By Courtney Baer and Amy Swearer | The Daily Signal
While votes still are being counted in the presidential election, one thing is perfectly clear—the stakes never have been higher for the Second Amendment.
Neither Democratic nominee Joe Biden, nor his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, believe that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. In other words, according to them, the government may restrict law-abiding citizens’ ability to possess any firearm, and for any reason.
This is exactly what Harris argued in an amicus brief she signed onto in the foundational Second Amendment case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The filing with the Supreme Court argued that the Second Amendment does not prevent the government from issuing a complete ban on the possession of operable handguns inside the home.
It is hardly surprising, then, that as a senator Harris co-sponsored numerous bills that would strip law-abiding Americans of commonly owned semiautomatic firearms protected by the Second Amendment. She also recently said that mandatory buybacks—gun confiscation by another name—were a “good idea.”
Harris is not alone. Just last year, Biden himself told a town hall audience that he wouldn’t have come to the same conclusion as the Supreme Court majority in the Heller case.
Of course, the Supreme Court has affirmed—consistent with the first 150 years of constitutional scholarship on the issue—that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual right. Not only is this right fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty in a theoretical sense, but in a real and concrete way it enables countless Americans to defend their lives, liberty, and property when the government fails to do so.
According to a 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times a year. There’s good reason to believe that most of these defensive gun uses never are reported to police, much less make the local or national news.
For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read accounts from 2019 and so far in 2020 here.)
The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in October. You may explore more examples by using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database.
- Oct. 4, Miami, Florida: Armed robbers stormed into a woman’s home during an NBA Finals watch party, holding her family and friends—including her 7-year-old son—at gunpoint while demanding valuables. The woman, who was in the bathroom at the time, heard the commotion and retrieved her handgun from a bedroom nightstand. She confronted the robbers, and the family’s home surveillance system captured the ensuing shootout. Fortunately, the armed resistance prompted the robbers to flee before they could harm anyone.
- Oct. 7, Mount Hermon, Louisiana: Following an argument with his neighbor, an irate man grabbed his handgun, went to his neighbor’s house, and opened fire. The neighbor also was armed and returned fire in self-defense, possibly saving his own life. Police arrested his assailant on charges of second-degree attempted murder.
- Oct. 9, Hamtramck, Michigan: A would-be robber entered a jewelry store and stabbed the owner in the head. Despite serious injuries, the storeowner managed to shoot the robber four times in self-defense, foiling the robbery. Both were expected to recover, and the robber was in custody with criminal charges pending.
- Oct. 12, Memphis, Tennessee: Two men posing as bounty hunters were caught on a doorbell camera attempting to kick down the door of an apartment. The person inside fired in self-defense, preventing them from illegally entering. Local authorities were investigating.
- Oct. 14, Melbourne, Florida: A homeowner became alarmed when he saw two armed men step from a vehicle parked suspiciously in front of his house. When the men began walking toward the front door, the homeowner retrieved his firearm, fearing that he might have to defend himself and his property. As the two men approached in a menacing manner, he fired several warning shots into the ground, sending the men running back to their vehicle.
- Oct. 17, Marion, Maryland: A husband broke into his estranged wife’s home and fatally shot her before attacking another man who was living there. Despite his injuries, the man managed to grab his firearm and shoot his assailant in self-defense, preserving his own life. Police arrested the estranged husband, who faced charges including first-degree murder, assault, and home invasion.
- Oct. 18, Youngstown, Ohio: A designated driver for a man and a woman witnessed a physical altercation between the two in which the man eventually produced a knife to attack the woman. The driver confronted the man, but the assailant overpowered him and held the knife to his throat. At this point, the woman drew her firearm, causing the man to drop the knife and run.
- Oct. 20, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A victim services advocate in Philadelphia was walking home when an armed robber accosted him. He drew his firearm and fatally shot his attacker in the chest in self-defense.
- Oct. 23, Lee County, Alabama: A man got into an argument at a small gathering at someone’s home, left, and returned with a gun. When he opened fire on those still there, several armed individuals returned fire, killing him before anyone else was harmed.
- Oct. 27, Camp Verde, Arizona: An adult man and a teenager approached a driver who was pumping gas and started a verbal altercation. The teen pulled out a gun and fired at the driver. Although wounded, he drew his own firearm and shot the teen. After both assailants fled, police found and arrested the wounded teen.
- Oct. 30, Memphis, Tennessee: A man was doing construction work on a residence when he noticed two thieves, both armed, stealing an air compressor from the porch. The man confronted the two as they tried to put it in their car. One thief pulled a gun and fired at the man, who told police that he dropped to the ground and returned fire, sending the two fleeing.
