A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. ~ Thomas Jefferson [emphasis added by K]
In recent years, and especially since the most recent anti-2A push began, more and more people who once looked upon the III with disdain as fringe have begun moving more toward our positions regarding Rights. This is a good thing, so long as we take the time to help accelerate their Awakening by challenging some of the assumptions they are bringing with them from their "Law & Order" Republican past.
Here's one that many Law & Order types cling to when discussing 2A: All law-abiding Americans are entitled to 2A.
Most of us immediately red-flag that law-abiding part of the statement.
What laws must we abide to remain in good graces for retaining 2A? Does it mean that anyone who has commited "crimes" in the past, or served time, is no longer entitled to 2A? Does the guy smoking pot, or dealing pot or heroin surrender his 2A because dealing in pot or heroin is against the law? What about the poor slobs who have done 20 years for dealing pot, only to be released into a new America where it is now legalized? Is he still a criminal to be debarred 2A?
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Once again I find it is Jefferson who articulates the premise properly.
If you are not in prison you may not morally be debarred the use of Arms. And if you are in prison, it must only be for having infringed the Rightful Liberty of another person. Any law that falls outside Rightful Liberty is an immoral law and should be killed by moral Americans - and the people trying to impose immoral laws held to answer for their Treason. Anyone who has ever been sent to prison for drug or 2A crimes has been mistreated by his Countrymen.
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. ~ Thomas Jefferson [emphasis added by K]
So, when you come across a person who is generally in agreement with Liberty positions, but you see that law-abiding language in their writings or hear it in their conversations (because it is still in their rationale - old habits are hard to break, and they haven't yet connected those final dots), challenge them on the fallacy and help them break through to a genuine understanding of Liberty.
Two final thoughts from Jefferson, which demonstrate my point that all of the answers we need to return to a proper society can be found in the writings of our Founders & Framers:
The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.
and
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence. (He wrote this in 1821 - he knew then that we were on a road to ruin. Many of us would argue that destruction happened just a few decades later, under Lincoln. - K)
Kerodin
III
