which codified an individual's right to carry a loaded gun in public for self-defense.

I have heard at least one former Service Member (who coincidentally ran for the second highest political office in the land) proclaim that these individual rights do not extend to the private possession of "weapons of war," but this opinion does not have the support of Federal Law and Judicial Precedent which directly contradict this point of view. The Supreme Court opinion established by United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939) stipulates that (in full context of the decision rendered): "[T]he Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense...and...when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common [military] use at the time."

Moreover, 10 U.S. Code § 246 - Militia: composition and classes, paragraphs (a) and (b)(2) stipulate that the "unorganized militia" of the United States consists of all able-bodied male citizens, ages 17 to 45, who are NOT members of the National Guard.

We may conclude that ownership of military-style firearms (e.g. AR-15s) are practically MANDATORY in light of Miller and 10 U.S. Code § 246.

If these points bother you as one who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, then you leave me no recourse but to question your integrity and loyalty to the United States Constitution. Moreover, were you to follow an unlawful order to confiscate private firearms, then you have volunteered to join the ranks of the Constitution's domestic enemies. We do not get to choose which provisions to defend and which to ignore.