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The Second Amendment Comes Right After the First Amendment
Not to insult your intelligence, but the second amendment comes right after the first amendment in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. The founding fathers believed that the right to bear arms was necessary to protect first amendment freedoms. They believed citizens possessed a right of protection of those rights from the government. Without the right to bear arms, the government could overstep its constitutional boundaries and threaten freedom of speech, religion, the press, redress of grievances, and assembly.
History
The Framers experienced tyranny firsthand and knew tyrants disarmed militias to eliminate them. They needed an armed citizen militia to resist an oppressive military if constitutional order broke down. Catholic rulers in England prohibited their Protestant subjects from owning firearms. In 1689, the English Bill of Rights corrected that injustice. In Heller v. District of Columbia (2008), the Supreme Court then ruled that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to own guns, rather than the collective right of a state to have a militia. Yale Constitutional legal scholar, Akhil Reed Amar, wrote in a 2001 Utah Law Review article:
Consider once again the First Amendment. The core idea underlying the Founders’ Freedom of Speech Clause was a right to engage in political expression, especially anti-government speech. Intratextual and historical analysis confirms that this was the core idea: the phrase “freedom of speech” derives from the English Bill of Rights protecting “freedom of speech, and debates … in parliament. “Parliament,” from the French parler, “to speak,” is a parley place, a speaking spot. But Parliament is not quite a spot for any and all utterances: the core concept here is political expression.
Voting itself is a powerful individual expression. When citizens believe the government is nullifying their vote, they might protest. When they begin to think government is taking away their vote, the government might expect a forceful response.
Protection Against Tyranny
The First Amendment is often viewed as fundamental to a democratic society because it ensures that citizens can express their opinions and dissent against government actions without fear of retribution. This principle is essential for fostering a healthy political discourse. Following this foundational principle, the Second Amendment addressed concerns about self-defense and protection against tyranny. The framers believed that an armed populace could serve as a check against potential government overreach or oppression.
Philosophers like John Locke emphasized natural rights, including life, liberty, and property. These ideas influenced American thought during the founding era; thus, protecting individual rights became paramount in drafting both amendments. While both amendments protect individual rights, they do so in different realms. The First Amendment ensures that citizens can freely express their thoughts and assemble to advocate for their beliefs. The Second Amendment provides a means for individuals to defend those rights physically if necessary. In this sense, one could argue that the Second Amendment serves as a safeguard for the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Both first and second amendments emerged from a backdrop where individuals had recently fought against British rule. The Founding Fathers were acutely aware that oppressive governments could stifle individual rights through censorship (First Amendment) or disarmament (Second Amendment). When only one side of a political divide has the firearms, this quells or quenches the free expression on the other. Other threats can also stifle free speech. Without the possibility of citizens arising with arms, the police power of the government can enforce its own approved speech to the elimination of its citizens.
Case Study of January 6
I would ask that we consider January 6, 2001 as a case study of first amendment rights. For the last seventy-five years one political party participated in political speech accompanied with violence in the United States, the Democrat Party. Hundreds of examples exist and almost every one of them come from the left, including the BLM riots of 2020 with at least 25 killed that Summer. All of this resulted in thousands of deaths and multiple billions of dollars in damage. Anyone reading here knows that violent protests and rioting are the unique domain of the Democrats, the left, and their supporters. Citizens have tolerated these for decades. Then comes January 6.
January 6 was an outlier for right wing protests. The primary motivating factor was the perception of interference in the 2020 presidential election. Conservative authors have written numerous entire books and dozens of published articles outlining and giving evidence for the interference with the 2020 election by advocates of the Democrat Party. Four Trump supporters alone died that day, one unarmed Ashli Babbit, who was shot and killed. The crowd that day saw the election interference as a greater violation than the vitriol and hostility of its demonstration.
The United States government understands the threat of violence against it posed by the existence of the second amendment. Defense of liberty goes two ways.
Watching a Slow Motion Car Crash: 2023-2024 United States
Preach the Gospel
My wife and I live in a mobile home in small town rural Indiana, evangelizing Decatur County as well as a 25 minute radius of our church building. I preach the gospel almost every day to someone. We do discipleship, Bible studies, and meet for church. Her and I exist in our own little bubble. We walk twice a day by fields of beans, corn, and wheat.
