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Title: Trump Announces He’s a Few Weeks From Banning Bump Stocks
Source:
From The Trenches/10th Amendment Center
URL Source: http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.c ... rom-banning-bump-stocks/235057
Published: Oct 19, 2018
Author: Joe Wolverton, II
Post Date: 2018-10-20 14:17:05 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 23599
Comments: 148
Tenth Amendment Center – by Joe Wolverton, II President Donald Trump promises that he is “just a few weeks” from issuing regulations that would outlaw bump fire stocks. “We’re knocking out bump stocks,” Trump said at a White House news conference on October 1. “We’re in the final two or three weeks, and I’ll be able to write out bump stocks.” This Republican president’s promise to “write out” bump fire stocks sounds suspiciously like his Democratic predecessor’s claim to possess the power to use his phone and pen to make law. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Barack Obama proclaimed in 2014. “And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions,” he added. This two-party, one policy situation is decades old. Regarding the presidential penchant for disarming the American people, I am reminded of a story I wrote in January 2014: “In an executive ‘Fact Sheet’ issued January 3 by the White House, the president purports to establish new guidelines for “keep[ing] Guns out of Potentially Dangerous Hands.” NOTE: Originally published at The New American Magazine and reposted here with permission from the author. The next paragraph of that story can now be applied to both President Obama and President Trump: “What President Obama — a former part-time law professor — seems not to understand is that every time he issues some executive order, presidential finding, or ‘fact sheet,’ he is exceeding the constitutional limits on his power and thereby violating his oath of office.” All you need to do is change the last name of the president and change the words “fact sheet” to “memorandum” and the story is no different. President Trump is exercising that same unconstitutional “authority” to infringe significantly on the rights protected by the Second Amendment, specifically, the right to “keep and bear arms.” Trump’s attack on the Second Amendment in the form of banning bump fire stocks should come as no surprise. In fact, back in February the president issued an official memorandum ordering 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 machineguns.” Lest there be any misunderstanding, the memo identifies the device in question as “bump fire stocks and similar devices.” For those of you counting on the National Rifle Association (NRA) to come to the defense of the Second Amendment, you probably don’t want to read any further. The NRA released the following statement regarding federal regulation of bump fire stocks: The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations. So, no help from the NRA for Americans who believed the group to be defenders of the Second Amendment. Of course, such a statement isn’t surprising considering that the very same press release reveals that the NRA doesn’t understand the purpose of the Second Amendment. “In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities,” the statement reads. Wrong. Our Founding Fathers were not concerned about protecting a man’s right to keep his home and family safe from “danger.” Our Founding Fathers protected the individual’s right to keep and bear arms because they knew that such was the only way to avoid being enslaved by tyrants. They knew from their study of history that a tyrant’s first move was always to disarm the people, and generally to claim it was for their safety, and to establish a standing army so as to convince the people that they didn’t need arms to protect themselves, for the tyrant and his professional soldiers would do it for them. Sound familiar? Consider this gem from William Blackstone, a man of immense and undeniable influence on the Founders and their understanding of rights, civil and natural. In Volume I of his Commentaries on the Laws of England, Blackstone declares “the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.” Would anyone in America — or the world, for that matter — argue that the “sanctions of society and laws” are sufficient to “restrain violence” or oppression? Thus, the people must be armed. Commenting on Blackstone’s Commentaries, eminent Founding Era jurist and constitutional scholar St. George Tucker put a finer point on the purpose of protecting the natural right of all people to keep and bear arms. He wrote: This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. Enough said. As for President Trump, he has done many things consistent with his solemn oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. His issuing of a regulation to shrink the scope of the Second Amendment is not one of them, however. It’s this easy: Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution grants federal lawmaking power exclusively to the Congress. Regardless of the word he uses to describe it, any time the president orders the executive branch to create law by executive decree, he is usurping the authority of the legislature. Finally, in his memo, President Trump writes that he was motivated to begin the process of banning bump fire stocks “after the deadly mass murder in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 1, 2017.” No matter how many people are clamoring for protection, no matter how many madmen go on murderous sprees, the president is not constitutionally authorized to take “executive actions” that encroach upon rights protected by the Constitution — in this case, the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Apart from his work as a journalist, Joe Wolverton, II is a professor of American Government at Chattanooga State and was a practicing attorney until 2009. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since 2000, Joe has been a featured contributor to The New American magazine. Most recently, he has written a cover story article on the Tea Party movement, as well as a five-part series on the unconstitutionality of Obamacare.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 117.
