INTRODUCTION TO ARBALEST QUARREL SERIES ON RADICAL LEFT/PROGRESSIVE DUPLICITY, MENDACITY, AND HYPOCRISY

PART ONE

“Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven." ~Chuang Tse: XXIII, translated by the American writer, Ursula K. Le Guin; epigraph to Chapter 3 of her 1971 Sci Fi novella, “The Lathe of Heaven”

THE RADICAL LEFT AND PROGRESSIVES WILL CRUSH AMERICA INTO SUBMISSION IF THE NATION CONTINUES TO LISTEN TO THE NONSENSE  THEY SPOUT, FOR IT ISN'T KNOWLEDGE OR UNDERSTANDING THEY HAVE; AND HAVING NO WISDOM TO IMPART, THEY HAVE NOTHING OF NOTE TO SHARE

LOSS OF OUR NATION BEGINS WITH LOSS OF AN ARMED CITIZENRY

Never in our history, since the birth of the Nation itself, has our Nation faced a direct threat to its survival as it is facing today. This isn’t hyperbole. This is fact. Even in the face of the ravages of the American Civil War, and the calamity of the Second World War, and the threat posed to our Nation by Russia during its existence as the once powerful Soviet Union, during the Cold War era, has this Nation come closer to Armageddon. This fact is plain as day, on constant display, having commenced on the very day the Presidency of Donald Trump began—on noon EST on January 20, 2017, when Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States.Jealous and powerful elements both here and abroad have mobilized and joined forces to bring Trump down and have failed miserably. They are apoplectic over their consistent failures, and have been raging ever since.Immensely powerful, extraordinarily wealthy, abjectly ruthless, sinister, secretive forces, residing both here and abroad, have operated in concert to attack Trump’s Presidency and by extension to attack millions of Americans who voted for him in the General Election of 2016.These rapacious forces are ever devising and orchestrating, machinating and scheming. And they do so through the amalgam of: a duplicitous and compliant Press; treacherous and hypocritical politicians; recalcitrant and poisonous Federal Government bureaucrats; pestilential sympathizers in the entertainment business; virulent and violent and bellicose Radical Left activists; injurious or lackadaisical jurists; a pernicious academia; rapacious technology chieftains; and a host of hangers-on and fellow travelers and Anti-American sympathizers among the polity, have—all of them—failed to bring destruction both to the man and the Nation. They have failed to topple Trump and to destroy his Administration; and they have failed to destroy the will of the American people; and, to date, they have failed, utterly, to convince Americans to relinquish their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms; albeit, not for want of trying; and they are still doggedly trying.The only thing these perfidious, treacherous, malevolent, abhorrent forces have succeeded in doing is to draw unwanted attention to their goal of sucking the lifeblood out of this Nation, in a naked attempt to bring the Nation to heel; into the fold of the EU; and eventually, inexorably, unerringly into the grip of a new trans-global, supranational political, social, cultural, economic, financial, and legal system of governance; a new socialist world order ruled by a small cadre of sinister ministers, its heart resting in the interstices and bowels of Brussels.With 2020 hindsight the envious, fuming forces that had connived, threatened, and cajoled, albeit all for naught, to bring their stooge, the duplicitous, hypocritical, arrogant, and loathsome Hillary Rodham Clinton, to the seat of power in Washington, D.C., have licked their wounds and are intent on redressing their previous failure; to force the United States back on track toward realization of the goal of a one world socialist Government. And, if these ruthless forces succeed in placing their lackey, their factotum in the Oval Office, in 2020, everything this Nation has gained through the sacrifices of American patriots, from the American Revolution to the present day, will have been in vain. For, Americans will lose everything that has defined them and that has defined the Nation for over two hundred hears, commencing with loss of the right of the people to keep and bear arms, the most sacred fundamental, immutable right of all.

WHAT CAN ALL OF US DO TO KEEP THE RADICAL LEFT ANTIGUN MOB FROM INFRINGING THE FUNDAMENTAL, NATURAL, UNALIENABLE, IMMUTABLE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS?

Tell your Congressional Delegation, and your State and local Legislators that you expect them to honor their sworn oath and commitment to uphold the U.S. Constitution, as this requires them to take action to preserve and strengthen the right of the people to keep and bear arms; and that means protecting the natural right of self-defense. It also means that such firearms that are in common use including semiautomatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns, as well as revolvers, should be available to the average, law-abiding, rational American citizen. How can we best to achieve this goal? We can achieve this goal by meeting the threat to our most sacred, sacrosanct right by meeting those who would destroy our Nation’s Birthright head-on. Tell your Congressional Delegation to recommit to passing National Concealed Handgun Carry legislation.The most effective way to attack antigun Radical Leftists seeking to weaken the Second Amendment that it may wither on the vine, is not—as all too many Republicans have been seen doing—by capitulating to the Radical Left on the issue of gun ownership and gun possession; nor is it by sheepishly agreeing with and groveling to Radical Left antigun politicians in the Democratic Party and to Grassroots antigun activists. Doing so won’t serve to preserve our sacred right, but, rather, will compromise our sacred, unalienable right. No! We must not capitulate and we must convince Republicans in Congress not to capitulate to the antigun mob. They must never capitulate.

WE CANNOT SECURE OUR NATION BY RELINQUISHING OUR FIREARMS BUT WE SHALL SURELY LOSE OUR NATION FOR HAVING DONE SO

Americans cannot preserve the Second Amendment by negotiating with those intent on destroying it. And the Radical Left, along with the inordinately wealthy Globalist elites, who lust for world domination, have no intention of preserving the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in any form. Consider: no American can any longer easily and readily obtain a machine gun, submachine gun, selective fire assault rifle, short barrel shotguns and rifles, since they are all stringently regulated by the Federal Government. Even though these rifles, shotguns, and other firearms are personnel weapons, they are no longer readily available to the public, as the availability of these weapons went out the door with the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), over eighty years. And, as the Arbalest Quarrel has repeatedly stated, the assault on “assault weapons” is an attack on all semiautomatic weapons, as the Radical Left antigun mob is aggressively mounting a campaign to ban all of them, not just some of them. Recently, the Radical Left “Mother Jones” made this very point. The title of the article, written by the Blogger, Kevin Drum, says it all: “We Need to Ban Semi-Automatic Firearms.”At least the guy is being honest, and not pretending to convey the impression that most Radical Left antigun proponents attempt to convey to the public, namely, that they wish to ban only some semiautomatic weapons, not all of them, just “weapons of war,” qua “assault weapons.” Were the antigun mob to get their way, an effective ban on some semiautomatic weapons would lead eventually and invariably to a ban on all semiautomatic weapons. And, from there, the Radical Left antigun mob would move for a ban on revolvers, single action and double action; and, on and on, to a ban on single shot firearms and black powder muzzle loaders. The Radical Left intends to confiscate all firearms, thus essentially negating lawful exercise of the right of the people to keep and bear arms.The best way to defend the unalienable right of the people to keep and bear arms is by clashing with the Radical Left elements in Congress and in the populace who seek to destroy it—bringing the fight directly, unabashedly, unreservedly, and forcefully to them.Keep uppermost in mind: the goal of the Radical Left is the same as the goal of transnationalist Globalist Elites. For, they both seek to undermine the United States as an independent sovereign Nation-State—to transform the Nation into a Socialist haven for millions of illegal aliens who have no understanding of our Nation’s history or any appreciation for our Nation’s Constitution, or of the nature of natural rights upon which our free Republic is grounded. The Radical Left and the transnationalists Global elite have no desire to educate illegal aliens, or even legal immigrants, for that matter, that they may readily assimilate; for, to do so, would defeat the aim of the Radical Left and the transnationalist Global elites, as they are in agreement on what they both seek to accomplish. They seek to effectuate a massive political, social, cultural, and economic transformation of our Country and, thereby, to bring the United States into the fold of the European Union. This was already underway during the Obama era, and it was to continue under Hillary Clinton, had she been “crowned” President.Fortunately, the Clinton Presidency bid failed. But, undaunted, the rapacious forces, that have sought ever to destroy this Nation, fervently desire to get back on track and to get back on track quickly, if need be, no later than 2020. They could not do so to date, try as they did, orchestrating a complex strategy directed to impeaching President Trump and removing him from Office. That didn’t happen. And it isn’t going to happen. But, there is no guarantee that these anti-American forces won’t succeed in sitting a Democratic Party stooge in the White House in 2020, and they are plugging away to do just that. But, in the interim, with their plan of undermining the sovereignty of our Nation—if not sooner, then later—they know they must weaken the Bill of Rights. And to do so, they know they must commence with de facto repeal of the Second Amendment. We see this occurring with the latest call for new curbs on semiautomatic weapons that the Radical Left subsumes under the false vernacular of ‘assault weapon.’ We see it in the Radical Left’s call for universal background checks, whatever that means. And, we see it in the call for application of so-called “Red Flag” laws, throughout the Nation.As the Arbalest Quarrel has previously stated, antigun groups have undertaken three salient tactics in their aggressive assault on the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and these tactics are always taken out of the closet whenever a mass shooting occurs, as such a tragic event operates as a useful pretext for through which the Radical Left antigun zealots assail the Second Amendment again and again.Their tactics include, first, expanding the domain of banned firearms. Americans see this in the ferocious, noxious, incessant attack on semiautomatic firearms, aka, assault weapons.Their tactics include, second, expanding the domain of individuals who are not permitted to own or possess any firearm. Americans see this in the attempt to impose draconian, unconstitutional “Red Flag” laws on thousands of average, law-abiding American citizens. Red Flags operate by turning this Country into a Nation of spies, Shoo-flies. Doing so is the hallmark of the Totalitarian State, where people spy on others and pry into the affairs of others.And, their tactics include, third, making it increasingly difficult for Americans to exercise the right to keep and bear arms—increasingly difficult for those Americans who don’t otherwise fall within a statutory prohibition preventing them from owning and possessing firearms or fall victim to oppressive Red Flag laws.This third tactic involves making gun ownership and possession an administratively demanding, daunting, onerous, expensive, and psychologically depressing experience and proposition for gun owners, as gun owners will never know when something they do or something they say might tend to negatively impact continued exercise of their Second Amendment right. Radical Left antigun elements in our Nation, along with their transnationalist benefactors, know that one major stumbling block to defeating the Second Amendment and, in fact, one major stumbling block in compromising any of the other Nine Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that comprise our Bill of Rights, is to effectuate a change in the way in which Americans view their Bill of Rights, to change their mindset. What does that mean? Just this: The founders of our Free Republic perceived the Bill of Rights to comprise laws intrinsic to man. That is to say, the founders perceived the rights, codified in the Bill of Rights, to precede the creation of the Nation. They perceived the rights as an indelible part of the psyche of man. And, what does that mean? It means that the first Ten Amendments comprise rights and liberties bequeathed to man by the Divine Creator. This is what the founders meant by referring to the rights as fundamental, unalienable, and immutable. Since such rights are not created by man, no man can lawfully or morally rescind those rights. This proposition entails that Government, as a man-made construct, cannot lawfully or morally rescind the rights embodied the Bill of Rights, either.For the Radical Left and their transnationalist benefactors, these ideas, that serve both as the cornerstone of our Constitutional Republic, and the cornerstone of individual autonomy, are an anathema. That is why they feel obliged to ignore, modify, abrogate or utterly erase any Right set forth in the Bill of Rights, when circumstance, as they see it, dictates, or mere fancy happens to affect them. For both the Radical Left and for their transnationalist benefactors, no rights and liberties exist that are not perceived as man-made, bestowed on man by other men or by Government; and, so, they perceive nothing in rights and liberties and laws that isn’t subject to refinement or outright abrogation. This is a very dangerous viewpoint; one that is at loggerheads with the very preservation of our Nation as a free Republic; and one that is at loggerheads with the idea of the dignity and autonomy of man.We will explore these ideas in depth in the next several articles, utilizing the assertions and policy statements of two Radical Left “Potentates,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Senator (D-CA), Kamala Harris, as examples of the logically unsound underpinnings of the Collectivist ideology that the Radical Left embraces.We will demonstrate, through an analysis of their assertions and policy statements, the true danger the Radical Left poses to our Nation, to its Constitution and to its people. By extension we will show how the assertions and policy positions of the Radical Left are incoherent and nonsensical, and that, on logical grounds, alone, do not provide an intellectually satisfactory and morally and legally sustainable basis for transformation of this Nation in the way and manner they seek.The Socialist Utopian dream that both the Radical Left and the Globalist “elites” envision, as bringing public order and comfort to its inhabitants, is doomed to failure. Indeed what it is they truly seek to accomplish is more likely a cold calculated ruse in which to bind this Nation to other Western Nations, in a reprehensible attempt to effectuate a one world Socialist union of once independent nation-states. In that effort, if they succeed, we will witness the dire realization of a Radical Left Socialist Dystopian nightmare; a nightmare that will bring misery, remorse, and profound unease to us all.__________________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

PRESIDENT TRUMP OVERSTEPPED HIS AUTHORITY IN BANNING BUMP STOCKS.

PART ONE

THE PRETEXT FOR TRUMP’S CALL FOR A BAN ON BUMP STOCK DEVICES.

Following the devastating, unconscionable attack by the maniac, Stephen Paddock, on innocent concertgoers, attending a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, on the evening of October 1, 2017, the gun grabbers wasted little time in turning their attention on what they depicted as the salient culprit of the carnage: a little device called a “bump stock.” It is a device that investigators found attached to semiautomatic rifles Paddock used in his murderous assault.

Antigun groups and antigun politicians immediately called for a ban on the device. But, oddly and sadly, it is President Donald Trump, the seemingly indefatigable champion of the Second Amendment—not the Democratic Party leadership—who gave the gun grabbers what they want: a ban on “bump stocks.”

DONALD TRUMP MAY ACT RASHLY ON SOME MATTERS AND AVOID REPERCUSSIONS; NOT SO, WHEN HE BLATANTLY ATTACKS THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

The Arbalest Quarrel has been an early and avid supporter of Trump’s bid for the U.S. Presidency—first during his campaign for the Republican Party nomination, and then during the turbulent first two years in Office, as he was buffeted and roiled on all sides by various factions that sought and still seek to destroy his Presidency. It is alarming, though, when Trump seems to disregard those who support him. Trump had made several promises to the American electorate. Among the most important he promised to build “a wall,” an effective physical structure to keep the multitude of illegal aliens from cavalierly crossing our Nation’s borders, and audaciously claiming the same rights, liberties, and protections that accrue only to American citizens. Trump realizes now, a bit late in the day, that his thoughts of a second term in Office, in 2020, will be undone if he fails to deliver on that oft repeated promise. Just as importantly, Trump made abundantly clear, during his campaign, that he is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. But, what has Trump done to merit his supporters’ continued devotion? So far, two years into his four-year term in Office, we see nothing concrete.

Trump normally “trumpets” his actions, consistent with the importance of, and his belief in, Governmental transparency. That’s a good thing and to be applauded. It is something his predecessor in Office, Barack Obama, said he would do but rarely if ever did, preferring to cloak his own actions in secrecy. The insidious, reprehensible “Operation Fast and Furious” is a case in point; an oblique attempt to undermine the fundamental right codified in the Second Amendment. But, as for the architects of the policy, neither the Attorney General—at the time, Eric Halder—nor President Obama, was ever called to account for it. Yet, it is Donald Trump now, not Barack Obama, who has deviously and insidiously undermined the Second Amendment, and he is doing so through an aggressive, unconscionable, unconstitutional, unilateral executive act.

