When The Second Amendment Is A Privilege, Not A Right :: 10/16/2019

I know the site’s been a little Beto-heavy today, but I promise, he’s not the only topic on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co. We do discuss last night’s Democratic debate, as well as O’Rourke saying today that law enforcement would come to the homes of those gun owners who didn’t comply with his proposed ban and mandatory turn-in program, but there’s so much more.

Jim Wallace of the Gun Owners Action League in Massachusetts joins me as well to talk about the 84-Year Old retired police officer, veteran, and school crossing guard who had his firearms seized after a waitress overheard him complaining about the actions of a school resource officer and told police he was making a threat. As Wallace explains, even though the Supreme Court decision in Heller that recognized the individual right to keep and bear arms was handed down more than a decade ago, in Massachusetts you don’t really have a right to keep and bear arms at all. Under the state’s current law, a police chief can remove your ability to legally possess a firearm by declaring you to be “unsuitable”, and isn’t required to even give you a reason why your guns must be handed over. Sure, if you have the money and the time you can appeal the chief’s decision and go to court to try to get your guns back, but the burden is on you to prove your suitability, not the chief.

This is the type of gun licensing law that anti-gun activists want to put in place across the country. If they’re successful, they won’t need red flag laws to take guns away from people without due process, because they can do it without a judge ever declaring someone to be a danger to themselves or others. A police chief just has to declare them “unsuitable”. They don’t even need to be charged with a crime.

This is not what a right looks like. This is what it looks like when the State turns a right into a privilege, and it’s a shame the courts have allowed it to continue.

Also on today’s program, we’ve got the story of an armed burglar who met an armed homeowner, an Oregon man who police have met many times before who was recently caught in a 6-year old’s bedroom, and a South Carolina cop who was in the right place at the right time to save a little girl’s life.

As always, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Townhall.com’s podcast page, as well as subscribing to Townhall Media on YouTube. Thanks for watching, listening, and spreading the word!

Cam Edwards has covered the 2nd Amendment for more than 15 years as a broadcast and online journalist, as well as the co-author of "Heavy Lifting: Grow Up, Get a Job, Start a Family, and Other Manly Advice" with Jim Geraghty. He lives outside of Farmville, Virginia with his family. https://bearingarms.com/author/camedwards/

https://bearingarms.com/cam-e/2019/10/16/2nd-amendment-privilege-not-right/