OPINION:
Condoleezza Rice told the largely liberal panel and audience of “The View” on ABC that had it not been for guns, her family and her neighbors would’ve suffered even more during the segregated society that was in place in her youth in the South.
Bam. That’s it in a nutshell — this is why founders saw fit to put in place a Second Amendment. It wasn’t a right to hunt they were defending; it was a God-given right to protect one’s self and one’s family from harm. And specifically: from harm from the government.
“Let me tell you why I’m a defender of the Second Amendment,” Rice said, the Blaze reported. “I grew up in Alabama in the late ’50s, early ’60s. There was no way that Bull Connor and the Birmingham police were going to protect you. When knight riders would come through our neighborhood, my father and friends would take their guns and fire in the air if anybody came through. I don’t think they actually hit anybody. But they protected the neighborhood.”
And on that whole leftist idea of registering gun owners and collecting their names and personal information to put into some sort of Big Database in the Sky?
“I’m sure if Bull Connor had known where [the guns and gun owners] were, he would have rounded them up,” Rice said. “I don’t favor some things like gun registration.”
This is classic history in action.
The Second Amendment, as the Supreme Court recognized in its 2008 case, District of Columbia et al v. Heller, is a personal and individual right to bear arms for reasons of personal protection. And neither federal nor state officials have the legal authority to intrude upon that right.
The amendment itself makes this clear — “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” So, too, do other core American documents and founding writings, including the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. … That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …” the Declaration reads.
How to abolish a government that destroys the God-given rights of the people for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Well, if votes won’t work, if pleadings fall on deaf ears, if diplomacy and politicking lead to nowhere, then an armed resistance is the final option. Not saying America needs an armed uprising to reel in its ever-growing federal government; just saying founders weren’t afraid of taking that option themselves — and moreover, making sure that option stayed in print as part of our national DNA.
Firearms in the hands of the law-abiding serve as a not-so-subtle warning to government that the people aren’t defenseless.
A firearm in the hand of a righteous individual serves as a hefty heads-up to those who would seek to impose harm to that individual that all is not going to go quietly on that front.
Rice’s story couldn’t be more stark an example of why America has a Second Amendment. It also couldn’t be more American in terms of demonstrating how a government bent on wickedness can be put in its place and reminded of the power of the people. And surely, even the very liberal women of “The View” can agree with that notion.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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