Remember what Trump said about national concealed handgun carry?

“The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.” ~ Donald J. Trump on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Were these just vacuous words, delivered merely to appease supporters at a singular moment in time, and then to be dispensed with once the U.S. Presidency had been secured and when political expediency seemingly required? Apparently, so. After the Parkland, Florida tragedy, the Washington Examiner reported that,

“President Trump told Republicans on Wednesday they should not include a measure that allows people with concealed carry permits in one state to carry across state lines in a comprehensive gun bill.

‘I think that maybe that bill will one day pass, but it should pass separate,’ Trump said during a bipartisan meeting at the White House. “If you’re going to put concealed carry between states into this bill, we’re talking about a whole new ball game. I’m with you, but let it be a separate bill.”

The President weaseled, giving only lukewarm support for national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation. Obviously this wasn’t a high priority for him. Is it, then, any surprise that, apart from a push by the Republican controlled House in 2017—evidently in spite of the President, not because of him—Congressional action ultimately failed to deliver? Congress got the message. Since preservation and strengthening of the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms is apparently a low priority for the U.S. President, it was a low priority for Congress—certainly for the Republican-controlled Senate.

A full Roll-Call vote on the Senate Floor was necessary even if the Senate failed to secure 60 votes necessary for passage of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation since the American public would know who, among both Democrats and Republicans, voted in favor of the measure and those who did not; those Senators, then, who support our sacred Second Amendment right and those who, clearly, do not. 

But, Mitch McConnell never called for a Floor vote, though he could have done so. We will remember McConnell’s disservice to the American people for failing to hold a full Senate Floor vote. And we will remember Trump for failing to make national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation a priority goal. Republicans controlled the Congress—both Houses—along with the U.S. Presidency, from 2016 through 2018. Republicans have now lost the U.S. House of Representatives. The Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms took a backseat to both health care and taxes. It should not have, but it did. 

We face a Democratic Party majority-controlled House whose leadership has a decidedly and decisively different, and ominous agenda in store for the American people. It is a safe bet that Gun control and the general weakening of the Second Amendment will not be secondary issues for the Democratic Party leadership once they assume control of the House on January 3, 2019—unlike strengthening the Second Amendment was, obviously and unfortunately, a secondary issue for Republicans.*

The Arbalest Quarrel has written several articles on this critical matter, posting those articles on our website; and on Ammoland Shooting Sports News; and on “The Truth About Guns.” Ammoland posted our latest one, titled, “National Concealed Handgun Carry Reciprocity – Last Chance to Act,” on November 27, 2018. In that article, we urged Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, to call for a Senate Floor vote on the House he could have done so. There was time before the year-end adjournment. If the Senate did clear the 60 vote threshold, the bill could have been sent immediately to President Trump for his signature. And Trump would have had to sign it even if he were reluctant to do so. For, it would have been, as he insisted, in his remarks to Republicans, that it must be “a separate bill,” subsumed in no other Congressional bill, as it was a separate bill. But, now, we will never know. The bill that passed the House, the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017,” 115 H.R. 38, will automatically die—as unfinished business of the old Congress—once the new Congress commences work on January 3, 2019.

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PART TWO

TRUMP IGNORES HIS PLEDGE TO THOSE OF US WHO SUPPORTED HIM; CAPITULATING COMPLETELY TO THE ANTIGUN CROWD, ONCE HE CALLED FOR A BAN ON BUMP STOCKS.

As if the Republican controlled Senate’s failure to enact national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation and President Trump’s failure to push forward a pro-Second Amendment agenda during his first two years in Office weren’t bad enough—a serious failure of omission on the part of both the U.S. Senate and the President—Trump’s ban on “bump stocks”—an act of commission—is even worse. By foolishly, impetuously, acting to ban “bump stocks,” the President demonstrates a dangerous naïvety and ineptitude, along with a disturbingly blithe lack of concern for the well-being of the fundamental, immutable, unalienable, inviolate right of the American  people to keep and bear arms. Trump is obviously oblivious to the deleterious impact his unilateral action shall have—not simply may have—on the Second Amendment itself.

President Trump’s failure to cajole Congress to action, to strengthen our most cherished and important right, is unacceptable. That failure deserves our condemnation. But undermining our most cherished right is alarming and unforgivable. That deserves our lasting contempt. With the radical Left urging Democratic Party House members to impeach Trump, upon issuance of the Special Counsel’s, Robert Mueller’s, report that is due out at any time now, the President can ill afford to antagonize his own base; but Trump has done just that with his flagrant attack on the Second Amendment.

Trump should have left the matter of bump stocks to Congress. Congress, acting through its Article 1 legislative power, can, conceivably, lawfully, take such action to ban them, if it sought to do so, assuming—a big “if”—that the law, depending on the matter of its statutory construction, does not run afoul of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But it is not for the President to take that action upon himself under any set of circumstances. We have a system of checks and balances in our Country, and for good reason.

Congress makes the law. That power is within the province of Congress, not the President. The President’s duty is to faithfully execute the laws Congress enacts. Under our Constitution, the President has no authority to make binding law, in lieu of Congress. Unlike Great Britain and Australia, the Chief Executive has no authority to self-execute laws. The President does not serve as both Chief Executive and "Legislator in Chief."

We have seen how Obama has shown a marked, carefree proclivity to ignore the federal Government’s system of “checks and balances” that the founders of our Republic wisely conceived of and assiduously placed into our Constitution. As Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4, makes crystal clear, it is the province of Congress to “establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” Obama, as President, and, no less a lawyer and academician, knows this. Yet, that did not prevent him from unlawfully promulgating and implementing his infamous, illegal “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA), policy, along with the concomitant mess it left for his successor, President Trump. 

What was Obama’s motive for DACA? As he says, as reported to the Leftist media echo chamber, CNN:  “. . . for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill. That bill never came. . . . “Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question.” Obama proselytizes to Americans, talking down to us as if we were children, suggesting that it is he, Obama,“the Great Father,” who shall teach us all what we ostensibly need to know about law, politics, and morality too, audaciously exclaiming that, as Congress didn’t give Obama what he wants—he—Barack Obama, will make law himself!

Obama’s remarks are a textbook example of propaganda, disseminated to the public by an insincere Press. It is bombastic, simplistic, perfunctory rhetoric; absolute drivel. Obama certainly knows it; but so should the Press. This smug, duplicitous attitude on the part of both Obama and the Press serves to make Obama’s remarks and the mainstream media’s reporting of them all the more diabolical and reprehensible.

One salient, critical duty of the Chief Executive of the Nation, set down in Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution is to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The laws the President is duty-bound to faithfully execute are the laws Congress enacts. The President has no power to issue personal edicts, suggesting they have the force of Congressional law when in fact they don’t; and cannot ever have. As Article 1, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution makes abundantly and absolutely clear: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” There is nothing in Article 1 or in any other Article of the U.S. Constitution reciting that legislative powers, of some sort or another, also vest in the President. Such powers do not invest in the President; only in Congress.

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION CONSISTS OF FUNDAMENTAL PRECEPTS; NOT SIMPLE PLATITUDES.

Trump, as with Obama before him, has begun to demonstrate a disturbing propensity to ignore precepts of the U.S. Constitution, when he wishes to do so, unmoved by the dictates of either the Constitution or his conscience. His unilateral action banning bump stocks was a calculated move. It is obvious why he took this action. He evidently felt the general public supported it—more of those in favor of it than not. He caved to public pressure to deliver something to the public, because of the worst mass shooting ever to occur in our Nation and an unthinkable tragedy that happened to occur on his watch. That may appear as reason enough to act, by some, but Trump should not have fallen prey to the frenzy of the moment, and with such apparent alacrity, abandon, and smug self-assurance.

The continued existence of the natural, fundamental rights set forth in the Bill of Rights are not properly to be left to public whim, anyway, and never have been. Public opinion is easily manipulated and ever changeable. The founders of our Republic didn’t intend for the fundamental rights and liberties of the American people to be weakened by mere heat and rancor of a given moment in time. That ought to be clear enough to most Americans if they stop to consider this. It should be clear enough to Congress. And it should be clear enough to the President, too; but apparently it wasn’t. And, having taken the action to ban bump stocks devices, President Trump did nothing to make this Nation safer. Having bowed to political pressure--something he is, often and admirably enough, not ordinarily inclined to do, but did so in this instance--he reneged on a salient campaign promise he made to millions of Americans, namely that he, like they, fervently and reverently hold the Nation’s Second Amendment in the highest regard, and that he will do his best to preserve and strengthen it. Yet, a ban on bump stock devices does no such thing. Rather, it makes a mockery of Trump’s promise to the American people. Worse, taking the action he did to usurp Congressional authority and prerogative to make law, Trump did much more than simply undermine a campaign pledge; he undermined the very Constitution he swore an oath to preserve and to protect. Article 2, Section 1, Clause 8 of the Constitution makes plain that,

“Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:—‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”

Trump does not faithfully execute the office of President of the United States by making up his own law as he goes. He doesn’t preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States when he takes upon himself--as did his predecessor Barack Obama--the role the framers of the Constitution reserved alone to Congress, namely the authority to make law. And, Trump certainly doesn't preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, when he undermines the fundamental, immutable, unalienable rights and liberties of the American people as codified in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. 

Whether operating through grandiose self-delusion or blatant deceit, a Chief Executive, who fails to adhere to the limitations on his authority, as our Constitution dictates and mandates, significantly threatens the continued well-being of a free Republic. Under no set of circumstances can suspension or abrogation of our Constitution ever be justified. 

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PART THREE

TRUMP’S UNILATERAL ACTION, BANNING BUMP STOCKS, IS UNLAWFUL.

Although Trump could have and should have left the matter of “bump stocks” to Congress, Trump’s unilateral action, banning civilian ownership and possession of bump stocks is unlawful. That isn’t an open question. The answer to that question, under Constitutional law, is clear and categorical. Trump cannot lawfully do so. But, he took that action anyway. The danger we now face, given Trump’s rash action, goes well beyond the relative merit or utility of bump stocks, themselves.

Trump’s action calls into immediate question the import of Congressional legislation and the weight to be given to U.S. Supreme Court pronouncements on matters of law. If Trump’s action withstands legal challenge and scrutiny—and David Codrea’s article posted in Ammoland Shooting Sports News points to several formal complaints that have been recently been filed contesting the constitutionality of the ban—the ‘rule of law’ becomes mere shallow and hollow rhetoric; legislation becomes mere ad hoc artifice, subject to the vicissitudes of fate; and the Bill of Rights loses its inviolability and immutability.

THE DOJ-ATF RULE BANNING “BUMP STOCKS” IS PATENTLY UNLAWFUL.

Two major websites, Ammoland Shooting Sports News and The Truth About Guns, have posted several fine articles on the issue of bump stocks. The Arbalest Quarrel provides its own take on this subject, including an analysis of the law regarding administrative decision-making.

We reach a disturbing but irrefutable conclusion: if the Courts do not strike down Trump’s action, we will continue to see the inexorable whittling away of the right of the people to keep and bear arms, leading inevitably to the demise of civilian ownership and possession of all semiautomatic firearms, not simply to the demise of firearms pejoratively called “assault weapons.”

We begin our analysis with the language of Trump’s Memorandum, issued on February 20, 2018. The Memorandum is titled “Application of the Definition of Machine gun to ‘Bump Fire’ Stocks and Other Similar Devices.” 3 CFR Memorandum of 2/20/18. This Executive Office Memorandum placed the Justice Department on notice of the President’s intent to promulgate a rule criminalizing possession of bump stock devices--all of them, regardless of the nature of operation of any one manufacturer's version of the device--and further ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to promulgate a rule, banning those devices. The Memorandum directed to the Attorney General, and signed by Donald Trump, reads:

“After the deadly mass murder in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 1, 2017, I asked my Administration to fully review how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulates bump fire stocks and similar devices.

Although the Obama Administration repeatedly concluded that particular bump stock type devices were lawful to purchase and possess, I sought further clarification of the law restricting fully automatic machine guns.

Accordingly, following established legal protocols, the Department of Justice started the process of promulgating a Federal regulation interpreting the definition of ‘machine gun’ under Federal law to clarify whether certain bump stock type devices should be illegal. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on December 26, 2017. Public comment concluded on January 25, 2018, with the Department of Justice receiving over 100,000 comments.

Today, I am directing the Department of Justice to dedicate all available resources to complete the review of the comments received, and, as expeditiously as possible, to propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns.

Although I desire swift and decisive action, I remain committed to the rule of law and to the procedures the law prescribes. Doing this the right way will ensure that the resulting regulation is workable and effective and leaves no loopholes for criminals to exploit. I would ask that you keep me regularly apprised of your progress.

You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.”

[signed] Donald Trump

____________________________________

There are four points to ponder here. First, through this Memorandum, Trump attempts to make law, not simply execute laws Congress enacted because Congress hasn’t enacted a law banning bump stocks. So there is no law for the President to faithfully execute under Article 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. His remark—“I remain committed to the rule of law”—is what we hear all the time from Democrats. It is a remark he expects the public to accept on blind faith. Politicians make use of it often enough. But, the remark invariably comes across as hollow, flaccid, and pathetic; a useless appendage, demonstrating a lack of conviction at its very utterance, as the action taken belies the seeming veracity of the sentiment underlying it. 

The fact remains: absent express Congressional authorization the Executive Branch of Government cannot lawfully promulgate rules to effectuate the will of Congress if there is no will of Congress to effectuate. And, there is none here.Trump has blatantly exceeded his authority under the Constitution.

Second, the Memorandum—a directive to the DOJ—is logically inconsistent. Trump says, at the outset, he simply seeks “further clarification of the law restricting fully automatic machine guns,” but then makes clear that it isn’t mere clarification he seeks at all. He tells the DOJ “to propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns.”  Trump is kidding no one. He is illegally attempting to promulgate law.

Third, the Memorandum calls for a drastic measure. There is nothing in the Memorandum allowing for the grandfathering of bump stocks in the hands of American citizens. Consider: even the infamous federal assault weapons ban act of 1994 (that expired in 2004) made abundantly clear it did not apply to possession or transfer of any semiautomatic assault weapon a citizen happened to lawfully possess before enactment of the Congressional legislation.

The new ATF Rule, though, is far more ambitious than even Congressional legislation that banned new purchases of “assault weapons.” For, under the ATF Rule, Americans who fail to surrender bump stocks or who otherwise fail to render them inoperable are subject to criminal prosecution. There is no exception, and no grandfathering of devices that, before implementation of the Rule, had been lawfully purchased.

