Everytown for Gun Safety is now claiming the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a loophole that needs to be fixed. They’re so convinced, they’ve listed this loophole as a “fact” of the Second Amendment.
It’s beyond a misunderstanding of the text of the Second Amendment. It’s an attempt at a wholesale revision of it.
The maneuver, however, is hardly surprising. Everytown labeled protestors carrying firearms as “extremists” and say gun owners are using recent protests “as opportunities to openly display military-style firearms to incite fear, suppress civil discourse, and threaten public safety.”
Fear Mongering
Even in gun-owning circles, there is debate as to whether protesting with firearms is effective. The denigration of those publicly carrying firearms using fear-inducing labels is hardly new as well. Moms Demand Action, a gun control group affiliated with Everytown, previously maligned protestors as “white supremacists” and invoked fears that protests last year in Richmond, Va., would descend into the chaos of Charlottesville protests.
Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam fanned the flames. He declared a state of emergency, banned firearms on the state capitol grounds and fenced off the area. In reality, Richmond protests were peaceful. Over 22,000 attended, representing all gun owners in Virginia, black and white together. A single arrest was made, but charges were later dropped for wearing a mask. Protestors even cleaned up their own trash.
Just days ago, black gun owners marched in Tulsa on the same day President Donald Trump held a campaign rally. The incident went unnoticed by Everytown for Gun Safety or Moms Demand Action. That show of support for the right to keep and bear arms was also peaceful.
Everytown, though, clutched its pearls upon learning it is perfectly legal for law-abiding Americans to openly bear arms in 41 states. “Open carry is a dangerous policy opposed by the public,” Everytown wrote in their “factsheet.” “A visible gun has been found to make people more aggressive; therefore open carry makes it more likely that disagreements will turn into violent conflicts.”
Ignoring Real Problems
Yet, not a single act of violence occurred during the demonstration by African American gun owners in Tulsa nor the protest last January in Richmond. Contrast that with what’s going on in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) Zone, where one was killed and another wounded by gun shots in a police “no-go” zone. In fact, CHOP “protesters” blocked the police and EMTs from responding to the crimes and aiding the injured.
Residents are understandably fearful. That forced Seattle Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan to walk back her claim the protests were a “summer of love.” In Chicago, 14 were killed by criminal violence over the weekend, including four children, and another 100 were wounded.
Everytown is mum about these events, but has a pretty bold opinion about labelling an explicitly delineated right as a “loophole.”
“… And Bear Arms, Shall Not Be Infringed.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas seized upon this very notion when he drafted his recent dissent in Rogers v Grewal.
“Thus, the right to carry arms for self-defense inherently includes the right to carry in public,” Justice Thomas wrote. “This conclusion not only flows from the definition of ‘bear Arms’ but also from the natural use of the language in the text. As I have stated before, it is ‘extremely improbable that the Framers understood the Second Amendment to protect little more than carrying a gun from the bedroom to the kitchen.’”
In that dissent, Justice Thomas explains that Second Amendment rights are pre-existing, or that they predate the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As Heller explained, “[a]t the time of the founding, as now, to ‘bear’ meant to ‘carry.’” The rights to bear arms outside the home, he explained, are rooted in English law, which provided the foundation for U.S. law.
Justice Thomas noted the Statute of Northampton from 1328. That law provided no one was permitted to bring force as a means to threaten the peace, but was hardly a complete ban on bearing arms, as officers were instructed to arrest only those bearing arms to disturb the peace. In fact, the same statute was used by England’s King James II to disarm the public, but judges then ruled the law only applied to the use of arms for the crime of terrorism.
Rights, Not Loopholes
The Founders and those who ratified the U.S. Constitution acknowledged the right to carry arms in public. Justice Thomas noted the racist post-Civil War laws aimed to disarm freed slaves, but courts then found the right to bear arms in public was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence.
Even today, states place “justifiable needs” or “good cause” requirements to exercise the individual right to publicly bear arms, which caused Justice Thomas to dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision to avoid answering the question when history and the law are so clearly evident.
Justice Thomas is correct. The Framers didn’t write a giant loophole, as Everytown alleges. The right to own a gun goes hand-in-hand with being able to carry that gun. It’s not a mistake or an oversight. It’s an explicit right. “In short, it would take serious linguistic gymnastics—and a repudiation of this Court’s decision in Heller — to claim that the phrase ‘bear Arms’ does not extend the Second Amendment beyond the home.”
