Butler Pennsylvania Second Amendment Rally Speech

Thank you Rich, thank you Mayor Donaldson. Good citizens of Butler County and of the great State of Pennsylvania, thank you for coming out on a cold Saturday morning to support your right to bear arms.

I find it ironic that we have to come out to support our right to bear arms because firearms have been pervasive in our society since before we became a self governing, free, and independent nation. As a matter of fact, we would not have become the self governing, free, and independent nation when we did had it not been for a well armed population.

Gun Control

Every time a mass shooting happens in America, and before research or analysis for the actual cause can begin, many people and news outlets instantaneously clamor for national gun control as if they are following Rahm Emanuel’s dictum to “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Such an approach speaks loudly that the issue is more about control than it is about guns.

As part of gun control advocates’ mantra and a cornerstone of their argument, they claim citizens don’t need assault weapons to hunt or to defend themselves in their homes. Although, it is true citizens can do both of these things without assault weapons, their claim misinterprets the intent of the Second Amendment and the right it was written to protect.

Stopping the Next Columbine

While our nation grieves over another tragic and senseless mass killing there are many among us who advocate the termination of a constitutionally protected right to stop this from happening again. If a constitutionally protected right is abolished or diminished there is nothing to prevent the same from happening to any of our other rights protected by the Constitution.  Even talking about abolishing or diminishing such a right is opening up Pandora’s Box, and since the box has been opened we should talk about banning something else that has killed more people than all the guns in the world: bad ideas communicated via newspapers, news programs, schools, legislators, laws, and judges.