SELF-DEFENSE HISTORY IN BRIEF

For anyone who has ever needed a quick history on why the right to keep and bear arms is as important today as it was in the early days of the United States, look no further than an amicus brief filed by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) in a case to be heard this fall by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, is actually a challenge of New York State’s Draconian concealed carry permit laws, which require proof of “good cause” to exercise a constitutionally-protected fundamental right.

Officials in the Empire State may have been asleep when in June 2010 the high court used its ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago to incorporate the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment. They cannot claim ignorance now, more than a decade since that decision came down, essentially forcing states to tailor their gun laws to comply with the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

It’s a rare occasion for the CCRKBA to play in the judicial arena, but when it happens, the results can be classic. The 25-page brief was prepared by attorneys Bradley A. Benbrook (counsel of record) and Stephen M. Duvernay, with the Benbrook Law Group, PC in Sacramento.

“America is and always has been a place where violence and disorder lurk just below the surface of civilization,” the brief begins. “The American constitutional system, with all of its enduring genius, cannot change this fact of human nature.”

“Colonial America was extremely violent, as colonists faced threats from a variety of sources,” it adds.

https://www.ccrkba.org/ccrkba-amicus-to-high-court-in-n-y-carry-case-notes-history-self-reliance-of-2a/

History is Recorded, not Rewritten

Those who call themselves “progressives” but seem more interested in rewriting history than learning from it, won’t care much for CCRKBA’s historically-structured brief to the high court.

The brief quotes historian and attorney Stephen Halbrook, who notes in “The Right to Bear Arms” that from the beginning of this nation, citizens were armed.

“Far from being prohibited from carrying fire-arms, colonial Americans were often required by law to carry them” for purposes unrelated to militia service, Halbrook explained. They may have carried rifles or muskets, and some who had the finances might have one or a brace (two) of pistols.

Reading through the brief, one finds some gems that certainly apply today as well as in colonial and early national history.

“The Founders understood that, even if the written Constitution delivered the benefits they hoped for, man’s essential nature meant that civilization was inherently fragile and prone to violent flare-ups. All the more so given the federal system of shared sovereignty: brief or pro-longed episodes of violence and mayhem in response to local conditions were inevitable. Thus “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” by any sovereign. U.S. Const., Amend. II. With this backdrop, it is folly to even suggest that the Founders believed the people ceded to any government official—let alone a local sheriff—the power to condition the right to bear arms on some sort of heightened showing of ‘cause’ or ‘need.’”

Try this on for size: “No local law enforcement regime has taken the place of the people as their own first responders. To be sure, the nature of policing has changed and taken on a more expansive and effective role in society than at the founding. But police forces are not—and have never been—designed or equipped to assume the primary role of preventing crime. In a Nation that values liberty, that role will al-ways fall first to the people.”

This passage also hits the right notes. “The fragility of American civilization has been on full display since the summer of 2020. The Nation is suffering a new period of violence and chaos. This time, however, a variety of radical political movements are advancing policies that seem designed to sow further violence and chaos. In response, Americans are relying on their firearms for self-defense—just as they have for centuries.”

Truth Stings

CCRKBA’s brief takes a well-deserved swipe at public officials in several cities who jumped on the “defund the police” bandwagon, and who are now—like the mayor of Portland, Oregon—realizing what a mess they’ve created.

“When a widespread group of elected and appointed officials charged with maintaining public safety choose to not enforce criminal law, crime of all sorts surges and a breakdown of law and order follows,” CCRKBA’s brief states. “Widespread calls to ‘defund’ the police spread across the country in 2020, and many cities answered. The result has been rising crime rates with jurisdictions scrambling to backtrack and restore funding.”

A few lines later, the brief exposes a harsh reality: “Local policies (and local politicians) have exacerbated rising crime in their jurisdiction by pledging not to prosecute certain crimes. The predictable result has been a surge in lawlessness.”

“The people,” says the brief, “are responding to these conditions by exercising their Second Amendment Rights to keep and bear arms.”

There is a new Supreme Court, one with a presumed conservative majority that includes three Donald Trump appointees. This is why elections matter, and why gun owners, especially readers of American Handgunner and GUNS Magazine, need to pay careful attention to the progress of this case. It should also be a reminder to not sit out the 2022 mid-term election having talked yourself into believing your vote doesn’t count.

If the court hands down a ruling eviscerating New York’s “show cause” requirement to get a carry permit—which all-too-frequently has allowed bureaucrats in New York City and elsewhere around the state to arbitrarily deny a permit by determining no good cause exists—it will send a shockwave across the landscape. Similar laws in New Jersey, Maryland, California and elsewhere will be equally open to challenge. Such a ruling would nullify generations of exclusionary gun laws and take a giant step toward restoring the Second Amendment to its proper role: protecting a fundamental right, rather than having anti-gun politicians and judges continue treating it like a privilege.

Want to know why good citizens need firearms today more than ever?

Back on July 19, Seattle police responded to a dispute in which a 39-year-old convicted felon had threatened another, then drove off in the man’s car. Here’s the stupid part: while officers were talking to the victim, the perp drove by in the stolen car.

The cops gave chase and pulled the car over. Under the driver’s seat they found a handgun and it flagged stolen. This model citizen got a spot in line for the jail food taste test.

This happened about nine hours after police in the same city arrested another guy in a domestic violence incident. When they took this gent into custody, police found “suspected methamphetamine,” a scale, cash and a stolen handgun.

Don’t these guys know they’re not supposed to have guns, especially if they’re stolen?

https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2021/07/19/police-seize-stolen-guns-in-separate-incidents-sunday/

Subscribe To American Handgunner