Standing Strong for the Second Amendment

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul raised his public profile last month with his principled filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination for Director of Central Intelligence for a continuous 13.5 hours without a break. In a Democrat-controlled Senate that didn’t pass a budget in four years, it was refreshing to see a Senator using this largely forgotten tactic to shed light on the constitutionality of a very important issue.

Now, with Senate Democratic leaders poised to bring new anti-gun legislation to the floor, Senator Paul is ready to do it again. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, and other conservatives in the chamber have pledged to join Senator Paul in opposition to any bill that infringes on the Second Amendment rights that are protected in our Constitution.

Conservative Republicans in the House are also doing their part to defend gun rights. For example, if the Senate approves the current proposed gun ban, Congressman Steve Stockman of Texas has promised to use a “blue slip,” which is a rarely used resolution that automatically returns unconstitutional legislation back to the Senate. All bills which raise revenue must originate in the House, and anti-gun bill S. 649 includes language mandating a fee for background checks, which is equivalent to a “tax” if you believe the Supreme Court’s recent Obamacare decision. Certainly, the irony won’t be lost on the White House.

The more than 500,000 members and supporters of Citizens United and I stand firmly with these Members of Congress in defense of our God given-liberty. Citizens United spent years successfully defending the First Amendment, and we will continue our battle to defend the Second Amendment. Recently, I was on CNN’s Piers Morgan’s show and took him to task on the issue of the Second Amendment. Like most in the liberal media, Piers just does not understand that taking away firearms from law abiding citizens will no doubt lead to more crime.

I grew up around guns, and my own kids are learning to respect firearms today. We use our shotguns, rifles, and handguns on my family’s property in Maryland and Alabama, where we hunt water fowl, turkey, and deer. One of my favorite responsibilities as a father is teaching my children about gun safety, while spending weekends hunting as a family. I’d much rather have my children exercising and enjoying the great outdoors than endlessly sitting in front of desensitizing, violent video games.

The Founding Fathers were concerned about self-defense, the ability to defend your own property, and ensuring that the people had the means to throw off a tyrannical government. They understood that an unchecked government, sooner or later, treads on individual liberty, so they gave us the absolute ability to protect ourselves from government intrusion by having the right to keep and bear arms. And, just like the freedom of speech, religion, right to a jury trial, etc., it is in the Bill of Rights and so applies to every individual American citizen, just as the Supreme Court confirmed in the Heller decision.

President Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Governors like Andrew Cuomo and Martin O’Malley want to fool us into believing that limiting gun rights is a foregone conclusion. Through a horrendous act of evil perpetrated in Newtown, Connecticut, the left has been shameless in using this tragedy to further their Big Government agenda.

My heart still aches for the children and faculty who were lost in this senseless act of violence. But this devastating tragedy does not give liberal Washington politicians the right to trample on the Constitution. By threatening to filibuster and challenging gun laws on Constitutional grounds, Senator Rand Paul and others are exposing those on the Left who want to take our rights away to public scrutiny. Only when the Left is forced into the light will our constitutional rights be safe.