In 1995 my business was the subject of a burglary. At that time I wrote a letter praising the local city and county police in solving that crime. I continue to stand by that letter. I also made the following remark:
“It is encouraging to see the ‘system’ work as it is supposed to. Many times it is easy to say “where are the police when you need them?” However they cannot be everywhere at once. We would not want them everywhere at once. After all who needs a police state? Not I!”
Fourteen years have passed and we have more police than ever and are closer to a police state than we have ever been. The police still cannot be everywhere, thank God. However our rulers, Chicago Machine, say the common people, citizens of Illinois, cannot be trusted to own a firearm without their blessing via the FOID card. I say that is garbage. It is time that the people realized that our rulers wish to keep the people disarmed because the rulers are afraid of an armed citizenry, not concerned about “the children.”
In the name of ‘safety for the children’ and a plethora of other so called necessities, I, a citizen of Illinois in good standing, must crawl to the rulers to ask for permission to own and carry a gun in Illinois. At the same time the police cannot be everywhere to “protect and serve.” Many police are my friends, but I don’t want them everywhere. The rulers have made it increasingly clear that keeping the peace is now secondary to being “Law Enforcers,” carrying out the edicts of the rulers. Really important laws like, seat belt laws, have actually become an excuse to stop and check for other violations, and generate revenue. Many police don’t feel good about it, but they are just doing their job. If they don’t do it they will be hunting a new job.
Many Illinois citizens are now begging that the rulers let us carry concealed firearms. The truth is the people have a God given fundamental right to carry guns. Now it is important to understand that the term ‘fundamental right,’ or ‘inalienable right,’ is a right that you are born with. A fundamental right is NOT granted by any so-called law making body or any constitution. The constitution secures and guarantees and recognizes these inalienable rights, the constitution does not grant any rights whatsoever. Therefore a fundamental right cannot be taken away by any law making body accept at the risk of the wrath of the people (some would say sheeple).
These rights should not be confused with “civil rights.” Civil rights are rights, supposedly granted by the government. An example would be something like the “right to an education.” Nobody is born with a right to an education. Another might be a “right to a minimal income.” Nobody is born with a right to be supported by others. Any civil right can be taken away. I always enjoyed my old colleague Illinois Senator John Davidson when he would breathe fire and yell at the rest of his fellow chiropractors, what the government giveth the government can take away.” He would follow it by a speech to support financially those legislators who supported our cause. Then he would say at the top of his voice into a microphone, “money is the mother’s milk of politics and don’t you ever forget it!” My point is, the right to keep and bear arms is NOT a civil right that can be voted away and don’t you ever forget it!
For example there is no dispute that the people have a right to freedom of speech un-infringed by laws made by some ruling government body. The individual has the right to exercise this freedom up to the point at which it infringes on some other individual’s right to enjoyment of life and liberty. The old classic is that you are free to talk about someone as long as it is the truth, even if it might not be in good taste. If you begin to lie about, defame and libel someone then you have crossed the natural limit to the exercising of that fundamental right to freedom of speech. All rights have a natural boundary that the honest, moral, and reasonable person can recognize without the assistance of government. No one would dispute that if the government were to pass a freedom of speech license that it would not be right or constitutional. In other words you would be able to express yourself as long as you purchased a “speakers license.” Then you could speak as much as you want, at least as long as your speech was, of course, “politically correct.” Well you can see that obviously the government has taken a fundamental right to free speech and converted it into a privilege and is now charging a tax (license fee) for it.
Now let’s apply this to the firearm issue that is currently a hot topic among many in this state and in our country as whole. I, as member of the human race, have been born with the right to “keep and bear arms,” as have all other humans. Remember, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men… are endowed… with certain inalienable rights….” The right to keep and bear arms cannot be voted away by an act of congress or an act of the Chicago Machine House of Rulers. This is recently affirmed in the Heller US Supreme Court case.
Now the rulers come along and say, for the children, for the old folk, for the safety of the police, etc. etc. it is necessary to approve of and make sure that the person who owns a gun is not a criminal. Therefore we will require them to apply for a permit to exercise their God given fundamental right to bear arms in defense themselves, their family and others. They have taken a God given fundamental right and converted it into a privilege and are charging a tax for it. It is no different than the example above with regard to freedom of speech.
In the case of firearms, the rulers have it backwards or as one astute fellow told our county board last Tuesday night, “the government has it upside down.” I and all my fellow humans have the God given fundamental right without the rulers’ permission to keep and bear arms. The limitation to exercise my right to keep and bear arms can only be legally and constitutionally “taken” if I were to act irresponsibly in the exercising of my right. Just as the person who is free to exercise their free speech is limited at the point at which it invades some else’s right to enjoyment of their liberties, my right is limited when I approach the point that I infringe another’s right to enjoyment of their liberties. In other words if I exercise my right by brandishing my gun to steal another’s property then I have over stepped my natural boundary to exercise my God given fundamental right.
Now many gun owners in this state are humbly beseeching their rulers for a permit to carry concealed weapons; a permit to do that which they already have a God given fundamental right to do. Further they are trying to get it passed by offering to take a 40 hour course in which they would have to pass some kind of a test, go through some background check, and give out their private property in the form of their finger prints like a common criminal and their money to take this so called safety course. It makes me sick!
All holders of a public office, from the public library board to the judges, police, and the big boy rulers in the far away cities are charged with the public trust, and take an oath to defend our constitution from encroachment by enemies foreign and domestic. Have the big boys failed in the public trust? What are their enforcers to do? Somehow I am not concerned about the foreign enemies as much as I am the domestic enemies. It would seem that the rulers are not concerned about foreign enemies either. They “‘holler’ foreign terrorist,” then pass a bunch of stupid domestic laws to watch you and me. They won’t even put up a simple fence to keep the ‘terrorists’ out. They don’t even want me to carry a gun to protect myself and my family against terrorist boogey men. The rulers do want to track every financial transaction, every bit of health care, and a whole range of inconsequential things, all in the name of security and safety for the children, etal. I would say that the most secure place in Pike County is our jail, but how many want to live there? Do you really believe that all this background check and finger printing is just for the safety of the children? Are people really that naïve?
I wonder what those traitors to their government (King George), Samuel Adams, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry and George Washington and rest of our founding fathers who pledged their very lives, fortunes, and sacred honor would say to all us Illinois gun owners, who on our knees before the rulers, are humbly begging, beseeching, and petitioning for a permit law to do that for which many Founders gave all. Our precious soldiers have poured out or risked their life’s blood to preserve those God given fundamental/inalienable rights. The next step is licking the rulers’ jack boots to the clinking music of our chains.
