Political Suicide

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.

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

I love the Second Amendment. I love it for a great many reasons. It has been said that without the Second, the other Amendments would not be possible. I love the brevity of our Amendments. The Second however, says to much in so little space. Throughout history, many countries or civilizations that did not have some kind of protection as offered in the Second Amendment ended up suffering under tyranny. Our founders thought it was that important to give us this protection.

Political pundits often refer to the Second Amendment as the "king" of the single issues. In other words, there are voters who may love everything about a candidate, but if that candidate is anti-gun, they will come out in force to vote against that candidate. There are people on both sides of the aisle who are life members of the NRA, and have received high marks for their voting record. Most politicians know that similar to Social Security, new gun laws that INFRINGE on our Second Amendment rights are a "third rail" of politics.

One of the things the NRA has been pushing for of late is the enforcement of the myriad of gun laws we currently have on the books. The Administration has played right into this by the nomination of the Minnesota United States Attorney to head up the ATF. The recently retired chief of the Minneapolis FBI came out publicly and said the confirmation of this man would be a huge mistake. Why? For one thing, he refuses to enforce current gun laws. Before you accuse this former FBI agent of being a "right wing hack", be aware of this - he is a card carrying Democrat.

It has been no secret since this Administration first took power, the Second Amendment was in their sights. In fact, many think the entire Fast and Furious debacle was centered around besmirching the Second Amendment. How? By unleashing hundreds of guns in Mexico that would be used in the commission of crimes, they would eventually be traced back to the United States. The anti-gun zealots would then demand gun control as our "out of control" gun culture was now tied into the drug trade from Mexico. We all know the outcome. Brave patriot Brian Terry was killed by one of our own guns used in this charade. The ATF was knee deep in this entire mess as was the Justice Department. This is still an open sore and we need someone with stones to call the AG in front of Congress and get to the bottom of this.

Next week is "gun week" in Minnesota. What does that mean? It means lets take rights away from law abiding patriots and let the criminals have all the guns. I am okay with background checks. I have been checked out when I received my permit to buy and my permit to carry. I am squeaky clean. Want to check me out again? Go ahead. That is where I draw the line however. If I want a shotgun with a pistol grip, I will buy one. If I want a mag or clip that holds 20, 50 or 100, I will buy one. Until I cross the line and show I am a menace to society, MY RIGHTS SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!

So I will say this to our very blue, very left leaning Democrats from the Twin Cities or in Washington. If you screw with this most important of Amendments, it will be at your political peril. To our Republican friends, if you get weak knees and decide to go along for the ride, the same goes for you. We are out here. We watch. We vote. We matter.