Who ultimately decides the right to bear arms, the federal government or the several States? Since the Usurper-in-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, has garnered national attention by claiming he has executive powers to override Congress on this matter, I will illustrate the cold-hard constitutional facts.
Article I, Section 1 states: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” This language means that the several States granted the newly created federal government legislative powers by which only Congress shall possess and it clearly denies this lawmaking power from the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.
The president does indeed possess executive powers as delegated to him in Article II, but these powers cannot in any shape, form, or fashion usurp the US Constitution which he is sworn to uphold.
Judicial powers are delegated to the federal government and are enumerated in Article III, Section 2 of the US Constitution. The federal courts can only hear cases that involve federal codified law which certainly prohibits them from having jurisdiction on such matters as guns, firearms, ammunition, etc. since this power was not enumerated in Article I.
Article IV, Section 4 expressly declares: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” This language means that the federal government is strictly forbidden to interfere with the powers that are reserved to the several States.
Before I delve into the 2nd Amendment, a landmark US Supreme Court decision is needed to ascertain the original intent of the Bill of Rights. Chief Justice John Marshall stated in Barron v. The City of Baltimore in 1833 these very words: “Had the framers of these Amendments [Bill of Rights] intended them to be limitations on the powers of State governments, they would have imitated the framers of the original Constitution, and have expressed that intention. Had Congress engaged in the extraordinary occupation of improving the constitutions of the several States, by affording the people additional protection from the exercise of power by their own governments, in matters which concerned themselves alone, they would have declared this purpose in plain and intelligible language.” Chief Justice Marshall emphatically declares that the Bill of Rights places strict limitations on the federal government and does NOT apply to the several States!
I will now get to the heart of the matter. The 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights states: “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.” Therefore, any federal firearms law is a direct infringement on our gun rights plain and simple. Let me ask a question. Do our gun rights stem from the US Constitution? No, they do not. The Bill of Rights does not grant the federal government the power to allow us the right to own guns. It merely restricts the federal government from disarming us. That is why “shall not be infringed” is worded “in plain and intelligible language” at the end of the sentence.
That being said, then where does this right stem from? The first place I would look is in our State Constitutions. In my State [Arkansas] Constitution, Article 2, Declaration of Rights, Section 5 declares: “Right to bear arms. The citizens of this State shall have the right to keep and bear arms, for their common defense.”Now go back and carefully re-read Chief Justice John Marshall’s aforementioned opinion.
For the naysayers who may still be somewhat skeptical, some American History 101 is needed. On June 29, 1776 (five days before this country declared its independence from the British Empire), Virginia became the very first State to adopt its own constitution. Section 13 of this document states: “That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free State; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.” It should be duly noted that no federal government existed in 1776. The Virginia Constitution was written “in plain and intelligible language” and clearly evident that it was adopted way before the States created the federal government.
The final evidence to this argument lies in the 10th Amendment. “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.” Nowhere in Article I, Section 8 will the terms guns, firearms, ammunition, etc. be found. Therefore, since the federal government is not delegated this power and nowhere in Article I, Section 10 are the States prohibited this power, then it is reserved to the States respectively. A reserved power specifically means the States possessed this power both before and after the constitution’s ratification and furthermore, the 10th Amendment was written “in plain and intelligible language.” Therefore, if the federal government is not delegated this power, then it cannot enact laws pertaining to firearms.
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who I consider the ultimate authority concerning the principles of limited government upon which this nation was founded and was political wisdom personified stated verbatim: “Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government, but that by compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserved each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” His credentials are as follows: Delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress, 2nd Governor of Virginia, Delegate to Congress under the Articles of Confederation, US Minister to France,, 1st Secretary of State, 2nd US Vice-President, and 3rd US President.
It does not require above-average intelligence to admit that any infringement on what is specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights is forbidden fruit to the federal government. Also, it is beyond ludicrous to believe that a temporary occupant of the White House has these so-called executive powers to restrict by executive fiat our God-given rights by circumventing the Bill of Rights which plainly places restraints on the federal government. The truly sickening fact is that Congress aids and abets in this criminal type behavior. The American public goes along with this because they have been so dumbed-down by government education and the mainstream media that they blindly accept their servitude to the federal government which was a creation of the once sovereign States. This would have been an abhorrence to the Founding Fathers due to the fact that they had just paid for their liberty and God-given rights in blood and certainly had no appetite to be ruled subsequently by another tyrannical government.
Loy Mauch 1-13-16
The Anti-Federalist 