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the constitution says, it matters what a majority of the people think it means.
It’s interesting to see the different kinds of propaganda they keep putting out to see what catches on and to get people thinking a certain way.
It doesn’t matter so much, what the majority “thinks” the 2nd means, it matters only what a small group of people, who might gain control of the levers of political power, chooses to direct the government to enforce as their version of the 2nd.
If the power brokers funding Everytown, Moms, and the socialist left of the democrat party gain control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, those elite globalists WILL define the Second Amendment as a government monopoly on who is allowed to own, who is allowed to carry, and who is required to surrender, any and all firearms.
GeorgiaBoB says: June 27, 2020 at 10:25 Quote: “If the power brokers funding Everytown, Moms, and the democrats (communist party USA) gain control of both chambers of Congress and the White House, those elite globalists WILL define the Second Amendment as a government monopoly on who is allowed to own, who is allowed to carry, and who is required to surrender, any and all firearms.”
Fixed it for you
“….those elite globalists WILL define the Second Amendment as a government monopoly on who is allowed to own, who is allowed to carry, and who is required to surrender, any and all firearms.”
And…. that’s when the war starts……better be prepared.
The second amendment is a God given right given to every American. Those that choose to believe differently will have a rude awakening. It also protects the other amendments and the constitution. How it goes goes the country.
It is a God given Right so not exclusive to Citizens of the Union.
Actually the inherent rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights were placed there specifically to protect them from government intrusion AND the whims of popular opinion or novel interpretations.
yep. hence the 2nd A ending in “shall not be infringed”. it’s the ONLY amendment that ends with that phrase and is unchangable. This right is given to us by our CREATOR, not Government. The 2nd A only garantees that our government accepts that it is an INALEINABLE right.
In other words …”CAN”T TOUCH THIS !!………” (with Hammertime music)
Once they “prove” that a belief in a higher power is an aberration, they will go after inherent God given rights as being crazy talk.
The 2nd Amendment should have been listed as the 1st Amendment because all of our rights in the Bill of Rights depend on the right of the people to bear arms for enforcement. If the 2nd Amendment is ever repealed, then all of the other rights in the Bill of Rights will be unenforceable. The 2nd Amendment is the teeth of the Bill of Rights. Those who wish to deny us our rights know that. That is why the 2nd Amendment is under constant attack.
The CONSTITUTION over rides all and any laws of the land. Any laws made can not be enforced over the Constitution. So it really does not matter what the people want. Now if the Constitution is changed, then so be it. But it does not matter what the people want or what the laws are,,,the Constitution —-as we say,,,,the buck stops here.
What really matters is what those armed and the most skilled with arms believes it says. That’s why politicians want only the police and government to be armed. Freedom is never won at the ballot box…only lost. Freedom is won and preserved at the barrel of a gun……reference American Revolution. And, that folks, despite all the blah blah blah blah blah on these sites, is the real meaning of the Second Amendment. You want to be free? Be more armed and most proficient. End of debate.
You’re right JoeyJ, except that won’t do much good if only a couple thousand people think that way. There needs to be a certain percentage of the population to be armed, trained, and willing to enforce freedom. I don’t remember the supposed percentage of patriots who fought the British in the American Revolution. But back then British were far away and the Americans had help from the French. Today the government has access to all of our communications, and knows our exact locations. Also if it means the government will suppress freedom and have complete control, it will definitively be aided by many foreign entities such as China, Russia, UN, etc.
To answer your first question: only 5 percent of colonists fought in the revolution.
Today, over 300 million guns are owned by Americans.
When the day comes to round up civilian firearms, over half the military will support freedom. Same for law enforcement agencies.
God blessed America, guns have made, and kept it free.
Semper fi! Sic semper tyrannus.
To me “Shall Not Be Infringed” means the Moms are required to buy me guns if I don’t have the cash myself.
Or at the very least, shelter and food when you are stomping anarchists in their terrirory.
Put me up in a Motel 6 too.
I think most these groups and their constituents would be closer to the suites at the Hilton.
That “Motel 6 ” may have bars.
This is just another issue of redefining terms that were defined and agreed upon by a civilized society for a millennium…. an uncivilized portion of society decided they did not like those terms and definitions and are actively working to change these definitions while the civilized folk stand there and say they will never get away with it…while doing nothing to fight it… we are destined to failure if we continue to do nothing….
The Constitution? What’s that?
