By Mark Walters
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Some Observations
I love writing columns like this. The radio host in me is always scouring the sea of “news” in search of content, which usually requires a triage technique of sifting through stories to either keep for show content, or let go.
There are a few things that stand out from my work on Thursday, the first of which came from my great friend and colleague Dr. AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News (who made my “triage” system easy yesterday).
His work, entitled A Well Regulated Militia, The Basis For Private Gun Ownership, was brilliant. So much so in my estimation, that it will go down as one of the definitive works of his writing career. In it, he expertly tied together the writings of James Madison from Federalist 46 with part of the Heller v. DC decision written so eloquently by late Justice Antonin Scalia, then summed it up with his final analysis. In so doing, he put a dagger through the heart of the “argument” made by many gun-grabbers and leftist scholars that would suggest the Second Amendment is a “collective” right reserved for service in a militia.
Referring to the Second Amendment “well-regulated militia clause, Dr. Hawkins asked us to “Think about what is conveyed by the term “militia.” He then directed us to part of Scalia’s Heller decision:
Unlike armies and navies, which Congress is given the power to create (“to raise . . . Armies”; “to provide . . . a Navy,” Art. I, §8, cls. 12–13), the militia is assumed by Article I already to be in existence. Congress is given the power to “provide for calling forth the militia,” §8, cl. 15; and the power not to create, but to “organiz[e]” it—and not to organize “a” militia, which is what one would expect if the militia were to be a federal creation, but to organize “the” militia, connoting a body already in existence, ibid., cl. 16. This is fully consistent with the ordinary definition of the militia as all able-bodied men. From that pool, Congress has plenary power to organize the units that will make up an effective fighting force.
Scalia, in his incredible writing for the majority in the Heller case, in precise and succinct terms, made it clear that the right to bear arms is individual. Hawkins went further by invoking Madison in Federalist 46:
The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country.
Dr. Hawkins reminds us, “At the outset, we must understand that the individual right to keep and bear arms is not in spite of the mention of a militia but because of it. In other words, because the militia played a key role in the Founders’ minds, and is intended to play a key role even now, the right to possess arms, with which to gather in militia, “shall not be infringed.””
This piece is a must-read. You can find it at the link above. When you’re finished, send it to a liberal.
Second, you may have heard me talk about “unarmed” versus “disarmed” during some of my radio broadcasts. There’s a difference. In my world, a person is unarmed by choice and disarmed by the threat of force or arrest. I’ll put it in personal terms for you. My friend Gator Gaynor, co-host of the Gator and Denise Show on AAR affiliate KYKN 1430 AM in Salem, Oregon sent me a link via Facebook message to his discussion about being patted down at a Salem Brewfest over the weekend. Yeah, searched for weapons at a brewfest! He asked in his post if TSA had any lost employees that might have found their way to the event. Gator refused to be disarmed and left the grounds. Good for him.
When he alerted me to his situation, he was unaware of the fact that the night before, I had been disarmed by a theatre in the Buckhead section of Atlanta while taking my daughter to a pop concert. Normally I would walk right in as I did when I took her to see the same performers last year, but at a different venue. That one had no wanding security, while this one had a strict “no weapons” policy that I couldn’t have thwarted if I tried…well I could have, but I promised my daughter that I would follow the rules. Here in Georgia, it’s not against the law for me to violate their “policy,” but they were pretty strict about adhering to it and did provide armed security and police presence. While I was parked fairly close, I just wasn’t willing to risk having to walk to the truck and back again, or worse, gotten myself kicked out.
Believe me; if I had gotten us kicked out, I would have broken my daughter’s heart. (For those of you grunting ” I wouldn’t have gone in if I couldn’t have taken my gun,” I’ll assume you don’t have a daughter that counted down the last 127 days leading up to the show)
Regardless, we made it out alive, my daughter and I shared some precious time together that we’ll never forget and I got some more free stuff to talk about on-air.
Funny how that happens!
About Mark Walters
Mark Walters is the host of two nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, Armed American Radio and Armed American Radio’s Daily Defense with Mark Walters. He is the Second Amendment Foundations 2015 Gun Rights Defender of the Year award recipient and co-author of two books, Lessons from Armed America with Kathy Jackson (Whitefeather Press) and Lessons from UnArmed America with Rob Pincus (Whitefeather Press)