In the past 3 years, we have seen a breach of our southern border by millions of illegals from countries around the world. Many of these illegals are only looking for better economic opportunities than those available in their country of origin. Border agents for all their hard work have been hard-pressed to keep out the known criminals because of the huge influx. Our own government officials say they have no idea of how many potential terrorists have entered our country. The number often talked about by the news media is over 1 million of unknown origin who have slipped through our border and their whereabouts are unknown.
The current flair-up in the Middle East with the slaughter in Gaza by Hamas is turning into a full-blown war and in all likelihood will expand to other countries before it is over. America has always been a target for Iran and other Islamic countries who hate our country and have threatened “Death to America’ just as they have threatened death to Israel. Anyone who doesn’t think we are now a target for terrorists needs to wake up. While our country has never been invaded by a foreign nation, we have now been invaded by people from 170 different nations and not all of them are here for our economic opportunities. Even members of our border patrol say there are those here illegally with bad intentions and we must all be vigilant if we are to avoid a surprise terrorist attack. FBI director Christopher Wray speaking to police chiefs in San Diego urged citizens to be vigilant and share intel to stop lone actors inspired by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He further has acknowledged an increase in stateside threats.
Americans must question the ability of our intelligence agencies to predict attacks like the Hamas attack on Gaza as this was a complete surprise to both Israel and America’s intelligence agencies. This certainly begs the question of why our intelligence agencies are spending too much time surveilling innocent conservative Americans (MAGA CONSERVATIVES) instead of foreign entities who would like to do us harm.
While we as Idahoans feel relatively safe in our state, we should be grateful that we are able to carry a firearm concealed or open almost anywhere with the exception of gun-free zones. Having lived and worked in New York for decades, it’s easy to understand why I’m so grateful to live in Idaho. New York can be a very dangerous and scary place as you never know when you might have a chance encounter with someone who would threaten your life. I learned quickly that when someone pulled a gun or a knife and asked for your wallet you gave it to them. Unfortunately, not everyone wants your wallet some just want to harass or shoot you dead because they can. After being threatened twice personally with guns stuck in my face for no reason and having the window of my cab shot out on my cab on my way home from work, I realized it was time to either move or buy a bulletproof vest.
If you have spent any time in military service in a war zone or done any serious hunting, firearms are just a means to an end. However, when the government takes away your right to defend yourself by limiting your access to carrying a firearm it’s time to reassess your position. At that time N.Y.C. was a place where only the criminals were permitted to carry a firearm because they didn’t obey the laws. Mind you all this happened long before the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Americans began to realize how vulnerable they were.
Up until 2022 if you were a resident of N.Y., it was almost impossible to get a concealed carry permit. This is because the state of N.Y. for the past 111 years had been forcing people to prove that they had a special need for self-protection. This goes back to the Sullivan Act of 1911 making the issuance of concealed carry permits solely at the discretion of local law enforcement officials. This was undone by a lawsuit in 2018 which went on to the Supreme Court where the Sullivan Act was ruled unconstitutional. In Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion statement, this one sentence opened the door for gun restriction laws in other states to be rolled back. The court’s opinion said that it was up to N.Y. State to show the proper cause requirement with the nation’s historical of firearm regulation. “Constitutional rights are enshrined with the scope they were understood to have when the people adopted them.” “With these principles in mind, the court concludes that the respondents have failed to meet their burden to identify an American tradition justifying N.Y. states proper cause requirement.” This meant the Supreme Court had established a new legal precedent that the burden of proof was on federal, state, and local governments to prove in court that their gun laws are consistent with our nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.