According to the democrats it’s an old piece of parchment where the Founding Fathers of our country wrote down what this country is NOT based on evidently. Sure looks that way doesn’t it?
Shame it is….
If that old document, The Constitution, had never been written, then this country would not exist and the Democrat Party would not exist. They owe their very existence to that document. This just proves how ignorant and stupid they are.
some people wrote something. don’t pay it any attention.
Guess what? I don’t care what leftard’s “think”. I’m gonna keep what I got. GOD forbid a complete dim takeover NOTHING will change on my end. Except I’ll buy more defense weapons & ammo…l
Better consider reloading too, if you haven’t already, and stocking up on components.
from the looks of all the gun stores across America, we’re not the only ones who think this………..
You are not kidding, Country Boy. Walking through the sporting/gun stores in the last few months, you would have thought it was 2008 to 2012, and Obama was president. Ammo is flying off the shelves like there is no tomorrow, and for good reason.
“Guess what? I don’t care what leftard’s “think””
Exactly as Leftards don’t think,they Feelz,afterall that where the tard comes from.
Oh how Marxists try to contort plain english,liars figure and figures lie well as Marxists.
Not Marxists.
Hoplophobes.
Not hoplophobes. They don’t want no one to have guns. They want only certain people to have guns.
It’s about control and they want complete control.
Marxists. They need to disarm us in order to go ahead with their glorious revolution. They know they would be shot like a vermin they are if Americans are armed.
Everywhere that Marxists and other totalitarians came into power, what was the first thing they did?
DISARM THE MASSES
The only way a despot is able to control an entire country is to disarm its citizens.
Remember that.
Let’s get some things straight here.. Marxists are NOT liberals. Marx hated liberals, 1850’s german democratic liberals to be precise.
Marx also loved guns. He wanted every worker to be armed, he famously said “Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” what marx hated was the worst part of capitalism, where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor..
Marxism is also NOT communism. Communism is socialism taken to the extreme and a few of Marx’ theories mixed with Engles’ thrown in..
This is like you idiots talking about commifornia.. there is not a shred of communism in ca gov.. it is a bit more socialist than some other states.. but what do you think Medicare is? Unemployment money? How about that stimulus check you just cashed.. all socialism.. pure capitalists would rather you starve on the street.
Go back and retake 3rd grade civics class, if you ever got that far..
A tyrant is a tyrant is a tyrant.
They got the police on the run in less then a month.
BUY MORE AMMO.
I disagree. Buy more reloading supplies. Except rimfire.. stock up on factory loads of 22 wmr…
I don’t care what these people say or think.
They barely understand firearms, have no respect for basic human rights, and poison even the most lukewarm gun legislation with extremist ideology.
The moment we put our foot down and said ‘Not one more inch’, the public safety mask all but fell off and went full auto on their failed principles, created from a liberal use of mental gymnastics.
If the riots won’t change their mind, if seeing people getting beaten by an angry mob for the heinous crime of wrong think nothing will.
“Everytown for Gun Safety is now claiming the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is a loophole that needs to be fixed.”
And ‘justice’ Roberts is just the man to do the fixing…
Which is why the four conservative justices refused to take up any of the cases before SCOTUS. Roberts has become the new Kennedy, we need Trump in office because RGB is about to expire and that blocks Roberts and the rest of the leftist members of the Court.
Interesting statement by Everytown,
“Open carry is a dangerous policy opposed by the public,” Everytown wrote in their “factsheet.” “A visible gun has been found to make people more aggressive; therefore open carry makes it more likely that disagreements will turn into violent conflicts.”
Perhaps Everytown should start supporting concealed carry……
The only visible gun causing problems are in the criminals hands pointed and victims.
Redefining common terms and rewriting history are just two of the services Marxists provide.
It’s the insidious nature of all insurgent groups, whether political or religious…change the terms of debate to suit your cause and convince everyone that it’s always been that way so as to popularly make your usage the only possible correct one.
“…change the terms of debate to suit your cause and convince everyone that it’s always been that way so as to popularly make your usage the only possible correct one.”
And that’s what they are doing with accusations of racism…
You know that old trope about using a time machine to go back and kill Hitler? I wouldn’t waste my time, I’d be on my way to hang old Karl up by his own intestines. The bastards ideas will never die it seems.
If you only go back to “old Karl Marx” you waste your time.
You need to go back to “very young Karl Marx”.