Fourth, Trump takes the position—as is clear from the language of the Memorandum—that he can get around the Statutory legal hurdle by claiming to operate within  it; but he does so by tortuously toying with the definition of ‘machine gun’ to include ‘bump stocks.’ Trump does not succeed and he is wrong in his endeavor in attempting to do so. He is unlawfully expanding upon and redefining the clear, concise and precise definition of 'machine gun' as codified by Congress in Federal Statute. Further, Trump's attempt to get around the hurdle of a clear concept of ‘machine gun’ is unnerving. It would have been better—although still legally indefensible--had he simply sought to ban “bump stocks” outright, without the semantic convolutions, gyrations, and machinations.

Trump attempts to convince the public that "bump stock devices" do convert semiautomatic firearms into machine guns. Trump simply pretends to be on a sound legal, logical, and grammatical footing. He isn't. The reason Trump contrives to win over the public is plain. Congress has specifically defined the expression, 'machine gun,'  in Statute; and it has defined the expression explicitly and unambiguously.

In 26 USCS § 5845, titled "definitions," “the term ‘machine gun’ means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun, and any combination of parts from which a machine gun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.” 

If ever the language of a Congressional Statute were straightforward and readily understood by a firearm's expert or by a lay person, 26 USCS § 5845 is such a Statute. If an agency of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government can undermine Federal law so blatantly, as Trump attempts to do so here, then no Federal Statute is safe from abrogation by Executive edict by those in Government who would dare trifle with our Nation's Constitution and laws.

Unless, the concept of ‘bump stock’ falls within the meaning of ‘machine gun,’—and it doesn’t—the Justice Department cannot lawfully promulgate a rule that extends the legal definition beyond the parameters mandated by Congressional Statute. Yet, it has dared to do just that, even as it insists that it has not. Trump has audaciously ordered DOJ to promulgate an illegal rule, and the DOJ, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), has obliged.

THE NEW ATF RULE: A CATEGORICAL BAN ON BUMP STOCK DEVICES

In the Federal Register, 83 FR 13442, the DOJ, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), has proposed a rule change to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), specifically, 27 CFR Parts 447, 478, and 479.

The proposed Rule, reads: “The Department of Justice (Department) proposes to amend the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulations to clarify that ‘bump fire’ stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics (bump-stock-type devices) are "machine guns" as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), because such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger. Specifically, these devices convert an otherwise semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun by functioning as a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that harnesses the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm in a manner that allows the trigger to reset and continue firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter. Hence, a semiautomatic firearm to which a bump-stock-type device is attached is able to produce automatic fire with a single pull of the trigger. With limited exceptions, primarily as to government agencies, the GCA makes it unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machine gun unless it was lawfully possessed prior to the effective date of the statute. The bump-stock-type devices covered by this proposed rule were not in existence prior to the GCA's effective date, and therefore would fall within the prohibition on machine guns if this Notice of Proposed Rule making (NPRM) is implemented. Consequently, current possessors of these devices would be required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable upon the effective date of the final rule.”

The ATF has now finalized the proposed rule, amending the first sentence to read:

“The Department of Justice is amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). . . .”

As a final Agency Rule, it is ripe for judicial review, if challenged; and it is rightfully being challenged.

THE ATF’S REASONING ON BUMP STOCK DEVICES IS FLAWED.

The critical problem with the ATF Rule is this: bump stocks are not machine guns; nor are they accessories for machine guns; and saying they are machine guns, as the ATF categorically and brazenly does say, doesn’t make them so. The rule seemingly complies with federal Statute by iterating the critical point that “. . . such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger." But, the assertion is false, and the Rule must be struck down on that ground alone. The Rule is also a noxious affront to the natural, fundamental, and unalienable right etched in stone in the Second Amendment. The ATF Rule cannot be allowed to stand without doing a disservice to the purport of our Nation’s Bill of Rights.

Without amnesty for those who lawfully possessed bump stock devices, prior to implementation of the new DOJ-ATF Rule, 83 FR 13442, a wholesale ban on bump stocks place those of us who possess the devices in clear legal jeopardy. Keep in mind the last line of the Rule: Consequently, current possessors of these devices would be required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable upon the effective date of the final rule.” This retrospective application to existing lawful owners of bump stock devices is outrageous, and, apart from other serious Constitutional issues attendant to 83 FR 13442, the Rule may also amount to a violation of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which says clearly and succinctly: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”  The Arbalest Quarrel will look into a possible violation of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 in a future article.

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PART FOUR

THE ATF’S ASSERTION THAT BUMP STOCKS CONVERT SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES INTO MACHINE GUNS IS BOTH LOGICALLY AND LEGALLY FAULTY.

Let’s take a moment to reassess.

What is a ‘bump stock,’ really? Who invented it? How long has it been on the market? Why the uproar over it? Is it really the awful object that antigun zealots and the President, too, claim it is? And, most importantly, does a ban on bump stocks place those of us who possess semiautomatic weapons--millions of law-abiding American citizens--in legal jeopardy?

A LITTLE HISTORY ON BUMP STOCKS—

Who Invented the “Bump Stock?”

Four days, after the Las Vegas concert tragedy, The New York Times looked into this mechanical device called a “bump stock,” reporting, with typical tabloid flourish:

“Gun enthusiasts looking for an extra thrill have long found makeshift ways to replicate the exhilaration of using an automatic weapon — the thrill of the noise and the jolt of rapid-fire rounds — while bypassing the legal hassle and expense of getting one.

They contrived devices using pieces of wood, belt loops and sometimes even rubber bands, to mimic the speed of a fully automatic weapon — even if it meant sacrificing accuracy.

Then came Jeremiah Cottle with an answer. A Texas farm boy turned Air Force veteran, he figured he could do better. He sank $120,000 of his savings into the development of a high-end bump stock, a device that harnessed a rifle’s recoil to fire hundreds of rounds a minute.

He began selling bump stocks in 2010 with the help of his wife and grandparents in Moran, Tex., his small hometown of fewer than 300 residents. His company, Slide Fire Solutions, won approval from federal firearms regulators, and the business moved from a portable building that had once been a dog kennel into a much larger space on the Cottle family farm. Sales exceeded $10 million and 35,000 units in the first year.”

HOW DOES A BUMP STOCK OPERATE?

Antigun groups, along with the Press provide their impressions of “bump stocks”—offering descriptions from the deceptive and simplistic to the florid and patently absurd.

Following up on the October 2017 story, the NY Times, on February 18, 2018 said this says about the device’s operation:

“A ‘bump stock’ replaces a rifle’s standard stock, which is the part held against the shoulder. It frees the weapon to slide back and forth rapidly, harnessing the energy from the kickback shooters feel when the weapon fires. The stock “bumps” back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger, causing the rifle to rapidly fire again and again. The shooter holds his or her trigger finger in place, while maintaining forward pressure on the barrel and backward pressure on the pistol grip while firing.”

The NY Times' animation aptly illustrates that one shot, and one shot only, is fired through a single  pull of the trigger. A successive pull of the trigger is required each time in order to initiate an additional shot. 

The Progressive weblog “Trace,” says, “A bump stock is a foot-long piece of plastic capable of transforming a semiautomatic rifle into a weapon functionally indistinguishable from a machine gun. That means a gun fitted with a bump stock can fire up to 800 rounds per minute.” 

This is more than simple hyperbole. The problem with the remark is that the expression, 'machine gun' is defined in federal statute by manner of operation, and not, as the weblog Trace, argues, by rate of fire. Antigun proponents do not, however, appear to concern themselves over, or allow themselves to be constrained by, niceties of law. They are only interested in political results. 

Not to be outdone the NY Times or by the weblog, Trace, Gabby Gifford’s antigun group chimed,  

“In the absence of immediate action by Congress, I urge ATF to finalize its proposed rule clarifying that bump fire stocks, along with other “conversion devices” that enable semiautomatic weapons to mimic automatic fire, qualify as “machine guns” under the National Firearms Act. And then Congress must act as well—to ensure that manufacturers cannot continue to endanger public safety by designing devices that imitate machine guns and subvert the law. The continued presence of these dangerous devices puts all of our communities at risk, and both Congress and ATF must take action quickly to address this threat."

Whether modification of a semiautomatic rifle, incorporating a bump stock, serves "to mimic automatic fire" is, from the legal standpoint, absolutely irrelevant because this kind of modification does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun. One pull of the trigger yields one shot and one shot only, not successive shots.

These remarks by Gifford’s organization are purposely incendiary and patently ridiculous. Indeed, even the progressive website, “Vox,” citing an AP News report—albeit claiming that bump stocks offer a "way around the law [pertaining to machine guns]"—felt compelled to admit, if only reluctantly, that bump stock modifications to semiautomatic rifles do not convert those rifles into machine guns.

“The device basically replaces the gun’s shoulder rest, with a “support step” that covers the trigger opening. By holding the pistol grip with one hand and pushing forward on the barrel with the other, the shooter’s finger comes in contact with the trigger. The recoil causes the gun to buck back and forth, “bumping” the trigger.

Technically, that means the finger is pulling the trigger for each round fired, keeping the weapon a legal semi-automatic.”

One pull of the trigger yields one shot and one shot only, not successive shots. So, whether modification of a semiautomatic rifle, incorporating a bump stock, serves to "mimic" automatic fire, as Gifford's antigun group, and others like it, claim, is, from the legal standpoint, absolutely irrelevant because this kind of modification does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun. And, there’s the rub!

EXPERT OPINION EXISTS TO SUPPORT THE CONCLUSION THAT BUMP STOCKS MODIFICATIONS TO SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES DO NOT CONVERT THOSE SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLES INTO MACHINE GUNS, SUBJECT TO FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE GUN CONTROL ACT OF 1968 OR THE NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT.

One individual or Company (name and address redacted) contacted the ATF, requesting a formal opinion on whether its device, an “AR-15 Type ‘Bump Fire Stock,’” fell within the federal legal definition of a ‘machine gun’, that “would be regulated by the provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) or the National Firearms Act (NFA).”

A firearms’ expert, Michael R. Curtis, Chief, Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch, reviewed the device. He responded, on April 17, 2017, to the query (about six months before Paddock went on his rampage in Las Vegas). In principal part, Michael Curtis said this,

“Your bump fire grip device consists of the following:

One AR-style pistol grip that it attached to and adjustable butt stock by a flat metal bar bent to contour to the buttstock. The pistol grip has two plastic pieces attached by small screws, one is the extension for resting your finger on while firing and the other is a shield to prevent the pistol grip from pinching  the  grip  fingers  of  the  firing  hand.

Your stock is designed to allow an AR-type semiautomatic rifle mounted to it to reciprocate back and forth in a linear motion. The absence of an accelerator spring or similar component in the submitted device prevents it from operating automatically.  When operated, forward pressure must be applied with the support hand to the forward hand guard fore-end of the AR-type rifle mounted to  your stock, bringing  the  receiver assembly  forward  to  a  point  where  the  trigger  can be pulled by the firing hand. If sufficient forward pressure is not applied to the hand guard with the support hand, the rifle can be fired in a conventional, semiautomatic manner since the reciprocation of the receiver assembly is eliminated.

The  FTISB  examination of the  submitted device indicates that if as a shot is fired   and a suU/dent[?] amount of pressure is applied to the hand guard/gripping surface with the shooter's support hand—the AR-type rifle assembly will come forward until the trigger re-contacts the Shooter’s stationary firing-hand trigger finger: Re-contacting allows the firing of a subsequent shot. In this manner, the shooter pulls the receiver assembly forward to fire each shot, each succeeding shot firing with a  single trigger function. . . .

Moreover; we should point out that the addition of an accelerator spring or any other non-manual source of energy which allows this device to operate automatically will result in the manufacture of a ‘machine gun’ as defined in the NFA, 5845(b).”

_____________________________________________

The juxtaposition of an expert’s opinion on bump stock devices and the wording of the ATF Rule stipulating an outright ban on “bump stock” devices, aptly illustrates the critical differences between well-reasoned opinion on the one hand written by a firearms’ expert, Michael Curtis, and, on the other hand, simplistic verbiage, reflected in the new ATF Rule, crafted, no doubt, by people who are not firearms’ experts. Further, the opinion of Michael Curtis is facially neutral; the ATF Rule, politically motivated as it obviously is, is only seemingly facially neutral.

Michael Curtis considers the technical attributes of and operation of bump stocks, calmly and rationally. His findings demonstrate his technical knowledge, and he draws a conclusion as to the legality of the particular device submitted to him, on the basis of the law, as enacted. In the law, as enacted, Congress defines the expression, ‘machine gun.’ That definition happens to accord with industry use of the expression. There is no embellishment. But that is not what we see in the language of the ATF Rule, as promulgated. The drafters of the Rule were only interested in giving the President what he asked for; what he wanted; what he demanded from them; and they did so.

Those who drafted the ATF Rule clearly did not bother to consider the technical intricacies of “bump stock” operation. The Rule is nothing more than a simplistic, ill-informed, technically deficient, politically motivated and mandated edict, posing as a well-reasoned administrative pronouncement, ostensibly having the force of agency law. It is not. Those who crafted the ATF Rule on bump stock devices made no attempt to distinguish among any of them. Their mandate was to create a Rule to ban them—all of them; anything that might conceivably resemble them. The drafters of this agency Rule, insidiously contrived to craft a rule that, by outward appearance—to those who nothing about firearms’ operation—may seem impressive. But, as is often the case, appearances are deceptive, and that is the case here. Those who crafted this Rule had their "marching orders."  They conspired to give President Trump what he wanted; what he asked for; what he demanded of them. They connived, and contrived, and conspired, when crafting their Rule, to place bump stock devices within the orbit of a firearm's accessory that converts a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun. If the deception succeeds politically, that is all that matters to the President, and to them; but, as the Rule is logically and legally flawed, it cannot withstand Constitutional scrutiny by the Judiciary, and must be struck down.

Were this Rule to escape Judicial inquiry unscathed, it will invite misuse of Congressional Statute at every turn—merely to achieve a political end, desired by some. Those who crafted this ludicrous Rule meant to deceive the public. Hopefully, the Courts will not allow themselves to be similarly deceived.       

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PART FIVE

APART FROM TRUMP’S RASH, INCORRIGIBLE ACTION, WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HAS CONGRESS DONE TO CURB POSSESSION OF “BUMP STOCKS?”

Curiously, Congress did attempt action to ban “bump stocks,” albeit unsuccessfully. On October 31, 2017, about one month after Paddock’s murderous assault on innocent Americans, Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), sponsored a bill, called, “Closing the Bump-Stock Loophole Act,” 115 H.R. 4168.

The bill had co-sponsors among both Republicans and Democrats. The stated purpose of the bill was “. . . to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat in the same manner as a machine gun any bump fire stock, or any other devices designed to accelerate substantially the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon.”

The bill, if enacted into law would amend Section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States Code (USCS) of 1986:

IN GENERAL. Section 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking "and (8)" and inserting the following: "(8) a reciprocating stock, or any other device which is designed to accelerate substantially the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon; and (9)".

(b)  Semiautomatic Weapon.—and  Section 5845 [26 USCS § 5845] of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

"(n) Semiautomatic Weapon.— The term 'semiautomatic weapon' means any repeating weapon that—

"(1); utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and

"(2);requires a separate function of the trigger to fire each cartridge."