One of my first missions after settling in Idaho was to get a concealed carry permit. So, I thought to myself, you idiot, for 40 years you walked around the streets of N.Y.C. unarmed at all hours of the night in places where known criminals congregated with no method of self-defense. Now I live in Adams County Idaho where I’m relatively safe and I carry a firearm just about every place I go. Absolutely Ironic as here I was now living in a place with very little serious crime and I now have the means to defend myself. Well that all changed this past year when a mentally ill person from another state was released from confinement and came to our little town of New Meadows, Idaho. He stayed overnight in one of our local motels, woke up in the morning, went to the office to check out, and shot the two owners dead for no apparent reason. A chilling experience for our little community that something so horrific could happen here.
This showed me once again the importance of having the means to protect myself and my family from assailants. The message I’m trying to get across is that the most important thing our forefathers wrote into our constitution was the second amendment of our constitution. This gave us the “Right” to bear arms and was probably the most important of all the amendments. It was their forethought that gave us our freedom and the ultimate power to the people to protect ourselves not only from criminals or foreign enemies but also from a government looking to suppress our constitutional rights. You see, without the Second Amendment, it would be impossible to defend all of our other rights guaranteed in our constitution.
We are the only country in the world where the freedom to own firearms is enshrined in our constitution. Is it any wonder why we have never been invaded by a foreign power? This is why America has been around for 247 years as a free nation and why our enemies haven’t tried to take us over. There are over 400 million firearms in America with 45% of U.S. households owning at least one, a formidable force to be reckoned with should we ever be under siege by an enemy. Currently, it is my opinion that many U.S. citizens are more concerned about a takeover of our country from within than by a foreign entity. Much of this concern has been generated because many liberal government officials are continually attacking and trying to suppress our Second Amendment rights by limiting what kind of firearms we can own and how many cartridges they can hold.
America has survived because our forefathers gave us the means to defend ourselves unlike any other nation and we need to continue to defend our Second Amendment rights vigorously as the left will continue trying to legally limit this right and even abolish it completely.
“We Get the Government We Deserve”.
10 replies on “How safe would America be without the 2nd Amendment?”
Bob:
In your next to last paragraph you told us that “…Is it any wonder why we have never been invaded by a foreign power? This is why America has been around for 247 years as a free nation and why our enemies haven’t tried to take us over.”
That’s nonsense, but easily checked in just a minute. Go look up the Burning of Washington at Wikipedia. On August 24, 1814 the British army burned both the White House and the Capitol (destroying the Library of Congress).
From the Tea Party: “We get the lack of history we deserve.”
Bob, you got a lot to learn about the Zionist of Israel and the real Iran! You are living in a illusion of propaganda.
Thanks for your reply Chris and for reading the Gem State Patriot. What I write in the Gem State are my opinions and while I certainly admit I don’t know everything about the Zionist of Israel or what you call the real Iran please feel free to enlighten me and our readers further as we are always looking for people with different perspectives.
Nice job Bob. Keep getting the word out there. I would like to comment, if I may because this issue really bothers me. People are under some pretty strong delusion that we have a Second Amendment to protect ourselves, but it seems no one wants to address “the lunacy in the room” in that I argue we don’t have a second amendment and people need to seriously consider what I am saying so they are under no illusion that we do. People look for any excuse to find apathy which is why I am posting.
If people proclaim we have a second amendment, I think it is like sporting those “patriotic sayings” like: “You can pry it from my cold dead hands, support our troops, back the blue and never forget.” Every time I hear these I cringe because it seems like people like to think they are patriots but just may not be because patriotism requires sacrifice and people don’t seem to be willing to sacrifice yet, if they ever will.
So, does the Second Amendment really exist? I argue only on paper and if people are not aware of how easily that can change, they make my case and may not be “patriots” at all. For example, few even understand the threat of the UN or the call for a constitutional convention or…
Why doesn’t the Second Amendment exist? Well, first of all, the purpose of it was to PREVENT the feds from regulating firearms at all! Do they? Yes! This is now no longer a right; it is a privilege because we have allowed it to become one. Secondly, people have forgotten the two main parts of the amendment, the second part, the establishment and maintenance of the Militia. Why won’t any 2a org touch it? LOL, why do you think? Whether they touch it or not, what this shows is that people are either uneducated or not willing to make that sacrifice to understand this or clueless as to what to do about it.