Marxism had many ideas that were NOT used by communists. Marxism was the workers controlling a company in a capitalist society. While Karl’s ideas wouldn’t work, communism was invented by people that wanted control of the masses and did work for them.
This is the abstract of the study they cite to prove that “A visible gun has been found to make people more; therefore open carry makes it more likely that disagreements will turn into violent conflicts.
“We tested whether interacting with a gun in- creased testosterone levels and later aggressive behavior. Thirty male college students provided a saliva sample (for testosterone assay), interacted with either a gun or a children’s toy for 15 min, and then provided another saliva sample. Next, subjects added as much hot sauce as they wanted to a cup of water they believed another subject would have to drink. Males who interacted with the gun showed significantly greater increases in testosterone and added more hot sauce to the water than did those who interacted with the children’s toy. Moreover, increases in testosterone partially mediated the effects of interacting with the gun on this aggressive behavior.”
Note the tiny population size as well as their conclusion that The amount of hot sauce one is willing to dispense is directly associated with armed aggression.
This crap would be funny if they weren’t trying to use it to infringe on protected rights.
Article VI dictates that ‘the Constitution shall be the supreme Law’, and that the ‘Judges in every State shall be bound thereby,’ and that ALL laws, both federal and states’, “shall be made in pursuance thereof”. “Bear” means to “carry” or to have in possession. Arms are ANYTHING that one can use to protect/defend one’s self against bad actors. Does 2A say anywhere “except for these types of arms, which some politician or group of people may object to”? NO IT DOESN’T! It simply dictates that the government(s) ‘shall not infringe’ upon that “right of the people.” And because we live in a “republic” that is governed by said “supreme Law”, democracy (the majority’s will) is not applicable. What is so difficult in comprehending these concepts and the simple words of 2A? Justice Thomas understands them. I understand them. Anyone trying to read something into them that they do not say, and then forcing that alternative interpretation on all other Americans, is a seditionist and therefore guilty of treason.
NUFF SAID!
And well said sir. Here here!
+ 1
Thank you Sir!
Thank you Sir!
Did you forget that the Left abhors our big “R,” God-given rights and the first Right they attacked was also first one in our Bill of Rights?
They attacked your freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and freedom to petition the government. These aren’t just figurative and linguistic attacks, they are now literal attacks on people.
I’m not one who sees violence as a solution to a problem, but I have to say that this mob violence would stop in a New York minute if these thugs, who now pull black hoods over the heads, start having black body bags pulled over them instead.
Very well said. Excellent.
“A single arrest was made, but charges were later dropped for wearing a mask.”
Actually, no. The referenced arrest was made 90 minutes AFTER the rally was over, and as stated, it was for wearing a mask in public – oin a day when temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 20s.
The police needed to get their one arrest on the books, and it was a sham.
And they detained that lady with a bag of eggs!
And let her go to the restaurant she worked at to make breakfast.
So I guess cops and security guards incite violenced by holster carry. Got it.
Do they expect armed men to disarm the rest of us without a peep or shot?
They don’t get that. Even with their entire “defund the police” movement, they don’t and never will because they don’t want to understand.
Just leave our rights alone you will have a war you keep your democratics communist socialist agenda and the first to go will be congress members that need prison if not Hung for Treason
Couple of points – 1) the RIGHT to defend one’s self, family and community pre-exists the forming of the Republic (or any other form of government for that matter) – merely recognized by the 2A, which leads to 2) the English law referenced in the article was recognized as English COMMON law – since it was in common practice and easily understood by common folk.
There is a crystal clear Loophole in Gun Control. That loophole is the fact Gun Control is Rooted in Racism and Genocide. Gun Control Zealots need to justify their Racist and Nazi Based Gun Control Agenda Loophole or stfu.
Just a point of fact, black gun owners rallied at the Governor’s Mansion in Oklahoma City while the Trump rally was getting rolling in Tulsa. There were certainly black-centric and Juneteenth events in Tulsa that weekend, both in the Greenwood District as well as near the BOK Center, but there was not a 2A rally in Tulsa, black or otherwise.
MDA – Many Dumb A$$e$
EGS – Every Gun Seized
SDA – Stupid (or Student) Dumb A$$e$
All of these gun confiscation groups, and many more, are owned and operated by the FAILED Herr Fuhrer Wannabe Maggot Bloomturd and his Bloomturdocratic minions. They want to have absolute control over their subservient subjects (YOU!). That way, you have very little recourse in stopping their twisted agenda from being completed.