The bill went nowhere. But, interestingly, the bill, if enacted, would not have redefined or expanded upon the definition of ‘machine gun,’ in 26 USCS § 5845—something the ATF Rule rashly does—but instead would include a definition for ‘semiautomatic weapon,’ which 26 USCS § 5845, at present, doesn’t have. The bill would then ban devices “. . . designed to accelerate substantially the rate of fire of a semiautomatic weapon.” It would treat bump stocks, “in the same manner as a machine gun,” true, as the language of the bill so states; but that isn’t the same thing as saying that “bump stocks” are “machine guns.” That is an important difference, as the definition of ‘machine gun’ is codified in federal statute. There was nothing in the proposed bill to suggest a Congressional intention to amend or to expand upon the statutory [26 USCS § 5845] definition of ‘machine gun.’

Congress itself obviously had a marked reluctance “to play” with its own definitions, and avoided doing so—a reservation that Trump obviously doesn’t have, when he wholeheartedly took upon himself, the role of both Chief Executive and “Legislator in Chief.”

Still, the Congressional bill was a bad idea at the get-go. Had it passed, antigun zealots could have, and likely would have, used the new law to argue that any new development in semiautomatic weapon technology, as a matter of efficiency, accelerates substantially the rate of fire of the semiautomatic weapon and, so, must be banned. After all, Antigun proponents see little if any difference between semiautomatic firearm on the one hand and machine guns, submachine guns, and selective fire weapons on the other, anyway. To these zealots all semiautomatic firearms are “weapons of war,” having no practical civilian use, asserting they—ultimately all of them—should be banned outright.

Antigun proponents have worked for decades to make their goal a reality; and they continue to work toward this end—all with the avid monetary and organizational assistance of wealthy globalists who seek to subordinate our Constitution, our system of laws, and our jurisprudence to a “one-size fits all” set of international norms. If they succeed in that endeavor, the independence and sovereignty of individual nation states will come to a screeching, halt and catastrophic end. All Western nations will all be corralled into a single, centralized and uniform political, social, cultural, economic, and financial system of governance. The EU is the test bed and the basic framework for this system. Even as the citizenry of the individual nations within the EU, realizing that their nations are moving inexorably to dissolution and are beginning to resist that effort, it may be too late for them. But, it isn’t, as yet, too late for us—so long as our Bill of Rights, and, especially, are Second Amendment remains intact. The DOJ-ATF “Bump Stock” Rule is not a neutral rule. If allowed to stand, unchallenged, it can and will have a devastating impact on the continued well-being of the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

THE ATF “BUMP STOCK” RULE THAT WE NOW HAVE IS WORSE THAN THE CONGRESSIONAL BILL WOULD EVER HAVE BEEN.

As bad as Representative Fitzpatrick’s bill  [“Closing the Bump-Stock Loophole Act,” 115 H.R. 4168], was, if enacted, the new ATF Rule, as now finalized, is far worse. Indeed, even Congress was reluctant to subsume the concept of ‘semiautomatic weapon’ into the concept of ‘machine gun.’ President Trump has no such reservations. Trump’s Memo to the DOJ suggests that either he has given little thought to the matter or couldn’t care less about the legal consequences of his actions had he thought about the matter at all. The ATF filled with antigun fanatics, delivered for Trump, with unsurprising, characteristic exuberance.

The ATF has laid the groundwork for subsuming semiautomatic weaponry into the category of ‘machine guns,’ even though a clear bright line between machine guns and semiautomatic firearms exists in Congressional Statute. It is a line that Congress has carefully delineated, and it is one which Congress is loath to tinker with. Yet this sharp, distinction between semiautomatic firearms on the one hand and machine guns on the other is one that Trump has cavalierly, and literally, at the stroke of a pen, erased.

This ATF Rule, if allowed to stand, would severely weaken the Second Amendment. Hopefully, the Gun owners of America, that is challenging the constitutionality of the ATF Rule will prevail. GOA must prevail for the good of the Nation; for the sake of the American citizenry; and for the continued well-being of our Nation’s inviolate rights and liberties.

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PART SIX

THE ATF BUMP STOCK RULE DEMONSTRATES THE DANGERS INHERENT IN ADMINISTRATIVE ACTIONS.

AGENCY RULES MUST BE SCRUTINIZED CAREFULLY BY THE COURTS FOR THEY HAVE A TENDENCY TO OVERRIDE CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION.

The American public has historically given little thought to the relationship between Congressional legislation and Administrative action. That must change. The new ATF Rule makes clear that the public must become aware of the intricacies of Governmental action lest the American people lose their sacred fundamental rights and liberties. The American people should have learned long ago of the danger posed to a free Republic through the insinuation of so-called “elites” into the political process. What ensues is oft, appropriately referred to, as “the tyranny of experts.”

How has this come about? It has come about due, paradoxically, to the manner in which our Federal Government operates. The only true “checks and balances” in our Nation are those that rest in the enumerated rights and liberties of the American people, and singularly in the right of the people to keep and bear arms. If we lose that basic, inherent right, we have lost everything. That is not hyperbole. That is fact.

Congress makes law, yes. But, in faithfully executing Congressional statute, the Executive Branch must turn Congressional legislation into operational rules. That is the job of Executive agencies.

Congressional legislation provides the mandate through which agencies act. Agencies promulgate rules, allowing for implementation of law. However, that mandate isn’t open-ended. Congressional legislation establishes the parameters beyond which the Executive Branch must not venture. Yet, with disturbing regularity, we see the President, through the Executive agencies he presides over, overstepping his Constitutional authority.

In Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court established the standard of Court review of agency interpretation of statute. The case is abstruse. The majority of Americans probably never heard of it. Yet, among legal scholars, the U.S Supreme Court Chevron case is likely the most often cited case. Hundreds of academic articles have been written about it. Hundreds more will probably be written. And our case law is legion with references to it.

In Chevron, the high Court wrestled with the amount of discretion that federal Courts—the Judicial Branch of the Federal Government—should give to administrative agencies when those agencies interpret law to promulgate operational rules through which Congressional acts are effectuated. The question for the Courts turns on whether statutory language is ambiguous. If the language is ambiguous, Courts will defer to the agencies—the experts—to resolve the ambiguity, unless the Courts determine the agency’s interpretation is unreasonable. But, then, the Court is itself interpreting statute: hence the conundrum for the Courts.

But that is not the case here, with the ATF Bump Stock Rule, and that is because the definition of ‘machine gun,’ in Congressional Statute, is clear and unambiguous, certainly as unambiguous as our common language, English, can be. The ATF Rule is particularly exasperating as it blatantly ignores the Congressional Statutory dictate in order to promulgate a rule to cohere to a political goal—thereby making a mockery of our system of laws and the very concept of the “Rule of Law” that politicians love to cite but rarely, if ever, actually adhere to.

The ATF Rule, as promulgated, sets forth that bump stock modifications of semiautomatic rifles convert semiautomatic rifles into machine guns because only one pull of the trigger is required to initiate multiple firing of the weapon. But, that statement is either true or it is false.

If true, then the semiautomatic firearm is, in fact, a machine gun. If not, then, the semiautomatic firearm remains a semiautomatic firearm because it is semiautomatic in operation. Rate of fire is irrelevant. Michael Curtis, supra, points out that, in the absence of an “accelerator spring,” a bump stock device—in its usual form (and keep in mind that the ATF Rule fails to consider and appreciate that bump stocks may have different configurations and operate in different ways)—requires one trigger pull for each successive shot. Performance is not a factor, as NRA clearly and correctly points out; the manner of operation is the only factor that comes into play.

Thus, unless Congress enacts legislation to redefine the expression, ‘machine gun,’—redefining it in a way that is contrary to industry use—the President of the United States, through the DOJ-ATF is not lawfully permitted to do redefine 'machine gun' on its own, which, it audaciously has done, even as the language in the Rule says otherwise. The DOJ-ATF action amounts to ad hoc rule-making; ad hoc rule-making, subject to the whims of political pressure, but presumptuously finalized as enforceable law. The DOJ-ATF Rule is nothing more than illegal Executive Branch edict. Its presence makes a mockery of law. It is a travesty. If allowed to stand, it amounts to the usurpation of our entire system of laws and justice, and legal jurisprudence.

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PART SEVEN

THE NEW ATF RULE BANNING “BUMP STOCKS” PORTENDS A TOTAL BAN ON SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS.

If allowed to stand, this ATF Rule dangerously undermines the Second Amendment because the Rule unlawfully conflates semiautomatic firearms and machine guns. If rapidity of fire becomes the de facto if tacit but clearly salient factor and new rule-made—as opposed to Congressional enacted—definition of ‘machine gun,’ which presently defines the expression,' machine gun,' in terms of manner of operation, not performance, then all semiautomatic firearms will inevitably and invariably be subsumed into the nomenclature of ‘machine gun.’ Indeed, the mainstream media—comprising stooges and political hacks posing as journalists who know nothing about firearms’ operations and who have no desire to gain such knowledge—merely echoes the sentiments of antigun zealots. The mainstream media routinely argues that no appreciable difference exists between machine guns and semiautomatic firearms, anyway. The running narrative of these organizations is directed to motivating the public to demand, of Congress, the annihilation of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The purpose of these “news” organizations has nothing whatsoever to do with news reporting. The Press, today, delivers propaganda masked as news. There is no appreciable distinction anymore between what appears in the Op-Ed sections of these “news” publications or in  what is purportedly presented as “real” news, neutrally presented.

We have seen how antigun zealots create, through the artifice of the ‘assault weapon,’ a useful fiction through which semiautomatic firearms can be ostensibly lawfully banned. President Trump has, consciously or not, but certainly ill-advisedly and uncritically, created, through the DOJ-ATF Bump Stock Rule, a re-branding of semiautomatic firearm as machine gun based, essentially, on performance, albeit deliberately creating vagueness as to whether "bump stocks" necessitate one-trigger pull for every shot or multiple shots with one trigger pull in an attempt to "get around" the lack of any vagueness or ambiguity in the statutory definition of 'machine gun.'

If Trump and the DOJ-ATF are allowed to get away with this subterfuge, then it is but a small step from a total ban on “bump stocks” to a total ban on all semiautomatic firearms, since rate of fire—utilized as the salient and subjective basis for elimination of firearms in the hands of civilians—will now provide the “ammunition” antigun zealots can and will latch onto in their unyielding zeal to continue to weaken the Second Amendment.And it is Trump, now, not Schumer or Pelosi, who has given them a vehicle they can and will use to destroy at once the citizen’s best means of self-defense and destroy, as well, the one truly capable defense in the citizen’s possession, to prevent or at least deter the onset of tyranny.

__________________________________________

*As reported in Ammoland Shooting Sports News, John Crump, NRA instructor, has launched a petition drive to urge President Trump to reverse his position on Bump Stocks. A reversal of Trump’s position requires the rescission of the ATF Bump Stock Rule, which Trump should be able to accomplish. As Chief Executive, the President is sole head of all Departments, bureaus, and agencies of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Trump ordered creation of the rule banning bump stocks. He should be able to demand the rescission of it. Trump can and should assert that, after further consideration, he realizes his Memorandum to the DOJ, requesting a Rule banning bump stocks, was issued in error with little foresight; that the Memorandum he issued is administratively ill-advised, logically flawed, and legally unsupportable, and that, upon reflection, the President realizes the DOJ-ATF Rule does not serve the best interests of the American public, and, further, that the President realizes the Rule is inconsistent with the import and purport of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Arbalest Quarrel supports John Crump’s worthy effort. The founders of the Arbalest Quarrel weblog have added their names to the petition. We urge all Americans who, like us, cherish and exalt our Bill of Rights, and especially our Second Amendment, to do the same. At the moment only a few thousand individuals have signed the petition. That is unacceptable. The petition calls for 100,000 signatures. There are tens of millions of guns owners. Where are their voices? They have not been heard.

Remember this: Nothing serves better to destroy our sacred rights and liberties than public apathy. If those among the public—deluded though they be—are encouraged to yell louder for ever more “gun control” measures than do those who continue to support the right of the people to keep and bear arms, then Congress will deliver the head of the Second Amendment, on a platter, to the destroyers of our sacred rights. And, the framers of our Constitution and founders of our Free Republic will have given their blood in vain. It is up to you!

Let us avoid the ill-fated national concealed handgun carry reciprocity measure. With the Democrats reclaiming control of the House of Representatives on January 3, 2019, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Democratic Party leadership will be doing everything in its power to weaken the Second Amendment; and we can expect a flurry of anti-Second Amendment bills in the first few months when Congress commences business. We don’t need President Trump assisting them in this effort, whether he is doing so consciously or not.

Once you sign the petition, we also urge you contact the White House. Contact phone numbers are:

1-202-456-1414; (Switchboard)

1-202-456-1111; (Comments)

You may also write to the President. Information may be found at the White House website:

________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

THE SENATE HAS ONE WEEK REMAINING TO APPROVE HOUSE BILL ON CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY AND SEND IT TO THE PRESIDENT.

IF THE BILL DIES, WHO IS TO BLAME?

We were never so close to realizing the right of the American people to defend their lives and well-being with a firearm as we were with the passage of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity by the Republican controlled House in December 2017. Upon passage of 115 H.R. 38 in the House, the bill was immediately sent to the Senate. With the Senate’s vote of approval and with President Trump’s signature, nationwide concealed handgun reciprocity would have become a reality. As of yet, that hasn't happened. The Senate has had over one year to act on this, and we have, to date, seen—nothing. National concealed handgun carry reciprocity was in our grasp. And it is slipping away.We can speculate all we want as to why the Senate has not acted on this, but there is no time for that. The point is that the Senate must act. We cannot take, “no,” for an answer. National concealed handgun carry reciprocity can yet become a reality if enough Americans—millions of us—make clear to the Senate that this is what Americans, need; this is what Americans want; and we want this now, not later. We want no excuses. We want to see action. With a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican President, the lack of action on the House bill is absolutely unacceptable.If we don’t get the Senate to act, we have only ourselves to blame for the shortfall. And, any chance of seeing another national concealed carry reciprocity bill in the next two years will be next to impossible as the Democrats will hold a majority in the House of Representatives and the Party leadership’s agenda does not call for strengthening the Second Amendment. The agenda calls for weakening the Second Amendment and weakening it quickly and drastically.It is therefore absolutely imperative that the American people—millions of gun owners, not simply a few dozen of us—inform their representatives in the Senate that they, who were sent to the United States Capitol, to work on our behalf, have no greater obligation to this Nation than the safeguarding of the fundamental, unalienable, natural and immutable rights and liberties of the American people. That would fully accord with the intention of the framers of our Constitution.Of those fundamental rights and liberties, none is more important than the sacred right of the people to keep and bear arms. That singular right, more than any other, makes clear the basic precept that the life and safety and well-being of each American citizen is sacred and inviolate and that no American should be denied the right of self-defense with the best means available—a firearm. Further, the right of self-defense does not stop at the doorstep of one’s home. That basic right extends throughout the Nation and the Nation’s territories. Further, the right of the people to keep and bear arms is the ultimate defense against tyranny—ever present—a thing the founders of our Republic knew full well and, given that great concern, became the impetus for codification of the right in the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.It therefore falls on the American people themselves, as ever it must, as ever it did, to take action, when necessary, as now, and make their voices heard over the cacophony produced by the media lords and ladies. How long must we endure this? How long must we, true Americans left remaining--those of us who believe in the sanctity and autonomy of the individual, who believe in a Nation as conceived by our founders--tolerate the beseeching, syrupy proselytizing of the purveyors of lies; the destroyers of our Republic; those who besmirch our sacred rights and liberties; these perverse, sanctimonious zealots of collectivism who call for ever more gun laws, and ever fewer guns, and ever fewer people “entitled” to own and possess guns, and ever more restrictions placed on the use of guns by those few of us remaining, among the common folk who are entitled to keep firearms at all, but only so long as they are locked up and tucked away—all of course for our own good, for "the collective good" of the people.Some of you believe that the right to keep and bear arms will always prevail in some States of the Union, even if it is denied in others. But, that is a dangerous, false belief. And we should recognize it. Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Montana—States that have traditionally revered the Bill of Rights and extolled as a virtue the notion of the independent, self-reliant, individual—are slowly falling to prey to those who sing a  different tune: one that has less regard for our sacred rights and liberties and for the autonomy of the individual, and for our history, our traditions, our Judeo-Christian ethic.Consider: what sort of Americans would send to Congress people such as the newly elected Left-wing Arizona Senator, Kyrsten Sinema, and the 20-year old self-described Socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, representing New York’s 14^th District? These are people who obviously loathe our Nation’s history, who question our traditions and our core values. Do these people respect the Nation’s Bill of Rights? Do these people revere the First Amendment’s right of free speech, and the Second Amendment’s right of the people to keep and bear arms? Hardly. After all, how would the exercise of these fundamental rights, and others, fit into their Leftist Globalist, Collectivist agenda?If we are going to strengthen the Second Amendment, it must be done now, and quickly. Don’t think that there will be time enough for passage of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation when the new Congress takes over on January 3, 2019. We need this legislation now, because any firearms’ bills coming out of the House of Representatives, with its Democratic Party majority, will be nothing remotely like the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. You can be assured of that._________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

AS DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR, SUPPORTERS OF SECOND AMENDMENT DEMAND U.S. SENATE VOTE ON NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY.

