How far should we go to defend the Constitution?

How far should we go to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that are designed to protect citizens from oppressive, tyrannical government? According to one thoughtful citizen, as far as it takes using any means necessary.

Dean Garrison of the D.C. Clothesline is a husband, a father of small children, an entrepreneur who pursues the American dream, and a conscientious citizen. But Garrison has become so disturbed by what he sees happening in the nation handed down to us by Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, and Madison that he has done some serious soul searching culminating in a not-so-positive but necessary conclusion.

Garrison asks, "If they come for your guns, do you have a responsibility to fight?"

His short answer is, yes, by all means. The explanation he gives concerning his answer is sobering in its logic, truth, and gravity.

The United States, says Garrison, was born because of gun rights. He is correct. Had it not been that the patriots in 1776 believed and practiced that all citizens have the right to defend themselves against tyranny with deadly firearms, then there would have been no new nation, no Constitution, no Bill of Rights, and no free society.

The patriots successfully broke away from Great Britain precisely because the citizens had firearms that were every bit as deadly as that possessed and used by the British army.

But what if such tyranny creeps back into the halls of government, not necessarily by an outside government but our own? The patriots had an answer for that too. Any law, any court ruling, any elected official that flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution is illegal, illegitimate, and is therefore not fit to be obeyed. In fact, they said, the citizens have a moral responsibility to oppose such government and overthrow it.

Jefferson believed that a deadly revolution was necessary every 20 years or so in order prune out the forces of tyranny that tend to creep into any government.

Echoing that sentiment, Garrison maintains that in the United States today such tyranny has been allowed to gain a stranglehold on the country. Politicians such as Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein, and many others not only violate their oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, but promote laws that directly contradict it. For this, he says, they must be forced out of office.

How, for example, can one swear an oath to preserve, protect, and defend a document that contains the Second Amendment, which protects the unfettered gun rights of the people, and at the same time push for laws that violate that very provision? The very fact that they do such things constitutes tyranny, necessitating that they be ousted from office either by due process or by force.

Further, Garrison correctly observes that it does not matter how many Americans agree with Obama and Feinstein. Unalienable rights are not subject to a majority vote, and the Founders did not believe in a majority vote in the first place. Democracy, or majority rule, is every bit as tyrannical as a monarchy. We do not have and never have had a democracy in this country, nor should we.

In a Constitutional Republic, which is how the Founders referred to our government, certain rights are protected against the will of the majority. They saw democracy as dangerous due to the simple fact that by "majority rule" the citizens could potentially decide, say, that all citizens 55 years of age and older could not drive cars, or that young, blue-eyed blond females are too dumb to work as corporate executives.

Americans had best be thankful we do not live in a democracy where the majority rules, or else every single unalienable right we have grown to cherish as citizens could be removed in an instant by a simply majority vote.

In a free society some things are so important, so sacred, so inherent to our identity, that any means necessary to protect and defend them are not only allowed but encouraged.

And this leads Garrison to one unmistakable and sobering conclusion, "If they come for our guns, then it is our constitutional right to put them six feet under."

In 1776 the patriots opened fire on the British army due to the fact that the Crown attempted to take their guns. Not only did the citizens of the newly declared independent nation believe it was their God-given right to possess and use their guns, but they believed they also had the right to use deadly force to stop anyone who attempted to remove that right. This is how we secured a free nation with a Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Were it not for the guns and the willingness of the citizens to use them against a tyrannical government, then the American Revolution would have never occurred.

(Hat tip to Sipsey Street Irregulars).

NOTICE. You may enjoy my blog and its ongoing series, "Musings After Midnight." The following are a few examples:

My latest blog entry in the series, Musings After Midnight, is now available at The Liberty Sphere. It's titled, "I get a vote, you get a vote, all God's children get a vote! That's right, Mr. President, and that includes gun rights activists!"

Also check out: "I'll see you in the war -- Civil War II: Notes on the coming calamity to restore the Constitution."

Visit my ministry site at Martin Christian Ministries.