People are delusional if they think because the feds and states allow them to have pea shooters, that, somehow, they are some formidable forces against a tyrannical government? This is both scary and laughable.
The bigger issue I think is that few are still not willing to acknowledge the conspiratorial elements of an emerging world government and that single issues aren’t single issues, they are all connected to one issue. War on drugs- world government, open borders- world government, gun control-world government, trade agreements- world government, environmental regs-world government, expanded police powers-world government, Religion-world government, food and water and people control-world government, Local agitation- world government, Education-world government, foreign wars (including our involvement in Israel)- world government and corporate and NGO collusion with government- world government!
I think it is time for my fellow Idahoans to face the music in a big way. Don’t hide behind trendy sayings, don’t expect someone else to do what you know you should be doing yourself and make sure at all times, we are meeting and educating as many people as possible.
If we think we are going to fight off what is coming with just a pistol and a rifle, you may as well go home and watch TV, because we have already lost.
As a native of Idaho, the grandson of homesteaders in the Pocatello and Soda Springs area, an Army Vet that has been hit by the discharge of a solid round (not in combat), a ricochet, the pellets from a shotgun, involved with the unintentional death of an individual with an unloaded shotgun as it happened and also taken the guns away from 5 armed individuals, who has walked through all of the neighborhoods of NY City, including Harlem, 60 years ago when the Sulivan Law was in place, carrying a gun is not for everybody.
Guns were a way of survival for food as was the backyard garden and the chicken coop. We used to take our guns to school locked in our cars so we could hunt after school during hunting seasons, but we never used them to defend ourselves or thought to use them in committing a crime. A slight correction to your story. The Japs never attempted to attack mainland America during WWII as they knew we all had possession of a firearm. Today is a different story. We have illegal guns everywhere as did NY in the 60’s when the only carriers were the Mafia and the gangs. In Idaho today it is a federal offence for an illegal person to have, possess or have access to a firearm, only. We will be pushing a bill this year to make it illegal within the state for those who are illegally here to have access to or own a firearm and when arrested turned over to the Feds. There are guns for hunting and guns for war. An AR 15 is not a hunting gun and capable of a lot of damage to human life. One thing you should be aware of carrying a gun, will you have the courage to pull the weapon when faced with an armed attacker or be able to identify the officer if not in a uniform? The solution to your security is to ensure people obey the laws and enforce the prosecution.
“An AR15 is not a hunting gun” is a statement of ignorance or an outright obfuscation. AR platform rifles come in muti-caliber and are useful for hunting everything from ground squirrels to hogs to coyotes to deer and much more. They are also capable self-defenses weapons. Which makes them a very good all around choice for a firearm, Everyone should own one. Maybe you should take some time and do more research before you bloviate all over us.