THE U.S. SENATE MUST ACT NOW!

We have two weeks left before the Senate adjourns for the Christmas Holiday.If the Senate fails to act on national concealed handgun carry reciprocity within the next two weeks, any chance that this measure will be taken up anew and that it will become a reality when the House of Representatives seats a Democratic Party majority in 2019 will be virtually nil.The Senate Judiciary Committee has been sitting on the bill that was sent to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, last December 2017, when it passed the Republican controlled House. The version of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity that passed the House is designated, 115 H.R. 38, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.” Once Senator McConnell received it, he sent it immediately to the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, for action. Clearly, no work was done on it; and a year has gone by since the Judiciary Committee had received it.It is imperative we get the House version of the bill onto the Floor of the Senate for immediate roll-call vote.

THIS MATTER REQUIRES THE CONCERTED EFFORT OF EACH OF US.

The Arbalest Quarrel has been on the forefront of National Concealed Carry Reciprocity. We have written numerous articles on this subject. Interested readers are encouraged to read our articles by visiting our website.Our articles have also been published by Ammoland Shooting Sports News  See our article, “National ‘Right To Carry’ For Self-Defense Needs Your Help – Take Action.” And, we have recently posted our article on the website, The Truth About Guns. As a regular guest on “LockNLoadRadio,” hosted by Bill Frady, we have discussed the issue of national right to carry, at length.We have been getting positive responses to our articles. Many pro-Second Amendment groups, organizations, radio, respected news sources and social media, have joined us to mount a grassroots effort to strengthen our sacred Second Amendment right.We know that, as you have gotten the message, you are doing your part to get the Senate to move on national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. Once the Senate passes the bill, it will be sent directly and immediately to the President for his signature. And, have no doubt about this, President Trump will sign it. He has made very clear both during his campaign for the Republican Party nomination and during his successful run against the Democratic Party nominee, Hillary Clinton, that he avidly supports the natural, fundamental, unalienable right of the people to keep and bear arms.It is time to urge Congress to act to strengthen our natural rights and liberties, not weaken them. We must have national concealed handgun carry reciprocity enacted into law now.For those of you who have not added your voice to this critical effort, there is still time.

IMPORTANT CONTACT INFORMATION:

Senator McConnell may be reached at 202/ 224-2541, but he does not provide a personal response and he will not take messages at this time. However, there is a referral to Senator McConnell's on-line email.Senator Grassley can be reached at: 202/ 224-3744. The Senator provides a personal response to your message and your message will be relayed directly to the Senator.Your Senate Delegation can be reached at: 202/ 224-3121. The switchboard will provide you the phone numbers for the Senators of your State.You can reach the White House at:  202/ 456-1414. At the prompt, you can leave a message for President Trump.The NRA can be reached at: 800/ 392-8683. You can leave a message, but be aware there may be a lengthy wait. You can also leave a message for the nra-ila.With your active assistance, we can turn the tide and see national concealed handgun carry reciprocity a reality. Please join us in this important, timely cause. Time is of the essence. We must get the Senate to act immediately on this._________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

URGENT NOTICE TO ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS: NATIONAL "RIGHT TO CARRY" A HANDGUN FOR SELF-DEFENSE NEEDS YOUR HELP

The Arbalest Quarrel recently published an article, “Attention All Law Abiding Gun Owners: National Concealed Handgun Reciprocity is in Jeopardy.” And this wasn’t the first time we wrote specifically on this critical subject.In February 2018, almost ten months ago, we posted an article discussing 115 H.R. 38, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.” The article is titled, "It’s Time for National Handgun Carry Reciprocity to Secure the Citizen’s Right of Armed Self-Defense, Throughout The Country.” In that article, we stated:“Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC), introduced the bill on January 3, 2017. The bill passed the House by Roll Call Vote of 231-198, on December 6, 2017. It was sent to the Senate one day later, where it was read twice and then referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. President Trump supports it. The NRA supports it. And, rank and file law enforcement officers support it too. But, there has been to date no further action on it. The bill sits in limbo. Its prospect of passage is, at present, low. Why is that?What is the U.S. Senate waiting for?”On June 27, 2018, in the Arbalest Quarrel, under the title, “National Concealed Handgun Carry Reciprocity is the Answer To International Islamic Terrorism In The United States,” we once again questioned the seeming lackadaisical attitude of the Senate under the leadership of Mitch McConnell, toward national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. We once again asked,“What is the status of this [115 H.R. 38] bill? It languishes in Committee.” We are still asking. Indeed, why has this bill languished in the Senate Judiciary Committee for almost one year? Clearly, passage of this bill is critical to the strengthening of the Second Amendment, consistent with the intention of the founders of our free Republic who codified the natural right of the people to keep and bear arms, in our Bill of Rights. Since January 2017, the Arbalest Quarrel has written over twenty articles dealing with the importance of national handgun carry reciprocity. We invite interested readers to take a look at all of our articles.We know that the Democratic Party leadership, along with virtually all Congressional Democrats, and particularly those of radical “Left,” are adamantly opposed to this bill. The burning $10,000.00 question, though, is this: Is the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, also opposed to national handgun carry reciprocity? If Senator McConnell isn’t opposed to the bill, the effect of his doing nothing to move it along has the same impact as active opposition to it. Ultimately, Senator McConnell, as the Senate Majority Leader, has absolute or virtually absolute control over what bills are acted upon and what bills are not. He wields immense power. It may be, of course, that Senator McConnell having having wished for and having sought bipartisan support on this bill and, realizing he was unable to obtain it, has been resigned to simply ignoring it, thereby allowing the bill to lapse of its own accord, without action in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it presently sits. But, what can be more important than our fundamental and unalienable rights and liberties, especially the right of the people to keep and bear arms, for the purpose of self-defense and as the ultimate fail-safe mechanism to prevent tyranny?If the American people have to wait for conditions to be “right” for passage of national handgun carry reciprocity, we may be waiting until Hell freezes over, especially with so many new radical Left elements poised to flex their muscle when the 116^th Congress takes over on January 3, 2019. That is why it is necessary to fast-track the Senate bill on this without further delay, so it can be sent to President Trump for his signature before the lame-duck Senate adjourns for the Christmas Holiday. For, if the lame-duck Senate does not act at once, all unfinished business of the 115^th Congress remains unfinished—dead—until or unless any pending bill of the previous, 115^th Congress, is reintroduced in the 116^th Congress, when Congressional business starts anew.Once the 116^th Congress commences business in January 2019, however, you can forget about passage of national handgun carry reciprocity and you can forget about passage of any other bill that serves to strengthen the Second Amendment. For, if there is one thing Congressional Democrats—who will seat a majority in the the House of Representatives—will focus their energies on, apart from continuing their effort to undermine President Trump, and apart from their singular objective to open our Southern border to thousands, more, of illegal aliens, it is their single-minded desire and goal to weaken the Second Amendment. And, they seek to accomplish that through federal Statute, to the point that the right embodied in the Second Amendment becomes essentially non-existent.Remember, this: no bill becomes law unless both Houses of Congress agree on passage of a bill and the U.S. President then signs the bill into law. It is reasonable to assume that a Democratic Party majority in the House of Representatives will have no incentive to strengthen the Second Amendment—and this is no understatement. So, if national handgun carry reciprocity, which passed the Republican controlled House in 2017, does not see passage in the Senate now, it will go nowhere, in 2019.The newly reconfirmed Democratic Party House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—will likely never allow national handgun carry reciprocity, or any other Pro-Second Amendment bill, to make it to the Floor of the House for debate and for a vote by the full House even if a Republican House member reintroduces national handgun carry reciprocity in 2019. And, if for some reason Nancy Pelosi, were to allow debate and a roll-call vote of a new national handgun carry reciprocity measure on the Floor of the House in 2019 or 2020, it would only happen if she knew the bill would fail and, of course, she would want the bill to fail, as she is a fierce opponent of the individual right embodied in the Second Amendment.Time is therefore of the essence. If we are to see national handgun carry reciprocity, the Senate must act promptly on the bill that passed the House under Representative Paul Ryan, and which is now and has been suspended in the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.Ammoland Shooting Sports News and The Truth About Guns  immediately posted, on their websites, our article calling for Americans to urge the Senate to act on the bill the Senate has been sitting on for almost a year. And it is a top story. If you do a search on Google, using the phrase, “national handgun carry,” you will see also that the Arbalest Quarrel article, as it appears on Ammoland Shooting Sports News, has the number one spot, and the article has held that spot for several days.The Arbalest Quarrel continues to reach out to Pro-Second Amendment organizations and to responsible social media and news sources to mount a last-ditch grass-roots effort for passage of the “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.”Over the past few days, we have made substantial progress and hope remains. We trust that thousands of American citizens have responded to our plea and have made calls to Senators Mitch McConnell and Charles Grassley, and that they have contacted NRA and the White House, too. And, we know that thousands of Americans who cherish their sacred Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms have responded with their views and comments on Pro-Second Amendment websites and social media to get the word out. Your message to Senate Republicans should be clear and clearly expressed: “If you want my vote, pass national concealed handgun carry reciprocity now!” “Votes” are one thing that all politicians know well and are sensitive to.The Arbalest Quarrel is doing its part. To further this important and timely matter. The President of the Arbalest Quarrel, Stephen L. D'Andrilli, sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, asking the Vice President to urge President Trump to call the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, urging Senator McConnell to hold a full Senate Roll-Call vote on the bill, before the Senate adjourns for the Christmas Holiday, and the business of the 115th Congress ends.The content of that letter which was sent on official Arbalest Quarrel letterhead, on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, via Priority FedEx Overnight, is as follows:________________________________________________November 27, 2018                                 via FedEx Priority OvernightThe Vice President of the United States The White HouseOffice of the Vice President1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500Re: National Concealed Handgun Carry ReciprocityDear Mr. Vice President:I had the distinct honor and privilege of meeting and talking with you at the 2014 annual convention of the NRA, in Indianapolis, and, once again, a year later, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, where you were a guest speaker at the New York Meeting. This coming April 2019, I will be attending the NRA Convention that will be held once again in Indianapolis.I am aware that a central plank of the Democratic Party leadership is directed to destruction of the Second Amendment-the surest path to tyranny if the Democratic Party succeeds. So, the best way to derail the Democratic Party's efforts is to strengthen the Second Amendment. It is essentially for this reason that I am writing to you, and I am doing so out of a sense of urgency, as time is of the essence.Almost one year ago, the Republican controlled House voted for passage of 115 H.R. 38, "Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. "The House passed the bill on December 6, 2017, and it was immediately sent to the Senate for action. If Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, had pushed for passage of the bill, I feel certain it would have passed in the Republican controlled Senate. But, inexplicably, and disturbingly, the bill has lied dormant in the Senate Judiciary Committee, for almost a year.A Democratic Party controlled House will likely not allow for passage of a bill for national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. So, any attempt by Senate Republicans to resurrect the bill in a Republican controlled Senate, when the new Congress commences business, on January 3, 2019, will be futile. We therefore have only a small window of opportunity remaining before the Senate recess. This is why the Senate must pass this measure without delay and present it to President Trump for his signature, before the Senate adjourns on December 14, 2018.On our website, the Arbalest Quarrel, have discussed the importance of moving this bill through the Senate, while Republicans control both Houses of Congress. The link to our article is: We invite both you and President Trump to review our article and to act on this.Nothing has more importance to me than the sacred rights and liberties set forth in our Constitution, and the preservation of our way of life, grounded in the Judea-Christian ethic. Both are under constant assault by Leftist elements inside our Country and outside it, and by our purported "free" Press.As President Trump has made support of the Second Amendment an important part of his campaign, national handgun carry reciprocity would stand as his most important achievement in safeguarding the individual's natural right of self-defense with a firearm. And, too, defending the Second Amendment through passage of this bill will demonstrate to millions of American citizens the veracity of the President ' s promises, the value of his word, and the strength of the President's will to complete what he sets out to do.I respectfully request you urge President Trump to call upon Senator McConnell to hold a Senate floor roll-call vote on national handgun carry reciprocity before the Senate adjourns on December 14, 2018.I welcome the opportunity to assist further in this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of help. Thank you very much.Respectfully submitted, _______________________________________________________________Time is of the essence. The fight is not over. Right-To-Carry nationwide is still possible. Keep in mind what the late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “A right delayed is a right denied.” And, many of you may recall the profound witticism of the late, great New York Yankees baseball catcher, Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”Please do your part, if you haven't already acted, to help make National Concealed Handgun Carry Reciprocity the Law of the Land.  Whether it's one or two phone calls or a quick text message, doing something is better than doing nothing. The fate of national handgun carry reciprocity and the fate of our fundamental, natural right, etched in stone in the Second Amendment, is ultimately in your hands._________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY IS THE ANSWER TO INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM IN THE UNITED STATES.