Look at the facts: They don’t want you to own any sort of firearm. They control everything the propaganda puppet talking heads say or do. They are sensoring your free speech by deleting what they don’t like. They have successfully brainwashed a complete generation with lies, half truths and misdirection. FOR GOD’S SAKE, THEY ARE EVEN TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR HISTORY.
Everyone needs to get out and vote these lowlifes out of office and also counter their lies with the truth they so conveniently leave out. GET UP OFF YOUR BACKSIDES AND STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS!! If you don’t, then be prepared for the consequences and you becoming another idiot lemming.
There is a difference between lying and not telling the truth but they are both the same thing you can cover up the lies let the truth run around naked but it all comes out in the wash
Freedom is a loophole — and they fully intend to close it.
Come and take it.
The Second Amendment is there in case the gov’t. tries to remove the Second Amendment.
Yes Steve Eisenberg, that is it in a nut shell. Words of wisdom, simply put. Thank You for that.
The atheist gun grabbers are irrational. They have created their own religion. They are like the muslim taliban.
I guess that The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee Freedom of Speech either.
I looked up “loophole” in my Leftist-to-English dictionary and it is, apparently, defined as: Something perfectly legal that I don’t happen to approve of.
Loophole, huh…???
So it must follow that all the others amendments in the Bill of Rights are “loopholes” as well…
LOL.
Come and take it.
More armed protests. A lot more. Counter, whatever you want to call it. At this point, it doesn’t matter. It’s us against them and if you support the 2A or lean right at all, or even a middle grounder who values freedom, then you need to exercise your 2A rights regardless of what infringements your state has made on them. Nothing else will change anything, and expect violence. Only one way to fight prosecution too… so expect that one as well. Sad but true. Either that, or the left keeps pushing and pushing, more innocents die, and politicians keep passing laws limiting your freedoms.
The march was held in Oklahoma City, not Tulsa, on the day of President’s Trumps visit to Tulsa. The march was peaceful and was for African American gun owners although all nationalities were welcome to attend.
Just reviewed the Bill of Rights – that thing is FULL of loopholes!
A review of the BOR for loopholes is useless, unless you review the Federalist Papers too.
The Fed Papers are the “Users Manual” and “Terms of Agreement” between the Federal Government and the individual states.
The Fed Papers are what convinced the states to ratify the BOR, and the BOR means NOTHING without the contents of the Fed Papers.
Unfortunately, SCOTUS undermined Heller and RKBA interpretations of the 2nd Amendment when it denied cert to 10 cases this summer. Barring a surprise ruling on something in the future, SCOTUS has effectively hollowed our the 2nd Amendment to the point that it no longer matters.
I wonder if there is something in the Chinese Communist Party virus that is making both sides more extreme. Perhaps the lockdown inflamed the effects so just a little agitprop was all it took to set off the troubles.
It seems to be effecting the beaten down populace of China too, but the most risk they can conceive of are TIK TOK slights.
The Constitution was written by our forefathers to give the Government certain rights in their governance of the Country. The writers of this document wee very explicit in noting that if it is not in the Constitution, then the Government has no authority to make laws about the topic. The Bill of Rights, written after the Constitution was in place, was penned to note that certain rights are completely hands-off for the new Government. This is very clear in the writings of the Federalist Papers where much discussion in various forms took place on the topic. I believe it was Hamilton who expressed concerns about even having the Bill for fear that the Government, at some time in the future, may construe the document as their right to regulate it, and that was not true. He gave in to the majority and the Bill of Rights was adopted. We should take note that this has held fast for all the amendments except the 2nd Amendment. We see an ongoing onslaught of laws written to regulate this right during the past 100 years. This also has led to a recent decision by the Roberts led liberal SCOTUS to regulate religious services during “pandemics”. The allowance of these “regulation”, in reality, infringements, has slowly led to the enslavement on the masses through control of the inalienable rights. It must be stopped as quickly as possible through the courts or another revolution will most assuredly take place. Satan has never attacked in a big way. He always takes away our moral balance in small, mostly obscure ways, that are not noticed until we look back on what we have become.
The constitutionalists are so easily ignored because their protests are quiet and they clean up afterward. They’re over before anyone even notices. Sorry, but the squeaky wheel gets greased. The quiet clean protests get ignored.What- are they going to label you racist terrorists? Next protest, make them say “shit- I don’t want to deal with them again” or don’t bother.
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