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”.