#36. To: Deckard (#0)
Bump stocks effectively turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon. Machine guns have been illegal since the 1920s. A clever person found a clever way to make a machine gun. Of course that can be regulated to nothing.
That's incorrect, there are many firing full auto at Knob Creek and elsewhere. NFA '34 levied a $200 tax stamp on them. There are many machine guns in private hands, "legally". Canadian Senator goes full auto, legally....
Yes, ok, there are machine guns in private hands. But they are tightly regulated. It is difficult to get a legal automatic weapon. As a society, we have drawn the line at automatic weapons. You can have semi-automatic weapons, but full automatics are difficult to come by legally, and buying one requires a lot of extra steps. This seems like a reasonable place to draw the line. In a similar vein, I don't mind if airplane aficionados buy and fly World War II bombers. I do mind if they are able to arm them with bombs.
This seems like a reasonable place to draw the line. That's because you don't know WTF you are talking about. These are THE very weapons the Second Amendment was written to protect. In a similar vein, I don't mind if airplane aficionados buy and fly World War II bombers. I do mind if they are able to arm them with bombs. This proves you don't know WTF you are talking about.
Yep, 100 years before they were invented, that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Mmmmhmmm. Seems legit.
The founding fathers knew that wanabe tyrants will always exist, so arms parity with the military. Come and take them, Piers13!
So, the Second Amendment guarantees your right to possess your own personal nuke?
I've have a zero 'Unexpected Event' record.
That's swell. But do you claim that the Second Amendment guarantees your right to your own personal nuke?
While it seems clear your understanding of firearms is immense,could you help out those of us who aren't as knowledgeable as you by splaining to usens how a automatic rifle is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb or missile?
The Second Amendment does not say "individual firearms". It says "arms". Can you not simply answer the question? Does the Second Amendment protect the right of individuals to possess nukes, biological weapons, chemical weapons, land mines, etc. You're engaging in a line-drawing exercise, which is good, because it at least makes it clear that you are on the reservation of the sane. You're doing yourself and your cause (protecting individual ownership of firearms) no favors by attacking and insulting me. I'm a natural ally. But if you cannot draw a line, a clear one, if you cannot say "No, there is no personal right to those weapons", and you have to act as though your interlocutor, me, a military veteran myself, is an idiot, a numbnuts, every other sort of thing, then you should understand that you are undercutting yourself politically. Your argument is that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to firearms. Ok. They say that positively and affirmatively. "Individual weapons" in an age of miniaturisation, doesn't get you there. There are individually deployed chemical and biological weapons. You have to be be able to say that NBC weapons are not protected by the Second Amendment. You should be able to say that easily, as easily as the insults roll off your tongue. But you don't, at least not yet. And because you don't, you weaken your side. Of course, if the government has the NBC and individuals don't that means the government is stronger. If the British government had had nukes in 1776 we would not be independent. But if individuals could buy and own chemical, biological and nuclear weapons easily and freely, we wouldn't be alive either. The nature of modern weaponry is such that the government is always going to have the upper hand nowadays. That does not mean that we should take guns away from individuals.
If you take the words of the Constitution literally then yes. The constitution's words should be taken literally. The constitution isn't like the Bible which is error free.
Let me be sure I understand you. You think that the Constitution should be interpreted to mean that people have the right to possess their own personal nukes. Do you really think that?
The constitution should mean what it says. A need to interpret it a certain way is silly and stupid. Words have meanings. I know you are a Catholic and by tradition you pretend the Bible isn't God's word and whatever the antichrist pope says us gospel yruth.
