Please feel free to copy the text below and send it to your members of Congress. I did.
To the Honorable (Full Name of your Senators and Representative):
I read the news this evening (9:19 PM ET, Wed December 16, 2015) with grave concern: “As his administration prepares an executive order tightening access to guns, President Barack Obama met Wednesday with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a proponent of new gun laws who has become the chief enemy of the National Rifle Association. The White House said Obama and Bloomberg “discussed ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them and what more could be done at the state and local level to help address gun violence in America.”
Below, I provide specific excerpts from our Constitution and Federal law that highlight President Obama’s blatantly un-Constitutional actions:
1. The U.S. Constitution is “the supreme Law of the Land” (Article VI) and all amendments “shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution” (Article V).
2. The U.S. Constitution grants only certain, specific, and limited powers to the federal government. Article I outlines the powers and responsibilities given to Congress; Article II outlines the powers and responsibilities given to the President; Article II outlines the powers and responsibilities given to the Judges of the Supreme Court. The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
3. The U.S. Constitution and U.S. Federal Law holds Congress, the President, the Supreme Court Justices, and all civil and military officers accountable to the same exacting standard by way of oath of office. For all but the President, the oath of office reads: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”” (Article VI and 5 U.S. Code § 3331 – Oath of office, (Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 424.)). The President’s oath of office reads, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” (Article II, Section 1).
4. The 1982 Congressional Report on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms provides 65 references in Constitutional and Federal law, along with 21 citations of case law that fully explain the efficacy and scope of our Second Amendment (https://ryoc.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/1982-Congressional-Report-on-the-Right-to-Keep-and-Bear-Arms.pdf).
5. Our Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This right is an individual right (Heller) and applies to all the states (McDonald). District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held in a 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution applies to federal enclaves and protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes. McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that determined whether the Second Amendment applies to the individual states. The Court held that the right of an individual to “keep and bear arms” protected by the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and applies to the states. Furthermore, the “shall not be infringed” clause is open ended, applies to all entities including the federal government, and allows zero wiggle room for any sort of infringement. The term “shall” means It is an absolute command, one without recourse. Thus, any local, county, state, or federal legislation or executive order that limits, impedes, restricts, slows, or otherwise interferes with an individual’s right to keep (own/possess) and bear (carry) arms is patently un-Constitutional.
As a reminder, Congressman/Senator X, this also applies to federal enclaves, which means the No Firearms sign posted at the entrance of your district office is also in violation of our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms (District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)). As we have clearly seen since 1990, so-called “gun-free zones” provide absolutely zero protection while actually inviting criminally insane behavior. The 1982 Congressional Report on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, along with recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts are undeniable with respect to the strength of protection the Second Amendment affords our right to keep and bear arms. Statistics clearly show that both the general public as well as office workers are safest in areas void of any such “gun-free zone” restrictions. Please respect that by removing the sign. Thank you.
6. Any “executive order” penned by Obama with respect to the right of the people to keep and bear arms is rendered null and void by the U.S. Constitution before the ink hits the paper. “Executive Orders” may carry the “weight of law,” but only insofar as:
A. They’re directed to a department or other government entity under the Constitutional authority of the President of the United States of America…
and
B. The orders themselves do not violate the Constitution itself or any local, state, or federal statute which lawfully derives its authority from the Constitution.
In fact, the ONLY power the President has with respect to “executive orders” stems from Article II, Section 2: “…he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices.”
That’s it, Congressman/Senator X. Obama can order the State Department, for example, to provide a written report.
Obama can NOT “infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” and ANY leeway given to him by Congress exceeds both the President’s and Congress’ authority to do so.
I did NOT trade the best 20 years of my life to stand idly by while those who cannot respect and follow our Constitution erode the rights of myself and my countrymen.
I respectfully request you adopt the same mindset and do everything in your power to stop Obama’s blatantly un-Constitutional actions.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely…
Link to originating article: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/16/politics/obama-mike-bloomberg-gun-control/index.html
Seriously, people. Let’s do a reality check, here: No gun owner I’ve ever met was off his or her rocker, but I’ve met more than a handful of anti-gunners who were certifiable. In fact, I have found that those who exercise their Second Amendment rights to be more stable, on average, than those who don’t.
Each year armed American citizens stop approximately 650,000 to 800,000 violent crimes, usually without firing a shot. This strongly indicates that if any armed student had encountered the Virginia Tech shooter in 2007, it’s likely things would have ended much sooner, with fewer lives lost.
Because they’re perpetrated by the criminally insane, mass shootings are NOT “preventable.” Even if everyone in the U.S. received psychiatric evaluations (itself a massive violation of Constitutional rights), I doubt it would ID even half of these nuts. A number of studies indicate that most would slip through the cracks, whereas such a program would generate literally millions of false positives, thereby denying countless Americans their Constitutional rights on error. Not only does this approach fail all tests of rationality and common sense, but it would utterly fail to achieve its objective while slaughtering human rights and putting millions of innocent individuals in harm’s way in the process.
That is absolutely, unquestionably, unacceptable.
These mass shootings can be mitigated by more people exercising their right to keep and bear arms. It’s certainly not for everyone. For those who are well-trained (the 2nd Amendment’s “well-regulated”), however, carrying is an effective means of stopping shootings in progress, and widespread open carry is also an effective deterrent, as evidenced by the fact that more than 4 out of 5 mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones” whereas such zones only occupy less than 10% of the locations people frequent. The truth is that that just because they’re crazy or criminally insane doesn’t mean they’re stupid.
After examining all the evidence surrounding this issue, there’s only one logical conclusion at which a rational person can arrive: Either Obama, Bloomberg and other anti-gun nuts are the ones who are crazy, or they’re the criminals, disarming the general public in preparation for tyranny.