I do think that the work of our church here transcends other contemporary narratives. We keep our eye on the ball, staying focused on the real problem in the world and its actual solution. It glorifies God, gives Him pleasure. Someone might say our little lives here epitomize one of many micronarratives within a larger macro one. I could argue, however, that we represent the macro and the popular larger narrative equals the micro. The gospel overshadows politics or what occurs to a nation in a window of history.
No one in the future kingdom of Christ and then the eternal state will look back and think that the American government was the main theme. Neither will anyone in that kingdom consider the decline of the United States to be the major issue of that day. The way back to Paradise, lost in the Fall, comes through Jesus Christ.
Slow Motion Car Crash
As a backdrop to serving God in a church, I observe now a slow motion car crash. Two cars now careen toward each other and a future wreck. Maybe I could use another metaphor, like the trajectory of an asteroid in the path of earth on schedule to collide in November of 2024. It might not matter what your side of the political spectrum, you see this crash coming too.
I don’t write to say, “You read it here first.” You could have read it somewhere else first. However, I haven’t read yet about the collision of which I explain and describe. When you read it somewhere else, you might say, I read it first at What Is Truth. Who cares, really? As I write about this here, first or last, you might anticipate this inevitable demolition derby.
Trump
Donald Trump leads the polls on the Republican side. He embodies a large faction of the country, bigger than any single cohesive body of people. That car continues rolling forward at a larger than ever fifty plus percent of Republican voters. Even in Iowa and New Hampshire he dominates his opposition right now 16 months before the next presidential election.
As Trump moves along his path, so do four different legal prosecutions against him, all very suspect in nature, especially in comparison to others (I understand this will trigger a portion of the readers). Trump voters saw the Russia hoax impeachment. They also witnessed the Zelensky phone call impeachment. The government spied on his campaign. The Clinton campaign paid for the fabricated Steele dossier used for a FISA warrant. The FBI lied about it and then covered it up. And all that is less than half of everything Trump supporters know.
Still, Trump enemies continue to use the legal system to impede or stop Trump, what people call weaponization of government. Every prosecution looks shady, questionable, like political persecution. The present administration targets its number one political enemy. Nevertheless, the Trump car rumbles down the road, even gaining in momentum the more legal woes he faces.
Biden
Joe Biden comes from the other direction. Even though he couldn’t fill an average sized local gymnasium to see him, he tallied the most votes ever in 2020. Zuckerbucks influenced local election offices all over the country. Courts changed laws to favor ballot harvesting with little to no voter identification. Social media giants censored news unfavorable to the Democrat. In addition, lies, lies, lies, lies, and more lies.
The Biden car and the Trump car head toward each other. They’re moving fast, but they’re so far away, that it’s like watching from thirty thousand feet. The cars move at an imperceptible pace, yet moving on an identical line.
Criminal prosecution hovers around Joe Biden. Massive corruption on an unprecedented scale looks obvious. It seems like no repercussions for him. Like the Clintons, nothing will happen more than verbiage.
A crash looks inevitable. No one knows what will happen in 2023-24. Will they prosecute Trump and try to put him behind bars? Might the Bidens skate again or face their comeuppance? Could a third party enter the race?
The Great American Divorce
Many more questions remain. What would Trump supporters do if this government convicted him? Would they accept that verdict? With the way the progressives use the system like a banana republic, will people stand by and let this happen? A large percentage of United States citizens see their government as dirty. Those people are waiting and watching right now from that thirty-thousand feet. A big gap separates the two biggest factions in the country. The two sides are irreconcilable. One of them is especially unhappy.
The country doesn’t neatly divide like the north and the south in 1860. Both factions live in the same states. Red citizens are fleeing blue states to red ones. A few years ago some started calling this, the great American divorce (here and here) or American secession (here and here). Historian Victor Davis Hanson says we’re on the verge of our French Revolution. He also called it, “The Impending Thermidor Reaction in Jacobin America.”
The Only Remedy
To go back to the way I began this essay, I call this slow motion car crash just a backdrop to the most important. The belief and practice of an individual true church surpasses the miserable condition of the nation. It seems obvious a future collision is coming. No one knows the outcome of this monumental head-on crash, but scripture says the remedy is still the same, the gospel.
Elevation of the gospel starts with the church. Turn and look to the message of the cross as the prescription. Judgment must begin in the house of God.
DeSantis, Trump, or Otherwise
2024 and 2020 Elections
It looks that the Republican side of the 2024 presidential election will include a hard fought battle that spends millions and millions of dollars for candidates trying to defeat one another. Apparently, our side could not work together to agree on a candidate to support without a huge war in the party. Meanwhile, the Democrats will pour huge amounts of money, almost incalculable sums, to further perfect their ballot harvesting strategy. Instead of preparing themselves for this same tactic, Republicans will spend it bashing each other before general election time.