The Constitution says a well regulated militia. Therefore,arms are regulated. The only question is how much. Words do indeed have meaning. Part of meaning is hierarchy of authority. When words conflict and lead to different ends, what prevails? That’s what i focus on. The pretense that they don’t conflict is fantasy.
#119. To: Vicomte13 (#117)
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia not regulated arms. You need a dictionary. The constitution as written includes a right to bear arms that Congress has no lawful power to limit.
Absolutely not. This is simply a misinterpretation of a now archaic usage of the term well regulated. The meaning of "well regulated" militia did not refer to gun control regulations. Now archaic, the meaning two centuries ago, in context, meant a militia well trained to use arms. The colonists of the day were experts at arms from their everyday hunting of squirrels, turkeys, and raccoons, and the like. http://www.constitution.org/cons/wellregu.htm From: Brian T. Halonen The following are taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, and bracket in time the writing of the 2nd amendment: 1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world." 1812: "The equation of time ... is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial." 1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Mayor." 1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding." 1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city." The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that the founders wrote it. David E. Young, The Founders' View of the Right to Bear Arms, Golden Oak Books, Ontonagon, Michigan, 2007, pp. 63-64: The wording of Article 13 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which contained language relative to the Second amendment was: SEC. 13 - That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. This language was written and adopted by men who were actively engaged in armed defense against the forces of government which they viewed as violating their constitution, rights, and liberty. Note that this language used by George Mason and the Virginia Convention in the Virginia Declaration of Rights closely followed that which Mason had used previously in describing the voluntary militia association for defense in several documents relating to Fairfax County. This prior Mason usage extends back to over a year earlier, prior to any hostilities with the British. In September 1774, Mason described a voluntary militia association of gentlemen and freeholders as the Fairfax Independent Company of Volunteers. The purpose of the volunteers associating was defense of their just rights and privileges upon principles of the British Constitution. Later, in January 1775. Mason discussed a well regulated militia in a document of the Fairfax County Committee of Safety. He described a well regulated militia composed of gentlemen freeholders and other freemen as the natural strength and only stable security of a free government. Mason indicated that such a militia would make standing armies unnecessary since they were ever dangerous to liberty. Mason's Committee recommended that the inhabitants from 16 to 50 years old voluntarily form companies, choose officers, and arm and train themselves. Then in a Febmary 6, 1775 plan for embodying the people of Fairfax Country, Mason largely repeated the Committee language of January, adding the term "safe" to the description of a well regulated militia being the natural strength and only safe and stable security of a free government. He specified that a well regulated militia was intended to include all able-bodied freemen from 18 to 50 years old. Finally, in mid-April 1775, Mason provided his views on the purposes for the men voluntarily embodying themselves as a well regulated militia in Fairfax County. These purposes were to preserve the inestimable rights inherited from their ancestors and to defend against the threatened ruin of the constitution. A well regulated militia was intended to introduce the use of arms, discipline, and a martial spirit of emulation. The reason was that in case of absolute necessity, the people might be able to act in defense of their invaded liberty David E. Young, The Founders' View of the Right to Bear Arms, Golden Oak Books, Ontonagon, Michigan, 2007, pp. 16-17. Ben Franklin, being a very well-informed person and a printer, was in an exceptionally favorable position to publicize his concerns about the defenseless situation of Pennsylvania. In an attempt to rouse his fellow Pennsylvanians to prepare for organized defense of the Colony, he wrote a pamphlet entitled Plain Truth that was publishcd on November 17. 