The focus of the people of the United States ever since 9-11 has been solely on an external threat. While there is no denying that an external threat is a viable force, another peril is one that is coming from within. If the internal forces that are attempting to destroy our freedom and liberty succeed, the external forces need only to wait and they will be able to gain control without blowing things to bits or firing a shot.

The guiding force for the nation is the Constitution which sets forth the duties, responsibilities, and limits on each branch of government. However, over the years the limits on the powers of each branch have been eroded by out of control Presidents, members of Congress and federal judges, most notably the United States Supreme Court. Slowly and surely, the long nose of an intrusive government has been bust sniffing out ways to increase its power. The consequence of the power grab is the erosion of freedom and liberty given to us by the founders. They seem to be in a contest with each other in an attempt to gain dominance over religion, commerce, and education, the three main components of the nation’s foundation.

The assault on the Second Amendment began in full force when President Reagan   and James Brady were shot by John Hinckley in 1981. The President recovered from his wounds, but Mr. Brady suffers to this day from his terrible injury. Sarah Brady, experiencing a trauma to her life that none of us can imagine, set about to eliminate guns from private ownership. She had and still has, in and out of government, devotees to her cause to neuter the Second Amendment. People who should know better twist and misrepresent the clear meaning of the amendment in order to push their dangerous agenda. If not for the NRA and other pro-gun ownership groups, the constitutional right to bear arms would be eviscerated by the liberal crowd. Without the ability to bear arms, the citizenry would be at the mercy of the thugs and criminals who would bring carnage to society in a greater degree than is being done now.

The strange argument about firearms ownership flies in the face of common sense. Those who want to limit guns argue that the more guns in the hand of the citizens, the more carnage there will be everywhere. The underlying issue seems to be that they think everyone who owns a gun is an irresponsible twit who will lack self control and begin looking for people to shoot. The other idea is that fewer guns mean greater safety. History proves that isn’t true, and in fact the historical record shows that when citizens are armed, criminals go elsewhere to find their prey.

Do facts deter the zealots who want to disarm the nation? No, they twist and spin the data to suit their agenda of disarmament and further claim that the accounts of citizens who protect themselves with firearms are merely anecdotal. Do not all statistical studies begin with accumulating data which reflects all the occurrences of any given behavior, which in the aggregate is composed of individual anecdotal happenings? If not for individual events there couldn’t be any statistical analysis.

Law enforcement officers can’t be everywhere at once. The police are reactive and seldom  proactive regarding criminal conduct. They arrive after the event and thus are useless in preventing most crime. By the time they arrive the criminals have inflicted grievous damage and are long gone. That is, they are long gone  unless an armed citizen has interrupted the crime event with a firearm. Then the usual refrain which is heard from both the police (at times) and the anti-gun crowd is how dangerous such  intervention could have been. A thug is bent on mayhem and it is dangerous to stop him?  Such thinking belongs in the goofy bin of weird thinking.     

An armed citizenry is the first line of protection for the safety of individuals and ultimately society as a whole. In Sorting It Out, if the gun control zealots are successful everyone will be in peril and at the mercy of the criminal element (thugs) internally and eventually from the external forces of evil.

© 07-04-2007 DEC     (Source http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56311)                                Next Week Peril From Within Part II: Free Speech