By Douglas V. Gibbs
There’s a pro-constitutional trend sweeping the country – a restoration of liberty through legislative actions by individual states in America. It’s called Constitutional Carry, and it’s the kind of sanity that would make our Founding Fathers stand up and cheer.
Twenty-nine States – think about that, it’s nearly three-fifths of the United States – have recognized that the Second Amendment was never meant to be questioned in the first place. Every federal gun law is unconstitutional, and now the states are working to bring our right to keep and bear arms back to its right place; in the hands of We the People. The right of the individual to keep and bear arms is a natural right that exists without any constitutional authority for bureaucratic roadblocks or permission slips. North Carolina’s legislature, sensing the pulse of freedom, recently passed such a law. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party governor of North Carolina, Josh Stein, vetoed the legislation.
Governor Stein, it seems, believes he is the ultimate gatekeeper of natural, God-given rights. One person, versus the voice of North Carolinians in their legislature, believing he can wield god-like powers to trump our gift from God – the right to keep and bear arms.
Let’s go back – way back – to our roots. The Saxons, from whom much of our political framework is derived, believed that being armed was synonymous with being free. Their weapon, the Saex (short sword/long knife), wasn’t just a tool – it was a symbol. If one broke the law, he forfeited that blade. Only when the weapon was returned was he considered free once again. That went way beyond symbolism – it was systemic. Liberty wasn’t granted by rulers; it lived in the grip of an armed citizen.
The Founders while crafting the Bill of Rights knew this. They didn’t draft the Second Amendment as a casual footnote, or a suggestion. They codified it as a warning to tyranny. They wrote, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state…” and if we reference the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary (the first dictionary of the English Language focusing on America’s version), we can decipher exactly what they meant. “Well regulated” did not mean micromanaged by government – it meant well ordered, well equipped, well trained and well armed. The militia? George Mason said it best. “The whole of the people.” Not the massive bureaucracy. Not the elites. Not just the military or law enforcement. You. Me. All of us.
It is the “right of the people,” an individual right that each of us possess, to “keep and bear arms.” Keep. To keep in this context means to possess and own. “Bear” includes concealed carry – not just to carry on one’s body, but to conceal carry. How do we know this? We go right back to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary where one of the examples for the word is to “carry under one’s coat.” That’s not speculation. That’s not just some guideline or suggestion. It’s a conclusive definition.
If a right is natural, intrinsic, given by God and enumerated in the Constitution – not granted by government – then what in the world makes anyone believe that we need a permit to exercise it?
Let’s not forget the Constitution’s Article IV Full Faith and Credit Clause. Textually, and with original context, it means that any permit issued in one state must be respected by all of the states. Yet, even this constitutional safeguard is being routinely ignored. So, the states came up with Constitutional Carry laws, which bypasses that entire tangled web seeking to return to reason and reset a foundational principle.
The natural right to keep and bear arms is about much more than personal defense. It’s about our communities. It is about our duty as members of our communities to defend them against enemies – foreign and domestic. And it’s that last word that sends shivers through the political class. Domestic enemies. The very reason that Constitutional Carry matters most. Tyranny doesn’t wear a foreign uniform. It sits behind a desk along the halls of our own government challenging the sovereignty of each individual. That is why we must be armed, vigilant, and united.
Make no mistake: The Constitutional Carry Movement isn’t about pushing policy. It’s about pulling liberty back to its roots. And the more states we see passing these laws, the closer we get to restoring the original vision that forged this Republic – not one based on the whims of bureaucratic elites and their shuffling of paperwork, but on the unalienable rights of a free citizenship.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
