News from New Mexico.
“Citizens have a right to bear arms and we cannot circumvent that right when they have not even committed a crime or even been accused of committing one,” added the Sheriff’s Association. “We sheriffs have sworn to uphold those and other God-given rights for our citizens at all costs.”
[ … ]
In the statement from the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association, signed by the chairman, Sheriff Tony Mace, it says, “The founding fathers of our republic were patriots with firearms in their hands fighting against tyranny for the freedom and liberty of which they were denied by England. Upon their victory, they formed a new and innovative government to protect their newfound freedom to include the drafting of a Constitution with accompanying Amendments to protect their rights.”
“This created the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. It is an Amendment that has often been challenged and interpreted by the highest court of the land and to this day stands as an individual right for each law-abiding citizen to keep and bear arms,” reads the statement.
“Law-abiding citizens are guaranteed the right to freely choose to arm themselves as collectors, to hunt, to compete in shooting sports and/or recreational shooting, as well as personal and home defense,” says Sheriff Mace. “Most importantly, and should it become necessary, American citizens have the right to be armed to stand and protect the republic against a corrupt and usurping government once again as the original framers of the Constitution intended.”
He continued, “29 out of the 33 New Mexico sheriffs agree that the rush to react to violent crime and atrocities perpetrated by disturbed and/or violent offenders by proposing controls on law-abiding citizens’ guns is ill conceived and is truly a distraction to the real problems proliferating violence in our counties and in our state.”
“These sheriffs encourage the full and complete enforcement of existing gun regulations and oppose any executive order or rule that further restricts the rights of law-abiding citizens to own, possess, keep and use firearms for lawful purposes,” reads the statement.
We might note that this is a great statement except for the last part about existing gun regulations. A bit of discussion is in order about our understanding of compromise.
Not one more inch, not one more compromise, not one more infringement. Yes, and all of that, but would you seriously refuse to become allies with these Sheriffs?
Compromise, the way I see it, is giving something up that isn’t justified and isn’t a guaranteed right by God. In this case, enforcement of existing laws isn’t a compromise. Those laws are already on the books. Undoing them is way down the road, because the gun rights community is in full retreat right now.
The “us four and no more” philosophy will get gun owners killed. This community is going to have to learn incrementalism. We’ve got to learn to find proper allies. The statists have made good use of that tactic, and we are where we are because rather than ally with those closest to our views for a period of time, we sit and squander the opportunity to press forward in the war. Politics is war.
Those Sheriffs aren’t asking you to give anything up that hasn’t already been codified in state law. If they are serious – and that’s a big if – they are potentially putting their jobs and pensions on the line to be “constitutional Sheriffs.”
Would you refuse an ally like this and let Eric Holder take them on and destroy their careers, cast them out of office, and turn your neighborhoods against you? Eric Holder understands incrementalism. If you’re waiting on the perfect one, you may as well board the train now and save the state the money to hunt you down.
Again, there is nothing in that statement above that would cause a patriot to wince except the enforcement of existing laws. That can be handled later, maybe, but certainly not if your Sheriff is Art Acevedo, or Paul Penzone (41mag will have no audience with him). When is “a huge step in the right direction” worth your support?
And if nothing is, what’s your plan? And don’t give me a list of all the tactical crap you’re going to do if you won’t even use your real name to comment.
If I lived in New Mexico, I’d be telling these Sheriffs to press on. They’re doing God’s work.
6 years, 1 month ago