Evidence shows large numbers of varied entities rigged the 2020 U.S. presidential election, including Covid related ones. The Durham Report alone proved that and then there’s Hunter Biden’s laptop. Despite all the forces against President Trump during his presidency, he accomplished much. I wish he became president in 2020, like many of you readers.
Giving Trump His Due
In addition to all the good things that came out of the Trump presidency, he changed the Republican party in a positive way. He influenced many other leaders to take a similar combative toughness as he. He showed them the way. I thank him for that. If another Republican besides him wins in 2024, Trump will have made a significant influence to that victory.
Republicans or conservatives should give Trump his due. They should stop disrespecting him in the manner they are. This will not help Republicans win 2024. It will not persuade any Trump supporter to vote for someone else. Insulting Trump and those who voted for him looks self-serving and virtue signaling.
Everyone knows Trump’s negatives. Most of what makes him negative is also what makes him positive. You might say, “He should stop doing this.” Well, “this” is also what makes him popular. Trump would not measure what he said for maximum political correctness. He also pushed back on the mainstream media almost to the extent that it pushes against political candidates it doesn’t want.
Since we will have to choose our candidate, I might still vote Trump, because voters have a lot of time to watch what will happen. I haven’t made up my mind yet. The one who gets my vote will stand up and battle for an almost identical agenda as Trump. I know Trump will fight, because I’ve seen him do it. Whoever wins for the Republicans will face monumental forces from many different fronts almost like no one in American history.
My Primary Vote
As I look toward the future, right now I predict though that I will vote for Governor DeSantis in the Republican primary. I don’t know that, but it is what I foresee right now.
Trump did his part. I give him credit for it, but in the present I believe his time has passed. He could still win. I would be happy if he did. I prefer Governor DeSantis at the moment. DeSantis could easily pick up the mantle of Trump and do better with it, even if Trump won’t hand it to him.
I get Trump’s anger about disloyalty. DeSantis could help with this too and bring along more Trump supporters by more strongly giving Trump his due. He could disarm the Trump disloyalty attack by honoring Trump. He should have won 2020. Many Republicans who supported Trump understand why someone would run against him. Both could happen, a candidate like DeSantis honors Trump and then explains why the Republicans regretfully need someone else.
Advice for DeSantis
Fight
DeSantis could pledge to fight in the example of Donald Trump. He could tick off all the ways he will emulate Trump and then honor him by winning on his behalf and those who support him. In an analogical way, I can see Trump not as the candidate like David wasn’t the candidate for building the first Temple. Trump was uniquely suited for the job he did in taking down Hillary in 2016. Please don’t say I’m saying Trump is David, the latter who loved God. Trump brought the fight to the party like it needed and will continue to need. David fought the Philistines.
At the time Trump became a candidate, the Republican Party needed a fighter extraordinaire. Of course, the spiritual solution is most important. Some of you critics rarely preach the gospel. Don’t be critical of spiritual lack in the political area if you are distracted in the evangelistic area. Are you really that dedicated to the gospel that you don’t have time to think about religious freedom? Good for you, but I don’t believe it with most of you. When’s the last time you even made a disciple in fulfillment of the Great Commission. You’re just, again, virtue signaling.
Trump’s kickstart of fighting for freedom and the American way is the start. Everyone now has a standard. All must surpass it. DeSantis, I believe, must prove that he will surpass Trump. I’m not convinced yet. What I am saying is that I believe he will. I hope he reads this.
Give Trump His Due
The Florida governor could also pledge to homogenize the MAGA support into a unified team. Some of the Trumpers could make the cabinet. This kind of approach to Trump is what will make it difficult for Trump to oppose DeSantis. Recently Trump said he had a hard time saying a bad word about Gavin Newsom because of how positive Newsom was with him. Trump takes well to positive reinforcement. Start every speech with a litany of pro-Trump signals before turning to what makes you the man for whom to vote.
DeSantis should set his sights on the enemies out there. Fire away at them. In my opinion, he’s tough, but still not tough enough. The way to impress Trump voters won’t be doing the Chris Christie, talking tough about Trump (especially to the press). The way to do that is to talk tough to and at the political elite. Hone that skill. Elevate the fire not against Trump, but against them.
I write this because it is what I think. I was just now ready to say it. Talk amongst yourselves.
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