On January 3, 2017, Richard Hudson, (R-NC), introduced the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 (115 H.R. 38) in the House of Representatives. This Bill, if enacted would allow an individual “who is carrying a valid identification document containing a photograph of the person, and who is carrying a valid license or permit which is issued pursuant to the law of a State and which permits the person to carry a concealed firearm or is entitled to carry a concealed firearm in the State in which the person resides, may possess or carry a concealed handgun (other than a machinegun or destructive device) that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, in any State that has a statute under which residents of the State may apply for a license or permit to carry a concealed firearm; or does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms by residents of the State for lawful purposes.” What is the status of this bill? It languishes in Committee. Nothing is being done on it, but momentum is building across the Country to compel Congress to take action. Antigun politicians are angered and frightened that national concealed handgun carry will become a reality. In response, they create unsound, bogus arguments directed to containing the very possibility of it. Case in point: Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, according to an article by Mark Moore, appearing in the June 25, 2017 edition of the New York Post, titled, “DA: I am sure ISIS supports concealed carry reciprocity bill, asserts, ludicrously, that national concealed handgun carry will play into the hands of Islamic terrorists. This is merely a new twist on the favorite tired line of antigun groups—that this Nation has a gun problem—as if to suggest that guns, inanimate objects, are responsible for criminal violence. That idea is not only false, it is imbecilic. Sentient beings are responsible for violence, and it is those beings who engineer violence who are to be constrained, not the implements the perpetrators use to promote and do violence.Of course, as we have seen, most notably, in Europe, but also here at home, Islamic terrorists don’t demonstrate a preference toward any one implement when destroying lives: bombs, knives, axes, gasoline, even trucks and automobiles as well as firearms are used--and often several of these implements in one horrific act of violence have been used--by Islamic terrorists, and with devastating effect against innocent civilians--and against soldiers and against police officers as well.Why are guns singled out as the cause célèbre of violent deeds? The emphasis on guns plays into the tiresome raison d’etre of antigun groups: "get rid of guns," so they say, "and all will be right with the world." That is utter nonsense, of course, but the theme plays out in the remonstrations of politicians and as echoed in the choruses of pundits and journalists of the mainstream media through endless, insufferable iterations—an incessant cacophony of meaningless sound bites.Violent crime is a sad fact of life, but its impact can be minimized. In fact, the impact of violent crime can be and has been minimized by arming, not by disarming the American public, and the impact of violent crime can be further minimized through strict enforcement of criminal penalties against those who inflict pain and suffering on innocent Americans. The latest incarnation of violent crime, international Islamic terrorism, is a special species of violent crime, to be sure, a species of crime that must, of course, be dealt with, and must be dealt with at the highest Government levels.In the U.S., the threat posed by international Islamic terrorism is being dealt with sensibly, rationally, and directly, by the U.S. President, Donald Trump. An armed American citizenry can certainly aid the U.S. President in his efforts.Courts in the Ninth Circuit though disagree. Not content merely to disarm the American public—inhibiting Americans from exercising their natural right of self-defense with the best means available—a firearm—the Courts of the Ninth Circuit have attempted to throw a wrench into the President’s efforts as well—opining, wrongly, that individuals, non-citizens, who reside outside of this Country, have rights secured under the Bill of Rights and that, in effect, the rights of these non-citizens apparently transcend the security of this Nation and the security of its people. Non-citizens residing outside our Country, though, have no rights or liberties under our Bill of Rights and the concerns of non-citizens residing outside our Country do not transcend—will never transcend—the needs and security of the citizens of our own Nation.The U.S. Supreme Court's June 26, 2017 decision is consistent with that principle. The high Court essentially stayed the preliminary injunctions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, opining that the preliminary injunctions were valid only to the extent that a refugee could establish a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States. Trump v. Int'l Refugee Assistance Project, 2017 U.S. LEXIS 4266. Justice Thomas, joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch, concurred in part and dissented in part in the unanimous decision of the high Court. In his dissent Justice Thomas stated that he, joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch, would have granted a full stay of the preliminary injunctions. Justice Thomas stated in pertinent part:"The Government has satisfied the standard for issuing a stay pending certiorari. We have, of course, decided to grant certiorari. . . . And I agree with the Court’s implicit conclusion that the Government has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits—that is, that the judgments below will be reversed. The Government has also established that failure to stay the injunctions will cause irreparable harm by interfering with its “compelling need to provide for the Nation’s security.” Finally, weighing the Government’s interest in preserving national security against the hardships caused to respondents by temporary denials of entry into the country, the balance of the equities favors the Government. I would thus grant the Government’s applications for a stay in their entirety."Clearly, the best defense against international Islamic terrorism and the first-line of defense for our Nation is found in an armed citizenry. To paraphrase a statement of NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the best deterrent against a “bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”  That may seem like a trite slogan, but, time and time again, it has been proved true.The natural right of self-defense should never be restricted and must never be trivialized. Unfortunately, those who hold an irrational hostility toward gun ownership and toward gun possession by the law-abiding citizenry will continue their efforts to constrain the natural right of self-defense. But, they are losing. They are left flailing about, trying to drum up support for their doomed cause: namely, destruction of our Nation’s sacred Second Amendment. The bizarre, irrational statements of antigun proponents, like those of the Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, aptly illustrate the extent of their desperation.The Arbalest Quarrel is a strong supporter of National Concealed Handgun Carry legislation. We provide a strong case for it in our continuing series: “A ROAD TRIP WITH A GUN.” You will find those articles and much more right here, on this website.________________________________________Copyright © 2017 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved

ARGUMENT IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY

NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY—LIKE SELF-DEFENSE—IT’S A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE.

PART FIVE

The rationale for national concealed handgun carry reciprocity is, from a logical viewpoint, a conclusion we derive from a set of postulates—predicate propositions—the truth of which, as we argue, support national concealed handgun carry reciprocity in our Country and in our Country’s territories.What we provide for you below is the Arbalest Quarrel’s formal argument in support of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity set forth in linear, syllogistic fashion. We invite reader comment.A FORMAL ARGUMENT IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY BETWEEN AND AMONG THE SEVERAL STATES AND U.S. TERRITORIES.

1. The predicate instinct for survival, self-defense, is natural, primordial, and fundamental to any living creature or being, however lowly or lofty that creature or being is on the taxonomic scale of life. {Postulate}
2. As the instinct for survival is natural, primordial, and fundamental to all living creatures and beings, the moral imperative to defend one’s life and well-being stems from and is a corollary of the instinct for survival. {Corollary, derived from (1)}
3. A person has the moral right to defend his or her life against a threat to that life. {Inference, derived from (1) and (2)}
4. The right of self-defense is a preeminent right, pre-existent in and intrinsic to the sanctity and inviolability of a person as an autonomous individual. {Postulate}
5. Since the right of self-defense is intrinsic to one’s self, the right is not man-made or institutionally or governmentally derived. {Postulate}
6. A right inherent in the individual is not and cannot be rationally construed as a privilege granted by or ceded to or licensed by a governmental authority to a person. {Inference, derived from (5)}
7. Since the right of self-defense is an attribute of and inherent in individuals, no government can rightfully deny a person his or her natural, primordial, fundamental right to defend his or her life against those who would take that life without, just cause. {Inference, derived from Premises (4) through (6)}
8. Because the right of self-defense exists within the individual and does not emanate from a governmental body, no government can justifiably take that right from the individual. {Corollary of (5) and (6)}
9. If one is denied the natural right of self-defense—the right to preserve integrity of mind and body—the import of any other right becomes meaningless. {Postulate}
10. The right to protect oneself against serious bodily injury, harm, disability and/or death, which includes the right to preserve integrity of mind as well as body, is the quintessential preeminent right. {Postulate}
11. The right of self-defense precedes all other rights, pre-existent in a person. {Inference, derived from (10)}
12. From the right to safeguard one’s personal physical and psychological integrity flows the duty to do so—the duty to safeguard autonomy of self against any threat against that personal autonomy. {Corollary of Premises (20) and (11)}
13. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution codifies the inherent right of self-defense pre-existent in and preeminent in the individual. {Postulate}
14. Given the truth of premises (9) through (13), the Second Amendment is a codification of the fundamental and preeminent right of self-defense preexistent in the American citizen. {Inference, derived from Premises (7) through (13)}
15. The preservation of all other rights is dependent, first and foremost, on the preservation of the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution {Corollary of Premise (14)}
16. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution preserves the integrity of the Nation as a free Republic through recognition of the sanctity and inviolability of each American citizen. {Inference, derived from Premises (10) through (15)}
17. One’s personal physical and psychological integrity would be compromised and therefore diminished or lost were our democratic Republic to devolve into an autocracy regardless of the form of autocracy: monarchy, plutocracy, oligarchy, technocracy, or theocracy—all of which proceed from the concept of an elite aristocratic ruling class that, alone, holds ultimate authority for determining what rights a person may enjoy and the nature of that person’s position and very existence in the body politic. {Postulate}
18. The drafters of the Nation’s Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution knew that nothing secures individual integrity and autonomy more ably and nobly and nothing preserves a free Republic more assuredly and resolutely as a guard against autocracy than personal ownership of and possession of a firearm in the hands of the American citizen. {Postulate}
19. The codification of the right of self-defense in the Second Amendment conveys the singular importance of the firearm in securing both the right of self-defense and securing and preserving the continued existence of our Nation as a free Republic. {Corollary of (18)}
20. The right of the people to keep and bear arms has neither import nor purport where a nation state constrains that right—where a nation state places restrictions on a free people’s natural, fundamental right to own and possess firearms—to own and possess firearms in each citizen’s individual capacity and to own and possess firearms as individual property. {Inference, derived from Premises (17) through (19)}
21. For the Second Amendment to have true efficacy, the right of each law-abiding American citizen to keep and bear arms must be understood as exemplifying that right in the broadest of terms. {Corollary of (20)}
22. For decades, this Nation has undergone a systematic transformation, devolving into autocracy while maintaining the trappings of a Free Republic. {Evidentiary proposition}
23. The transformation of our Nation from a Republic to an autocracy proceeds directly from the undermining of the codification of the individual citizen’s natural right to keep and bear arms. {Evidentiary proposition}
24. Any act by government—federal, state, or local—to constrain ownership and possession of firearms in the hands of the law-abiding citizen—erodes the foundation of a free Republic, operates as an attack on the sanctity and inviolability of the individual, and constitutes an attack on personal autonomy and personal integrity, thereby undermining and ultimately destroying the underpinnings of the Nation’s Bill of Rights. {Inference derived from Premises (23) and (24)}.
25. Any act by government—federal, state, or local—to constrain ownership and possession of firearms in the hands of the law-abiding citizen—erodes the foundation of a free Republic, operates as an attack on the sanctity and inviolability of the individual, constitutes an attack on personal autonomy and personal integrity, and operates as a clear revocation of and repudiation of the rationale of and for the Nation’s Bill of Rights. {Corollary of (24)}.
26. Governments—local, State, and Federal—posit that regulation of firearms is necessary to preserve public order and safety of the community and that restrictions on the ownership and possession of firearms by law-abiding citizens is therefore necessary to preserve the integrity of the Community. {Precept of Government which manifests as unlawful interference in the lives of citizens, resulting in denigration of personal autonomy and dissolution of individuality and personal integrity}.
27. Tension exists between a government’s attempt to wrest control from and to exert power over the individual and the individual’s attempt to maintain integrity of self against incursion of government over individual integrity and autonomy. {Postulate}
28. The Bill of Rights, as a critical component of the U.S. Constitution, operating as the singular mechanism that curbs government encroachment on, incursion in, and ultimate destruction of individual autonomy and inviolability. {Evidentiary Proposition}
29. Regulation of firearms in the hands of the citizenry—by government, regardless of stated purpose of government —invariably conveyed to the individual as an assertion of the need or desire to preserve and protect the viability of a community—amounts inevitably, and invariably, and tacitly as a drive to accumulate power over and at the expense of the individual, thereby undermining the individual’s ability to preserve and protect self and to preserve and protect the autonomy and integrity of self. {Inference, derived from Premises (23) through (28)}
30. The erosion, in recent decades, of the Nation’s sacred rights and liberties, codified in the Bill of Rights stems first and foremost from a direct, unequivocal, systematic attack on the fundamental, primordial, natural right of the people to keep and bear arms. {Evidentiary Proposition}
31. Systematic erosion of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments stems from erosion of the Second Amendment. {Inference derived from Premise (30)}
32. The Destruction of a Free Republic and the erosion of individual autonomy follows from the undermining of the Second Amendment. {Inference derived from Premise (30) and Corollary of Premise (31)}
33. To counter the incremental, systematic destruction of a free Republic and to withstand the unceasing attack on individual autonomy, it is necessary to strengthen the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; for, only if the Second Amendment is strengthened will further erosion of our free Republic, further erosion of the American citizenry’s other fundamental rights and liberties, and further erosion of the autonomy of self be forestalled. {Inference derived from Premises (30) through (32)}
34. National concealed handgun reciprocity operates at once as a renouncement of Government interference with, and as a renouncement of Government’s restraint on the citizen’s fundamental, natural right of self-defense under the Second Amendment; and proceeds as a rational, logical backlash against Government’s increasing encroachment on individual autonomy and unlawful usurpation of power over the American citizen, in direct contradistinction to and in violation of and in abject defiance of the limitations on the exercise of governmental power as expressly set forth in the U.S. Constitution; and in abject defiance to the citizen’s exercise of rights and liberties codified in the Bill of Rights. {Inference derived from Premise (33)}.
35. National concealed handgun carry reciprocity is a natural response to unlawful Government incursion into individual autonomy. (Corollary of Premise (34)}
36. National concealed handgun carry reciprocity promotes personal autonomy, personal safety and security, secures further rights and liberties codified in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution, and prevents an otherwise inevitable slide of a free Republic into autocracy and tyranny. {Inference, derived from Premises (34) and (35)}.
37. The strengthening of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the only way to prevent, one, the Nation’s otherwise inexorable slide into autocracy; two, the dissolution of a free Republic; three, the inevitable destruction of the Bill of Rights; and four, the humbling of the individual to the dictates of Government. {Inference, derived from Premises (28) through (37)}
38. The slow demolishment of the United States as a free Republic, and the eradication of the notion of the autonomy of the individual proceeds silently but the effects are visible. {Evidentiary Proposition}
39. The American citizen has a duty to protect and preserve the Nation as a free Republic that the Founders of the Republic cemented and bequeathed to each American citizen. {Postulate}
40. It is therefore incumbent on each American citizen to preserve the Nation as a free Republic. {Inference, derived from Premise (39)}
41. To preserve the true import and purport of the entirety of this Nation’s Bill of Rights and to secure this Nation's continued existence as a free Republic, it is necessary to strengthen the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. {Inference, derived from Premise (33)}
42. The realization of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity is a mandate for the American citizen if this Nation is to constrain and contain and, ultimately, reverse the inexorable slide toward oblivion of this Nation as a free Republic and to reverse the dangerous incursion of ideas antithetical to the notion of the supremacy of the individual embodied in the Bill of Rights. {Inference, derived from Premises (36) through (41)}
43. Thus, those Americans who value the continued survival of our Nation as a free Republic, and, who value the sanctity and inviolability and autonomy of the American citizen, and, who value the core precepts of our Bill of Rights, and who seek to reverse the trend of Government to usurp power beyond the dictates of the U.S. Constitution, and who seek to reverse the trend of Government to exert unlawful power over the lives of the citizenry, must work, together, to foster in all Americans a renewed respect for the Nation’s Bill of Rights. {Inference, derived from Premise (42)}
44. Working, together, toward the realization of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity will accomplish more than mere strengthening of the Bill of Rights; it will offset the machinations of those forces in this Country and outside it that seek to undermine the foundation of this Country as an Independent, Sovereign Nation and as a Free Republic, wherein the citizen stands supreme, and wherein government has no purpose but to serve at the behest of and at the pleasure of the People. {Inference, derived from Premise (43)}
45. The realization of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity is an assertion of defiance against those among us who piously declare the sacred Second Amendment to be obsolete and who maintain the other nine Amendments to be malleable, subject to change or deletion in accordance with notions and values alien to this Nation, as our founders conceived and envisioned and implemented this Nation. {Postulate}
46. National concealed handgun carry reciprocity is a rejection of the current trend toward unlawful Government restrictions on, encroachment in, and unlawful interference with Americans' rights and liberties. {Inference, derived from Premise (45)}

ANTIGUN PROPONENTS’ PURSUIT OF RESTRAINTS ON THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS WILL REFLECT IDEAS CONTRARY TO THE ARGUMENT HEREINABOVE MADE IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY.