1747. In Plain Truth. Franklin noted that all parts of Pennsylvania from the frontier areas to the Delaware shoreline were subject to attack at the whim of Britain's enemies. He noted the previous attacks along the Delaware and the probability that there were enemy spies within the Colony. It was Franklin's belief that a defensive remedy had to be prepared before the next sununer, or Philadelphia and Pennsylvania might be attacked, plundered, and destroyed. Franklin noted that if enemies ruined Philadelphia and the Colony of Pennsylvania, it would not be due to any lack of inhabitants able to bear arms in its defense. According to Franklin, there were at least 60,000 men in the Colony, not counting Quakers, who were familiar with firearms. The reasons which Franklin gave for all those men being familiar with their firearms, being able to defend themselves and the colony, and being hardy and bold was because they were all hunters and marksmen. EXPERTISE IN THE USE OF ARMS Considering that the able-bodied males in colonial Pennsylvania had never been required by law to possess their own arms for organized defensive purposes, as the men in the other colonies had under their militia laws, it might be assumed that there were few firearms possessed by the people of Pennsylvania. Any such assumption would be completely incorrect, however. Benjamin Franklin's Plain Truth clearly indicated that large numbers of Pennsylvanians not only possessed their own arms but were quite expert in their use. Apparently. the people of Pcnnsylvania were just as adept in the use of arms as those of Virginia described above. Militia laws were clearly not responsible for the people of Pennsylvania having and knowing how to use arms. It was the common possession and usage of arms for numerous everyday purposes such as hunting and target shooting that resulted in the population being familiar with arms and in a position to defend themselves and the Colony. Recall Robert Beverly's 1705 book stating that Virginians spent all their lives shooting in the woods and as a result were very skillful in the use of arms. Beverly noted that with a little exercising the militia of Virginia, the free males 16 to 60, would be little inferior to regular troops. There is a very similar statement from Frothingham in Historv of the Siege of Boston. Frothingham stated that the habitual use of the fowling piece (bird hunting gun) made the farmers of Massachusetts superior to veteran troops in aiming the musket. Yet another example of this fact came from the Virginia/Pennsylania frontier. Joseph Doddridge described the normal situation on the frontier regarding a well-grown boy of twelve or thirteen. The lad was furnished a small rifle and shot pouch of his own. He then became a fort soldier and was assigned a porthole in the local defensive fort. However, it was not standing guard at a porthole during an alarm that made a young man knowledgeable in the use of his rifle. Instead, it was the everyday hunting of squirrels, turkeys, and raccoons that made him expert in the use of his gun.
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#37. To: Vicomte13, Full Auto is legal (#36)
(Edited)
Machine guns have been illegal since the 1920s
#38. To: hondo68 (#37)
#46. To: Vicomte13 (#38)
As a society, we have drawn the line at automatic weapons. You can have semi-automatic weapons, but full automatics are difficult to come by legally, and buying one requires a lot of extra steps.
#49. To: sneakypete (#46)
That's because you don't know WTF you are talking about. are THE very weapons the Second Amendment was written to protect.
#51. To: Vicomte13, wanabe tyrants, *Bill of Rights-Constitution* (#49)
Yep, 100 years before they were invented, that's what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Mmmmhmmm. Seems legit.
#52. To: hondo68 (#51)
arms parity with the miltiary
#53. To: Vicomte13, amateurs (#52)
So, the Second Amendment guarantees your right to possess your own personal nuke?
Texas Nuclear Weapons Facility Pantex Activates Emergency Response Team Because of 'Unexpected Event'
#54. To: hondo68 (#53)
I've have a zero 'Unexpected Event' record.
#61. To: Vicomte13 (#54)
That's swell. But do you claim that the Second Amendment guarantees your right to your own personal nuke?
#71. To: sneakypete (#61)
#72. To: Vicomte13 (#71)
Can you not simply answer the question? Does the Second Amendment protect the right of individuals to possess nukes, biological weapons, chemical weapons, land mines, etc.
#75. To: A K A Stone (#72)
If you take the words of the Constitution literally then yes. The constitution's words should be taken literally.
#116. To: Vicomte13 (#75)
#117. To: A K A Stone (#116)
Replies to Comment # 117.
#128. To: Vicomte13, A K A Stone (#117)
The Constitution says a well regulated militia. Therefore,arms are regulated. The only question is how much.
The meaning of the phrase "well-regulated" in the 2nd amendment
1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations."
VIRGINIA'S WELL REGULATED MILITIA OF THE PEOPLE
PLAIN TRUTH
End Trace Mode for Comment # 117.
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