To Defringe the Infringed

By Larry Ball [email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

         "Shall not be infringed," is what the Bill of Rights says about our right to carry arms. But we have seen this right constantly and gradually infringed since 1934. Not only this, but now gun owners have been moved to the radical fringe. How did this happen? What can we do to reverse our plight?
         The enemies of freedom have successfully infringed our right by converting it to a fear. While doing so they have also infringed many other rights, thus beginning the conversion of the citizen into a subject.
         How do we defringe our infringement? We must move ourselves from the fringe of society and move our radical enemies -- who pretend to be mainstream -- back to the fringes where they belong. How?
         On an internet discussion group, one person has written that there are two basic methods of argument in defending guns. One is Constitutional and the other is practical. One proclaims Right, the other proclaims Utility. Which is the best argument to develop?
         The successful argument will be based upon the Constitution. The Constitutional argument is that which proclaims the timeless Right. Properly understood, Right is immutable. Right is incapable of regulation because it is Right.
         Right has no need of regulation for it has no flaws. If Right is yoked to regulation, even "reasonable" regulation, it is to say that Right is Wrong. If Right is regulated, the perception that it is wrong will grow and grow until it is finally done away with. We see that happening with guns and citizenship.
         This is such an obvious truth that it is inconceivable to me that it is missed. Perhaps the problem is that no one still believes in bed rock Truth. For America, our Constitution must be bedrock Truth.
         Our eyes and reason must focus upon the liberties enshrined in our Constitution. We must recognize that our Founders considered these liberties Right. Such liberties, they believed, are a part of natural or common law. These liberties were understood to be "untinkerable" and were naturally possessed by each law-abiding citizen. That means these rights are beyond the realm of "reasonable" regulation.
         Much has been made of the studies of men such as Lott, Kleck, Kates, and Kopel. Their studies have had great impact on our movement. Their logic and facts have forced the enemies of freedom into some very unscholarly activity. But is this the way that we can win our war?
         When we fight the battle using studies by the Lotts, Klecks, Kateses, and Kopels of this world, we are fighting for the Utility or Practicality of the gun, we are not fighting for the Right of the gun. When we push for carry permits we are voluntarily surrendering the Right of the gun for the Privilege of the gun. We must understand this!
         Arguments from Utility and campaigns for carry permits implicitly defend the power of society to regulate Right. Such arguments implicitly state that because of the Utility of the gun, we should be allowed to keep it. This is begging. It is not defending Right. It is surrender!
         Instead of engaging our opposition with a war of statistics, how about shifting to a war of ideals, of dreams of freedom, of dreams of social cohesiveness through liberty, of Americans and America walking erect, proud and free? How about a vision of a determined Uncle Sam accompanied by fife and drum forging forward to the future?
         Dreams drive people. Dreams of greatness and freedom can drive forward our society to defringe the infringed. Dreams of greatness and freedom are necessary to win wars.
         Wars are seldom won by utilitarian or practical means alone. Consider the two wars that America has lost. In the Korean and Vietnam wars, such dreams of greatness and right were absent. The nation, and the men fighting the battles, had a constant refrain; "What are we doing here?" There was no moral conviction to carry us through the tough times.
         Where was the great vision that what we were doing was right? It did not exist. Consider the battle that we, the gun owners won, but as the result of which, we are again losing our war.
         We worked and effectively to elect a Republican Congress in 1994. Our demand to our elected champions was to repeal the Brady law and the infamous assault weapons ban. Where is the repeal, or even any serious effort at repeal of the Brady Bill? We won the election but we lost the elected!
         Why? Bcause the elected believe that the while majority of the people support the Second Amendment, this same group of people support Brady and the AW ban and see gun rights people as part of the radical fringe. Both the Right of the gun and its proponents have been placed on the fringe of society. We have been successfully "infringed."
         Re-election is foremost on the minds of our champions. They know that "gun" people must support them because they are better for us than the other choices. But they also know that if they vote against popular laws, the mutated majority will vote for the others. They, too, have no choice.
         We have lost Joe and Jane Sixpack and even Joseph and Janet Champagne. We need them back, but we need them back with moral conviction. They will only attain to moral conviction through dreams of Greatness and Right. Dry facts and statistics extolling the the gun's Utility do not produce dreams.
         I do not believe that the Lotts, Klecks, Kates, and Kopels, with all of their sure knowledge, can instill dreams. Can anybody? Perhaps you can. Can you write, or talk, and spin a yarn enriched with hope, visions of greatness and the conviction of Right? If so, you may be just the person America needs this very hour.
         America needs dreams, vision, and a return to Right. Citizen, take out your mighty pen. It is time to defringe the infringed.

Larry Ball is an insurance agent in Lincoln, Nebraska. When serious crime in his neighborhood threatened his family on several occasions in 1992, he became active in politics. When the Clintonistas began pushing socialized medicine and increased gun control, he organized a group of freedom-loving Nebraskans called the Plainsmen to oppose them. Larry and his wife are, by the blessing of God, grandparents seven times over. He is keenly interested in mobilizing visionary talent to turn America from her path toward tyranny, back to freedom.

"I laugh in the face of danger -- then I hide until it goes away."
-- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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