Antigun groups, the mainstream media, left leaning legislators, and the shadowy group of powerful, ruthless internationalists that fund them will undoubtedly take exception with several of the propositions comprising our argument in support of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. It is beyond the scope of this article to delve at length into possible objections supporters of antigun measures might draw. But, we wish to mention one theme that pervades antigun thought.Antigun groups and those who support a weakened Second Amendment argue that the safety and well-being of the community take precedence over the safety and well-being of the individual. Antigun groups may not say this expressly, but their position on gun ownership and possession entails that conclusion. Antigun groups and their supporters and benefactors extol the virtue of the collective over the needs and aspirations and concerns of the individual. So, they look to ways in which society in general must curtail the rights and liberties of the individual in order—as they see it—to maintain the well-being of the greater society—of the hive.Restrictive gun laws gain their impetus through a theory of ethics called utilitarian consequentialism. That ethical theory is antithetical to the basic precepts of our Bill of Rights because it undercuts the notion that morality, a rational deontological ethical theory of good and evil, is based on the notion that a morally good act or a morally evil act is a product of an individual’s intentions and motives in acting, and not, as  antigun groups hold, based merely on the consequences of one’s actions—the impact a given action has on a community, irrespective of intention or motive behind a given act.So, for example, if a criminal happens to use a gun when committing a crime, the response of the antigun groups is to ignore the motive or intention of the sentient being in acting in the manner that he acted, but to emphasize merely the consequences of the act--the utility--good or bad that it has on the community as a whole. We see then, the antigun groups dealing with and emphasizing the implement used in the crime, rather than the nature of the individual who committed the crime. The common refrain we hear is: “we need to get rid of the gun” and, not, “let’s place these criminals in confinement where they will never again harm another individual.” By placing emphasis on the consequences of an act to the exclusion of the motive or intention of the actor, antigun groups draw attention away from the individual and onto the non-sentient object, the gun.Antigun groups and the billionaire internationalists that fund these groups, and that fund like-minded legislators look upon the individual in society as a component of an unruly mob, whose basic impulse is, as they see it, innately destructive, antithetical to the maintenance of an ordered society. Antigun groups and their supporters and benefactors perceive American society as a bee hive. The individual has value to self and to the greater hive only to the extent the individual’s actions are constrained and his actions benefit the hive, rather than himself. They believe that the individual qua individual citizen cannot be trusted and, so, must be carefully watched and controlled, always. By constraining a person's actions, antigun groups believe they are able to create a better society. Protecting the Second Amendment right of millions of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is not part of the agenda of those whose goal, ultimately, is de facto repeal of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment simply has no import or purport in the kind of society envisioned by antigun groups.Antigun groups, the mainstream media, left-wing legislators and wealthy, powerful, ruthless internationalists enlist stories of misuse of firearms by psychopaths, psychotics, and terrorists, as the ground to restrict gun ownership and possession, affecting, then, millions of citizens—sane, rational, law-abiding Americans—predicated on misuse of guns by the few.Seen in this light, it becomes clear why antigun groups and their supporters and benefactors find the Second Amendment archaic and dangerous. Antigun groups, their supporters and benefactors invariably provide anecdotal accounts of misuses of firearms by the worst sort of individuals—criminals, lunatics, Islamic terrorists—to justify their assault on gun ownership and possession, thereby ignoring outright—deliberately ignoring—the millions of law-abiding gun owners who have never misused a firearm, and never will.Allowing the individual to own and possess firearms is, from the perspective of the antigun groups, contrary to the maintenance of an ordered society—contrary to an ordered and orderly hive.The argument for restrictive gun laws makes no sense except through the ethical theory of utilitarian consequentialism—an ethical theory that the founders of our Republic would discount and repudiate.Antigun groups and their supporters and benefactors have no regard for personal autonomy—the central unifying principal underlying and underscoring our Second Amendment, and, in fact, underscoring the entirety of our Bill of Rights. Thus, we would expect that antigun groups, the mainstream media, and the internationalist benefactors that fund them will attack vigorously, viciously, any attempt to realize national concealed handgun carry reciprocity.As foes of the Second Amendment, the antigun groups work tirelessly, unceasingly, rabidly toward constricting the Second Amendment. They obviously will not take kindly toward efforts to strengthen the Second Amendment. The Arbalest Quarrel will continue to explore the ideas raised in this article as we press the case for national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. This will include an analysis of pending Congressional bills, directed toward national concealed handgun carry reciprocity.Copyright © 2016 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY REQUIRES CAREFUL THOUGHT: AMERICANS HAVE MUCH WORK AHEAD OF THEM TO MAKE THIS A REALITY.

NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY—LIKE SELF-DEFENSE—IT’S A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE.

PART FOUR

AMERICANS WHO CHERISH THEIR SECOND AMENDMENT AND WHO SEEK TO STRENGTHEN THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS MUST BE MINDFUL OF DEEP-SEATED ANGER AND RESENTMENT OF THOSE WHO SEEK TO DESTROY THIS MOST CHERISHED RIGHT.

With the Nation’s Electoral College’s 538 Electors having cast their ballots—with the vast majority voting for President-elect Donald Trump, notwithstanding a last ditch effort by Clinton’s malcontent, insufferable supporters to prevent this—and with President-elect Donald Trump soon to take the oath of Office as the 45^th President of the United States, and with Donald Trump clearly supportive of our Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms, Americans can now say with assurance a mandate exists for national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. No one can reasonably, rationally deny this. But, the foes of the Second Amendment will seek to prevent this, nonetheless.We know the foes of the Second Amendment well. They include, inter alia, antigun groups, the mainstream media, left-leaning legislators in Congress and in the States, ignorant and frightened supporters of antigun group propaganda, Hollywood Moguls and actors, and liberal academicians.But another foe exists: one both secretive and powerful; ruthless and dangerous. That foe comprises the internationalist power brokers. These internationalist power brokers—residing both here and abroad—seek the demise of the U.S. Constitution and destruction of our Nation State. This extraordinarily wealthy and dangerous foe machinates tirelessly and unceasingly toward the singular goal of a one World Government. America’s Bill of Rights is not compatible with their political, socio-economic blueprint. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is forever on the radar screen of these secretive, powerful, ruthless internationalists. They will fight vigorously to disrupt attempts to strengthen the Second Amendment.The antigun groups, the mainstream media, the internationalists, leftist legislators in the U.S. Congress and in the State Capitals, liberal academicians, among others, are stymied, flummoxed, baffled, and bewildered by the defeat of their darling child, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Had Clinton won the Presidency—as the prognosticators projected and hyped—the foes of the Second Amendment would have rubbed their palms and chuckled in glee. For they would then have found fair winds. They would whittle away at the Second Amendment with unrestrained ferocity. Now they cannot do so. The wind is in their faces and the seas are roiling. We, fervent supporters of the Bill of Rights and, particularly, of the Second Amendment, are now the gods of the sea. We control the oceans, and we intend to sink the ships of those who betray our birthright.Yes, those of us who voted for Donald Trump can be jubilant, but, even so, we must remain ever vigilant. We have stopped the foes of the Second Amendment in their tracks. But we cannot sit on our laurels, for the foes of the Second Amendment—are not sitting idly by. They are bracing for the true impact of a Trump Presidency and the strengthening of the Second Amendment’s right of the people to keep and bear arms. No longer are we merely fighting a rearguard action. And on the matter of the Second Amendment, Trump must be true to his word. We will not stand for equivocation or compromise here.With Donald Trump as U.S. President we are victorious. We have stopped the foes of the Bill of Rights—the would-be killers of the Second Amendment—in their tracks.But, we cannot rest on our laurels, for the foes of the Second Amendment, are not sitting idly by. They are bracing for the true impact of a Trump Presidency and strengthening of the Second Amendment’s right of the people to keep and bear arms. No longer are we, supporters of the Second Amendment, merely fighting a rearguard action. We have gained the high ground and we are on the offensive. Those groups that abhor the Second Amendment are not pleased with this new state of affairs and are, undoubtedly, more than just a trifle concerned.The prospect of strengthening the Second Amendment amounts to another order of reality—something the foes of the Second Amendment cannot and will not abide. Realization of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity will do much to strengthen the Second Amendment. Antigun Legislators in Congress are already marshaling their forces against this. Senator Charles Schumer said he will oppose national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation. He has made plain his intention to fight “tooth and nail” against enactment of such legislation.These foes of the Second Amendment may try to ingratiate themselves with Trump. If that does not work—and it must not—they will attempt to place obstacles in his path and those obstacles we will destroy as fast as the foes of the Second Amendment raise them.

THE SECOND AMENDMENT’S RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS IS UNIQUE. NO NATION OTHER THAN THE UNITED STATES, HAS, EITHER IN THEIR CONSTITUTIONS OR IN LEGAL DOCUMENTS A RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS THAT IS REMOTELY COMPARABLE TO OUR SECOND AMENDMENT.

No other Country has anything like our Second Amendment. The very existence of our Second Amendment is heresy for the power brokers—these internationalists—that seek to destroy it. For, the Second Amendment is a tacit assertion that Government is the servant of the People, not the other way around. The very existence of the Second Amendment serves as a reminder to the elected officials and bureaucrats of the federal Government that the American people are fully capable of—and have, in fact, a duty—as the founders of our Republic intended—to take back their Government from those who lose sight of the true rulers of this Country—the American People. The idea that authority—true and ultimate authority—resides in the American citizenry is anathema to the internationalists and to the puppets they control.These internationalists seek to controvert the notion that rights and liberties, as set forth in our Nation’s Bill of Rights, exist intrinsically in the person.These internationalists posit that such rights a citizen exercises and such liberties a citizen enjoys exist, not as inalienable, natural rights and liberties, preexistent in the individual, but as a grants or privileges bestowed by government on a citizen, or “subject.” For these internationalists, rights and liberties do not exist independently of government.The very existence of our Second Amendment is, to the power brokers, heresy. These power brokers—these internationalists--disavow that rights and liberties exist in the person and not in Government. They intend to dissuade those who believe otherwise.The Second Amendment—preeminent among rights and liberties is a tacit assertion that Government is the servant of the People, not the other way around. Hence, America’s Second Amendment is fertile ground for attack and its removal the first order of business for these internationalists and for the puppets who operate at the behest of these internationalists.

THE NOTION THAT CERTAIN RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES EXIST INTRINSICALLY IN THE PERSON IS NOT WIDELY ACCEPTED IN THE WORLD—NO LESS SO IN WESTERN NATIONS THAN IN DICTATORSHIPS AND IN MUSLIM THEOCRACIES.

Consider: President Obama and the defeated Democratic Party candidate for U.S. President, Hillary Clinton, have both overtly expressed their admiration of Australia’s restrictive gun laws. Most Americans, who keep abreast of politics, know this. They have made known their admiration for Australia’s outrageously restrictive, draconian gun laws on numerous occasions. That should sound the alarm for Americans. But there is something more ominous in this naked admiration. For, the Constitution of Australia is bereft of a bill of rights. Australia’s Government instituted restrictive, draconian gun laws easily because Australians—and they are less citizens and more mere subjects of the “Crown of England”—do not have rights or liberties but those that the Government deigns to bestow on Australia’s subjects.Curiously, the framers of the Australian Constitution considered inserting a Bill of Rights in their Constitution, and looked to the United States Constitution and our Country's Bill of Rights for guidance, but decided against this. One might speculate why the framers of Australia’s Constitution would forego a Bill of Rights for Australians. But this means that such rights and liberties that Australians happen to enjoy in Australia are man-made—concessions of Government to the people—the subjects of Australia--rights and liberties that are granted and withdrawn at will by Australia's Parliament. That is fact not speculation.  Australia’s Constitution does not recognize rights and liberties preexistent in and preeminent in the individual. So, members of Australia’s Parliament have no difficulty dismissing out-of-hand any notion of a right to keep and bear arms. No wonder that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton emulate the actions of Australia’s Parliament.Australians owe their allegiance to the Queen of England. The Queen of England, and other “royalty” and “nobility,” have historically, distrusted the common man, and, so, have treated the common man with disdain.Far from recognizing the lack of a bill of rights in Australia’s Constitution as a flaw, some acknowledge this as a good thing.A few years ago, an Australian blogger, Mark Fletcher, published an article in a mainstream British newspaper, “The Guardian,” titled, “It’s a good thing that Australia isn’t burdened with human rights legislation.”Fletcher ends his polemic with this: “So let other countries puff their chests with empty slogans about rights. Let them use International Human Rights Day to reaffirm their ideological commitment to the inalienability and irrefutability of whichever rights happen to suit them most. Let their restrictions on legislative capability be a testament to their fear that parliament is forever tempted to commit atrocities. Instead of trying to emulate these mediocre, antiquated, constipated ways of other jurisdictions, Australians should take pride in our achievements, learn from our errors, and strive to show the rest of the world that bills and charters of rights are superfluous.”Reading this, one may understandably do a double-take. Is the author serious, or is this satire? Apparently, the author is serious. But, it is this very attitude that proponents of restrictive antigun measures have in our Country toward our own Bill of Rights that should raise the alarm. It is obviously a tacit idea held by the outgoing U.S. President, Barack Obama, and one also held by the defeated Democratic Party candidate for U.S. President, Hillary Rodham Clinton.Obama and Clinton do not respect our Bill of Rights and obviously consider such rights and liberties that are codified in our Bill of Rights to be ephemeral rather than real. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as with Australian Government officials, believe rights and liberties exist extrinsically, with Government, not intrinsically within the People.Consistent with this line of odd reasoning, Government can, at will, repudiate rights and liberties. Rights and liberties may be reduced, warped, changed, ignored, or discarded outright. Americans have seen Obama attempt to reduce the import of the Second Amendment by Government fiat. We have seen Obama ignore the unreasonable searches and seizures clause of the Fourth Amendment, ostensibly to enhance national security. And we have seen Obama curtail the First Amendment free speech clause under the guise of and for the benefit of promoting “political correctness” in public discourse.Had Clinton won the Presidency—as the prognosticators projected and hoped for and hyped—the foes of America’s Bill of Rights would have rubbed their palms and chuckled in glee. For they would then be able to whittle away further at our rights and liberties even as they give lip-service to being of service to and protecting them.The foes of the Second Amendment would give the Second Amendment especial attention. These foes of America’s rights and liberties would whittle away at the Second Amendment with increasing and particular ferocity. With loss of the Second Amendment we would inevitably lose, essentially, the entirety of our Bill of Rights. Whatever remained would be a hollowed out shell, with no true import or significance.So, before engaging antigun groups—their supporters and their wealthy benefactors both here and abroad—and before considering the mechanics of making national concealed handgun carry reciprocity among the States and U.S. Territories a reality--we would do well to give serious consideration to the reason for making national concealed handgun carry reciprocity a reality.As we work toward making national concealed handgun carry reciprocity a reality, it behooves us to have an argument at the ready to be used against those who will surely oppose it and who will oppose it vehemently. Thus, there is a good reason for promulgating a formal argument in support of national handgun carry reciprocity.The Arbalest Quarrel has broached in an earlier article a thesis in support of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. But, we wish to set forth at length a cogent, comprehensive, analytic basis for making national concealed handgun carry reciprocity a reality, in anticipated response by foes of our sacred Second Amendment. What we provide for you in our next article, to be posted immediately as Part 5 of our ongoing series on national concealed handgun carry reciprocity, shall serve as the Arbalest Quarrel’s formal argument in support of national concealed handgun carry reciprocity.Copyright © 2016 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

EVEN WITH TRUMP AS PRESIDENT NATIONAL HANDGUN CARRY RECIPROCITY IS FAR FROM A DONE DEAL

NATIONAL CONCEALED HANDGUN CARRY—LIKE SELF-DEFENSE—IT’S A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE.

