The right to keep and bear arms is not something we as Americans possess at the mercy of our government, but is a right bestowed upon us by our Creator.
This right is one of many natural rights that our Creator wove into our humanity, and to be denied the exercise of this right means being denied the full expression of our humanity.
This was common knowledge among the Founding Fathers, as they saw the source of our rights in a God who transcends and supersedes human governments. Thomas Jefferson could not have stated the source of our rights more clearly than when he wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These were Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence, and they provided the general framework that was fleshed out by James Madison and others through the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution.
In other words, Jefferson made a general declaration that we are endowed with “unalienable Rights,” and Madison, in the Second Amendment, And hedging One of those rights is the right to keep and bear arms. (Other amendments in the Bill of Rights identify and protect freedom of speech and religion, freedom of assembly, the pursuit and sanctity of private property, and the freedom to be secure in person and at home.)
Unfortunately, instruction on these issues is increasingly being de-emphasized, and in some cases intentionally suppressed, by the ideologically left-leaning academics who run our universities. Nor does the uniform, state-sponsored K-12 curriculum help, which often emphasizes multiple perspectives rather than actually telling the story of American history and its founding.
To understand the lack of true education in higher education, one need only look at the fact that a huge number of left-leaning scholars have earned their doctorates with the aim of fighting patriarchy, capitalism, and/or Western hegemony. These goals require the suppression of the knowledge that human beings were created to be free, and that the hallmark of that freedom is found in the exercise of rights received from a transcendent source.
Knowing the true source of our rights is powerful because it reminds Americans of rights that the government cannot take away. First of all, this right is not given by the government.Moreover, such knowledge helps Americans understand that government should protect these inherent natural rights, not reduce them one by one with statutes and regulations.
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) described natural rights as “absolute rights” and said that natural rights are fixed and that the laws of mankind should be enacted in such a way as to protect the exercise of rights: “The main idea of the laws of man, therefore, is, and always ought to be, to explain, protect, and enforce absolute rights…”
Our Creator has given us the right to keep and bear arms, and the Second Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the government from infringing that right. (The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, was written to bind the government, not the people.) If the American people understood this, and if American college students were taught this, the gun lobby would be forced to close its doors tomorrow. That demise would come because Americans, including American students, would finally understand that the right to keep and bear arms is not subject to a referendum, nor is it subject to arbitration by the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of government.
We must reclaim the knowledge that has been hidden by decades of left-wing scholars, degraded state-sponsored curricula, and an establishment media bent on suppressing the truth. Such recovery takes effort, the discipline of good reading, and the willingness to accept the truth when it becomes clear. If we can do that, we can be sure that we are a free people “blessed by the grace of God.” [our] It states that “Man is endowed with certain inalienable rights,” one of which is the right to keep and bear arms.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Constitutional Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the author and curator of Breitbart News' weekly Constitutional Amendment newsletter, Down Range with AWR Hawkins, which focuses on all things Constitutional Amendment. He is a political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a pro staff member for Pulsar Night Vision, and the Global Marketing Director for Lone Star Hunts. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and earned his PhD in Military History. Follow him on Instagram. FollowTo subscribe to Downrange, sign up at breitbart.com/downrange. To contact us directly, please email awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