These examples of defensive gun use last month help demonstrate just how badly the Biden-Harris team misses the mark when it comes to the Second Amendment.
The right to keep and bear arms often becomes a matter of life and death for law-abiding Americans.
We are rendered less safe—and our rights less secure—when politicians make it harder for us to acquire and possess the firearms with which we can most capably defend our rights and liberties.
Unlike Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the rest of us don’t get full-time armed security teams courtesy of American taxpayers. Many times, we don’t even have the benefit of police who arrive in time to protect us.
We only have ourselves, and our right to keep and bear arms.
ALL GUN CONTROL UNDER THE CONSTITUTION IS ILLEGAL! Government does not give us our rights. Our rights are not given to us by the Constitution. Our rights are given to us by God and are inherent to us as human beings by the Laws of Nature. These rights that we are born with are affirmed to us by the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the Constitution and specify what the government can and cannot do. Government’s only power is the power that which is enumerated to it by the Constitution. The federal government, a state or town can not pass a law contrary to the Constitution. Under our Constitution the government is not delegated the authority to legislate, enforce, or adjudicate laws pertaining to the exercise of our rights under the Constitution – Period. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to require government permission to exercise any right affirmed to us under the Constitution. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to compel us to waive our guaranteed 4th Amendment right to be secure from unwarranted interrogation, search, or seizure in the absence of probable cause of criminal conduct. Or compel us to waive our guaranteed 5th Amendment right to due process as a precondition to being allowed (or denied) the exercise of our right to keep and bear arms. This violation of our 4th and 5th Amendment rights happens, however, every time we fill out BATFE form 4473 under penalty of perjury to purchase a firearm. The government is not delegated the authority by our Constitution to compel us to waive our 10th Amendment right to a federal government exercising only those powers delegated to it by the United States Constitution, and State governments are prohibited the exercise of any power prohibited to the States by the United States Constitution. Government is not even delegated by our Constitution the authority to license firearm dealers or operate or fund the most powerful anti-rights government agency on the planet called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Since no Amendment in the Bill of Rights has been repealed thru Article V or by national Convention of States, the only way to legally change the Constitution, all existing gun control laws violate four Amendments of the Bill of Rights. The purpose of compelled background checks as a precondition to allowing or denying the transfer of a firearm is to deceive firearm owners and prospective owners into unknowingly waiving their rights guaranteed by the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments so they will have no rights left to claim when the government decides to confiscate our firearms. We have a right to keep and bear arms, not a privilege to keep and bear arms. Our rights are beyond the reach of government and no one has to ask government permission to exercise a right. Government has no authority delegated by the Constitution to deceive its citizens into waiving their rights or acquiescing to the loss of their rights by subterfuge, scam, fraud, or force.
I WILL NOT OBEY ! I WILL NOT COMPLY ! COME TAKE THEM !
The NRA web page has many such instances. Mentions many thousand such cases. And the police in certain conservative areas / states say protect yourself, they can”t get there on time.
Interesting that FL has just expanded your rights to self protection on the streets.
Molon Labe
The first thing Hitler did was to confiscate duns. I have a Norwegian friend, that lived there when the Nazis invaded. They immediately searched for guns. If you had one after they asked if you had any and said no and later found, you were dead, no questions.
The Constitution is no barrier to Liberals like Biden & Piglosi et al. Trumps term in office is proof. Such people pass legislation in the face of the Constitution then set back and see what the Liberal Courts decide. That’s their operandi.
“Neither Democratic nominee Joe Biden, nor his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, believe that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. In other words, according to them, the government may restrict law-abiding citizens’ ability to possess any firearm, and for any reason.”
Both Kami the Commie and Braindead Joe the Buffoon are incorrect,as the bill of rights constrains the government and while they ignore that as they ignore the last line of the 2 nd. “Shall Not Be Infringed”.
They ignore it because to further the Marxist agenda,they nullify the Constitution purposely by ignoring it.
I will be interested in the Vermont Supreme Court hearing tomorrow of the Marxist’s of Montpelier’s magazine ban. The court in 1903 State v Rosenthal ruled a infringement of article 16,repugnant to Vermont’s constitution. Some of the questioning may revel a possible court decision, time will tell.
You can watch and listen to this discussion by
going to the following link:
Watch VTFSC Magazine Ban 11/17/20
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx5naSorUsDA-rgrF1_SGkw