PART THREE

WHY DO MANY AMERICANS OBLIGE THOSE WHO SEEK TO DESTROY THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION?

Americans are fortunate Donald Trump won the election and will soon take the oath of Office. That assumes the Electors in the Electoral College don’t do the old switcheroo and elect someone else. And, make no mistake, there exist rogue elements within the Electoral College. They intend to cast their vote in a manner contrary to the will of the residents of their State. But, casting aside a nightmare scenario, we fully expect the President-elect, Donald Trump, to take the oath of Office as planned, on January 20, 2017.Even so, national concealed handgun carry reciprocity is and will remain far from a done deal. Donald Trump cannot order national concealed handgun carry reciprocity by Presidential edict, and Democrats in Congress will fight to constrain Republican attempts to enact such legislation. There is much resistance to this both inside and outside the Nation’s Capitol Building and we must be prepared for a drawn-out fight. Expect the new Senate Minority Leader, Democrat, Charles Schumer, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat-Connecticut, outspoken ardent--in fact, virulent--critics of the Second Amendment, to lead the charge against national concealed handgun carry reciprocity. Recently, both of these Senators, well aware of the American public's push to strengthen the Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms--now that Hillary Clinton is politically dead and Donald Trump will soon occupy the White House--have blared out their intent to filibuster any Republican effort to enact national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation. The antigun movement has suffered an extraordinary setback and those of us who cherish the right of the people to keep and bear arms, deeply engraved in our Bill of Rights, must press our advantage.But, we Americans who cherish our Bill of Rights and, especially, our sacred right to keep and bear arms, must overcome decades of resistance to gun ownership and possession. The seeds planted by the antigun groups have sprouted weeds throughout our Country. These weeds must be cut and their roots pulled out. There has been significant resistance to the very preservation of our sacred Second Amendment and the antigun forces will see national concealed handgun carry legislation as an unconscionable expansion of the right guaranteed to Americans under the Second Amendment, and not as a mere exemplification of our natural right to keep and bear arms. Resistance resides in the psyche of those individuals who resent the very idea of guns in the hands of civilian Americans; and such resistance that insinuates itself into the psyche of individuals is worse—far worse—to the preservation, let alone strengthening, of our Second Amendment, than any one piece of antigun legislation. We say this because psychological conditioning has, potentially, greater consequences and far more reaching and damaging impact on the preservation of our Second Amendment than any one piece of restrictive federal or State gun legislation.Antigun legislation, on federal, State, or local level, is more a symptom, the effect of insidious psychological conditioning on the collective American psyche. But for the weakening of the American psyche and spirit, such legislation would never—could never— achieve a foothold in our laws, in our legal system. That it does so is illustrative of the power of propaganda and demonstrative of the ruthlessness and power of forces at work in our Nation that seek to destroy our sacred Second Amendment.Already antigun groups are marshaling their forces in Congress. They are stiffening their resolve to fight and defeat any attempt to implement national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation. How might antigun groups and powerful, wealthy, ruthless, collaborators, here and abroad, who fund and support those groups, effectively thwart our efforts? We get an inkling through a look at the past strategies utilized by antigun groups.Antigun groups make substantial use of slogans. Slogans convey messages. Slogans allow for the creation of associations in the mind of the target audience. The public is familiar with two of these: “commonsense gun laws” and “gun laws we can live with.” Antigun groups use slogans to attract members to their cause.Organizational names of antigun groups carry antigun messages too. Consider Michael Bloomberg’s group: “Everytown for Gun Safety.” How did the well-heeled Bloomberg come up with that name? Did he invent it or did an advertising firm, retained by Bloomberg, come up with that through brainstorming sessions and group study of the effectiveness of the name as a device to shepherd the masses to the antigun cause? If the latter, we wouldn’t be surprised.Slogans are examples of memes. What is a ‘meme?’ A meme is a mental virus.Antigun groups like “Everytown for Gun Safety,” and the “Coalition to Stop Gun Violence,” inject memes insidiously into the public psyche through their tool, the mainstream media.“Everytown for Gun Safety” and the “Coalition to Stop Gun Violence” are themselves examples of memes—of mental viruses. Antigun groups know the value of memes in shaping, molding, and manipulating public thought processes. They employ memes assiduously. It is part of their strategy, their plan for undermining our cherished Second Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms.Antigun groups like “Everytown for Gun Safety,” and “Coalition to Stop Gun Violence,” inject deadly memes into the public psyche, not unlike a heroin junkie who injects poison into his veins. The mainstream media is the syringe antigun groups employ to inject their venom, antigun memes, into the public’s psyche.The word, ‘gun,’ invariably factors into the memes of antigun groups. They employ the word, ‘gun,’ constantly and, whenever they do, they use the word, 'gun,' as a pejorative, as an invective. This is no accident. Their attack on guns--and on the very word, 'gun,'--is always carefully planned and calibrated, to leave no doubt in the mind of the target audience, the American public, that guns have--as they see it--no redeeming value. The public is expected to accept antigun group presumptions about guns at face value, without criticism, without scrutiny, no less so than a member of a cult is expected to accept, at face value, as self-evident true, cult dogma as spouted by the cult leader.Memes, utilized by antigun groups, induce, in those susceptible to the messaging, bizarre and ludicrous thoughts about guns.Antigun groups use memes to instill in the public psyche a phobic reaction toward guns. The antigun groups are very good at this. They have been at it for a long time. They have honed their skills well.The messaging operates both overtly on the conscious mind and subliminally on the subconscious of those individuals—and there are many—susceptible to reception of the message. Antigun groups, through the mainstream media, suggest that guns are more than mere inanimate objects. They suggest that guns are sentient beings—evil sentient beings.Antigun groups create the impression that the “the gun,” is a scourge on society—more a scourge on society than the lunatic, the psychopathic Islamic terrorist, or the common criminal, that wields “the gun” to harm others.The mainstream media propagates and bolsters dangerous memes about guns. It does so endlessly, relentlessly, vigorously, tediously, boisterously, indefatigably, shamelessly.The result: many Americans develop a morbid, unnatural, fear of guns. Those adults, susceptible to such messaging instill their pathological fear of guns in their children. Antigun groups intend to inculcate in the mind of each American, beginning in early childhood, an irrational fear and loathing toward “the gun.” The unreasonable fear of guns has a name. It’s called hoplophobia.The imbecilic notions antigun groups attribute to guns and the lunacy antigun groups project on the public about guns percolate and permeate throughout society. The antigun groups, through the mainstream media, thrust their lunacy on the public, creating hysteria in sensitive, susceptible individuals. Many individuals are immune. But many others are not. Not content to project their lunacy toward guns on adults, antigun groups shamelessly, unabashedly project that same lunacy onto impressionable children.The lunacy pervades our public school systems. Were they successful, antigun groups wouldn’t need to fight to repeal the Second Amendment. The public, molded and shaped like clay from early childhood, would demand it.How pervasive is this lunacy? Consider: in the 1950’s a child could bring a toy stainless steel cap gun to school and no one would raise an eyebrow—not parents, not school teachers, not school administrators—but not so today.Today, a child who so much as points a finger, suggestive of a gun, at another student at school, is suspended. Is that not strange? Click here for one example. Is this an anomaly? Unfortunately, no. The instances are legion. An internet search picks up many examples.School officials call their draconian measures zero-tolerance policy. But, zero-tolerance policy toward what: that we must fear our own shadow and instill such fear in our children too? Is not such draconian, bizarre action by school officials indicative of aberration in their own psyches rather than an indication of aberration in the psyches of school children? Yet, school officials find fault with the children, not themselves—removing them from school, suggesting, perhaps, these children undergo psychiatric counseling. Really?Antigun groups promote the nonsense, the lunacy, perpetrated by public school systems. Antigun groups proclaim that a harsh response toward gun possession is necessary. They argue such response bespeaks precautions both public schools and society at large are obliged to take and are obligated to take for the good of society, for the good of the societal collective—applying the dubious ethical theory of utilitarian consequentialism to the body politic.But, why? What is their motivation? Antigun gun groups say that draconian measures are necessary because we “live in a different world, today;” “we live in a more dangerous world.” We do? How so?Are we to conclude the threat of global thermonuclear war during the 1950s—over a half century ago—against an adversary like the Soviet Union and its allies, the Soviet Bloc Nations—infinitely more sophisticated and threatening than the Islamic radical savages we contend with today—bespoke a peaceful time, a tranquil era for Americans? Not so for those of us living during that period. And, we did not fear the gun then. Why should we fear the gun now? No need then; no more so now. The absurdity of antigun group assertions, when seen in this comparative light, is plain.What Americans are doing in response to such visible threats that do exist, toward criminals and Islamic terrorists, is contrary to the expectations and wishes of the antigun groups. Americans are arming themselves with—horror of horrors—guns; and they are doing so in record numbers.The self-arming of Americans is alarming to antigun groups. The self-arming of Americans isn’t the response antigun groups want; it isn’t the response antigun groups expect. But it is occurring.Yet, if we take the antigun groups at their word—if the world is a dangerous place today—we would expect Americans—resilient and resourceful Americans—to take personal responsibility for their own well-being. True that was in the past. True that is now. True that will always be so long as our Bill of Rights remains sacred. Why should the response of many Americans to threats to personal safety—acquisition of a firearm—be so unexpected even if unnerving to antigun groups?Perhaps antigun groups take too many of their cues from their international benefactors. Such people cannot appreciate the singular uniqueness of Americans’ Second Amendment. They cannot understand the import of notions of individual, personal responsibility and personal fortitude upon which our Bill of Rights is grounded.Most Americans realize personal safety and well-being devolve upon themselves, not on any greater authority, and not on the police. The court cases, Hartzler vs. City of San Jose, 46 Cal. App.3d 6 (Cal. Ct. App. 1975) and Riss vs. New York, 22, N.Y.2d, 240 N.E.2d 860 (N.Y. 1968), make this point clear—a point antigun groups acutely ignore, postulating, misleadingly, disingenuously, that the police do serve the residents of their respective communities and that is enough, that is sufficient to provide for the residents of the community all the protection the residents need. But is it?Police departments do serve residents, yes. But, residents are served as a collective body. The police are required to provide for the welfare of the community as a whole. But, must they provide protection to individuals within a community, apart from offering protection to specific public officials? The answer is, “no.” They need not do so and, in fact, do not.Americans understand that possessing firearms ensures their own individual safety and well-being as is each American’s right, and each American’s duty to self and family. The police are not required by law to provide that task even if particular departments had the money and the manpower to do so. Even, then, there would be good reason for the police not to do so, as case law makes clear. Hence, the duty to provide for one’s personal safety rests invariably, inevitably, on the individual. Our Second Amendment codifies that sacred, natural right.A firearm—the gun—is the most effective means of ensuring one’s safety and well-being when one’s life is threatened. Still, the antigun groups attack our Second Amendment. They attack the sanctity of each American’s individual life. Their attack on the right of each individual American citizen to defend his or her life with the most effective means of doing so is facially inconsistent with our Bill of Rights. Their position is, rationally, altogether inexplicable, and, on moral grounds, indefensible and irreverent.Their attack against the Second Amendment of our Constitution is no less an attack on our Nation State and no less an attack on our National Identity insofar as their position is an affront against the sanctity of our Constitution; for our Constitution is the foundation of our Nation and the clearest expression of our National Identity. Yet, the concepts of ‘national identity’ and ‘nation State’ are anathema to powerful, ruthless internationalists—creatures that seek an end to the natural independence and sovereignty of our Nation State and of all nation states; an end to national heritage and history; an end to national identity; an end to each nation’s right to self-governance; an end to the right of each of us, as individuals, to be and remain individual.One only need concentrate on the collective horror the EU experience and experiment has wrought on individual Nation States: the insidious attack on notions of National Identity and National Sovereignty—to realize what can yet befall us. The Nations of Europe fell for the lies of EU proponents. They thought they could maintain their political identities even as they ceded their economic authority. They were wrong. But, there is now a most welcome backlash.We might learn from their example. Better it would be if we stay clear of the worst of entangling alliances as “free trade” agreements require, as they compel—as they move us inexorably closer to an EU style arrangement with other nations—leading inevitably to the destruction of our Nation State, our National Identity, our Constitution.The mere existence of our Second Amendment operates as a visible threat to those invisible, insidious forces, lurking in the shadows. These denizens of hell seek no less than the abject surrender of our National Sovereignty. They seek no less than the subordination of our laws to those of foreign courts and foreign tribunals. They seek no less than the shredding of our unique Constitution. The strengthening of our Second Amendment is something these powerful, ruthless interests cannot abide. They will use their tools and puppets—including the mainstream media, antigun groups, various members of Congress, and the ignorant, frightened, misguided sheep among us—to constrain any attempt to implement national concealed handgun carry reciprocity legislation. Passing such legislation is a major step toward preserving our singular way of life as an independent sovereign Nation and preserving the two most sacred pillars upon which our Nation rests: one, that government operates at the behest of the American people, not the other way around; and, two, that the Bill of Rights codifies natural rights that forever secure in the American citizen, sacred rights existent in that American as an individual.In our Country, the individual must never hear to be told that he must sacrifice his sacred right of self-defense to the seemingly greater need, the greater good, of an amorphous collective mass—that his right of personal self-defense through possession of a firearm manifests as a danger to the collective security of the masses and must, therefore, be curbed, restrained, denied.We have our work cut out for us. The depth and breadth of that work will become clear as we post further articles on national concealed handgun carry reciprocity._________________________________Copyright © 2016 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.