Marion Hammer
Freedom is a gift.
America’s Freedom was purchased with the blood of patriots who fought and died so we could be free. With that freedom, they gave us the U.S. Constitution and its first 10 amendments, otherwise known as the U.S. Bill of Rights. They included the Second Amendment so we could keep our freedom.
It is important to know why you are called to the fight and why NRA stands strong in the fight to protect the Second Amendment.
We repeatedly hear how the education system has been compromised by people who are trying to rewrite history and eliminate some parts of history from text books and classrooms altogether.
If we allow anyone to edit our founding history and eliminate why our Founding Fathers fought so hard in building our nation, future generations may not learn our true history and won’t feel the need to fight to protect it. If that happens, the enemies of freedom will have won. We cannot allow that to happen.
An essential part of our nation’s history is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Make no mistake, without the Second Amendment, we will no longer be free. Why do you think the anti-gunners fight so hard to take our guns?
The Second Amendment is the means with which we keep our heritage intact and keep our nation free. A disarmed society is powerless against the enemies of freedom.
In 1774, the British Parliament, led by King George III, passed a bill containing a series of four laws intended to punish the American colonists (particularly the Massachusetts Bay Colony) for the Boston Tea Party. The American colonists called the new British laws the “Intolerable Acts of 1774.”
Colonists were already angry over British taxes and attempts to impose greater control over the colonies.
The colonists had already reacted to the Stamp Act by boycotting British goods. The Stamp Act (a British tax on colonial commercial and legal papers, newspapers, pamphlets, cards, and almanacs) was one of the central issues that led to the American Revolution.
The Boston Tea Party in December of 1773 was a direct result of oppressive British policies and taxes on the American colonists. The Tea Act gave the British East India Tea Company a monopoly on tea sales to the American colonies.
Angered by the existing taxes on tea, the Tea Act was the catalyst for a group of colonists called the Sons of Liberty to disguise themselves as Native Americans, board anchored ships, and dump hundreds of chests of tea into the Boston Harbor.
Actual on-the-ground fighting in the American Revolutionary War began in April of 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
That led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The American Revolutionary War, a six-year fight for freedom, ended in 1781 when the British surrendered at Yorktown.
The drafting of the Constitution began in May 1787. After four months of work, the Constitution of the United States of America was signed in September 1787; however, the Constitution required ratification by 9 of the 13 original states before it would take effect.
Five states (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut) quickly ratified it. The other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed it because it didn’t contain constitutional protection of basic individual rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, the press, and the right to bear arms.
The opposing states were holding out for amendments that guaranteed essential rights and civil liberties. They insisted upon the right to free speech and the right to bear arms, as well as reserving rights to the people and the states.
It was not until February 1788 that a compromise was reached. The opposing states agreed to ratify the Constitution with the understanding that the amendments guaranteeing essential rights and civil liberties, including the right to free speech and the right to bear arms, would be proposed immediately.
So, in June 1788, after a long and tedious process, the Constitution was finally ratified when New Hampshire became the 9th of 13 states to ratify the Constitution.
Then, late in 1789, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These amendments were sent to the states for ratification. The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each representative and the compensation of congressmen, were rejected by the states.
Only the last 10 amendments (which included the right to free speech and the right to keep and bear arms) were ratified. Those 10 amendments became an integral part of the Constitution, and are known as the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Every amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights specifically guarantees protection against government.
The Second Amendment is not about hunting, it’s not about target shooting, and it’s not about gun collecting. Those are just traditional lawful uses. It’s about protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms to protect themselves, and to protect freedom from an oppressive, tyrannical government that puts its own politics and desires for control above the rights of the people.
Our Founding Fathers knew that, without firearms, the people would have no means to protect themselves against tyranny; foreign or domestic. No means to protect themselves against a government that puts itself above the people.
If you don’t believe it can happen here, just look at world history. Remember what happened in Nazi Germany after Hitler confiscated firearms? More pointedly, remember what happened to Cuba in our lifetime?
When Castro came to power, one of his first actions was to take guns away from the people. Then he took their wealth, their property, their freedom, and their dignity. Cuba became a nation in shambles with a desperate and demoralized people—and it all happened in a few short years.
I’ve talked to many of my Cuban-American friends about how it all happened. And almost to a person they lamented: “I can’t believe we were so stupid.” But they weren’t stupid. They simply misplaced their trust. By the time they realized what was happening, it was too late—their beloved leader had shown himself to be an evil, tyrannical dictator, and freedom was lost.
So, don’t be fooled. Government control of gun ownership is not about safety and it’s not about crime—it’s about control of the people.
Do you doubt for one minute that if a tyrannical government controls the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the White House that the Second Amendment would be observed?
Government cannot take total control of the people as long as the Second Amendment is intact, and peaceful, average, hardworking citizens can freely own firearms.
We owe our Founding Fathers. It is our duty to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights they fought so hard to give us. That is why the NRA continues to lead that fight.
We have much for which to be thankful and to protect from evildoers on this Independence Day.
Marion Hammer is the former National Rifle Association President and a longtime Florida NRA lobbyist. She recently retired after four decades with the NRA and now serves as an advisor to the gun rights advocacy group.
This is the biggest load of crap argument and frankly based on the language and examples this author makes in this opinion piece of garbage; she probably supported the so called freedom fighters, i.e., Insurectionists’ unsuccessful coupe attempt on January 6, 2020!! The government isn’t trying to take away its citizens rights to bear arms, this is about controlling war weapons being being in the hands of just anyone to use. I am certain that it was never the intentions of the so call founding fathers that citizens would have weapons of mass destruction in their hands; and this idiot author knows this!! It is folks that think like her, that almost had a successful coupe of our government on that dreadful day and will continue to do it again if we don’t severely lock these tyranny of people away! Or better yet, let’s create another American Civil War and all Americans bear bear arms to fight each other to the deaths! There goes the myth of one nation under God!