Dear Mr. Harriman: Thank you for your comment and for reading the Gem State Patriot. While I agree that carrying a gun is not good for everybody, what is important is that our second amendment right to bear arms remains strong. Many Americans who have been misinformed will say an AR15 is not a hunting rifle but in essence these are the people who probably should not be carrying a gun. As Mr. Knight has commented ARs come in all shapes and sizes as it is a platform. You are right about the importance of being properly trained to use a firearm and real-life encounters can certainly be challenging as I know from firsthand experience. While everyone may not be able to handle a real-life experience, that should not be a reason keep them from owning as firearm to protect themselves or heir families. You might also note that your comment about the Japanese never attacking mainland U.S. is inaccurate. On Sept. 9, 1942, Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita catapulted from the I-25 Japanese submarine near the coast of southern Oregon aboard a seaplane and headed east toward Mt. Emily. His mission was to drop an incendiary (fire) bomb on the thick forest and cause a massive fire that would shock Americans and divert resources from fighting the war. Once over forested land, Fujita released the bomb, which struck leaving a crater about three feet in diameter and about one foot deep. You can find the full story here: https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Pages/threats-bombs.aspx
Dear Mr. Garber: Thank you for your comment and for reading the Gem State Patriot. Yes, the British did attack and burn many government buildings in Washington, but most historians believe this was never planned to be an invasion but a retaliation for the damage done by our troops to Canadian cities. This attack by Admiral George Cockburn was to draw American troops away from Canada and create sectional tension and hurt the moral and will fight of the American people. They picked DC because it was poorly defended and knew this attack would be a great embarrassment to the U.S. government. The British landed troops and quickly defeated our forces at the battle of Bladensburg causing government officials to flee as the British quickly entered the city destroying government buildings but leaving private ones intact. This was a dark hour for America forcing the secretary of war John Armstrong Jr. to resign. The British left immediately as they never planned to hold the city to begin with and moved on to Baltimore and the British were eventually defeated at the Battle of Fort McHenry which became the inspiration for our national anthem the Star-Spangled Banner. Much of our government moved pretty quickly back into the city with congress occupying the old patent office to meet, however; the President was not able to move back into the White House till 1817. While the burning of Washington was an embarrassment American victories at Baltimore and Plattsburg N.Y. salvaged moral. What the burning of Washington demonstrated was that our newly formed republic proved it could survive a War and military disasters with a major power without losing the democratic principles it stood for.
Once again I appreciate your comment and knowledge of our history. I only wish there were more of you around.
THE IMPOTENT SECOND AMENDMENT HAS SAVED NO ONE* – in fact, it’s contributed to the loss of life in America.
America was sold down the river when the 18th-century founding fathers replaced Biblical responsibilities (based upon the moral law of God) for Enlightenment rights, and nothing demonstrates it better than the Second Amendment.
Think about it: The Amendment WITH the wording “shall not be infringed” is the MOST infringed, licensed, and limited Amendment of the entire twenty seven. Furthermore, a future generation of our posterity is likely to see the Second Amendment whittled away entirely or repealed altogether. This is inherent nature and danger of optional Enlightenment rights versus non-optional Biblical responsibilities, such as the following:
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword [or today’s equivalent] in their hand … this honor have all his saints. Praise ye Yah.” (Psalm 149:6-9)
“But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house [beginning with spiritual and physical protection], he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” (1 Timothy 5:8)
Which is more potent: 1) An optional right, or 2) A non-optional responsibility?
Which is more likely to be infringed, licensed, and ultimately abolished altogether?
Which did the pre-Second Amendment Americans look to for their authority to bear arms, with little or nor infringement?
For more, listen to “The Second Amendment: A Knife in a Gunfight,” delivered at the Springfield, Missouri Firearms and Freedom Symposium, at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/#FeaturedMessages
At this same location, you will also find a radio interview Larry Pratt (Executive Director of Gun Owners of America) conducted with me on this same subject. I think you’ll find Mr. Pratt’s remarks especially interesting.
See also online Chapter 12 “Amendment 2: Constitutional vs. Biblical Self-Defense” of “Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective” at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/BlvcOnline/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt12.html
*The Second Amendment that allegedly protects weapons has saved no one. Weapons have saved an untold number of people despite the impotent Second Amendment.
Hey Nuge-
“Many of these illegals are only looking for better economic opportunities than those available in their country of origin” .
This comment is out dated. You must be referring to the Basarro Days of the Kali4nia illegals coming to work then returning to Mexico. By the way, that was a successful program until Cesar Chavez tried to unionize the field works that were picking grapes!
Anyway, people are coming across our open borders for several reasons, working not being one of them. Free money, phones and transportation to a city of their choice. Free Social Security disability for the whole family. Then there are the radical muslims that are coming here(especially to Michigan) to assemble and wait for orders to attack us from within. The African muslim population is also sliding into our southern borders not to work but to kill Americans…..who do we have to thank for this? Obama’s third term and Biden’s crime family that’s who.